American Perspectives: Emulating Queen Manduhai the Wise Part II

"She was forty years old when she became pregnant for the fourth time, with what turned out to be her final set of twins, and when she entered into what would be her almost final battle. Although advanced in her pregnancy, Manduhai insisted on leading her troops into battle, just as she had so often done over the past 15 years...Manduhai unexpectedly lurched in her saddle, she then swiveled awkwardly and plunged to the ground, where she lay in a twisted heap...For a khan or other leader, the horse can symbolize the nation, and control of the horse parallels control of the state; a rider who cannot master a horse certainly cannot master a tribe or nation of unruly people.  Thus Manduhai's fall from the horse held a deeper and more sinister meaning...At this moment, four of her protective warriors quickly raced around her like a protective wall...Once the protective wall had been put in place with the now stationery men did another jump from his horse to pull Manduhai up...Not only did the men save Manduhai's life, they preserved her rule without anyone making a treasonous move or showing any inclination other than following her and fighting for her.  The loyalty of her men had been tested, and the effectiveness and power of her years of military training and leadership had proved itself."-Jack Weatherford "The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How Genghis Khan's Daughters Rescued His Empire."

 
The first line alone of this book passage is enough to stop me in my tracks.  40 years old!! Pregnant with twins!! In her almost final battle!!  Holy Crap!!! And then you have me at the ripe "old" age of 42 griping about my plantar fasciitis, being too tired, or worried that maybe I've entered the game of business too late and that I'm going to die penniless with my kids to pick up the pieces.  And mind you, this incident of Queen Manduhai's accomplishment was during the late 1400's, in the steppe/Gobi Desert area, in a tribal society where life expectancy was shorter, medical technology was different, and therefore 40 would have most certainly been considered old.  It's things like this that really put things in perspective for me, and remind me that I still have at least 20-50 more years to go.  I have plenty of time.  Queen Manduhai passed away in her early 60's.  Genghis Khan also passed away in his 60's, while on the battlefield!

 

So, there's a couple different pieces here that stand out for me that I can learn from.  Just as I mentioned earlier, with life expectancy being longer in 21st Century, tech savvy America, I may not live forever (and I really wish I could), but I still have plenty of time, and instead of "putting myself to pasture,"  and just giving up early, using "I'm too old," as jusification for giving up.  I will instead take advantage of this opportunity and really utilize all this time I have left.  At that time, Queen Manduhai only had 20ish years left to live, and yet she was going hard for her goals.  She wasn't stopping.

 

The other piece is the respect for female leadership from all of these male warriors.  Anyone with misogynist leanings, or anyone who doubted her leadership could have easily exploited this opportunity, and used it to destroy her political authority.  It wouldn't have been out of the ordinary.  It had been done so many times before with other women in history.  What stands out here is that all these men stopped what they were doing during a very dangerous moment when perhaps "every man for himself," would have been understandable, and they protected her.  They didn't gloat.  They didn't say, "See?  This is why we don't have women in power!  They get pregnant, they can't control their horses, and we have to babysit them when they fall off." No.  They did what an honorable Mongol warrior was expected to do, no if, ands, or buts.  In the United States, when we have female leadership, at the first sign of a mistake, we are so quick to point out, "See? This is why we don't have women in positions of authority.  They get pregnant and affect the workflow.  They're too emotional.  They make too many mistakes that everyone else has to fix."  Maybe we should change our mentality and behave like honorable Steppe Warriors and Herders who learned the protection wall not only from observing the behavior of their horses, but from consistently applying it to their own livestock.  And yes, I am aware there's a stigma to comparing humans to animals, but let's suspend that for a minute.  Let's consider why it's done, and let's consider the positive outcome, and that maybe it wouldn't hurt us to try the same.  I suppose I'm mainly saying that in reference to Americans, as I'm aware that South Korea is more collectivist, which horrifies the average American.  As I grow older, however, I don't think that's a bad thing.  I think it would be great to have the rest of my "herd" form a protective wall in my moments of falling down and being in a dangerous situation.  But another thing about the Steppe Herder strategy is that it was an effective technique that Genghis Khan had used centuries earlier on the cities he was attacking.  He used herding strategies to drive the people out of the city.

 

What does this have to do with emulating Queen Manduhai the Wise?  What I want to do to be just like her is to work on creating my own "protective wall" of supporters.  I know now that doing this all by myself can only go so far, and like the Queen, I can't expect to do it all by myself.  So, my next step is to be more proactive in building and maintaining a network.  I don't talk or go out on social outings very much, so I need to figure out a happy medium where I don't feel overwhelmed, and the people around me don't feel neglected.  I also know from reading this passage the resilience of the human spirit, and how even if you have an additional burden (in her case, pregnancy), you can still go out and fight a war, and if you're not able to complete the task, there are people who are there for you who can help you out.  These days, it has become a trend for Americans to believe that resilience is a bad thing, as it comes from trauma.  I disagree.  Resilience may come from crappy situations, but it's needed in order to move forward.

 

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