I called a local plumbing company and they dispatched Angel, a courteous gentlemen in his early 50s clad in jeans and a blue-collar workshirt.

Angel got to work right away, plugging his rotor-rooter machine into an outlet on the outside of the house and inserting the coiled metal snake into the overflow drain located near a tree in my front yard.  Within minutes, all the drains in the house were unclogged. Angel had made my day.

Now what does all this have to do with the nature of leadership in social movements? Well, it wasn’t what Angel did that demonstrated leadership; he was simply doing his job.

It’s what Angel did beyond his job that was the mark of a leader, in my book. He took the time to explain to me why my drains had backed up; that from time to time, the roots of the trees will find their way into the outside drain pipe and have to be cut way with the swirling snake. In this case, he said he didn’t think I had that problem; in fact, it appeared an abundance of hair and other crud had caused the blockage. Kids put funny things down pipes at times.

So now Angel had empowered me with some knowledge. Then Angel added a little more. He showed me how to pop off the cap on the overflow pipe outside my house to relieve the water pressure in the event the drains back up again. “It will let all that nasty water in your bathtub drain out so you can go to work and call a plumber later,” Angel explained.

Angel had now empowered me with time.

Then, Angel advanced the movement, a larger cause we should all be concerned with if we are really of the people. I asked him if he was a private contractor. “No,” he said. “I work for the company, but they dispatch us out of Chicago. They used to do that in San Antonio, but the company layed off 50 people here to move those jobs to Chicago to save money. I worked with one lady who had been with the company 10 years when this happened. She was in tears when they told her that her job was gone.”

Angel said he has been with the company 12 years.

Now I was on board with Angel’s life and saw that his cause was indeed my cause. That could be my job next time.

Angel took my check for his service and drove off to his next appointment. I figured by the end of the day he would have led at least half a dozen other people to a bit of enlightenment – and saved them a few bucks in the process.

Leadership is not always a grand thing recognized by the masses and media. Often it is exercised quietly, everyday, by thousands of Angels who keep the plumbing in this world working.