Hang in There

165.

Managing multiple protocols is the term. It is not unlike the modern, hands-on CEO who insists on a supervisory role in every department, from research and development to final-mile fulfillment. Operation Firecracker meets this definition to the proverbial T. We are the cat hanging onto the bamboo pole determined to endure. 

If any one of the four separate but connected parts fail, or is forced to traverse too far off the initial path, the whole plan dies a painful and ignoble death. It is my job to manage this colossal, chaotic and potentially catastrophic real-time operation. The wheels spin, the players play, the dogs bark and the operation moves intrepidly along. 

On every front line there is the possibility of error. Human error being the most common. As we have seen on innumerable occasions, the progeny of fatigue is the problem child. Overwhelmed and undernourished, the emotional and physical toll a 24/7 watch takes on a length of chain eventually reveals its weakest link. Mistakes are a thousandfold more likely when fatigue is stacked atop fatigue. 

We practice this. Endurance cardio training is one way to adapt the body’s reaction to dealing with extreme stress, as meditation is to the emotional and cerebral. We have found that the key is to develop the ability to remain centered in the present moment. No matter the situation, no matter how far the goal line truly is, keeping present one yard at a time is the solution. There must be flow, we breathe, we relax and we call upon our innate understanding that we will survive. Because this is the good fight, we are on the side of truth, beauty, justice and higher consciousness. We have a clear mission and a reason for this challenge and suffering. We endure, we resist, and we are willing to make sacrifice within this most noble of life callings. This mantra must be a truth at the cellular level. We must believe. There must be hope. If we can sustain this dynamic flow, even as there is flow in the most demanding, uncomfortable and challenging situations, we push the agenda closer and closer to its intended conclusion. 

Today we have confrontation and disaster potential on two of the four fronts. 

The warden is one phone call away from blowing the whistle on the phony drone test and Davis and Saunders are about to meet with Adleman in Vegas to present the ‘business opportunity of a lifetime’ proposal. Both are vital parts of the operation as an engine and transmission are to an automobile, lose one and you aren’t going anywhere. Still our practice says tells us that 'If the horse don't pull you got to carry the load.' And we improvise, keep moving, do what it takes. 

There are several options, any one of which present other counter-options, playing out in real time. It is the classic ‘If so-and-so does such-and-such’, we respond as best our experience and training dictates. When these situations pop up on multiple timelines, the responses from the field operatives make or break the overall strategy. Make it and we live to fight another day, break it and we are done. Done being a metaphor for dead. 

I hear my inner coach voice the common motivational adage I in turn so often use with my team:

“Hang in there.”