Being powerless will change people. Some for good and some for the bad.

Have you waited in an immigration line and hoped that the border agent is having a good day? In the back of your head, you know that the man in the blue uniform behind the plexiglass has the power to let you in or keep you out of your adopted home.

Have you stood by helplessly at 1am in the morning as doctors and nurses push past you because your wife’s placenta is detaching and your unborn son’s heartbeat is getting erratic?

Have you dressed up in blue scrubs looking like someone from Grey’s Anatomy while waiting outside the operating theater that has a family member inside and watched doctors come and go, but nobody lets you in or tells you what’s going on?

Have you sat in a small room with no windows while a nurse blandly delivers a life-changing diagnosis?

Have you visited a country where people don’t look like you, and you can’t speak their language? Where there’s a lag on everything as you wait for someone to translate what’s going on?

Unfortunately for some, the pain and humiliation of powerlessness is so bad that they become the very thing they fear. Once they find the power, they abuse it and inflict their pain and embarrassment on others.

For others, it opens their eyes to injustices and pain in the world. It builds compassion and empathy.

Powerlessness magnifies your character. Will it amplify the bad or the good?

Photo by lucas clarysse on Unsplash