Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 7: 37 "He meets distance with closeness."

We're working on the third mastery, Mastery of Strength. We've already covered the Masteries of Spirit and Mind. We'll of course look at each element, but let's go ahead and log all of them now...

38 - He meets exhaustion with ease.

39 - He meets hunger with plenty.

40 - This is Mastery of Strength.

A distant enemy is one attempting to evade your force. Master Sun teaches us to draw up close to this distant enemy in this verse. Never ever allow distance to defeat you. When your enemy is distant, close in.

Lovers, this is your passage. Your beloved draws away from you. She grows distant. Draw in, closer. Yes, flowers are good. So is poetry. Better yet, however, is simply the honest expression of your passion. Give her your love. The farther she goes away, the closer you draw in.

Warriors, this is your passage. The farther the enemy evades, the closer you draw in. I've mentioned him recently, Lord Nelson of the British Navy, simply always said, bring your ship up beside the enemy and fire. You can never go wrong in this manner.

Conflict is good. Please hear that. Conflict is NO reason to draw apart. Rather, it is reason to draw closer. We know that Master Sun wants us to take the entire enemy nation whole without fighting. Yet, this is NO disavowal of conflict.

Let's talk about Twitter. I constantly have trolls cozying up close to me, tempting me with their false claims of rational conversation. Oh, so many times, I have fallen prey to their stratagems. Yet, I continue to learn.

I give them a chance, happily now. They virtually never live up to the chance. Real closeness means this. It is the willingness to honestly consider that one might be wrong, the other might be right. I happily grant this as often as I'm able. I might be wrong.

Trolls, by definition, NEVER return the respect. They falsely claim openness of heart, but never deliver upon it. Rather, they have but one agenda. Not truth. Not discovery. Just disproof of me, certainty in their righteousness. How do I know?

I know because I have drawn up close to them over and over again. I still have a dream. My dream is that we might disagree so very agreeably. I dream that we play the line of America herself respectfully, never demanding agreement, only honest consideration of each other's point.

Let's talk again about swordsmanship. Distance is a tool, perhaps the greatest of all in a swordfight. You step out of the way of a strike, and the strike is defeated. It's glorious. To void is wonderful. But you cannot void a strike that you were too far away from originally.

When fighters swing their glorious swords too far out of distance to hit each other, that's called a flourish. There is no danger in a flourish. The fight is always within distance of actually hitting each other. You must step in. You must enter the danger zone.

There are three distances in swordsmanship. There is too far, meaning it takes more than one step to close in, and enter the fighting zone. There is just so, meaning with one step you're there. And then, the fighting zone itself, no steps, just swords and bodies in combat.

Whereas the art of combat requires the courage of the fighting zone, itself - you must be ready to go there - the art is in the entering, the closing in upon the enemy. Always ready to void, to step back out, you entire in, ready to strike with force.

The wonderful German term is Vorschlag. It means first strike. The German terms for timing are Vor, Indes und Nacht. Before, During, After. When you win the Vorschlag, the Before, you hit again, a second time, still in the lead. You have closed and strike and strike again.

Krieg is the German term for War. Blitzkrieg is all out war, closing in from all sides, never relenting, always in the Vor, hitting with the Vorschlag, the first strike, and then hitting again and again. Try to feel the integrity of this. Das Krieg. When is this from?

1389. The very first full sword manual in European history, and we have no others from other continents previously, teaches all that I'm sharing with you now. There is one predecessor from 1300 called the Tower Manuscript.

But now, I apologize, I'm getting into the weeds of delicious detail that only a historically inspired swordsman would care about. Allow me this. We have well of 60 German sword manuals alone, not to mention those from all other European nations. That's awesome, isn't it?

Master Sun teaches us again and again that all war is based upon deception. Today's verse, along with the vast European tradition of swordsmanship also teaches, you must close in upon your enemy. You must go there. Enter in and fight. Go there. Be bold and brave.

To fight is a great intimacy. Love, fight, how much different are they really? My wife and I fight hellaciously, we're both so committed to what we believe. You'll never find two greater lovers, either.

It is my great hope for America that after we wipe out the hellacious influence of the Communist Manifesto, we will all fight it out until we come together around the four great rights: Life, Liberty, The Pursuit of Happiness, and Property.

Until then, we must meet their distance with our closeness. We must love those we oppose, no matter how much they hate us. Making America Great Again demands this of us.

190 verses completed, 232 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.