The Ancient Irresistible Rejoicing of Power Over Weakness

Poet Tony Hoagland captures an essential human truth that's deeply relevant for our times

Last night in my Writing in the Dark | The WORKHOP, we did a close reading of Tony Hoagland’s poem, “Lucky,” in which he writes about caregiving for an elderly mother.

Near the end of the poem, this:

And once I held her dripping wet 
in the uncomfortable air 
between the wheelchair and the tub, 
until she begged me like a child

to stop, 
an act of cruelty which we both understood
was the ancient irresistible rejoicing 
of power over weakness.

The ancient irresistible rejoicing of power over weakness.

That line took my breath away and still does. The ancient irresistible rejoicing of power over weakness—parents over children, adult children over frail parents, authorities over civilians, and governments over citizens and other less powerful governments.

I’m not saying that each and every one of us in each and every moment succumbs to this rejoicing, but I am saying that the rejoicing is real. A crucial part of being human not just by birth but more so through becoming is to actively resi…