What confidence

Yes, I’m getting more fit.  2lbs have dropped off my body somehow, someway, from somewhere in the last 2 weeks.  Maybe it’s just stress, but I don’t feel 2lbs lighter.

 

Yes.  I’m at war.  Details will come out eventually as to what that means.  I can say this much:  it’s not a war of bullets but it does include armies.  It’s also not a game.  It’s very, very real, with very, very real consequences.  The trick is to wage the war in such a way as to not destroy, but build.  War, by its very nature, destroys.  Generally even the territory being fought to save becomes ravaged during the combat.  Its exceptionally difficult to wage a war on territory you’re trying to save without damaging that same territory.  That is why Europe had to be “rebuilt”.  The very land trying to be saved was demolished under the boots of liberating armies.

In his “manifesto”, Ted Kaczinski described the difference between “revolution” and “reform” as the difference between rebuilding and redirecting.  A reform movement takes where we are and simply tries to correct the direction that we are traveling.  A revolution desires to demolish the current establishment and rebuild a wholly new establishment in its place.  Under this definition, the “American Revolution” was really a reform that was sped up by war.  The historical evidence can be seen in places from Canada to India where former colonies have established independent democratic states over time.  He goes on to say that the tricky thing about revolutions is that you can never predict where the revolution will go because you’re quite literally starting a new path.  Reforms you can predict, but revolutions often have unintended consequences.  The French Revolution was a true revolution, and it collapsed under the weight of unintended consequences.

 

So, my challenge in properly executing my war is to reform rather than revolutionize because I don’t believe that which I’m fighting to save will survive a revolution, and I’m not sure anyone will like what a revolution produces.  However, the reform has to be radical enough to exact true and permanent change, lest that which I hope to save continues to careen into the abyss toward which it is steadily traveling.  Most people, though, don’t know the difference between reform and revolution so you can use the terms interchangeably and most will be none the wiser.

 

Meanwhile, enjoy the lyrics to “When the Roll is Called up Yonder”.  What confidence the wielder of that pen has.  I want some of that…

 

When the trumpet of the lord shall sound and time will be no more

And the morning breaks eternal and bright and fair

When the saved on earth shall gather over on the other shore

And the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there

 

When the roll is called up yonder!

When the roll is called up yonder!

When the roll is called up yonder!

When the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there!

 

On that bright and cloudless morning when the dead in Christ shall rise

And the glory of his resurrection shared…

When his chosen ones shall gather to their homes beyond the sky

And the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there.

 

When the roll is called up yonder!

When the roll is called up yonder!

When the roll is called up yonder!

When the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there!

 

Let us labor for the master from the dawn to setting sun

Let us talk of all his wondrous love and care

Then when all our lives are over and our work on earth is done

And the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there.

 

When the roll is called up yonder!

When the roll is called up yonder!

When the roll is called up yonder!

When the roll is called up yonder I’ll be there!