On Battles

I bring you a battle today - mostly because it is a theme I need to revisit this month for my own purposes. War, violence, domination, winning - all part of the human psychic cocktail. Over the years I have found the odd occasion to fight a battle, and have found that my pacifist upbringing had left me with few tools to engage profitably in battle. Those childhood battles amongst siblings and on the playground left me with more of a distaste for people than a toolkit for survival - and I am still surprised when I come across bullying in any form.

I watched Ghandi on DVD the other day, and chuckled to be reminded that he used guilt as a lever to manage his followers in India via his hunger strikes. I smiled: so much like parenting ("So, when you leave the bath running, it's because you think it's OK for me to spend yet another hour working to pay for the water you've wasted?"). This works when you have a bedrock of love, as Ghandi did in his followers, or as I have in my family.

But in those times when the battle you approach is entirely hostile, entirely about needing to win, what do the mysteries say?

Pinkola Estes celebrates wildness - the knowing and the timing of the wild thing that knows when to stalk, knows when to wait, knows when to spring. Instinct. But this is too simple and little understood. Ultimately the behaviour of the wild thing is based on the desirable outcome: survival, advantage. The actions of the wild hunter / warrior is not chaotic or random. It is discrete, considered, strategised. It is based on interrogations into the nature and habits of its opponent, the lie of the land (read the Art of War), tallying of resources.

Casteneda speaks of remaining unavailable, invisible to your opponent, even as you stalk him. He speaks of storing power so that it can be used to devastating effect when you need to. He speaks of moving an individual via his circle of influence, never directly. He speaks of alertness, avoiding assumptions, applying force to a lever.

Battles in my adult life have shown me this: I am the only one who wants to fight with gentlemen's rules, so they likely won't work for me (and they haven't). I have never fought to dominate, my battles are generally about protecting my family, my home, my turf. And most soldiers who have gone to war leaving families behind know that there is nothing more worthy fighting for. Where stakes are high, the art of battle is the most important skill to have mastered. The last, most precious advantage I will not gain until my children are off my hands: having nothing to lose.