Two prime examples of the Wood element out of balance (1): Theresa May and Donald Trump

I think we tend to see the elements in terms of their general characteristics rather than training ourselves to recognize the degree of their balance or imbalance.   I am particularly aware of this now because we have before our eyes the very public, and highly disturbing, spectacle of two totally unbalanced world leaders, our own Prime Minister, Theresa May, and the American President, Donald Trump.  It may be no coincidence from the point of view of the state of world affairs at the moment that I believe that they are both of the Wood element, and both, in their differing ways, examples of Wood frighteningly out of balance.

One of the advantages of studying the elements as five element acupuncturists do is that this can help transform any personal responses to the elements which we may find personally difficult to deal with into lessons teaching us a more objective approach to the elements.   When they are not stoking up my own Wood element to a high pitch of anger as I contemplate what suffering these two leaders are inflicting on their respective nations, I therefore try to lighten my mood by seeing them both as excellent examples which teach me a lot about Wood’s imbalances.  I also fantasize about how some good five element acupuncture treatment for them might help make the world a happier place for us all.

By chance, I happen to know two people who have worked with Theresa May, one before she was a Member of Parliament and the other in one of the civil service departments she was in charge of.  Both say that it was always well-known that she was incapable of making decisions.  This is almost laughably typical of the Wood element under stress.  We all know that its function is to be in charge of our planning and decision-making.  If Theresa May is Wood, then, this helps highlight something which has laid the cold hand of Brexit over the past three years of this country’s political life.  It explains the dogmatic statement Theresa May made at the start of her first speech as Prime Minister, when she told us so emphatically that “Brexit means Brexit”, and explains why she has never deviated from this in all the negotiations she has engaged in since then.

If decision-making is something you are uneasy with, but know that it is an essential part of your job constantly to be asked to make important decisions for the good of the country, then to be plunged so suddenly into the Prime Minister’s role which demands a high level of balanced and quick decision-making would have put an enormous strain on both Theresa May’s Liver, which would have been asked quickly to plan her first speech to the people, and then her Gall Bladder which would have had to decide when and how to say it.  Her quick-fire statement “Brexit means Brexit” failed miserably on both counts.  A more balanced Wood might have recognized that the referendum vote only marginally tilted the country in favour of Brexit, and would therefore have understood that it would be important to reach out to the nearly half the nation who voted to remain in the EU.  I see the dogmatic statements which have been her trademarks in the years since then (“strong and stable” being an obvious one) as being her way of persuading herself that the decisions she makes are always the right ones.  When we are unsure about doing something, but don’t want to reveal our uncertainty to others, we can often over-compensate by hiding these uncertainties under an over-emphatic shield of apparent confidence.  This is often what Wood does, and I think this is Theresa May’s default mode.  The less certain she is about what she should do, the more dogmatic her statements become, and the more stridently she repeats them. 

Those with a more balanced Wood element would plan ahead more carefully, using the vision which this element offers to ensure that any decisions made are flexible enough to be altered if events change, as they inevitably do. The quality of flexibility is one that is singularly lacking in Theresa May.  Her dogmatic approach makes her quite incapable of changing her mind, leading to total inflexibility when confronted with difficult situations which call for adaptability.  Hence the disastrous political mess this country is now in.

My next blog will continue these thoughts on the Wood element out of balance, as I look more closely at Donald Trump’s actions since becoming President.  I see his as being a very different kind of Wood imbalance.