Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 7: 16 "Be inscrutable as night; be swift as thunder or lightning."

No, night does not require a great deal of explanation, we pretty much know what that is. As for inscrutability, I'm a guy, and I never know what the night with @KateScopelliti will hold. She is inscrutable to me and has been for 38 years so far. Especially at night.

If you're new to this commentary series, please do a small about of research on the Yin/Yang. Night is Yin. Day is Yang. We might imagine day as scrutable - more easily comprehended - and night as less easily comprehended. It's harder to see your enemy at night.

Bible students will remember Gideon and his valiant 300-man army, attacking at night with clay pots and torches, trumpets and the resulting chaos that defeated the entire Midianite army. Awesome. What a fabulous story! Maybe this was about 1,100 or 1,200 BC, long before Sun Tzu?

Spies often walk right into the enemy camp at night, surveil it, and return with every bit of needed information. Especially spies who are part of the enemy army's apparatus. The night is inscrutable. So must you be. Now that's a challenge, right?

Remember my beloved example of defeating local, corrupt school boards? They often have completely public budget meeting in which they declare, "The meeting is now open for public comment." Usually no one is there to comment. Might you inscrutably show up unannounced?

Who remembers the old school phrase, 'well spoken?' @realDonaldTrump is possibly the very most well-spoken man on earth. He masks this with a style that perfectly speaks to the everyday person while leaving all swamp creatures beyond discombobulated. He is inscrutable to them.

Yet, when in combat, @POTUS' mind and mouth are in 100% perfect, real time accord. His tactics mightier than any politician we've ever seen or heard before. So also, with his tweets. He has changed history with his tweets. He is swift as thunder or lightening.

Let's go the opposite direction. Who remembers Forrest Gump's mantra, stupid is as stupid does? Forrest would not be considered a 'well spoken' man, and then again...

Do you follow? Perhaps we might invert it into smart is as smart does.

Who remembers that Moses was NOT a well-spoken man? He stuttered horribly and was a coward as to confronting his lost princely life and feared facing the Pharaoh when he'd walked away from all that 40 years before, no, ran away.

Are you sometimes tongue-tied, slow to express yourself, often over-spoken, with poor timing and often missing your moment to speak thereby? Do you use the wrong words, at the wrong time, and regretting the moment, think how you wish you'd have said this or that which you didn't?

Consider what great company you're in. Isn't it true that Albert Einstein did not speak until late in his childhood, and was always a bit of a stammer? So, what about Trump-style speed of repartee? What about me? No one ever accuses me of being at a loss for words.

I assure you; I have been laid low by the slow, methodical types who complete their full calculations before speaking. Here I am, rushing around at a mile a minute with my brain not keeping up with my mouth. Mr. Slow comes in and devastates me. I love those guys, honest I do.

I've learned to laugh at myself, and joyfully respect the vastly greater speed of their minds over mine, while my mouth is running a mile a minute. Maybe my lesson today is, in order to speed up mind, I might want to consider slowing down mouth. What do you think?

There is, I suspect a different form of lightning speed that Master Sun has in mind, today. I suspect he's really referring to the distance in time between decision and execution. The Samurai lived by the law of no hesitation, instant, all out commitment and action.

The Samurai were famous for NOT being smart, no philosophers amongst them. There was this guy, Takuan, around the year 1,600 AD who came close to being a philosopher and he was great. The one true philosopher they spawned was Dogen, around 1,300 AD who was quite inscrutable.

The Samurai were, however, famous for the studies of Master Sun. He was their philosopher. And in battle, they suffered no separation of mind from moment and struck with lightning speed. Their doctrine was call No-Mind as a result. You do see the irony though, yes?

Reaching back over recent guidance, we can know that Master Sun's counsel here goes like so. Knowing your own strengths and your enemy's weaknesses, find the path of victory, and once found, instantly move into action, no hesitating any more than a lightning bolt or thunderclap.

In closing today, allow me this set of three domains for #MAGA action:

1) Local
2) State
3) National

It is with great humility that I claim, my personal domain is nation, not State or Local. I kind of regret that, believe it or not. Such is life, though.

To follow and apply Master Sun's counsel, you must discover your own domain, your own battles, your own opposition to defeat, objectives to be attained, hills to be fought over and won. You can do this. And your community, your state and your nation require you to do so.

171 verses completed, 251 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.