This is a two year old post, I never fleshed out and posted. Cleaning up my drafts and posting this… thought, now.
A friend tweeted a quote from John Mayer, “Power is made by power being taken.” The quote intrigued me as I struggled to identify a metaphor or symbol for power itself.
I first thought of power as energy, but energy is created through force. Not taken, but extracted from something else. Like converting the waves of the ocean into energy inside a battery. The waves in the ocean are no less potent after this transfer or creation of power.
Power is like diamonds. Plentifully in supply, but hoarded by few for personal gain. Or like residential property, arbitrarily valued based on how much those who inhabit it want to vet their neighbors. Or better yet, like pain, it’s significance is relative.