The Rest of the Story....

This topic is very important to me on several levels. I teach Jazz performance. My coaching, indeed much of my professional career, is based on recognizing subconscious behavior (it limits ones openness to original performance). I also write lyrics for my compositions and poems. Anyone who has done this will tell you that this is language with extreme deliberation. You have no space to waste. And in a very surreal way this entire election is falling in the parameters of the subconscious signals conveying intent that I have to fight in students every day.

Right in front of me I see one candidate truly "getting it" and doing almost everything right in terms of clear and true intent. And right next to him I see a woman melting down into a mass of responses that have her communicating in a way that she may not understand, but is obvious to anyone who is listening. I do not say this to let her off the hook, merely to move the energy out of our hearts. It is not our energy. I’ve enjoyed the teachings of some very brilliant people along the way to enable me to make such a statement.

My first lessons toward recognizing sub-conscious language came from a dynamic woman, MaryAnn, who was not only a fabulous English teacher, but also an original member of the Black Panther Party. MaryAnn was quick to point out that back in the day this was about providing food for schoolchildren, and whatever my impressions of their work might be, she was pretty safe in assuming I wouldn’t be familiar with the more important facts. She was right. And while I met MaryAnn in my thirties, she is to this day the best educator I have ever met and a major factor in my writing poetry. MaryAnn had some very interesting ideas about how simple it was for well-meaning whites to not understand how they let racist language slip into their vocabulary. I was floored when I realized that I was a participant in what she was describing, but forever grateful for the lift in consciousness.

Her point was so clear. The way you restate something says a great deal about how much you subconsciously want to hear it said. The easiest way is to repeat something you have overheard that is controversial. If you look down deep you aren’t imparting knowledge or reflection by this habit, you are merely mentioning something you wouldn’t ever accredit to yourself, and yet you are getting away with making the statement. You are asserting something that you think did not come from you, but the desire to communicate it did. Many times I hear this couched in humor, which in the end is actually humorless. Or the use of the "N" word as something someone else said.

We have heard this continually from the Clinton campaign. Bill was only "quoting" primary statistics about Jesse Jackson. Hillary was only "quoting" the AP on her support among "hard working Americans, white Americans." Most recently, Hillary was referring to statistics from Junes of days gone by when making her most egregious comments to date. As I learned from MaryAnn, I will not even dignify the statement by repeating any of its particulars. I’d like every outraged person out there to consider the ramifications of continuing the energy. The fact that Hillary has made a habit out of similar statements tells us a great deal. While not wanting to take credit for anything negative, the subconscious desire to have it said overrides the minds ability to control the mouth. In Jazz we call that someone who won’t take the horn out of their mouth.

In sharp contrast, we have a brilliant orator who actually considers what he says in terms that can only be described as affirmations of intent. I do not mean this in the frou-frou, chi-chi, new-age way, although you can take it that way if you are so inclined. But more the conscious placement of words as having meaning, and being representative of who you are. Every once in a while I want to bop him upside the head when he says "change is going to be hard", because I know adding his intent to that will not make the path any easier.

There is, however, a greater truth to the language. Obama is telling us to look out for all of this. To carry the lighter expressions of consciousness anyway, that this is what will make the difference. He is telling us that he has no naiveté where the limited expectations of the world are concerned, because he has come this far existing within the same limitations we have experienced - people not believing.

For those who do not love language, or for those who are so pummeled with lies that they no longer see clarity, hearing the truth just seems like a pipe dream. It is a sing-songy chorus that has no substance. Ironically what people want to call an "empty suit" is a candidate who will not pander with convenient promises that he knows can’t be kept. What is mistaken for stuttering, or being slow to respond when off-teleprompter, is actually someone thinking through what they are about to say. Not because they don’t know what to say, but because in all of the ways they could describe a particular situation, they wish to pick the words that are the most accurate, and will not leave anyone with a mistaken impression. Obama knows that how he says something is as important as what is said. It is the basis for diplomacy. It is an extremely disciplined and mature way of communicating.

Here we are in the ultimate contrast, a man who speaks with the intention of changing perceptions, and a woman who can only function in a world that perceives things as defined by her own subconscious. I don’t know if we will ever get a straight answer from her at this point, or if that is even possible. The tangled web that has been woven has obviously taken over reality. You can’t lie about the parameters of an election to everyone for this long and not start to believe it yourself, especially when you are receiving daily confirmation from millions of people holding you on the pedestal of their expectations. It is a pretty basic behavior/reward response. And in another sharp contrast, while we see Hillary in denial about these issues, we see Obama doing his level best not to get sucked in. This idea of "old vs. new" is not about age. It is about how far you are willing to go to be who you say you are. So far, each person is telling us more than we need to know.

Refreshing. I've got to work harder on keeping that negative energy out of my sails. I've always moved smarter and faster without it.

This is beautifully expressed. Your love of both music and language results in a wonderfully insightful perspective.

You're so right! Obama is inspiring!

"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe. These people are a part of me."

"The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity, but that she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know (pause) there's a reaction in her that doesn't go away and it comes out in the wrong way."