Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Cassandra

Cassandra,

I try and help people at writing.com and have gotten better at it in the last year and a half. For me it is harder than for most I think because there is an edge to my personality that is galling and abrasive to some….just as it is fascinating and compelling to others. It is a most interesting character aspect because it travels the internet woven into the fabric of everything I write….when people read my writing they are affected, some in a positive way and some in a negative….When a reader calls up something I’ve written onto their CRT what they get is not just a structure of words that form some meaning but a piece of my spirit that like a computer virus has wormed its way into the words and sentences and as the written words unfold it accompanies them like a scent which for some is sweet and for others noxious. It is something that follows me about in life like the rain cloud that used to follow that character in ‘Lil Abner, a cartoon series that is long since gone from the funny papers.

In my career in the military (that many feel was much more successful than it deserved), I succeeded because of what I can only describe as a “Connectional” way of thinking….I read and see things, they go into deep memory and later, faced with an entirely different situation, they bubble up and spread back into my awareness and weave and ingratiate themselves with the networks of actions and events surrounding entirely new situations. It's is an amazing ability, for someone everyone once thought was retarded, but it has a down side….There is something about this spirit of mine that repels some and attracts others…that makes some want to step forward and others to turn and walk away.

In many ways I feel like Cassandra, the woman of mythology, that was blessed with the gift of prophesy but nobody would listen to her…Those who listen always take something positive away from our interface and those that don't head off to the beat of a different drummer. Whether they are better or worse for their choices remains an open question.

This week I interacted with someone who gets nothing but negative vibes from every contact we have…I neither like or hate this person since she is like so many I have met in the course of my lifetime…However I see her embarked on a mission focused on accomplishing something positive and good and into mind comes a flood of ideas on how she might better redirect her efforts….so I shared my thoughts and got the same old “Huffy” response….that between the lines says….”Stay out of my life jerk….things are just fine the way they are…” I don’t think anything I can say to her is going to change the fact that we are like water and vinegar….a square peg and a round hole…and have resolved to just step quietly back, as I so often do, and let her take the “Other Road” which for her might be a better path....even though I am all but certain it isn't. Her reaction is an aspect of human nature that speakes to ourselves saying..."If I like you you're golden and I I don't you are like whale poop...". You see this in the attitude..."if you say this I intend to say that, taking the opposite track in all matters great and small, not realizing that often in our supposed detractors is an insight into truths we turn our backs on.....In political life we see this clearly evidenced where one party take one view and the other adopts the opposite, not realizing that there us always some merit in what our "Enemies" stand for. I wish her the best. There are some that you just can’t reach even though you make an honest effort to do so.