The Wolf Pack

A wolf pack is like the Mafia. Everyone has a position in it; everyone’s expected to pull his own weight.

Everyone’s heard of an alpha wolf—the leader of the pack. This is the mob boss, the brains of the outfit, the protector, the one who tells the other wolves where to go, when to hunt, what to hunt. The alpha is the decision maker, the capo di tutti capi, who, from ten feet away, can hear the change of rhythm in a prey animal’s heart rate. But the alpha is not the stern disciplinarian that movies have made him out to be. He’s far too valuable, as the decision maker, to put himself in harm’s way.

Which is why in front of every alpha is a beta wolf, an enforcer. The beta rank is the bold, big thug who is pure aggression. He’ll take you down before you get too close to the boss. He’s completely expendable. If he gets himself killed, no one will really care, because there’s always another brute to take his place.

Then there’s the tester wolf, who’s very wary and suspicious, who doesn’t trust anyone he meets. He’s always scouting for change, for something new, and he’ll be hiding out at every corner to make sure that, when and if it happens, he’s there to alert the alpha. His skittishness is integral to the safety of the pack. And he’s the quality-control guy, too. If someone in the pack doesn’t seem to be pulling his weight, the tester will create a situation where the other wolf has to prove his mettle—like picking a fight with the enforcer, for example. If that beta can’t knock him to the ground, he doesn’t deserve to be the beta wolf anymore.

The diffuser wolf has been called many names through the years, from the Cinderella wolf to the omega. Though at first he was thought to be a scapegoat and at the bottom of the hierarchy, we know now that the diffuser plays a key role in the pack. Like the little, geeky lawyer to the mob who provides comic relief and knows how to keep all these other strong personalities calm, the diffuser throws himself headlong into all the intrapack bickering. If two animals are fighting, the diffuser will jump between them and will clown around, until suddenly the two angry wolves have taken their emotions down a notch. Everyone gets on with his job, and no one gets hurt. Far from being the Cinderella figure that always gets the short end of the stick, the diffuser holds the critical position of peacemaker. Without him the pack couldn’t function; they’d be at war with each other all the time.

Say what you will about the Mafia, but it works because everyone has a specific role to play. They all do what they do for the greater good of the organization. They’d willingly die for each other.

The other reason a wolf pack is like the Mafia?

Because, for both groups, there is nothing more important than family.

***

Power and Influence

Power is a measurement of an entity's ability to control its environment, including the behavior of other entities.

The Ben Franklin effect is a psychological finding: A person who has done someone a favor is more likely to do that person another favor than they would be if they had received a favor from that person. Similarly, one who harms another is more willing to harm them again than the victim is to retaliate.

Social influence occurs when one's emotions, opinions, or behaviors are affected by others.

Social influence takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing.

Three broad varieties of social influence.

• Compliance is when people appear to agree with others, but actually keep their dissenting opinions private.
• Identification is when people are influenced by someone who is liked and respected, such as a famous celebrity.
• Internalization is when people accept a belief or behavior and agree both publicly and privately.

***

Live Life Happy

Dr. Seuss

Merlin's Song of Binding

I swung around to face her. “You should never have come with me! You should have stayed back at Arbassa, where at least you’d be safe.”

Her gray-blue eyes examined me. “I don’t want to be safe. I want to be with you.”

I squashed a vine under my heel. “Why bother?”

“Because . . . I want to.” She glanced sadly at the dark water. “Despite what the lake told me.”

“What did it tell you?” She sighed heavily.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Remembering my own vision of Balor’s eye, I nodded. “All right. But I still don’t know why you want to stay.”

Something in the sky caught her attention, and Rhia looked up. Following her gaze, I found two distant shapes, weaving their way across the horizon. Although I could barely see them, I knew at once what they were. A pair of hawks, riding the breeze together. They flew almost as one, bobbing and turning in unison, in the way Rhia and I had moved as fishes.

“Aren’t they lovely?” she asked, her eyes following the birds. “If they are like the hawks in the Druma, they not only fly together, they build a nest together, a nest they share for their whole lives.”

All at once I understood. What tied the hawks to each other, what tied Rhia to me, had nothing to do with vines. Or ropes. Or chains of any kind.

I turned back to her. “I guess, Rhia, the strongest bonds are invisible. Maybe . . . the strongest bonds are of the heart.”

***

Merlin's Song of Changing

“No!” shrieked Cwen. “Pleasssse, Rhia. I am sssso full of remorsssse. Won’t you forgive me?”

Rhia crossed her leaf-covered arms. “Never.”

I felt a strange pang. The word never rang in my ears like a heavy door slammed and barred. To my own surprise, a feeling of sympathy rose inside of me. Certainly Cwen had done something terrible. Something she regretted. But hadn’t I also done things I deeply regretted?

I stepped close to Rhia, lowering my voice. “It’s hard, I know. Yet maybe you should forgive her.” She stared at me coldly. “How can I?”

“The same way my mother forgave me after what I did to her.”

At that instant, Elen’s parting words came back to me. The butterfly can change from a mere worm to the most beautiful creature of all. And the soul, my son, can do the same. I bit my lower lip.

“Cwen did something awful, to be sure. But she deserves another chance, Rhia.”

“Why?”

“Because, well, she could change."

"All of us, all living things, have the potential to change."

***

Blessed