Ernest Hemingway’s 1936 short story, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, has an interesting plot line in which the protagonist, Harry, is suffering from an untreated and festering gangrene. Harry fades back and forth between the current state of gloomy affairs and moments of enlightened memories, while clinging onto his fading life.
One of the more interesting sights in this classic is the vision of a frozen leopard, preserved in ice far atop a mountain. The obvious question is—how did that leopard get there?
It is not a literary stretch to ask the very same question about Harry. How did Harry end up in this dead end life with few glimmers of hope and salvation?
As you read the storyline, you find out quickly that Harry is not a particularly good person; he is an alcoholic and treats his partner, and others, very badly. The partner, despite the mistreatment, cares for this ailing individual and remains by his side until the end.
Why am I writing about this and where is the political turn point? I’m glad you asked.
I remember some 22 years ago, a former boss, former friend, and one of New Jersey’s political players at the time, was getting sentenced for political corruption charges and it was an eye opening experience for many around us who were fairly new to the rough and tumble world of hardcore politics. The federal criminal investigation nabbed a handful of political players who, after the fact, wore wires in an effort to try to snare others so that their upcoming sentencing would be mitigated by this contorted cooperation.
While the investigation lead to a handful of guilty pleas, a few individuals, four county staffers, somehow escaped prosecution and tiptoed through the indictment stages and skated past the perilous criminal investigation which was launched by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
At the sentencing for the elected official, some supporters were asked to write letters of support to convince the Federal Judge that this defendant was a nice person who went down the wrong path. Despite my prior association with this individual, I didn’t feel moved to write a letter. I was angry at him because I, like many other young believers, devoted our lives to his cause and we all believed that this was a noble and just purpose.
Looking back, you would be surprised how many powerful political operators were born out of this 8 year administration (think Bill Walsh coaching tree). As a result of this harrowing experience, some very real and valuable life lessons were learned by this group.
Lesson 1 – Do not worship at the feet of political beings. All of them are flawed. It is unfair to place a halo around elected officials.
Lesson 2 – Do not accept what leaders say as gospel and do not do anything that does not feel right.
Lesson 3 – Do not be intimidated by the circumstances or your boss. Be strong enough to say NO when appropriate.
Many young and impressionable staffers are willing to please at any cost, and sometimes the line gets blurry. They believe that being loyal means carrying out missions without question or conscience. Not true.
At sentencing, one high school friend of the defendant wrote a beautiful letter in support. He extolled the virtues of this once promising political superstar and the writer then added the imagery of Hemmingway’s frozen leopard. He asked how it got there. He went to add the same query for this elected official. How did this once highly educated and highly regarded official go from a very successful lawyer and politician to a felon? I can’t explain why that reference stayed with me, but it did.
I recently spoke to some newly elected legislators, I told them about that “aha moment” when they see their names on the voting board and on the brass plates on desks on the Senate and Assembly floors. I reminded them not to forget that moment and that purity of spirit. If you keep true to that moment, you won’t have someone writing a letter on your behalf to a federal judge and you won’t have visions of a frozen leopard.
As a post script to the story, I ran into this individual a few years after he spent 13 months in jail. We shared an awkward moment and started a conversation up. This individual is now a man of religion and doing his community penance at his church.
I’m sure if that individual could go back in time and reread that Hemmingway book and absorb those life lessons, he would be still be an active national political figure.
Likewise, if Harry from The Snows of Kilimanjaro could come back to life as a younger man, more aware of his missteps, the ending of the book would not be so conclusively depressing and we would not have any awareness of frozen leopards.