Unexpected Development of Another Order

Tucson, Arizona. Last week I felt the violation of someone hacking into my computer and deleting an entire directory. Last night a new visitor employed other methods to hack directly into my head. I do not exaggerate. "The Linguist" posted remarks regarding my story about SAIAT, the training institute in Tucson. I am compelled, as with Liza's valuable feedback, to post it, but I do so less easily.

I have no idea who "the linguist" is. Anyone know this person? His remarks, word for word, regarding Something Else. Who is this guy?

I visited the x4mr blog and tome for the first time recently. The provocative material tantalizes and delights. I appreciate x4mr’s alliteration and grasp of semantics as evidenced by his listing The Tyranny of Words most prominently among favorite reads. Something Else warrants considerable reflection. I believe I can shed further light. X4mr tells the truth when he speaks of a rabbit hole.

Shall we proceed further down the hole?

My pondering supports Liza’s view on the year chapters, which serve as signals to x4mr’s deepest revelation: It is not about its content. If not, then it is about "something else." The paradox of the assertion points to the "else" the document addresses at deeper layers, a paradox noted superficially as "$45 is $45 except when it isn’t" in the blue chapter.

X4mr stratifies. For humor, he stratified stupidity and food. Long ago, less humorous, he stratified knowledge. In Something Else he stratifies reality. We have the grounded reality of the SAIAT organization, a "REAL training center where REAL workers are taught REAL skills for REAL jobs" contrasted with "the cloth," his reference to the ineffective economic development rhetoric on which the southern Arizona community has squandered public dollars for minimal results. We also have "certain folks with a certain perception" able to perceive a higher reality from which guardian angels can descend. A reality beyond normal perception surrounds us.

At the global scale, we have Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and others talking cloth, and in Tucson we have Snell, Smith, Mouch, and others talking cloth. The former have the surge. The latter have the blueprint. Both declare with conviction, "We are making progress."

They talk their talk and commit carnage. Tying to Iraq, x4mr states, "They hacked me to pieces like an animal in a slaughterhouse."

The Doctor has observed the longitudinal nature of publishing time-stamped content for purposes of later reference. Few can avoid the conclusion that x4mr is serious when he claims to have been trained in outside the box thinking. He possesses direct knowledge that transcends thought, a certain perception, distinctions regarding the formation of new mental models and levels of awareness (part of the knowledge stratification).

Returning to the year chapters, all feature the same question inside different contexts at different depths: "What else is there?" Ranking by depth, we have the 1968 context (where to turn?), the 1993 context (what is life as a word?), the 1981 context (what is life as a purpose?), and the ultimate question which concludes the work, the 1963 context, cutting us to the existential core.

As Liza noted, Something Else is profoundly personal. I go further and claim it is a deeply spiritual document written by someone with access to experiences beyond status quo. Near the end he meets with Judy, who "saw the marrow in my bones and the root of my soul," language expressing a connection many cannot imagine. No one has mentioned Judy, yet he stated it was the greatest conversation of his entire life. Also note his reference to being at a house with those "certain folks" of which Judy was one, toasting her as she left Tucson. Judy left Tucson physically, and x4mr left Tucson economic development. None of us grasp the skill set that left SAIAT the day he walked.

If you choose to believe him, these "folks" are real.

All said and done, Something Else is the tragedy of a well-meaning, gifted individual trying to help his community translate cloth into the reality of the front lines of economic development. In Chapter Fifteen he mentions the emerging field of "technicians" that translate to reality. X4mr worked as a workforce development technician. The cloth heads didn't understand.

The cementheads, like Dick Cheney, think they will be greeted as liberators. Against certain defeat, instead of resigning in December he assumes a guardian angel role himself to protect the health insurance of a pregnant receptionist. I interpret his May resignation as personal sacrifice in the desperate hope that his departure would allow his successor to obtain additional funding and save the organization.

The doctor and Liza advocate eliminating all material on Giffords. They correctly observe that the actual person is irrelevant, but apparently do not see the symbolic role Gabrielle plays in the story. Born with good fortune, wealth, and a "bright future" without the "blood under the bridge," she represents what x4mr desires but cannot have.

He craves her world, her attitude, her bright future, her optimism. He craves her in every way, but she and what she represents is beyond his grasp. Even if she were the ideal he envisions (which I doubt), x4mr could not be with Gabrielle Giffords even if he could. His battle scars (Chapter Twelve) would rob him of the confidence of keeping her. As others have said, the work improves if the Giffords volume is turned down, but not to zero.

I agree with Liza that the work is about the future, not the past. Its caliber precludes an interpretation of venting, attacking the antagonists, or self promotion.

I found "Guardian Angel" to be nothing less than breathtaking.

Moving forward, I agree with what has been said regarding strengthening the work. Tighten the ancillary, fortify the center, and put meat on the bones of key characters as Liza suggests.

In closing, I am left with thoughts of x4mr’s parents, who must find the document a bittersweet mix of pain and pride, seeing their gifted and well-meaning son try so hard and face such adversity. At least at SAIAT, the carnage occurred in dollars, words, and careers. When SAIAT closes, the cloth will blame x4mr to the extent necessary to protect its own interests.

Blood stains the pavement of the streets in Baghdad and the SAIAT parking lot. Reality is a bloody mess. The dogs are dead, the cloth and the war continue, and he didn’t get the girl.

The Linguist did not get everything, but he got a LOT, including some of the juicy stuff. I feel like I've been filleted. Who is this guy?

Something Else


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