Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 6: 43 "The Four Seasons have no fixed station."

As we've discovered on our journey so far, the Ancient Chinese were master at composing lists. Their logic was often very different than our own, but can always be deciphered, and when decoded, it is always instructive. Consider again the list in verse 1: 2.

The Way, Heaven, Earth, Command, Discipline. I have been perpetually surprised at how frequently I require review of that list in order to interpret and understand this or that succeeding verse. More, I find myself now using that list in my everyday life, constantly.

Todays, list, the Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter presents, at first glance, very differently. That is, we are 100% familiar with it. It shows up in our own minds as easily and readily as it did theirs. You'd think it would be completely comfortable. Alas.

In reintroducing the foreign, ancient nature of this seemingly so-simple list, we begin by looking at it functionally, from the perspective of an ancient farmer.

1) Planting
2) Tending
3) Harvesting
4) Resting

These obviously attach to Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.

Still, any modern farmer can still easily relate to those four, and naturally thinks about his work in precisely those functions. Yet, for the ancient Chinese masters, the term "Spring" could as easily be used for the beginning of any venture as for the literal season.

The literal nature of the modern mind is one of the great impediments to hearing Master Sun's counsel. If you can't think 'beginning' when you hear the word 'spring,' if you only hear the literal meaning, you'll get rapidly lost in Master Sun's metaphors. Millstones and eggs?

Here are a few more metaphorical uses to contemplate. Tending, weeding and nurturing is just like raising kids, or teaching them in school. Bad thoughts, bad behaviors must be weeded out. Good thoughts, good behaviors tended to and nurtured.

Every worker must harvest his rewards, and when the big rewards come in, he must kick up his heels and celebrate. Fall Festival is for everyone. And after any great effort, when the great reward arrives, you must store the rewards, while spending some of them on fun.

We all need rest, and to allow my minds and striving souls to step back, replenish, sleep the sleep of restoration. No resource can be expended perpetually. All things require a time of fallow, of replenishment. And this absolutely must occur in advance the new Spring beginnings.

If you wanted to completely master today's lesson, we're talking Sun Tzu Ph.D. level work, you might make a matrix with 20 boxes, one for each combination of the Five Fundamentals with the Four Seasons. What is The Way of Beginning? How does Heaven indicate getting started?

How do you know when the ground has thawed enough for planting? Do you know how to organize your beginning, delegating and leading? What is your discipline, as well as that of those you lead, in getting your beginning right?

There, I did the first five for you, only 15 to go!

Okay, I admit, I didn't really. You have to feel this for yourself. It has to rise up from the ground of your soul to the heaven of your inspiration. You have to be able to slice and dice the ideas the way a Hibachi Chef chops vegetables. Did you see I sneaked in 3 metaphors?

In our small, high-performance #MAGA teams, we might want to include the unique creation of such a matrix as a part of our leadership training. It might be called something like The 20 Moments of Battle. I am serious about your ownership of these applications. Try making one.

Let's apply this to where we are in the #MAGA movement itself, right now. Spring was the election cycle, from announcing the run, to fighting off the other contenders, to fighting and winning the general election. Goodness, that sounded like all four seasons, didn't it?

Looked at historically, however, it can only have been our beginning. From the midterms - consider the weeding out 40 RINOs - through the completion of the Russia Hoax conspiracy, to the preparation for coming election, we're certainly slowly turning from Summer into Autumn.

Assuming the proper victories, White House, House, and Senate, 2021 will be the beginning of the true Harvest season. It will be critical that we convert those victories into usable values to complete the @realDonaldTrump part of our mission.

Master Sun teaches us, today, to NOT fixate on any one of the seasons as if it had a fixed station. There is no perpetual Spring. There is no perpetual Harvest. 2020's election will NOT be the end of our mission. In fact, is is NOT even elections that define us.

1. Remember The Forgotten Americans
2. Rule Of Law
3. American Jobs
4. Quality Of Life For Every American
5. Heal Our Cities
6. Build The Wall
7. Make America Wealthy Again
8. Make America Strong Again
9. Make America Safe Again
10. Make America Great Again

Each one of the goals above, mandates, actually, demands its own Four Seasons. And do you see, not one of that actually says anything about elections. Elections are the means to those ends. That's what @realDonaldTrump gave us in 2016, the bullseye of the goals.

If we refuse to attach too firmly to any hardened form of thinking, but fight our fight with fluid formlessness, the Four Seasons of the fight will go well. Among them, there is no season that has a fixed station. It is our journey to travel through them all and start again.

153 verses completed, 269 to go.

To return to previous sections in our #WarForAmerica2020 and #SunTzuForMAGA series, don't forget to head over to @WarForAmerica21. You'll find the digital table of contents for this series, there. Please retweet each entry you enjoy.