Looking for Zorro

 Last night on election night the country took a dark turn. The choice of Donald J Trump as President signals a major step backwards for the United States. The one thing you cannot fight is ignorance. You can only educate or enlighten it. What is ignorance? It is resistance. Resistance to a woman as leader, compounded by the fact that she is a woman of color. Resistance is reactionary. What is inflation? Trump's tax breaks for the ultra rich have created price gouging. Ie the price of food, gas, rent. We are reacting to his policies and blaming the present administration.

I bring in the Zorro analogy. Under the reign of the evil alcalde or commandante, who faces the real crippling taxes? The peons are bled. Those in power need the rancheros for continued income, so they bleed the poor. Taxed slmost out of existence. Although in our society the uber rich get richer. The rest of us suffer.

I've recently found myself watching and re-watching The Mark of Zorro(1940 Tyrone Power). As Don Diego he blends with the rich, unjust, and powerful. He finds their weaknesses and strikes as Zorro. But Zorro is a champion of the people. He uses his wits and cleverness against a force whose magnitude he could not singly oppose. In the movie he is a master of sleight of hand magic. And just as deftly he shifts from Don Diego to Zorro and visa versa.  The next 4 years are going to be very harsh , with democracy and our position as leaders of the free world in question. We must move as deftly and bravely personally as Don Diego/Zorro simply to survive.

For myself I remember feeling really strange just before the 2016 election. This time I felt real positive. A part of me still does. Instead of a negative psychic premonition causing worry and fear, I felt open  and even optimistic. What I realised was I WAS BETTER. Coming from a stronger place. More confident about myself and my life's purpose.  And so I'm looking at this coming period as a time when I can up my game. I was told that a month before he passed,Osensei said,"Now I'm really going to do it!" I feel the same way. Let's continue to train, grow, transform, and use the next 4 years to hit levels of being we haven't heretofore even dreamed of.

Osensei said, "Economics is the basis of society.": When the ultra rich are able to rise to power they bleed those under, and we have what we have now..  And Osensei also said "Aikido is true democracy".

I believe what he means is that the power comes from and through the people. Political systems tend to be top down. Power through and from the people is bottom up. The spirit of Zorro can and must come from us. It must bring out first intelligence, then discrimination. The economics of the recent past have created a reaction to high prices and rents and for people to live in a rigid judgment.. Can you believe the people choosing the evil Commandante instead of Zorro? But that is what has happened.

In sports there is a saying that it takes steel to sharpen steel. By choosing to grow and transform, you choose spirit. That spirit will continue to sharpen itself again and again and again until their is a brilliant tranformation. Let us go forward and tranin together. Onegai shimasu!!