Image by sara Alaa from Pixabay
In the process of keeping everything together – this was the mental world that Col. H.F. Lee and little cousins ten-year-old Andrew and eleven-year-old Eleanor Ludlow shared when thinking of their shared extended family – it was always a question of making time to preserve the self. The colonel knew this, and was interested to see how his Ludlow cousins seemed to be learning from their both Capt. R.E. Ludlow their grandfather and also him how to manage this element of their personalities.
“So, that whole Costa Concordia ship mess – how does the captain get off so early?” Eleanor was saying to Andrew.
“I don't get it,” Andrew said. “No adult we know would have done that.”
“I'm just not sure people are growing up any more,” Eleanor said. “Heck, Andy, we wouldn't do that and leave our siblings to fend for themselves.”
“No way,” Andrew said. “No way. I just don't get who is putting people who don't need to be in charge in charge like that.”
“My thing is, how do you know people are like this when you aren't like this and can't even imagine it – what kind of leader just leaves 32 people to die?” Eleanor said.
“I think what is going on is that people get titles, but maybe we don't know who the leaders really are until the time comes that they have to lead,” Andrew said. “I mean, think about it – if Gracie says there's more cake, we're following cake. But cake doesn't lead.”
“But Gracie does,” Eleanor said. “I mean, she's eight, but she goes hard for the things and people and animals she cares about.”
“Edwina and Lil' Robert, and Grayson, although he is quiet, kinda do too,” Andrew said. “But the thing is, people will follow cake, so maybe that's why we don't know. Some people with titles are just cake, but cake doesn't have your back when you really need leadership.”
Eleanor considered this.
“I see why in France they had to get rid of Marie Antoinette on that 'Let them eat cake' thing now,” she said.
“Yep,” Andrew said. “If only her husband was a real leader who cared about the people, none of that mess would have happened.”
“There's a lot of mess like that, I think,” Eleanor said.
“We just gotta do better,” Andrew said. “I don't think I'm going into the Army although I do admire Army veterans like Cousin Harry and Papa, but wherever I am going, the last command I give will be like the first: to take care of my people.”
“Same here,” Eleanor said. “Everything else is just ridiculous. I mean, what are people even doing?”
“Cake leadership,” Andrew said. “It looks good until you need vitamins and minerals and stuff, and then you find out you are on the Costa Concordia on the worst day of its and your life.”
“In the middle of the French Revolution,” Eleanor said.
“Yeah,” Andrew said.
Col. H.F. Lee quietly went to the bedroom, lay down on the bed, and laughed until he cried.
“But they're not wrong,” he said to Mrs. Maggie Lee. “They're just ten and eleven!”
“I kind of like the cake leadership concept, though,” Mrs. Lee said. “It kinda makes sense.”
“It actually does explain human nature pretty well,” the colonel said. “Like I said, they're not wrong. They are just precocious, too young for the concepts they are dealing with, but doing the best they can.”
“Hey!” said five-year-old Lil' Robert Ludlow. “I've learned this times tables – I need a bigger one!”
“They are all just a little precocious,” Mrs. Lee said. “Did you know that Lil' Robert can now tell you, forward and backward, the whole times tables?”
“Well, given that he is going to be the Army's next commissary general and his sister Amanda is going to be a professor of snuggleology with an emphasis on snugglecouragement and they both plan to do all this in this decade, they gotta get their college stuff going soon,” Col. Lee said with a chuckle. “Definitely just a little precocious!”