Racefail 2009 Meme

There is a meme going around toward the idea that we should not be silent about our feelings and reactions to Racefail 2009 and our lessons learned.

How do I put this?

I am no stranger to the idea that speaking out and getting as many opinions as possible is a good thing. When done in a [...]

Tao of the Warrior 8: Mercy

Unlike the other portions of these writings, I will not list 8 aspects of this one to keep in mind while you do your warrior’s thing. Because this one is directly number 8, I will leave the fine points here to your imagination.

Mercy maps to marsh, which is in a way a compromise between water [...]

Having Thinky Thoughts – About Creating Change

I hope to write a future essay here (in keeping with the Tao stuff I’ve been writing) where I talk about how being pissed off and moralistic only gets you so far in any situation where folks are doing a morally wrong thing because it’s otherwise compelling to do it. I think this essay will [...]

Tao of the Warrior 7: Justice

I map Justice to the trigram for Mountain. I think that justice builds the foundations of the mountain of your commitment. It helps you be fair, merciful, honorable, wise. It helps you demonstrate that your opponents/allies should take you seriously because they know that if you are just, you will be just with all of [...]

Tao of the Warrior 6: Honor

We’re heaving into the final stretch here. I hope you’ve gotten as much out of this exercise as I have!

It needs to be said: Honor is very tricky. Everyone knows that it’s operative in the best warriors. Lack of honor sticks out like a sore thumb! But the problem is that honorableness requires humility. I [...]

Tao of the Warrior 5: Wisdom

As both an activist and a warrior, you cannot afford to work only on instinct. There must be a method and a direction. You should keep in mind prinicples of compassion and honor as well as try to keep your long term strategy and medium term tactics in mind. The more competent and long-lived warriors [...]

A longer break than I’d anticipated

Work intervened and has been hard, but I hope for some stability, or at least, as Taoism would have it, moving stability. Some way of knowing my center even though my stance must be flowing.

I think that despite practical worries about job permanency, I am much improved for being older, and I hope, wiser.

Fittingly, the [...]

A Break

So today I am sick but recovering. Got flu symptoms starting Friday afternoon, took today off from work and will return to work and writing (during breaks, etc.) tomorrow.

Anyhow, parts 5-8 of the Tao already shaping up in notes and drafts, but I don’t anticipate finishing 5 today.

About halfway through and I’m not done talking

I have at least four more Tao of… posts to write. I’d planned to write 8 and I’m sticking to that promise, both for symbolic and thematic reasons.

I hope that it’s doing more folks than just me good, but it is doing me good to articulate myself and some of my beliefs about being an [...]

Tao of the Warrior 4: Joy

Do you know joy? Do you have joy in your work as a warrior? Can you identify and react appropriately to instances of joy during the very moments you are working your hardest to fight? Can you share in your opponent’s joys? All of these skills are vitally important. As you have other duties and [...]