Stalin: Man of Steel

After the Soviet Revolution, a Georgian man named, Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili changed his name to Joseph Stalin as really more of a propaganda move than anything.  I’ve read about him and heard about him all my life.  He was a terrible person, but he did have a flare for marketing.  Stalin means roughly “Man of Steel” in Russian.  Nice, huh?  Before there even was a Superman, Stalin understood that there was just something about Steel.  So what is it that intrigues? 
Most people think of it’s strength, but I would argue that it is the malleable qualities of steel that make it interesting.  In engineering school I was taught that, “if it moves, it’s broke”, in reference to all CIVIL engineering equations equaling zero, but mostly as a jab at our mechanical engineering rivals in the College of Engineering.  It didn’t occur to me until later that the truth is if it doesn’t move, it’s broke.  Even the tallest skyscraper in NYC isn’t designed to be rigid but rather to move.  Maybe not a lot, but, trust me, it moves.
I think this is also true about people as well.  There are all kinds of people, and, if you want, you can think of them in comparison to metals.  Take for example copper.  Copper is a wonderful metal.  It’s beautiful.  It can be polished to a wonderful shine.  It’s incredibly malleable and can be formed into wire or cable.  So why don’t we use it more often?  Well, because it doesn’t have much strength.  Not a lot of backbone, so to speak.  Have you ever met someone like that?  Really pretty on the outside and very agreeable to anything that comes along?  Try asking them a direct question.  They usually withdraw and get defensive.  Sometimes, they’ll get downright angry at you.  They don’t have much real strength.  All that glitters is not gold, my wife says.  Now take iron.  Iron is the exact opposite of copper but still a wonderful metal.  It’s not so beautiful.  Polishing iron won’t get you a lot, but what it lacks in beauty it makes up for in strength.  It’s unyielding to pressure.  It resists in order to keep it’s original form.  Well, that is until it eventually fractures.  Despite all it’s strength, Iron is brittle.  No one wants to be strong until they explode on everyone around them.  I know people like that, too.  Unbending.  Principled.  Easily admirable in some ways, but not so much in others.  Rules are awesome until you find the exception to them.  Don’t get me wrong.  You have to have principles and discipline, but I have noticed that people who can’t think outside of them often have the same fate as folks who never had them in the first place.  Then, there’s steel.  Steel is the best of both worlds.  Stainless Steel is beautiful.  Some of the most beautiful things in the world, like the Chrysler Building in NYC, feature ornamentation made of steel.  But steel is also strong, just like iron, except it has a weapon that iron doesn’t.  It has the ability to flex.  I’ve also met people like this, too.  These are the people I admire and want to be like.  It’s not the ability to show your beauty to the world or even your strength.  To me, the man that should be admired is the man who stakes his claim but moves with the burden of his load.  He doesn’t set it down, no, not ever, but he also doesn’t stand like a statue either.  He moves with the weight in order to keep his balance. It’s not much of a show.  He’s usually struggling just to keep balance, but he presses on.  He understands who he is, where he came from, and where he is going.  He withstands the storms of life and the loads he must bear.  The man who can do this with grace is rare.  I think when you look closer it’s only possible because of his ability to flex.