“Space-Fillers”

Next to uncle Serenus, and if uncle Lawrence had some odd characteristics, uncle Serenus, in my opinion, was odd from beginning to end. Like uncle Lawrence, but even more so, he would have been well advised to have made farming his career rather than the ministry. I suppose he did some good and filled the needs for persons of like viewpoint to his, but overall his influence must have been a negative one. Sincere he was but sincerity alone is not enough for such a calling.

There is a place in society for what I call “space-fillers.” There are positions in society, organizations, and government which require that a person occupy the position which has been established by custom, design or constitution. Oftentimes the qualifications for filling these positions are beyond the qualifications of the persons attempting to fill them. These persons go through the motions of filling the position but their performance is hackneyed, unimaginative, pedestrian — any person regardless of qualifications could replace them. They occupy space and satisfy the requirement that the position be occupied but beyond this they do nothing.

In the field of government this is a very significant problem. I can think of very few persons in all of the governmental functions in the country (and this includes Congress, the executive branch and the courts, certainly including the Supreme Court) who function with real integrity, foresight, purpose. At most their actions are blind attempts to meet short-range problems and to provide superficial solutions. Uncle Serenus fulfilled the qualifications for being a space-filler in the field of the ministry.