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Monthly Archives: December 2016

Episode Six: The ARC Council

 

 

Prologue: (Mother’s curiosity and exhilaration seems to always peek when she is about to face a ‘dressing down’. These assessments for the CEO of The ARC Incorporated were her brainchild. “Mother, she would often say to herself, you could be accused of distorted reasoning because this testing of yours can be seen as causing undue pain upon you psyche”.

 

I decide what is beneficial to my stated goals in life. It is not whether others understand the reasons I systematically fortify my embankments. The ‘senses’ receive the first notification of trouble or pleasure. ‘Prosperity and Adversity’ are flip sides of the same coin. Preparation for both must be done simultaneously and seamlessly. From the neck up is where I must place 90% of my energies toward combating the many issues I will face, have faced, and have solved in my business.   Fittingly this philosophy has afforded me a wonderful life.)

 

Sarah W. Certainty (1st of 3): (It is 1400 on a Wednesday afternoon and she knows what is next on Mother’s calendar. She has her session with ‘The Arc Council’ or as the associates like to call it ‘The Council’.)

 

Mother Sayer: I have read that look on your face for the last 5 years Sarah. Is it that time again?

 

Sarah W. Certainty: Yes Mother. ‘The Council’ awaits your arrival on the first floor.

 

Mother Sayer: Thank you Sarah. Prepare the office for my return.

 

Sarah W. Certainty: It will be ready for you as always. (Sarah has seen in her 5 years at the ARC the aftermath of Mother’s sessions with ‘The Council’ 32 times not counting today. She has provided Mother with refreshments ranging from stiff drinks to R & B music played on her Bose SoundTouch 30. Cold water. Hugs and kisses on both cheeks to just being there to listen as she sorted through the session to what she could use to enhance and strengthen her psyche. Sarah speaks softly to herself what she has spoken the last 5 years. “I will never fail this woman, ever!”

 

Council Session 43: (Mother rides the elevator to the bottom floor and exits to the right and enters an office through a single heavy door designed to be sound proof. The assistants to the 3 counselors secure the door behind Mother and draw the blinds on the inner windows.

 

The members of the Council are present for session 43. ‘D. D. O.’ the one who doesn’t speak. ‘The Arc Angel’ the duality representing both right and wrong. ‘Frank Inquisitor’ the one where aggression is foreplay, but no one gets off.

 

Frank Inquisitor: (Starts off as he usually does if the Arc Angel doesn’t speak first.) Would you like a chair Mother Sayer?

Mother Sayer: No Inquisitor, I will stand for this session, as I’m sure the floor will not shake or rattle in here.

 

Frank Inquisitor: Oh, you think we don’t have any good material to challenge that formidable mind of yours today?

 

Arc Angel: (Cuts in before Mother could answer.) We rarely hit our mark with this woman as she prepares a countermeasure to every thrust we make. Mother Sayer, I would like to start today by asking about this new product you’ve been developing. What’s it called, the ‘Playboy’ I presume?

 

Mother Sayer: Yes, that’s correct. (Mother cuts her answer short.)

 

Arc Angel: What’s it do? Don’t give me a short answer again or I will come over there and get in your grill.

 

Mother Sayer: (Good, I need this to be an offensive exercise because I’ve been getting mentally soft lately.) It is designed to be part of an airplane. It will take the place of the black box that is the industry standard now. Deploying in the event of a catastrophic incident to notify search and rescue teams of the exact location of a downed aircraft by GPS.

 

Arc Angel: I know you didn’t think of this idea did you?

 

Mother Sayer: (Ah, belittling and goading simultaneously. Good.) Yes I did.

 

Frank Inquisitor: The team led by; let’s see here, Nicole was on point right?

 

Mother Sayer: (Typical omission of the engineer who thought of the idea.) Nicole and her team handled the marketing strategy for the ‘Playboy’.

 

Frank Inquisitor: What about this product makes you believe it will be beneficial to the airline industry?

 

Mother Sayer: Before this allotted time, couldn’t you have read the reports submitted to you for study before this council session, or do you fashion yourself some Spanish Monarch with a trembling subject before you cowering for mercy?

 

Frank Inquisitor: (Sharply turns toward Mother as if to acknowledge the validity of her words, but also to signal a turn to a more aggressive line of questioning.) I will ask you again. How is it beneficial to the airline industry?

 

Mother Sayer: (An inner smile covers her face as she has taken command of this session by evening the odds.) The time to locate airline crashes or aviation mishaps will be virtually instantaneous. The ‘Playboy’ will deploy and activate a GPS marker at the precise location it went down. Second. In the event of a water crash, it will activate a buoy that will float on the surface and record continuously everything that has happened and still is occurring. Third. It will also activate a sonar feature that ships nearby can hone to help notify rescue teams. Fourth. In the event of a land crash. A solar powered marker will deploy from the tail section equipped with solar panels that will power all recording devices as long as is necessary for rescue to find the aircraft.

 

Mother Sayer: How’s that for value Mr. Columbus?

 

Arc Angel: No need for insults. Inquisitor was just asking a question that’s all.

 

Mother Sayer: It’s wasn’t lost on me that you remained silent as I popped off the details of the ‘Playboy’. Could it be you didn’t prepare for this session as well?

 

Arc Angel: Cute, Mother. I am always prepared. Wasn’t a member of Nicole’s team, Terence Dohey, lax in his fiduciary obligation to keep this matter a secret?

 

Mother Sayer: (This information was not put out to protect my associate’s mistake in judgment. How did she find out about it? This council is certainly becoming independent of even my oversight? Good.) My associate was reprimanded and ordered to report for retraining in company policies. I will not speak of another associate on the record again.

 

Frank Inquisitor: You will tell us whatever we wish to know.

 

Mother Sayer: (Excellent! Now I get to put it on the record again.) Listen to me carefully all three of you. If you have a matter to bring before this company, you bring it to me and me alone. My children are my concern, not yours. Now, if I have to tell you again you’re not gonna like it. Yes, I call them my children and as such I will decide if any punishment is necessary.

 

Perhaps I should explain myself more on this point.

 

May I explain my philosophy of ‘allegiance’? It is another example of the use of a powerful word which those who use it thinks that upon hearing it, people automatically understand it.

 

This is not so. First, let me cover the wrong way it has be used in society or even in a family. Allegiance in a family is understood to be that you hold fidelity to the family even if a family member is wrong. Thus the underlying problem, the offense is allowed to fester, growing with a fowl stench until it is so unbearable that it forces the family to address it.

 

Alliances are fickle. Then why do countries have allies if they are finicky you ask? Because at the first sign of danger an alliance can be broken if there is no underlying belief in the other’s moral authority to deal with a matter by what’s right or wrong about it.

 

That’s the problem when you decide who is an ally by taking ‘sides’!

 

I know it is frequently expected with family against non-family. Which is why many families aren’t morally strong. ‘They’re misguided by a false meaning of allegiance.’ Allegiance is cultivated with benevolence. Only what will help the one’s I love (human power) is what I desire for them.

 

Allegiance then becomes meaningful because regardless of who occupies my family or who is trusted I pledge loyalty (human power) because we live by what’s right and what’s wrong. Whether it is a ‘pact’ involving two or multiples of two, allegiance must have a foundation that isn’t subject to cracks.

 

Honor, fairness, benevolence are hallmarks that should naturally broadcast to anyone that happens upon your allegiance. That’s why I understood the meaning of pledging allegiance to the flag of the United States of America long ago in my childhood.

 

I understood that allegiance embodies those traits that are crucial to coalescing an impenetrable force of citizens. Women and men, girls and boys that know that an alliance is only as good as the people who keep it strong. Alliances can only be kept strong if wrongs are called out and corrected no matter the person who committed them, and what is right must be championed at all times.

 

  1. D. O.: (She is not allowed to talk. Observation is her calling in these sessions. Her restriction doesn’t include writing as she writes up her analysis with vigor as she takes in the back and forth between the others on the council and Mother Sayer.)

 

Arc Angel: (She silently looks at Mother Sayer and wonders how high this woman can go. Amazing. We have circled around her in sessions. We have ridiculed her. We have intentionally tried to make her buckle in her authority running the Arc Incorporated. She prepares well and not only that she thinks nimbly on her feet. Impressive!) I only have one last thing Mother. Are you the matriarch of this company or are you simply the CEO?

 

Mother Sayer: (Oh brother.) I am the Matriarch of ‘The ARC Incorporated’. The title if you are to understand the development of this word. Matriarch or Patriarch was meant to bestow power on the female or the male along the timelines of human history. The meaning simply states that someone has to be in charge.

 

Let me go a little further because I get the feeling that this word creates unease among women.

 

Somebody has to be in charge. Whether that is a man or a woman there are certain expectations that go with being in charge or being the leader. Being susceptible to every whim is not practical. A certain detachment will appear in your personality whether you want it or not.

 

Judgment will push its’ way to the front and the ability to discern good and evil will ask (demand) you put in the time learning and familiarizing yourself to know the difference.

 

Suddenly being the leader will require you act in the best interest of the family or the organization regardless of what you would like to do.

 

Then, if you have truly embraced your role; your thoughts will become elevated beyond flesh and blood impulses to matters involving greater importance. Like the lives of others and directing them appropriately to achieve their potential.

 

If you embrace this responsibility, then you will start to see your success is not dependent on having the ‘favor of the king’. It is dependent on doing the things that you know will create dividends in meaningful human lives.

 

So yes, I am the Matriarch.

 

Arc Angel: My session is complete. How about you Inquisitor?

 

Frank Inquisitor? I am satisfied.

 

  1. D. O.: (She gestures with a thumbs up it’s done.)

 

Mother Sayer: Good. I look forward to our next encounter. Good day.

 

Mother Sayer: (Mother leaves the room and the assistants to the council escorts her to the exit and she is free once again to review what just happened and enjoy the rest of her day. Funny. Why is Tina Turner’s ‘Steel Claw’ starting to play in my head?

 

Oh well, in any case, it is appropriate.).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 Revelations

 

My understanding of brevity is not why I will endeavor to achieve my points in as few paragraphs as possible, but my mission has always been and remains is to offer informed solutions to the issues of life. Granted, I require of my audience to engage the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of their understanding. As I was fond of telling my soldiers this phrase all the time, “Sergeant Moseley can’t do everything, you are going to have to do your part too.”

 

One.

 

I will start with religion, which I must warn you may be insulting and amusing, but I will make a point. As an assignment in one of my classes I had to watch a PBS video called ‘Armed in America’. A panel of ministers sat on stage talking about how they now had to carry concealed weapons (guns) into church in order to protect them if someone wanted to come in and harm them. Pause. A younger white minister who looked like he was auditioning for Pearl Jam was the only voice of reason (surprising to me) on the entire panel. He touched on my revelation I will reveal in a minute about these so-called Christians. Guards armed with weapons were needed to protect the House of God. Pause.

 

Imagine with me if you will. God, upon hearing this development asks the minister of that church for an audience. The minister agrees and appears before God to answer this affront. The minister tells God that there are people out there looking to murder, sow discord, and strike fear in his children to keep them away from worshiping him. God, upon hearing this looks to his right at Jesus. God looks at the Holy Ghost, Gabriel, and Michael. God looks out across heaven and summons a Bible to his hand and reads it to be certain he did say something about persecution and featured it prominently within the pages.

 

My revelation is: Are you kidding me! Oh, by the way, God threw a few bolts of lightning. God shook Earth and brought the whirlwind to be sure he still had a little power left in him to behold such doubt from his followers. Maybe God felt he was loosing it and check himself there for a minute to be sure. Try Matthew 5 vs. 10. That panel discussion blew my mind as I was attempting to comprehend the cascading flood of arrogant beliefs impacting against my mind displayed by their lack of faith in God. A Christian should be enthusiastic about the chance to die in the name of God if it is God’s will that he do so! Ministers should be calling this blasphemy of weapons in the house of God as a lie, a confusion, a contradiction of the word that God has given us. I am talking to all these so-called Christians. If you believe that you can protect God’s Kingdom with a ‘firearm’, I don’t ever want to be in church with you period.

 

Two.

 

Beautiful people. Don’t think I’m picking on you. It is just that a lot of the trouble in this world stems from the fact that beautiful people neglect the development of their interpersonal skills. Take for instance a scenario where upon a beautiful woman leaves her home and goes to work. Many doors are opened for her because humankind loves to have something pleasant to view when conducting day-to-day transactions.

 

Remember some times in your life where you couldn’t avoid conflict. Did you count on your looks to pacify the situations? No? Why not? What did you use to mediate the issue and come to a solution? Something involving that gray matter encased in your skull perhaps. Right. Most disagreements are fairly minor and can be solved easily by giving up on a point of view, or allowing the greater good to be served by deferring to the other person’s position.

 

What if the issue can’t be solved so easily? Facial or body features will not get you out of sticky situations. I’m sorry to inform you in case you thought they always would. Sometimes the intensity of a conflict burrows two or more parties into a matter so deep that all issues surrounding the matter are all that matter. What use would your looks serve you then?

 

My point here is to ‘burst that bubble’, that fallacy for all those who thought that looks would render you the victor 100% of the time. Male and female alike. In public. On the job. In every setting within a society. No one has to bow down to you because your man or your woman told you that you were pretty. You walk on water, or your crap doesn’t stink! All that’s good, but that is for you to share it with whoever tells you that. The rest of the world doesn’t have to acknowledge that you look good in that dress, or that three-piece suit.

 

Now what’re you going to do? An argument has to have two or more participants willing to argue for their point of view. If one of the participants developed their interpersonal skills to fight for their position and the other party, with the opposing point of view, relies on looks to win the argument. I believe the more prepared person will win that battle.

 

Look people, I’ve seen it happen. I’ve seen people fall apart. I’ve seen people get shredded to pieces (their position) because they relied on their looks to persuade their opponent to give them the day. What’s worse is that time (years of your life) is still passing. All the time people could be working on those interpersonal skills wasted because they were told they were pretty or handsome. It made them neglect a critical part of their character. Their mental toughness. Their comfort with not being the center of attention. The demanding nature of business where if you can’t articulate your desires (intelligence); then what good are you to a company?

 

My revelation is: Then you are just another pretty face that ‘hangs on the wall like a painting in a museum people come to view, but they know they can’t take it home because it’s too expensive.’ Who needs to stare at something everyday that doesn’t give them much more than a pleasant thought.

 

Three:

 

A decision. One decision could have monumental ramifications! For this I’m going to stay positive because it is one decision I will share with you. Back in 2002, I was in the Alabama National Guard. I was newly single (you know what that means) and making a career for myself at a grocery store. The President at the time started one war and was about to start the Iraq war. I prayed to God and asked him if this is my destiny; then I will stay on duty in the U.S. Army.

 

That decision lead to an opportunity to come back on active duty in the Army in 2007 nearly five years later after serving in Germany and Iraq. I ended my active time in 2014 and joined the Army Reserves which has lead me to the process of adding all my time to qualify for a 20-year letter of retirement from the Reserves. None of this was easy. After Iraq, I served two 12-month tours of duty in Afghanistan. I also survived a lot of ribbing from younger colleagues serving with the ‘old man’ in many of my units.

 

When I say I wouldn’t change it (my decision, my life) for anything I am being reflective and thankful. I am a full-time student and I work about 32 hours a week. Oh, and don’t forget my website www.landcause.com. My income is higher than when I was on active duty while my expenses have certainly dropped. All for one decisions that now looks like an octopus as it spreads it’s tentacles throughout my life.

 

My revelation is: Do not think lightly of the decisions that you make. A decision could serve you with good nourishment for years, heck even decades to come if made wisely!