Echo

good is the enemy of great
self-doubt is the seed of mediocrity
fear is a terrible excuse.

going back to cali!

dude, this is small stuff. you’re letting it worm into you. let people be wrong, or think whatever they want to think, or do whatever they want to do. your realm only extends as far as you and your own reactions. drop it. if you want to shoot every time you touch the ball, do it if it feels right. but you’re not going to sit here and look over your shoulder wondering what other people are up to. not when you have work to do on things that are more important and have more potential towards your own life. this is about letting go. the lesson has been about letting go for a month now. if people believe they’re right, let them. even if you think they’re wrong, let them. everyone is as much entitled to their wrong opinion as their right one. if people misunderstand you, let them. if people don’t like you, let them. if people want to compete with you, let them. not important. work only on the things and people that matter between where you are now and where you’re trying to go.

everything else is distraction.

i know what it is. treating me like i’m an idiot as a way of making me believe i’m not “as smart.” usually it happens when people are actually threatened. i’m irritated for a few reasons, but one of them is two conversations with the same person.

1. she asked me to keep the scoreboard score and i didn’t know how because i’ve never used the master box, and i don’t think she did either. i suspected that’s why she asked me to do it. the score was home 6, visitors 7. our team scores another basket. she says, “just add two points.” so i asked her, “are we home or visitors?” she says, “does it matter?” like i’m asking a really ridiculous question. and for a second i was confused because…it does matter. that information tells me which side to add the 2 points to, and which side to add subsequent points to. i had no idea where she was coming from.

2. we called a 3 down 2 up defense. that means 1-guard and 2-guard play up, the 3 and 4 and 5 play low. same girl usually plays low as the 3 and I play the 2. so when we called the defense she went to the 2-guard position, which is usually mine. i asked if she was going to play the 2 or 3 (shooting guard or small forward because it determines where your physical position is in the defense). and AGAIN, she says, “does it matter?” and it confused the hell out of me because which position you’re playing determines where you are in the defense, your actual physical location and role on the defensive (and offensive) end.

i think she’s fucking with me.

the other night, i had this guy try to tell me that i looked familiar, and i knew he was just spitting (idiotic) game. so i just looked at him like i wasn’t having it. then he tries to convince me that he knows me because “we dated last year.” like he actually thought he could plant enough doubt in my head that i might believe him.

it’s a power game. to see if you can get into someone’s head by planting something untrue. because if you can, this person is not sure of themselves and can be manipulated. it’s unethical and shows your own weakness if you’re resorting to it.

see, my mom is a good person to bounce this off of for clarity, to ask her for objective eyes because she’s the queen of interpersonal strategy. she makes sure she’s clear of any potential motive in a given situation. and i have trouble with clarity when it comes with the subtlety of power struggles with women. but my mom is the root of my issues with power struggles with women, in that when i was young, she established a baseline of normalcy that allowed for her to manipulate me if she needed, so while my instincts pick up on it and something ambiguous will bother me on an instinctive level, i have trouble seeing it/unraveling it as i would something with which i have more distance. my goal is to lead if i’m suited, allow others to lead if they are better suited, but never to dominate for the sake of dominating. i’m actually a good team player as i tend to put anything greater that i’m a part of first and i take care of my teammates, especially ones younger or weaker than me, but i also compete with myself to be the best i can be. but i seem to have trouble with women on my own team trying to dominate me or sabotage me.

i know i bring it up a lot, but it’s to remind me of an area of my blindness. when i was the captain of my high school basketball team, i took that seriously. loyalty and protectiveness are core facets of my personality. one of the girls on my team got in a fight with a girl on another team after a game, and i went to break it up and took a hard backhand for her. and i didn’t care because it’s part of standing by someone who’s on your team. but then a few months later, she knew that all i cared about was playing for the varsity softball team and while i had a good chance of making it, she probably wouldn’t…so she told everyone on the varsity team that during the basketball season, i’d been bragging about how i was the best player to ever come out of the school. yes, the problem was that i was very good and knew it. but she did blow it out of proportion and her goal was to cause a negative reaction towards me, and sure enough, i was physically confronted by the team, then banned from the team by the coach because, as he told my dad, “she doesn’t seem to get along with the other girls.” in hindsight, i see that girl clearly–her jealousy, her malevolence…she hated the way she felt about herself around me so she tried to make me believe a version of myself and reality that wasn’t true. and up until then, i never thought anything negative of her, and in fact, had been loyal to her because she was my teammate. i got hit from my blindside.

these days, i can’t always tell what it is exactly, but i get a feeling when something’s not right, when a reality someone’s presenting doesn’t jive. a lot of times, i defer, like i’ve been deferring to this “does it matter?’ girl. and then i realize, i’m losing my own ground. i’m allowing someone to shake my foundation, making me question myself.

yes, it does matter which team is guest or visitor when you’re running a scoreboard that’s already in play. yes, it matters what position you’re playing when you’re running an organized defense. i’m not an unintelligent person. but for someone to try to make me feel that way, especially when we’re supposed to be on the same side…makes me very suspicious of their character.

i’m letting the little things get to me. i think i’m being asked to learn how to deal with women, how to work with them, how to deal with the competition that arises, and what to do when they are passive aggressive. it’s always the queen bees or the wannabe queen bees that i have conflict with, even though it’s weird because i tend to defer unless they get too ridiculous. but i think they take that as a sign of weakness, because if they get increasingly bolder, rather than go head-to-head, i usually leave. but i think that leaving shouldn’t always be the answer, even if i believe that closing one door opens another so i don’t cling to things like they’re the last good thing to ever happen to me. but i think sometimes, it’s about establishing dominion, that i don’t necessarily care to dominate others, but while my intentions are usually to put a team first, i can’t let other people establishing domination for the sake of dominating push me away from my own dominion, where my strengths lay.

i’m probably irritated tonight because i think someone’s been playing a sneaky passive-aggressive game, and while i’m aware of them, i can’t really do anything about them because it’s hard for me to believe anyone would mess with me to mess with me even if the evidence is there, and it’s harder to put a name to it when it’s hidden under a smile and the context of comraderie. but my instincts are good. someone’s messing with me. and half of the problem is i’m letting them.

you know, i could never play under an organized system. it engages the thinking part of my brain when my instinctive part is the strongest. i always needed a lot of a freedom to be my best. and it was usually systems that trusted me that were rewarded. i can’t get discouraged. just know that this is not my best scenario to succeed, make the most of it, have fun, but don’t take it personally.

here’s what i’m going through now. i’ve definitely been feeling a little down and like my psychic antennae has been broken off and replaced with a carrot. i’ve been approaching it as hard work that needs to be done in my emotional life.

Saturn conjunction Moon: Self-criticism

Beginning of November 2009 until mid August 2010: During this time you will need to engage in deep introspection, self-examination and self-criticism. Quite possibly you will feel lonely and depressed. The way in which you handle this influence will have important consequences later for your physical and psychological well-being.

This is a good time for self-searching, so long as you are not judgmental. It doesn’t matter whether you are good or bad according to your ideals. The real question is what you are. This influence can help you find out. If you proceed from this point of view, it can be a very constructive time, even though it may be experienced as painful.

During this time you may withdraw from others, have difficulty in relationships – especially with women – experience depression and feel quite inferior to life’s demands. The best way to deal with this is not to take it all so seriously. Your perspective is warped, so that small matters seem too important. Do not make final decisions about your emotional life now. Wait until you can see more clearly what you have learned from this time.

If you have recently broken off a relationship it may be best to leave it that way. Do not make a real effort to put it back together until this time is over.

okay. here’s the plan.

my dad is on vacation in china.

his seats are right behind the warriors bench, so when he’s not there, i get his seat. he’s always on tv. a good staging point for a voice.

when we had that miraculous play-off run, that was fueled by the fans. we willed that into reality on the shoulders of baron davis and stephen jackson who became men amongst boys because of that faith. and fittingly, the movement was powered by two words– WE BELIEVE.

we even had t-shirts made, and the entire stadium was a sea of yellow with the words, WE BELIEVE.

our opponents were disconcerted. the w’s pull out an unprecedented defeat of a number one seed.

management has since gone back to its destructive proclivities, destroying the very heroes who carried us on our shoulders. they just shipped out stephen jackson to the junkyard of the league with a media dishonorable discharge. we do not treat our heroes this way.

i’ve got a new t-shirt. i’m thinking about gifting it to our whole section. stirring the seeds of revolution.