MUNDANE MUSINGS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 87, 4 July 1927, Page 4

MUNDANE MUSINGS

STRAP-HANGERS (Written for THE SUN.) We are familiar with the leaners, the drones, and the workers in this big hive which is our world. In our minds we have them sorted, folded and pigeon-holed quite unconsciously, for we meet them every day. But what of the “strap-hangers?” Not the tired workers travelling homeward after their day’s toil is over, but the strap-hangers of life who lack initiative and decisive powers of their own. They are not quite leaners, and they are not drones; they are workers of a kind, for they stand on their own feet, but strap-hanging on to some stronger personality than their own, shining in the reflected glory of another's brain and labour. They wait for you to take the lead, and then they’ll follow far enough, doing the deeds you thought of for them, taking the credit for the prosperous outcome, and shamelessly patting themselves on the back for very clever people. They are usually harmless leech-like people, basking in the sunlight, and absorbing all the warmth and light of someone else’s clearer vision. Deprived of their strap they totter and reel to their natural sphere in the background until such time as some other moral strap arrives for them to hang on to once again. They may be classed as workers of a kind because they do not look to others for their actual sustenance, and they are capable of standing on their own, but they realise theij: inability and lack of strength, their indecision and instability, although they may be very brave and courageous and do great deeds of valour when their strap is firm and strong. They swing and sway with the motion of the vehicle to which their strap is grafted, and woe betide them if it not a good one for they stand or fa 9 according to its power, and the stronger personality can lead them up or down. They are quite aware that they are strap-hangers; they know they sway and rock according to their strap; they know they are shining with reflected glory’, but they will always cling to someone else who will find the path and clear the track for them. Thus their way is cleared of indecision, and they may follow at their ease. Their indecision is a form of fear and moral cowardice, for they fear to take the responsibility of their actions. Let them'rise, and they will take the credit of their deeds, but let them fall, and they shun the light of their wrongdoings, placing the blame upon the stronger personality. D. LITTLE.