Elemental Wisdom

Sometimes the world can be seen the clearest through nature. And on occasion, the forces of nature are showcased the best in legend.

So, dear reader, here is your lesson for the day…

There was once a great sword maker named Masamune. He had an upstart student named Muramasa who believed himself to be greater than his teacher. According to the story, the student challenged the teacher to a contest. Each man would bring one of his swords out to the nearby stream and thrust the blades into the stream bed.

Then they would stand on the bridge and drop leaves into the stream. The sword to cut the leaf as it moved downstream would be the winner.

So Muramasa dropped his leaf and it slid along with the current until it met the man’s sword, and was neatly cleaved in two. He exclaimed “ See, am the winner! Nothing could beat this performance!”

At this, Masamune dropped his leaf and it was carried toward his sword. But, at the last moment, an eddy swirled the leaf around the razor-sharp edge and the leaf continued downstream unharmed. Muramasa was quick to claim his superiority.

“You see,” he yelled, jubilantly, “I have won! Your blade did not cut the leaf!”

“No,” said his teacher, seriously, “you have lost. You see, the leaf was so afraid of my blade, that it went around it.”

If we take this story into present day, it is still relevant. The stream is like our economy. Obstacles may be dropped in the path of the water. The government may create great dams to clamp restrictions and regulations on goods and services, but the society finds ways around it. People – just regular people – find a way around it. Sometimes this just takes the form of new business – and sometimes the restructuring is more drastic, creating grey or black markets.

But it seems to me that President Obama is acting like that young upstart swordmaker all those hundreds of years ago. He is claiming that his sword – the stimulus plan – is so sharp, that it cut the leaf – and by relation, his health care plan and Cap and Trade are also equally wonderful.

But in fact, as anyone can clearly see, the water is elemental – as the businesses and day-to-day living - all endeavors adjusting fluidly to the environment.

While Obama and his group dance around merrily, and call out to the sky their greatness and people like Nancy Pelosi call the regular people “NAZIs,” and "Astroturf" and "Mobs" we still stand. And while other Congressmen attempt to demonize people they should be representing, we still stand - and the leaves are really just floating, unharmed around their blades.

We are the current. We are the water. We are the natural force of our world, and remain unchanged despite their schemes and conspiracies.

We are unstoppable.

And that is why they are afraid.