The Cold War

Isn't That ' What's His Name?'

I suppose we do wonder about it. I mean … what fantastic reason does a nation have … to pull out from under a friendship … and within 24 hours to put up a wall … that came to define Russo-American relationship … and shaped the landscape of the world … in these times. Today … it may have cooled somewhat … but the cinders smoulder … in the morning's papers … as regards aspects of the relationship … yet to be revealed.

I'm tempted to say … its like the eighteen year marriage I had with the ex-wife … but no … its not that. It feels more like … a relationship … a father may have with his daughter … but … I wish it was possible to see that clearly … in some way. I suppose it would be possible … if not for the pillars of icicles … that stream down incessantly … to hide any semblance of a relationship … that might exists. Which direction is the cold war again?

I used to think its simply the maternal instinct in daughters … when they are too young to know what it means. The way that it clouds about the issues … of child and parent … in a situation that clearly defines … the roles of both … makes for a very muddled situation … that pits love against duty … compassion versus intelligence … and concern versus common sense. Its like a day at the dentist … when you had absolutely no reason to visit him.

I had this friend in the new school … with whom I got along great. There was an unspoken rapport between us … and suddenly one day … it just grew … absolutely cold. It lasted for about a week or so … and then we met each other … while with the rest of the gang … and just then realized … we had found a new way … to relate to each other. In retrospect … it appears to me … the cold came from the fact … that we were just getting to know one another … and had not cultivated a decorum … for how we'll get along.

Another little titbit that arose from the cold confrontation … is the notion … that we were a lot like each other … equals in many ways. And if the word equal doesn't quite fit … try the term … ' common cognizance.' I would be thinking of something at that time … and he would be thinking of exactly the same. I would begin a sentence to speak of something … and he'll provide the finish. It wasn't a gay thing at all. I wish it was that simple.

Some years ago … I read somewhere … about a description an author made … about a winter's day … when the sky seemed to touch the earth. It stirred me to bring my cold confrontation … to the fore … and realize how at a young age … we don't yet differentiate the mind from the subtle emotions … and the two of them simply dance … like a pair of lovers with each other. That's before … we learn to tell them apart.

But at a later age … its surprising to find … a curios friendly hostility that comes to take a position … between the mind and the subtle emotions … that spars playfully … especially between friends at the same age. In college I met this guy … living in the same dorm … who'll spark at the slightest disagreement … and we'll physically wrestle … on the bed … and on the floor … until we both tire. It went on for two years … before I moved out in my third year.

When I come across … the comment today … that we sometimes keep our hostility within … and do not take it out … I realize how true that comment is. But some parts of the hostility … may be released by playful contact … and then there's those that are not. When it spills over … we feel like a Bosnia or Chad or Cambodia … and fear that we are turning criminally insane.

Here's where a man realizes that the ancients … knew the secret of managing such conflicts … by engaging them within. Its called Jihad by the Mohamedan … Yoga by the Indics … Kagemusha by the Oriental … and in the Christian … it resembles something like meditation. Its a process of dividing the individual into polar opposites … where one part is identified with the individual … and another … the world.

Thereafter the individual … brings opposite parts of his thoughts … to relate and compare with each other … in an ' honest to goodness ' attitude … that speaks frankly of the differences. Under a Guru or Master … its the individual versus the master … in which the master vocalizes the student's opposites … in a manner suited to learning … and engages him in physical exercises … as a demonstration of principles … they are practicing.

Among philosophical thesis … Hegel … brings the point closest to an understanding … by the concept of the dialectic process … that identifies … the thesis … the anti-thesis and then the synthesis. In the right hands … and undertaken with devotion … its an incredible tool for training the mind. Aspects of this concepts are engaged in the military … police … management … marketing … and sports. It is as useful today … as it was 2,000 �" 3,000 years ago.

The reports by students … of these arts vary … according to the concepts engaged … and the nature of the training process. In putting together … my views of my exercises … I am astonished to find in some way … that my personality relates to the evolutionary process of man. In particular … to a child … I think a daughter … that is to be born in the future. I don't believe anybody else has reported it this way … cold war or not … so I'm still working at understanding it better. Its funny though.