Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 9: 10 "Nurture life, occupy solid ground. Your troops will thrive, victory will be sure."

I've often mentioned my previous socialism in my youth. Have I also shared my radical pacifism? I'm sure I've noted how ashamed I was of Truman's use of the atom bomb, until I rethought that upon getting a bit older. But what about my complete anti-weapons position?

One of my turning points was when I blundered into the Japanese Samurai concept of the Life-Giving Sword. It's not a difficult idea. A bad guy comes to kill you and your people. Your sword, in killing him, saves lives. Those of us 2nd Amendment supporters have the same idea.

There are only three ways a shooter is stopped. Men with guns show up and he surrenders. Men with guns show up and he dies. Or, he runs out of bullets. If you let him run out of bullets, how many lives have been taken? The absolute maximum is the answer.

We need to add the Life-Giving Gun to today's discussion of weapons in America. By the way, did you know that the Samurai were the ONLY members of Japanese society allowed to own swords? Their swords sure gave them life! Not so much for everyone else.

I'll come back to my own anti-weaponry position in a moment, but why all this discussion of weapons in response to Master Sun's counsel in today's verse? I can assure you of this. The anti-military left does NOT think that they "nurture life" in the American military.

As a Seventh-day Adventist growing up, I was trained, inculcated and absolutely prepared that if drafted, I was to declare myself as a conscientious objector. Under no circumstances was I to ever heft a gun or shoot it in anger at another human. I would be a medic, if drafted.

One summer, at Adventist summer camp, I took a bow and arrow class and became addicted. When I got home, I talked my parents into getting me a kit with target and all for my birthday. Then, when they saw me practicing all day every day, they forbade me to continue.

Funny thing, that was the 2nd time it happened. At age six my mom even sewed me leather grips for my dowel swords, until she saw me sword fighting with a friend every day and, yes, forbade me. From what you've learned about my adult sword fighting you see it didn't stick.

I hang my head. When my oldest son, Nico was born, I was still an anti-patriotic pacifist, and rabid at that. If you ask him, he'll tell you how angry I got when someone gave him a water pistol and how I forbade him to play with toy guns. No toy soldiers, no toy tanks, etc.

I won't linger on the story today, but the ultimate turning point came for me in 1997 when my wife @KateScopelliti bought me my first steel swords. Mind, that was before I stopped being Democrat-leaning liberal. But I finally surrendered to my love of weapons.

@KateScopelliti Master Sun makes it clear; you can't defeat your enemy with dead soldiers of your own. You must nurture their lives. To do so, you must occupy solid ground - which means high ground, at least higher than the water level - where you will thrive and win.

@KateScopelliti This message is in perfect accord with Master Sun's counsel that the winning general secures his troops safety, and only then seeks the opportunity to successfully attack the enemy. Again, you can't defeat an enemy when you soldiers are dead. You must nurture their lives.

@KateScopelliti Let me ask you this question: what is the life of a political activist? Most of us are not challenged with physical death. So, what is our life about? How do you, as a leader, nurture our lives? The answer is two-fold. First, our everyday real life must be secured, adequately.

@KateScopelliti An activist facing eviction won't be able to stay with the fight long. To be an activist, we must secure our actual lives and incomes. Second, we must have the will of the fight. We must believe we're fighting for something worthwhile. We have to have faith in what we're doing.

@KateScopelliti And what is our Life-Giving Sword? Logic is the sword, and its cool use is the swordsmanship. You must empower an activist with the fundamental logic of the cause. And, activists must be coached in how to have fun, how to be cool, how to stand tall with joy.

@KateScopelliti The amazing rock band .38 Special gives the philosophy, Hold On Loosely, But Don't Let Go. A grip on logic, exactly as a grip on a sword, must be loose and comfortable, but you can't let go. A rigid grip is easily broken. Don't be doctrinaire in your logic. Be cool.

@KateScopelliti Underneath all that, there is actually an ultimate mandate of leadership, here. We'll see this again and again. In this case, your troops camp where you say they can camp. Master Sun insists that you nurture life, and occupy only solid ground, where they will thrive.

@KateScopelliti Let's look at another danger, the internal one. No teams have ONLY members who 100% agree on everything. But, the successful teams camp out on the solid ground where all members truly do agree on certain small numbers of core values and objectives.

@KateScopelliti I can tell you that this is very difficult learning for me as a leader, myself. I have a big, warm, open heart and I don't enjoy conflict over values. But I've assembled teams where values conflicts really do exist, and then we get stuck, and it's all my fault.

@KateScopelliti There are actually three mandatory areas of agreement:

1) The Goal (or goals)
2) The Method - the way we work
3) The Values - that drive both goals and methods

When team members disagree about these, the team gets stuck and it's always the leader's fault.

@KateScopelliti We have to cut ourselves a little slack. Often, you have NO CLUE what the goals, methods and values are when you get started. Often, it is only through conflict and stalling out that you discover what they are. Life is hard, and so is learning. And as always, Master Sun laughs.

@KateScopelliti So please, take it from me, the high, solid ground you seek is those three, goals, methods and values. The more thought you give them, the more you'll nurture your followers' lives and teamwork. That's pretty cool, isn't it?

The more you know...

@KateScopelliti 238 verses completed, 200 to go.

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