To Goethe!

 330.

"Nothing like a solid routine," she shares with me as we practice our orienteering skills in a previously unexplored section of my neighboring woods. Keeping her pace is all I can do, making my response another in a series of grunts. I try to add my total agreement with an emphasis on the second of the 'ah huh's' additionally coaxing myself into some semblance of graceful flow as we hike. I will admit that since the start of our accelerated physical therapy program, paired with the increased dosing of the steroid, the name of which I cannot pronounce, progress has been, dare I say, dramatic. Eating cleaner, sleeping better, reaching previously unobtainable flexibility poses, deep tissue massage, acupuncture, three times a day cardio sessions - a rotation to make any age-group triathlete envious - meditation, and our four times a day memorization sessions of Julie's manifesto, leave little time for sloth, lethargy or self-pity. Jammed into a single sentence, I might say that "Haven't felt this good since I was a plebe, bullet-proof and full of piss and apple-cider vinegar."

I caution myself that every time I consider the merits of the program and my awesome response to it, she seems to telepathically intuit the emotion and up the ante. Making it a wonderful exercise in humility; Stay positive and stay motivated - but stay humble. I recall my old friend Goethe saying something to the effect that it will get way harder before it gets any easier.  Or, 'It will kill you if you don't get stronger,' as we used to say in BUDS.

I will hand it to Julie and Harlan (and whomever the mysterious ghost writer is) on the depth and scope of the manifesto. It truly is a work of art. Mustang and I have evolved into a two part system in its memorization; comprehension and utilitarian jam. First, we spend one hour reading aloud, highlighting key passages and transposing to cursive. We then nap for fifty minutes. Finally we orate the passages committed to memory for an audience of one. The oratories are uninterrupted and non judgmental. Upon completion of this routine we then exchange notes on each others presentation, recall, ability to improvise, diction, impact and absorption. All that is part one.

Part two is the fun part. We get to find a way to take the meaning and add our own voice. The key here is to create such a familiarity with the subject matter that the potential for exploration exists, in musical terms, we jam. What this means to me is… How I respond to this is… What we typically do, and will experiment with alternative methods in the near future is…

We are in agreement that this was the intent of the exercise from the start. To explore new, previously ignored, dangerous or frightening, methods of combating what many intelligence professionals consider to be the most important social issue of our time: The alarming rise of domestic terrorism. Put in common vernacular Julie, Harlan (and the masked mercenary) have brilliantly asked us, without being condescending or belittling, to put on our thinking caps. It was an major epiphany when this fact dawned on us like the first light of a new day.

"Do you suppose that we will be the first ones to read between the lines and figure this out?" I ask as we sit to our 'supper' of raw carrots, celery sticks, cashews and strawberries.

"Hummm, my feeling is that maybe we might be the last."

I pause, stunned by the thought, but recover quickly and ask for the bottle of sparking water.

Pouring with attention I propose the toast: "To Goethe!"