The Icarus Factor

"Data, what if I missed something?"

"The Ship's Computer would have corrected immediately."

"Maybe My Inputs were incorrect."

Today I am a Warrior. 

I must show you My Heart. 

I travel The River of Blood.

WESLEY: 

Data! Geordi! I figured out Worf's problem.

LAFORGE: 

You spoke to him?

WESLEY: 

No, no. I accessed the complete 

Klingon cultural database. It took me some time

LAFORGE: 

Okay, Wesley, slow down.

What is the problem?

WESLEY: 

It's the tenth anniversary of 

Worf's Age of Ascension.

LAFORGE: 

His what?

WESLEY: 

The Klingon Age of Ascension. 

It's a ritual of great significance. 

A rite of initiation marking a new level of Klingon spiritual attainment.

DATA: 

And what is the significance of the anniversary of this event?

WESLEY: 

It's a day of celebration and ritual spent with one's fellow Klingons. 

Worf doesn't have any Klingon friends.

LAFORGE: 

We're his friends.

WESLEY: 

Right, but we don't practice Klingon tradition, 

And we're not Klingons. 

Worf is feeling culturally and socially isolated.

LAFORGE: 

So, what do you suggest we do? 

I'm not sure I'd like to invite a bunch of Klingons on board.

DATA: 

We can programme The Ship's Computer 

to supply simulations on the Holodeck.

LAFORGE: 

Holographic Klingons. 

Sure. Why not?

DATA: 

We need only to programme The Computer 

with details of the specific ceremony.

WESLEY: 

The cultural database said 

The Klingon's family must attend.

LAFORGE: 

So? We're His Family. We'll go. 

I just wonder what kind of party the Klingons had in mind. 

You did all this in a day? - Yeah.

All right.

I work with some really great people.

Good job, guys. Great job.

Hey, did you hear the news?

Ben and Chris want us to go into Conference Room "C"

for a meeting.

Let's get this over with.

Happy Birthday, Ron.

Ann said you had a big party...

sombreros, karaoke.

Yeah, I did that for Ann.

Why would I throw Ron Swanson an Ann Perkins party?

What about the giant list of things April was doing?

That was just a list of ways to mess with you.

She do 'em all?

She did indeed.

So I have rented Bridge on the River Kwai

and The Dirty Dozen.

Artie from Security is outside the door,

so no one will bother you.

And a cab will be here 

whenever you're ready 

to take you home.

Thank you.

Do you remember what you said to me five years ago

when Eagleton offered me that job,

and I asked you for your advice?

Uh, "Do Whatever The Hell You Want.

What Do I Care?"

Right, but then, after,

when I pressed you, what did you say?

I believe I said

That I thought we worked well together

and that I might disagree with your philosophy,

but I respected you.

And I said that 

You'll get a lot of job offers in Your Life,

but you only have one hometown.

Yes. That's how I remember it.

This, by the way, is a one-time-only situation.

Next year, your birthday party is gonna be a rager.

Mmm!

Mmm.

[Riker's quarters]

RIKER: 

I've practised my best Academy courtesy, 

now it's time for you to go.

KYLE: 

It's time for us to have a talk, so lower your shields.

RIKER: I'm asking you to leave, or I'll

KYLE: You'll what? You know, it's a shame there's no anbo-jyutsu ring nearby.

RIKER: Really? There is. Deck Twelve. The gymnasium.

KYLE: We can clear the air once and for all.

RIKER: You're on.

[Doctor's office]

KYLE: Scuttlebutt says you wanted to see me.

PULASKI: That's right. I thought I knew you, Kyle.

KYLE: You do, as well as anyone.

PULASKI: Then what is this I hear about an anbo-jyutsu match with Will?

KYLE: You've heard.

PULASKI: Haven't we grown beyond the point where we resolve our problems with physical conflict?

KYLE: I think you're overreacting.

PULASKI: I'm overreacting? You're the one who's going out to fight with his own son.

KYLE: Don't think of it as a fight, Kate. Think of it as more of a contest.

PULASKI: And suppose one of you is injured?

KYLE: I know where to find a good doctor. Kate

PULASKI: Kyle.

KYLE: Will and I have been playing anbo-jyutsu ever since he was eight old, and he knows how to handle himself. And so do I.

PULASKI: Don't take this personally, but Will is in his prime.

KYLE: And I'm no spring chicken, I know. Don't worry. He's never been able to beat me.

[Holodeck]

(A forbidding setting, lit with red light. There is a channel between two raised platforms)

DATA: Computer, is this it?

COMPUTER: Correct. Klingon Rite of Ascension Chamber.

LAFORGE: Is this really necessary?

WESLEY: If we want to get Worf through his problem, it is.

DATA: Computer, please give us Klingon personnel appropriate to this event.

(Four warriors stand on each side of the channel, with metre-long painstiks)

DATA: These images are specifically programmed for Ascension rites.

LAFORGE: Cute bunch.

WESLEY: And they use those?

O'BRIEN: Those are Klingon painstiks. I once saw one of them used against a two-ton Rectyne Monopod. Poor creature jumped five metres at the slightest touch. It finally died from excessive cephalic pressures.

WESLEY: You mean?

O'BRIEN: That's right. The animal's head exploded like

PULASKI: I think that's enough, Chief O'Brien.

[Corridor]

WORF: I do not enjoy riddles, Counsellor.

TROI: You will enjoy this one.

WORF: I am in no mood for trifling or games, not today.

TROI: I know what an important day this is for you, the anniversary of your Rite of Ascension.

WORF: You know about that?

TROI: All your friends on board do.

WORF: That is impossible. It is a secret known only to Klingons.

TROI: And certain resourceful young Ensigns.

WORF: Wesley Crusher. What does he know about it?

TROI: Just bear with me.

WORF: Where are we going?

TROI: The holodeck.

WORF: This is truly trying my patience, Counsellor.

TROI: I think you will approve.

WORF: You're not coming in?

TROI: No.

WORF: Open.

[Holodeck]

WORF: An Ascension ceremony.

LAFORGE: Happy anniversary, Worf.

DATA: 

Shall we begin?

WORF: 

I am ready.

(He steps between the two lines of warriors)

WORF: 

DaHjaj SuvwI''e' jIH. 

tIgwIj Sa'angNIS. 

'Iw bIQtIqDaq jIjaH. 

Today I am a Warrior. 

I must show you My Heart. 

I travel The River of Blood.

(The first two warriors apply their painstiks to his sides, and he screams in pain)

DATA: 

The True Test of Klingon Strength 

is to admit one's most profound feelings 

while under extreme duress.

WORF: 

jIbechrup may' vIlos.

(The second pair apply their painstiks)

WORF: 

The Battle is Mine. 

I crave only The Blood of The Enemy. 

HIHIvqa'.

(Third pair. He falls to his knees and O'Brien holds Pulaski back)

WORF: 

The Bile of The Vanquished 

flows over My Hands. 

May'pequ' moH.

(The fourth and final pair use their painstiks twice and he collapses in front of His Family)

WORF: 

Thank You.

[Observation lounge]
TROI: Is Lieutenant Worf all right?
PULASKI: He's never been happier.
TROI: So it was a good ceremony?
PULASKI: 
TROI: Klingon culture is not in your taste?
PULASKI: I'm just glad that humans have progressed beyond the need for barbaric display.
TROI: Have they? Commander Riker and his father are in the gymnasium, about to engage in barbarism of their own.
PULASKI: Don't remind me. It's something of which I do not approve.
TROI: In spite of human evolution, there are still some traits that are endemic to gender.
PULASKI: You think that they're going to knock each other's brains out because they're men?
TROI: Human males are unique. Fathers continue to regard their sons as children, even into adulthood. And sons continue to chafe against what they perceive as their fathers' expectations of them.
PULASKI: It's almost as if they never really grow up at all, isn't it?
TROI: Perhaps that's part of their charm, and why we find them so attractive.
PULASKI: Particularly men like Commander Riker.
TROI: And his father.
PULASKI: I hope they don't hurt each other.
[Gymnasium]
KYLE: Anbo-jyutsu. The ultimate evolution if the martial arts.
(They are wearing plastic suits of armour and carrying staffs with a large knob at one end. They are standing on a raised circular ring, decorated with oriental characters)
RIKER: I remember my early lessons.
KYLE: You could never get used to the sightless factor, or to losing.
RIKER: True, but I've had fifteen years to practise.
KYLE: Well, let's see if you've learned anything.
(They lower their opaque visors)
BOTH: Onegaishimasu.
(They circle, the small ends of the staves making a noise when they come close. Riker takes the first swings with the padded end, then Kyle. Then they return to trying to locate each other by the noise. Riker hits Kyle on the back, disarms him and sends him flying out of the ring)
KYLE: Well, you've been practising.
RIKER: And remembering. You should have been the one to die, not her. Yoroshiku-onegaishimasu.
KYLE: Good. Get it all out. Yoroshiku-onegaishimasu.
(This time, Kyle gets in the first hit, and Riker has to defend himself by holding his staff over his head)
RIKER: Matta! (Kyle backs away) I had you.
KYLE: Listen, Will. You were too young to understand and I was too hurt to explain.
RIKER: You were never too hurt for anything.
KYLE: She was your mother, but she was my wife. And when she died all that kept me going was you.
RIKER: You had a strange way of showing it.
KYLE: I came here thinking we could talk this out, but maybe you're right. Maybe I am no father, and you're no son. And this this fight is all we have left.
(Another round, and Kyle knocked Riker on his back)
RIKER: Wait!
KYLE: What is it now?
RIKER: 
You can't do that.
KYLE: What?
RIKER: 
Hachidan kiritsu! 
It's illegal.
KYLE: 
You're kidding?
RIKER: 
All those years. 
That's why I never won. 
You were cheating.
KYLE: 
It worked, didn't it? 
Kept you coming back for more.
RIKER: 
Incredible. You cheated me. 
How'd you get away with it?
KYLE: You were just a kid. By the time you were twelve years old, I knew I couldn't take you but I had to keep you interested, I had to keep you challenged, didn't I?
RIKER: 

I always hated you for that.

KYLE: 

Damn it, Will. You were barely 

out of diapers when she died. 

You hardly knew her! I'd loved her. 

Of course you carried The Pain. So did I. 

I should have explained this to you 

a long time ago, but it hurt too much. 

Then the wall grew up between us. 

And living there, you and me, 

the wall got bigger. 

You know, it's funny. 

I can talk to a whole roomful of Admirals 

about anything in the galaxy, but 

I can't talk to you about how I feel.

RIKER: 

How do you feel?

KYLE: 

How do you think? I love you, son. 

I've got to get back to the Starbase.

RIKER: I know. I'm glad you came.
(They finally embrace)
KYLE: 

Be careful now, okay?

Let's just say that I was not 

about to stay for refreshments.

That's Who I am

Bill is Here 

[captioned] 

(with reversal & promo) 

by iamaphoney

Bill is Here.

"NUMBER ONE 

(AKA WILLIAM RYKER) – 

A 30-35 year old Caucasian born in Alaska. 

He is a pleasant 

looking man 

with sex appeal, 

of medium height, 

very Agile and Strong, 

a natural Psychologist. 

Number One, as he is usually called, is 

Second in Command 

of The Enterprise 

and has a very strong, 

solid relationship 

with The Captain."

Other background details which were eventually added to Riker's preproduction character bio claimed Riker "doesn't fully appreciate The Female Need 

to be needed" 

and that he is 

"privately called 

William by Picard 

and Bill by 'female friends'" 

(Troi does refer to him as "Bill" in "The Naked Now" and "Haven", 

although this nickname 

was apparently dropped 

in favour of "Will". 

However, in the script for "Encounter at Farpoint", Picard refers to him as "Bill".)

Bill is Here!

Sooner or Later, 
The Bill Becomes Due.

Thomas is Here!

RIKER: 

Riker to Enterprise.

Do You Hear Me? 

DATA: 

Perfectly, Commander. 

I will be monitoring you continuously. 

TROI: 

Mintakan emotions 

are quite interesting. 

Like The Vulcans, 

They have highly ordered minds. 

A very sensible People. 

For example, Mintakan Women 

precede Their Mates --

It's A Signal 

to other women. 

RIKER: 

“This Man's Taken, 

Get Your Own”? 

TROI: 

Not precisely -- More like, 

“If You want His Services, 

I'm the one You have 

to negotiate with.”

RIKER : 

What kind of Services? 

TROI : 

All kinds. 

RIKER : 

….They ARE a Sensible Race (!)

Louis CK Everything is amazing & Nobody is happy

FOURNESS

The Sun and The Moon 

both create A Shadow.

“Gawain, a Third Knight, asks Parsifal gently and humbly if he will come to Arthur’s court and Parsifal agrees.

In another version of the story, the sun melts the snow and obliterates two of the drops of blood relieving Parsifal of the spell so that he can function again. It is possible that Parsifal would still be there in his lover’s trance if the sun had not reduced the three drops of blood to one or if Gawain had not rescued him.

Curious symbolism is at work in this part of the story. When dreams or myth make much point of numbers it is certain that very deep parts of the collective unconscious are at work. Do you remember the great emphasis on four in the Grail castle? Here it is the number three which is highly accentuated. Four seems to be the language of the collective unconscious for peace, wholeness, completion, tranquility. 

Three is the symbol for urgency, incompleteness, restlessness, striving, accomplishment. Parsifal, having been profoundly touched by the fourness of the Grail castle now must cope with the threeness of here-and-now life. His loves, the knightly quest, his place in Arthur’s court—these here-and-now things claim him. No one can make his way back to the Grail castle until he has made his way through the human dimensions of life.

An awkward time comes when life is dominated by three; it must be reduced to one or increased to four. Three, or that consciousness represented by three, can not long be endured in its intensity and drivenness. If one finds himself in a paralyzing dilemma, he must make the forward thrust to attain an enlightened place of insight, the fourness, or else reduce his consciousness just to survive.

Dr. Jung spent much of his later years working at the symbolism of three and four. He felt that mankind was just evolving from that stage of consciousness represented by three to that represented by four. 

In 1948 and 1949 he was jubilant at the new dogma of The Catholic Church which placed The Virgin Mary with the Trinity, all masculine figures, in Heaven. 

He felt that this completed an earlier, incomplete stage of development that had brought so much unrest and conflict to The  Western World. 

The Symbol precedes the fact by many years, which indicates that The Possibility is now open to us; but The Work is not yet done. 

Dr. Jung felt that the work of a truly modern person was to make the expansion of consciousness represented by the evolution from three to four — from the consciousness devoted to doing, working, accomplishing, progressing to that characterized by peace, tranquility, existential being. 

The heart of the matter is that four can contain three, but three can not contain four. 

A Person of the high consciousness of Four is capable of all the practicalities of life but is not bound by them. 

A Person of The World of Three is not capable of appreciating the elements associated with the number four.

We are apparently in an age where the consciousness of man is advancing from a trinitarian to a quaternarian view. This is one possible and profound way of appraising the extreme chaos our world is now in. 

One hears many dreams of modern people, who know nothing consciously of this number symbolism, dreaming of three turning into four. 

This suggests we are going through an evolution of consciousness from the nice orderly all-masculine concept of reality, the trinitarian view of God, toward a quaternarian view that includes the feminine as well as other elements that are difficult to include if one insists on the old values.

It seems that it is the purpose of evolution now to replace an image of perfection with the concept of completeness or wholeness. Perfection suggests something all pure, with no blemishes, dark spots or questionable areas. Wholeness includes the darkness but combines it with the light elements into a totality more real and whole than any ideal. This is an awesome task, and the question before us is whether mankind is capable of this effort and growth. Ready or not, we are in that process.

The Year of Mary has come and gone and has mostly been forgotten and seems to have had little immediate effect on our lives. But if we can view this extraordinary event in the right way it will have a profound effect on theology and upon our everyday lives.

When the fourth element is given dignity and honour it is no longer The Adversary; it is only when we exclude a psychological truth that it becomes negative or destructive. An element showing its evil side needs only consciousness to give it a useful place in our structure.

Man has often seen The Dark Side of himself as Feminine and, pushing it even further away, has turned it into The Witch. 

Much of the darkness of the rejected element during the Middle Ages was Feminine—hence the burning of witches at the stake. 

These were not a few isolated occurrences that gained unwarranted publicity; it has been estimated that more than four million women were burned at the stake during the height of the counterreformation in Europe.

Now, it is a formidable task to incorporate into Our Personality those elements that were seen to be so dark only a short time ago; to retrieve so dark an element is a dangerous operation. 

If one has antagonised The Wolf at The Door, he does not suddenly open The Door and Say, “Now come in.”

Excerpt from: 

"He: Understanding Masculine Psychology" 

by Robert A. Johnson

The Contest of Angels

“The Will of God prevails.”

ALLEN C. GUELZO: 

Lincoln is working out on paper his own problem, his own difficulty. 

This is Lincoln's own agony and sweat over the ultimate question, 

"What is The Will of God in this crisis?"

“In Great Contests, each party claims to act in accordance with The Will of God. 

Both may be, one must be, WRONG. 

God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. 

I am almost ready to say that this is probably True, that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet, by his mere quiet power on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the union without a human contest. 

Yet the contest began. And having begun, he could give the final victory to either side any day. 

Yet the contest proceeds.

Man, it feels good to be Home….

Meet Grady, a 29-year-old construction worker.

After coming home from a hard day's work,

he walks in the door of his trailer park home : to find His Wife 

in bed — with another man

What the FUCK?!?

Superman Red 

Superman Blue

Eminem - Guilty Conscience (Official Music Video) ft. Dr. Dre

Alright, calm down, relax, start breathin'

Fuck that shit, you just caught this bitch cheatin'

While you at work, she's with some dude tryna get off

Fuck slittin' her throat, cut this bitch's head off!!

Wait, what if there's an explanation for this shit?

What, she tripped, fell, landed on his dick?

Tsh, alright, Shady, maybe he's right, Grady.

But think about the baby before you get all crazy

Okay, thought about it? 

Still wanna stab her?

Grab her by the throat, 

get your daughter and kidnap her?

That's what I did,

 be smart, don't be a retard

You gonna take advice from somebody who slapped Dee Barnes?

What you say?

What's wrong? Didn't think I'd remember?

I'ma kill you, motherfucker

Uh-uh, temper, temper —

Mr. Dre, Mr. NWA, Mr. AK

Comin' straight outta Compton, y'all better make way — 

How in the fuck you gonna tell this man not to be violent?

'Cause he don't need to go the same route that I went —

Been there, done that…

Aw, fuck it, what am I sayin'?

Shoot 'em both, Grady, where's your gun at?

Lord of all, we bow before thee 

All on Earth thy scepter claim 

All in heaven above adore thee Infinite thy vast domain 

Everlasting is thy reign 

Infinite thy vast domain 

Everlasting is thy reign 

Be seated. 

What do you do when 

You're Not Sure? 

That's The Topic of 

My Sermon today. 

Last year when President Kennedy was assassinated, 

who among us did not experience 

the most profound 

Disorientation? Despair? 

Which way? What now? 

What do I say to my kids? 

What do I tell myself? 

It was a time of people sitting together, 

bound together by a common feeling of Hopelessness. 

But think of that. 

Your Bond with 

Your Fellow Being 

was Your Despair. 

It was a public experience. 

It was awful, but We were 

in it together. 

How much worse is it then for the lone man, 

the lone woman, stricken by a private calamity? 

"No one knows I'm sick. " 

"No one knows I've lost my last real friend. " 

"No one knows I've done something wrong. " 

Imagine the isolation. 

Now you see The World as through A Window. 

On one side of the glass, happy untroubled people, 

and on the other side, you. 

God bless you, Sister.

Thank you. 

I wanna tell you a story. 

A cargo ship sank one night. 

It caught fire and went down, 

and only this one sailor survived. 

He found a lifeboat, rigged a sail, 

and being of a nautical discipline 

turned his eyes to the heavens 

and read the stars. 

He set a course for his home, 

and, exhausted, fell asleep. 

Just keeps going on. 

Clouds rolled in, and for the next 20 nights, 

he could no longer see the stars. 

He thought he was on course, 

but there was no way to be certain. 

And as the days rolled on, 

and the sailor wasted away, 

he began to have doubts. 

He just keeps on going. 

Had he set his course right? 

Was he still going on towards his home? 

Or was he horribly lost 

and doomed to a terrible death? 

No way to know. 

The message of the constellations, 

had he imagined it because of his desperate circumstance? 

Or had he seen Truth once... 

Straighten up! 

... and now had to hold on to it 

without further reassurance? 

There are those of you in church today 

who know exactly 

the crisis of faith I describe, 

and I wanna say to you, 

Doubt can be a bond 

as powerful and sustaining as Certainty. 

When you are Lost, 

You are Not Alone. 

In the name of the Father, 

The Son and The Holy Ghost. 

Amen. Please rise. 

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow Praise him all creatures here...

Hey, Father. 

Hey, champ. 

That was some sermon. 

Did it mean something to you? 

I wanna do that. I wanna be a priest. 

You'd be a good one, I'm sure. Here. 

Take a look. See? 

She's dancing. Kind of neat? 

Yeah. Here. You try. 

That's for you. Take it. 

Thank you, Father. 

Welcome. 

Like Noah's Ark, girls. Two by two. 

Maryanne said it. - Let's do it together. Okay. - Yeah. It's true. And did I tell you that Jessica's having a sleepover on Saturday? Morning, Sister James. Good morning, Father Flynn. Beautiful day. Not too bad. How're the criminals doing today? - Not bad, Father. - Good, Father. - Morning, champ. - Morning, Father Flynn. You wash those hands today, Mr. London? I washed them, Father. I don't know. They're a different color than your neck. Morning. - Morning, Father Flynn. - Sister, are we having the test today? - Get in line. Tomorrow, William. - Is it long division? - Among other things. Sister. - Good morning, Sister. - How much of it will be long division? - Boy! William London. Come up here. Come smartly, now. Don't make me wait. What did he do? - He touched Sister James. The dragon is hungry. You don't touch a nun. Take out your history books, please. Turn to page 683. - Yes, Ralph. - I forgot my history book. You can look on with Raymond. Mr. London? - Do you have your history book? - No, Sister. - Share with Mr. Malloy, please. - Do I have to? His breath stinks! I'm sure Mr. Malloy's breath is just fine. Be seated. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States. That barrette out of your hair, Miss Horan. Yes, Sister. Morning, Sister James. Continue. Franklin D. Roosevelt, together with Abraham Lincoln and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was perhaps our greatest president. When he assumed office, 13 million people in this country were unemployed. They'd lost hope, and President Roosevelt said to these people, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." What did he mean by that? James? I think he was trying to say there's nothing really wrong. - You know? So don't get so emotional. - Maybe. Maybe he was saying that the world is good and we need only work together to overcome our problems. What's this, Mr. Conroy? I don't know, Sister. You don't know you have a wire coming out of your ear? - No. - Huh? Huh? No, Sister. I didn't. You come with me, boy. Go. Who knows what the New Deal was? The first noel The angels did say Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay I love this song. In fields where they lay keeping their sheep On a cold winter's night that was so deep This past Sunday, what do you think that sermon was about? Sister James? Huh? What was Father Flynn's sermon about? Well, doubt. He was talking about doubt. - Why? - Excuse me, Sister? Well, sermons come from somewhere, don't they? Is Father Flynn in doubt? Is he concerned that someone else is in doubt? I suppose you'd have to ask him. No, that would not be appropriate. He is my superior, and if he were troubled he should confess it to a fellow priest or to the monsignor. We do not share intimate information with priests. - No. - That's true. What are we saying? I want you all to be alert. I am concerned, perhaps needlessly, about matters in St. Nicholas School. Academically? I was not inviting a guessing game, Sister Raymond.

We Hold.

“Our glacial days of digital perennialism place us in a constant ‘now’ without ever really being present, and icons are torn apart. 

No sooner does A Hero rise than He or She is exposed as A Hypocrite — Malcolm X was a rent boy, Gandhi had some odd nocturnal habits and even Che, the obligatory teen portal into rebellious sentience, was a Homophobic MURDERER. 

Too MUCH Information.

The iconoclasm of our omniscient but omni-dumb days unweaves the carpets that we may have walked upon and leaves us in the wasteland of the ‘only Human’.”

Excerpt From

Mentors

Russell Brand

“If I say, ‘Well, Jimmy isn’t Perfect,’ I will ultimately use the ordinary details of Human Fallibility to impair My Own Progress.

Sometimes when I am making an incredible fuss over some minor piece of bullshit, when I am contemplating leaping out of my car like a slender James Gandolfini to confront someone at a traffic light, I think: ‘Wow, there are Men who call me up for advice and here I am, unable to contend with normal emotions – what A Fraud I am.’ 

But this is not the case, my all too evident flaws do not prevent me being a successful mentor as long as these relationships are correctly BOUNDED. 

All of the people I mentor understand the nature of this dynamic, its benefits and its limitations. They know that The Method I Use is Verified and Ancient. 

They know that I want nothing FROM them, that My Only Intention is to HELP them; I don’t want Money, Prestige or Power from them. 

These are Men Like Me, Men that have turned to Drugs and Sex to cope with the absence of a Spiritual Dimension to Their Life — who in the abscence of loving guides have improvised philosophies from their primal urges and crazy circumstances. 

When They NEED Me,

I am not The Fool 

at The Traffic Lights, 

I am The Man 

They Need Me to Be.

Once I called Jim when he was about to take his seat at the theatre or something that meant there was little in the way of small talk, and though I was quietly frantic he dispatched insights like sharp, quick darts, for all I know while buying a box of Maltesers. 

Perhaps Young Men like Me go awry because nobody can hold them. I don’t mean embrace, I mean in a parental sense, like (parentheses), to ‘bracket’ them, to stand as a dam either side of the wayward lash and unmovingly emit Care. 

The only Authority I ever knew was Negative. Either Inefficient or Corrupt. This is the consequence of living with false ideals in a Materialistic Society. 

The Authority that I give to Jimmy is SACRED, I know he is flawed but I am not consulting with the flawed part of him, I am consulting with the part of him that is willing in spite of his own numerous obligations, work, and family to provide loving counsel for free. 

I believe this relationship becomes a conduit for Truth, Divine Truth. 

That needn’t mean it’s all chocolates and roses. There’s a fair amount of ‘suck it up’ and ‘face your fear’, but it is Truth. Perhaps we can take Truth to mean The Timeless, The Universal. Things that will not erode and fade, qualities I need to live the life I have moved into.

How does someone who has never been A Father become one? 

How do any of us progress beyond our temporary limits? 

The Potential Person we can Become hums in an invisible grid Within and Without us. 

A Genius may actuate by intuition but all of us need Heroes, Role Models and Mentors, that we may see what is possible, living mandalas to lock onto as we inhale and expand into new states.”

Excerpt From

Mentors

Russell Brand

Effort

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 

together with 

Abraham Lincoln 

and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 

was perhaps Our Greatest President. 

When he assumed office, 

13 million people in this country were unemployed. 

They'd lost Hope, 

and President Roosevelt 

said to these people, 

"The only thing we have to fear is Fear Itself." 

 

What did he mean by that? 

James? 

 

I think he was trying to say

"There's nothing really wrong."  You know? 

So "Don't Get So Emotional."

 

Maybe. 

Maybe he was saying that 

The World is Good and 

We Need Only Work Together 

to overcome Our Problems.

I am certain that My Fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our Nation impels. 

 

This is preeminently the time to Speak The Truth, The Whole Truth, Frankly and Boldly. 

 

Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. 

 

This Great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. 

 

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is : Fear Itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified Terror which paralyzes Needed Efforts to convert Retreat into Advance. 

In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.

More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.

Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.

Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.

Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.

Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people's money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.

There are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States.

Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.

The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in all parts of the United States--a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure.

In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor--the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others-- the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.

If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife.

With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.

Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.

It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.

I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.

But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis--broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.

For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.

We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stem performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.

We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.

In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.