"Kill Him!"

ﾠ

"He's a terrorist." "Kill him." The last comment was PROBABLY aimed at Ayers, but no one asked a follow-up question at that Palin ralley. In my mind, that's approval. The McCain campaign is not just thrashing, it's thrashing in some very dangerous directions. I'm sure that those who found no harm in the various Fox News verbal grotesqueries don't see them here, either.

ﾠ

My frank opinion: there are about 20% of people on either side of the political spectrum who are tone-deaf and color-blind to anything contrary to their party or position. If you don't find this loathsome, and the fact that Palin and McCain said nothing in return infuriating and insulting, you're one of them.

ﾠ

Consider it a test.

#

The Kettlebell circuits program is just wonderful. Using a 16K bell keeps one from generating maximum strength, but by moving crisply, you are definitely generating rotational power, as well as shock absorption up the wazoo. And the patterns of motion are complex enough that you are working a SKILL rather than "just" exercising. Gives a different meaning to the exhaustion. I'm doing three 30-second sets of three different exercises, followed by thirty seconds of rest, then repeat for three overall supersets. compressing the rest periods makes it VERY difficult to hurt yourself as stress increases, because your coordination breaks down with fatigue long before you are using enough weight to damage joints or tendons. But muscular and CV endurance? Wow. And some of the combos demand serious hand-speed. Which is actually more a function of RELAXATION than tension.

ﾠ

Great fun. In combination with Tibetans, djurus, and a bit of yoga afterwards, the entire workout requires less than 30 minutes, and kicks butt.

##

Have to get the last draft of "Father Steel," my Hannibal script, out the door by four tonight. This is the point where I print a copy, go over it on paper, input the corrections, read on computer, print, and start over again. It seems to allow me to write with minimum stress. I notice different things on paper than I do on the screen, and vice versa.

ﾠ

It's said that professionals find patterns that work for them: habits of work, syntax of progression. You work and work, and over the years find that if you do things in THIS or THAT order, you consistently get better results. Others, of course, have fun doing it a different way every time.

ﾠ

How about you guys? Do you have specific patterns that you engage to produce results time after time? A daily ritual? What is it, or what is your approach to creative work design?

##

ﾠ

Oh, yes. Talking to the trees. I promised the story of what happened to me. Well, the workshop was held in the mountains north (I think) of Atlanta. There was a wooded area nearby, so I walked out until I found a tree that looked kind of friendly, leaned my head against it, and sobbed my eyes out. "How can you do it?" I asked. "Whether people love you or hate you...whether it's cold or hot or raining, or snowy...you're still the same tree. I don't know how to do that."

ﾠ

And in some way that it's difficult to describe, the tree answered me. "I'm just a tree, man," it said. "My roots go down, my branches go up. This is all I am."

ﾠ

And I got it. Everything more than that was b.s. And about a minute later, someone came walking by, and I WATCHED as my armor slid back into place. Had to care what they thought. Had to "look good." Had to put on my "Steve" mask. It was fascinating to watch. THAT is the price I pay to carry my ego around. My fears. My past.

ﾠ

In life, you can either have a shell, or a spine. You're safer with a shell, but you don't feel life as much. You are more vulnerable if you only have a spine...but you can feel the rain on your face. I spent the first half of my life developing a shell that would protect my ego. And now I'm working to peel it away. Don't need it. Don't want it. Have to hold off on the real work for another fourteen years (Jason needs his Daddy) but I'm still peeling, just more slowly than some.

ﾠ

One day at a time.

#

I don't pretend not to be partisan. I do try to be fair. The blogosphere is buzzing about the 12-minute Obama ad about the Keating Five. Yes, McCain was exonerated. But the point is that McCain and Palin were attacking Obama by association. That opens the door to counter-attacks along the same line, in my book. And Obama has been criticized for striking back, as if sitting on his hands and politely losing would be somehow the morally superior position. What a joke. In a martial parallel, the art of Aikido emphasizes evasions and re-directions over strikes. But contrary to what a LOT of lower-level Aikidoka think, Ueshiba incorporated strikes into his art, but began to minimalize them as time went on, because his senior black belts would flinch away from him when he struck at them, giving him the momentum he needed to perform the technique. The truth is that "pure" Aikido, with no striking at all, would be ALMOST impossible to work, unless you were completely superior to your opponent in every physical and mental quality. You have zero room for error. Leading your opponent's "Ki" is much easier if you stick your fingers in his eyes first.

So far as I can see, the Obama campaign spent last week warning the McCain campaign to back off, and were ignored. What some people suggest is that he should:

1) ignore the attacks, so that they will, supposedly, rebound onto McCain. And can someone give me a specific instance of this approach working in an analogous situation?

2) Defend himself without attacking. Anyone who advises this approach has never been in a fight. You CANNOT merely play defense. Eventually, your opponent will find a hole, and clock you.

##

No. What Obama is doing, and what I figured he would do, is a version of the Rope-A-Dope--allow your opponent to expend his energy, as you test his mettle. Then when he wants to withdraw to allow localized muscular fatigue to ebb, you attack. So far as I can see, McCain has said: "if you knew someone. If you were in the same room with them. If you had any dealings with them at all, you are the same as them." Fine. It is totally legitimate, then, to attack along this line. Remember: it is impossible to attack without opening a line of vulnerability. I believe that both Clinton and McCain BADLY underestimated Obama, and are paying for it now.