Tag: Warfare and Conflict

Rain and rhythm

Chewing gum jingle, and it seems to work:  “looking for a brand new start”.

Each day, we woke up to a start. Just like that first day out of our mother’s womb. Not knowing what to expect.

Not knowing who to trust.

Not knowing the future.

Will it rain today? Or same ole sticky heat?

Rain and tears or just tears?

Pain as part of life. No pain no gain, no growth.

People who insulate themselves from challenges and changes will never grow.

They chew the gum over and over.

Same predictable rhythm. Power-saving mode. Auto-pilot.

But no excitement. No surprises. No set back and no break through.

Organization tends to work itself from chaos into predictability, the path of least resistance. The maintenance mode. High maintenance since the beast needs to be fed.

Hence huge bureaucracy.

Yet today’s market asks for agility, flexibility and formless boundaries. Be water.

Shaped according its container.

10,000 hours of  repetition to become a master.

Fear that dedication and determination.

Don’t stop at black belt, or even red belt.

Overcome your own self. That inner resistance, that self-sabotaging tendency:

I don’t deserve happiness, I don’t deserve that espresso, that sweet cake.

Somehow, it’s always someone else’s but not ours.

Yet our Maker has a different script for us.

You can’t drop out of the margins that He has set, no matter how hard you tried. Rebelliousness or religiousness.

It’s indifference that is hard to cure.

So be bad  to the bones. Be good to the bones. Our world needs leaders who are decisive and determined.

Not wishy-washy type. Not opinionated type. Not losers’ type.

I respect people who tried and failed. I despise people who failed to try.

Rain got its rhythm, even when mixed with tears. Tears heal all wounds, from trying really hard. Not indecision and inactivity.

Brief shinning light

TIME and Life’s Turbulent Years (60’s) has a picture of JFK just an hour before his  death.

Presidential, Camelot and eternally youthful in that Dallas morning.

Another picture shows after a dip in Santa Monica. What other President would do that today.

Summer time. Pool is opened. Life guards and their whistles.

Sun shades and sun tan.

Sun burn and sun block.

Heart throbbing and heart breaking.

I had one indelible summer memory of staying indoor: had a broken arm from Hapkido went wrong.

Summer-long restlessness.

Forced me to sit down. To be reflective.

Trajectory deflected.

Before that, I hadn’t realize that life never travel in a straight line

(white, yellow, blue, brown then black belt. Supposedly).

Even product planners can tell you that (S curve, valley of death etc…).

Instead, forced disruptions, surprised and blessed events strung together to make what’s called life.

Those in leadership factor in  the “unexpected”, plan B, plan C , worst-case scenario.

Even then, things still turn out not as planned.

(ComSat with low battery life, no reception etc… that forced our Lt Mike Murphy to the clearing hence drawing fire).

The team that got Bin Laden, even with the Iranian hostage crisis in hindsight, still left a burned helicopter.

Apollo, Challenger all had their shares of disasters. Skype with multiple dropped calls,  bought out twice to land in Seattle, Washington (but managed finally to link Video Chat for friends on Facebook).

Camelot and America’s brief shinning moment “Ask not…”.

So we did. A race to the moon, and a race to the jungle of South East Asia.

B-52 is now a throat-burning drink (ironically) and Apocalypse Now, a gay bar in former Saigon.

Horror! (line from the film).

I still remember where I was when I heard JFK was shot.

I was discussing it with Pierre, my half-breed schoolmate, on our way to L’Ecole Aurore via a short-cut.

We were in blue uniform, pretending to be adults. Even then, we knew somehow life would never be the same.

That world events somehow would directly impact our little lives (not too long before that, our own President had been assassinated along with his brother).

Still we had a dream (that Vietnamese kid and half-breed French kid would happily go to school).

Summer time, and youthful dream (especially when you are confined at home on cast).

And no matter what, taking down political leaders didn’t seem right in my naive assessment.

I have waited to see better solutions. And lately, with the trial of Egyptian President, I started to see that things have changed for the better.

And that if you waited long enough, what’s right will always have its day in court (or get declassified).

For that brief shinning moment, no one knew the handsomest President would hold office for only a little over 1,000 days.

Yet, his impact and influence lasted way beyond his grave e.g. private-sector space travel like Virgin Group etc..

Ask not….. for you will never know when the bell toll for thee. Summer time. Youthfulness. In restless dreams I walk alone.