I am the Master! Sho-nuff!

What is mastery? According to Landmark Education it is this: When I truly know something, I can use it; when I have mastered something, I am used by it (my emphasis). I, am currently obtaining my Master's degree from the University of Texas, LBJ School of Public Affairs. A mouthful to be sure. I have noticed the previous to be true while in pursuit of my degree.

Sometime about a year ago, I thought, 'I don't know how much I'm learning, I hardly remember anything I was taught.' I.e. I thought mastery was contained in lessons learned. A short while later, I was at a hair salon, reading a magazine about...?...but there was an article about some environmental "deficiency" in some National Park. Shows how much I remember.

What I really remember thinking is this..."What policy implications does this turn of events have..?" I knew, then and there, what my education had wrought. Mastery...in that I can no longer read anything, whether an article in National Geographic (rife with policy implications), or Wired, or some fluff article in some fluff magazine in a hair salon, without thinking from the perspective of a policy analyst. It uses me. My education makes me think beyond the boundaries of mere information to "what can we do about it?" "How can we make a difference?" Because, whatever you think about government and bureaucracy, it is populated with people that want to make a difference. Otherwise, why would such intelligent people accept such low pay?...Think about it...

Presently, I am writing my Master's Professional Report (meaning, I don't need to do anything original). I will post as much of it to my blog as I care to remember, and it won't be in chronological order. Eventually, the full report, in order and neatified will be posted, maybe. I am no longer willing to beat myself up for things I do in the "real" world. If I don't ever post another article, I don't ever post another article. Montrez moi, le monde vrai.

Perhaps this is my manifesto, to be found by generations future and to be analyzed and criticized by the press of the time, to be "found out" by those who want to besmirch me, by those who want to increase their power by "decreasing" mine. To those I say that my power is infinite. Simple math tells us that to subtract any number from infinity only results in infinity, because the inifinte is not static but is a current, flowing at all times, in all places, in all situations. To thee I bequest this knowledge, that any man or woman shall rise up and take the reigns of destiny in their own hands. And it all depends on CHOICE. You choose to take the actions that define your life. You choose to be strong or weak, right or wrong, good or evil. YOU CHOOSE these things for your life. To think otherwise, to think that others have power over your choice is to give your power away.

And so it is that I have mastery. I have found something that uses me and I plan to use it. The how, when, and where of it, I don't know. But in the coming years, and in the here-and-now, I know, in the bottom of my heart, that I am used by something and it will use me until I surrender and give my life to it. Only then will I come to know what true mastery is, and only then will I know who I am.