by M. Joseph Boehler

power dwells in the uneasy space

where a tangible force

meets a crafted illusion.

Two inseparable systems beat together.

One is the body, a solid, raw systemic force that moves matter. Its footprints are evident in every outcome that reshapes the world.

The other is the mind, an invisible network of stories, beliefs, and drives guided by the collective's whispers, supplying the body with purpose and direction. Both exist only because a shared narrative is constantly rehearsed and endorsed.

In this anatomy, power is the union of body and mind. Raw systemic force alone cannot endure; it needs the audiences silent assent to give its movements legitimacy.

This is the paradox: the body can move, reshape, and steer, yet its authority evaporates when the mind's consensus wanes. When the shared story falters, the body's motions become empty, mere compulsions without substance.

A weakening narrative drains the mechanisms it supports; the texture of power begins to loosen. Thus power is simultaneously the engine that drives change and the script that guides it, each dependent on the other for survival.

Because power is co-created by the singular and the collective, it remains perpetually negotiable. The collective continuously rewrites the score, allowing new themes to emerge whenever the voices dare to sing another song. By reshaping the narratives we hold; considering alternative perspectives, embracing new ideas, and making intentional adjustments, we recalibrate the mind, steering the underlying mechanisms toward new realities.

Transformation of both the individual and the many is always possible when the foundational story is reimagined, for the truth of power lies not in the force that moves the world, but in the countless voices that give that movement meaning.

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Author's note: There is a restless interaction between societal systems and the collective narratives that legitimize them. In this work I invite a new understanding of the relationship between the systems we build and the stories we tell, both to others and to ourselves, and to recognize how, together, they steer the world we inhabit.