Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 8: 2 "On intractable terrain, do not encamp."

Looking for a friend here. Are you sometimes like me, and spend hours and hours working on the simplest thing that just refuses to penetrate into your brain? Wow, I don't remember fighting this hard over a verse in countless weeks and weeks. And it's so simple!

Right now, I have six different versions - all excellent - spread out on my desk. I read all the verses that tie together, all the commentary, cross referenced them all, almost bought a copy of a version I already have, until I remembered I have it, found it, and...

Finally, after all that work, realized the right way to solve the problem was with the instantly available online dictionary for the one key word that was breaking my brain. It dawned on me, I actually had NO real relationship to the one word:

Intractable

So, look it up!

Hard to control or deal with.

Synonyms: unmanageable, uncontrollable, ungovernable, out of control, out of hand, impossible to cope with; difficult, awkward, complex, troublesome, demanding, burdensome "their problems have become more acute and intractable."

I had to laugh out loud. What had I been doing all day? 100% disobeying my master, camping out on intractable land. Yes, I looked up, and there my evil master was laughing far, far harder than I was. He has no mercy, pity, or kindness in his soul. None.

At least I know how to pretend I'm cool when I'm really embarrassed. He sees right through me though and did a rare thing. He came over and put his hand on shoulder, and said, "Remember satori." So, class, for a full five bonus points, no looking it up, who knows satori?

I confess, I did look it up. And, I was led to the connected term kensho, which means to see to the core of one's being. Let's now go back to satori. It is the moment of enlightenment when you unravel an often-impossible problem, discovering that no problem is impossible.

Now, let's return to Master Sun's command in our verse. Most of the translations I read referred to one ancient commentator on this verse, whose description is simply wonderful. His name was Zhang Yu and I'm going to be on the lookout for him in the future, that's for sure.

Master Zhang Yu said: "Mountains and forests, cliffs, crags, marshes, fens - any terrain that is hard to navigate is classified as intractable. It provides nothing to depend on, so the army cannot camp there."

Oh my, does that NOT just perfectly describe Washington D.C., first for the Tea Party, and now for the #MAGA movement? We can't camp there. We get swallowed right up. All our Mr. Smith candidates go expecting to change the world and right wrongs, and it just doesn't go that way.

I was not a Tea Partier; it arose long before I got converted to activism. But I was watching, cheering it on, but had that sinking feeling that it wouldn't work out. Yet I went ballistic when all the new Tea Party Congressmen ended up turning belly up to Obama over everything.

Can you say puppy dogs? What wouldn't they do for a little belly rub, or a little fond scratching behind their ears? Not even that. Just the fear that Obama wouldn't smile was enough for him to get every single thing he simply asked for. Wow, I'm still furiously angry.

And I have to name Voldemort, John McCain, and his Roman Colosseum dramatic thumbs down over our healthcare bill. He'd been long encamped there, happy as can be. He was happy when he lost in 2008. Didn't faze him for an Arizona minute. He tracked well there. Tractable, it was.

You know what is tractable for us? The voting booth is. We can line ourselves right up around the block and camp out. We should have tailgate parties in the parking lots, or if that's not allowed, organize them and have a little booth outside handing out maps. Let's go camping!

Also, let's camp out right here on social media with every candidate we elect, making his new glory days of D.C. a great deal less pleasurable by converting into the life of their glorious huts and gator hunting, swamp rat stew and well-aged pigs for pork, hanging to cure.

Finally, what is your own personal intractable terrain? Stuck camped out in a bad job? How long are you going to muck your way in and out, day after day? Suffer from addictions? Get thyself to the clean-up house and rehab yourself to a new life. And then stay clean.

For tomorrow, Master Sun has promised to help me a bit more, since evidently, he kind of smiles inside at all that hard work. It'll spill over into a bit easier job dealing with verse 3, he assures me. Come check it out and see how we do, will you?

200 verses completed, 222 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.