The spirit of authority is scary to everyone and with good reason. People in authority have power over us, death and more.
The gifts I bought my co-workers for Christmas were a hit.
Because my supervisor was so helpful to me this year I wanted to buy her a gift for Christmas. “Either chocolates or wine,” I thought.
At Thanksgiving, I had excellent eggnog my father’s friend made with expensive brandy, so I bought some brandy. It was Polish brandy and I thought I’d like to buy some for a Polish co-worker. Then I thought I should buy other worthy co-workers gifts. I made a list of eight.
I went to buy some wine at the liquor store. Outside the store, I felt guilty about buying gifts for co-workers so I prayed about it. And when I got inside the owner told me about some wine on sale and I quickly agreed to buy it. And she giftwrapped them, every one.
I visited the site and gave the Polish brandy to my Polish co-worker.
Then I went to the office with a box full of bottles of wine. I handed a bottle to my supervisor. “Is that liquor?” she said. “I don’t drink.”
“You can give it away if you want,” I said, and she accepted it.
The head supervisor was there, so I handed him a bottle. “Merry Christmas!” I said, and he gave me a thumbs-up.
I had more bottles to drop off for other co-workers, so I left them on a countertop and told my supervisors tell them they were there.
And there was a new guy sitting there so I told him I couldn’t neglect to give him one and gave him the last bottle.
Later on, at work, two other co-workers thanked me, warmly, and I gave away the last bottle to a contractor I was friends with, who gave me a bottle the next day.
At dinner at my father’s I told him my thoughts about the gift-giving and the spirit of the four authorities. Very briefly, there are four, and only four, authorities. The best authority is the authority of integrity. The person who has this power is a good person who almost always does the right thing, and normal people respect that. The authority of competence and the authority of personality are tied for the second-best authority. People known to be competent or are popular get our respect. The lowest authority is the authority of position, where the person only has authority because that person is the boss, even if no one respects that person. I told my father that my co-workers in the office were good examples of all four authorities.
The head supervisor has integrity. I love the guy as a brother and would do just about anything for him. And he goes to bat for me, mostly because he’s a good person. My female supervisor always does a good job and has a great reputation at the site, so she has the authority of competence. My immediate supervisor (who wasn’t there, but was one I left a bottle for) has the authority of personality. He’s a young guy, and is pretty cool and doesn’t talk to me much, but that’s alright with me. Later on, he called and thanked me and I told him he was good work with, so it enabled us to bond a little. A gift goes before you to prepare a way for you. And the new guy, who just happened to be there, is a good example of the authority of position because he hasn’t shown me integrity, competence or personality yet, but I had to give him a bottle or he would feel slighted.
The spirit of authority is frightening to everyone, but isn’t, always, to those who do what’s right.