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Fast.

Man is fast.  A short man, a fat man, a bald guy, middle class, employee, entrepreneur, impatient, divorced, shy, bad breathed, fashionable, funny.  They are all men.  They are all fast.

How fast?  Reflex fast.   Faster than doubt fast.

What kind of fast? Sleight of hand fast.  Love fast. At the speed of love = responding from the blood and bones of your life.

Instant yet not ignorant.  Spontaneous but not fickle.

Like a leopard is dangerously fast in the jungle a fast man is emotionally capable.  Capable to receive, interpret and respond with sensitivity.   Sensitivity powered by the decisions he has made.  Sensitivity aligned to an external purpose.   The purpose can be a marriage or job or community project or his religious life. 

The fast man can take some time to get up to fast speed.   He has decisions to make, experiences to process, mistakes to recuperate from, self belief to re-encounter, success to follow up on, a man cave to manicure, love to share,  sensitivities to develop, a purpose to adhere to, personal religion to nurture.

A Fast Man is not in a hurry even though there may be a ton of things to do.  A Fast mind is not stressed but can definitely feel the pressure.  In Fast mode a man has perception because the task becomes the focus. 

A Fast mind is in the zone and has a sensitivity to the details and timings of the moment.   Those details include respect for people and the planet.  Timings can be in the project, in the moment or stage of life. In contrast, highlighting how you feel about how you feel turns a fast mind into a foggy mind.  The ego is quick to grab attention and energy but it has no friends. No partnerships. Fast is in association with Slow to generate some flow that supports growth.

 The book Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi provides very useful context and research that describes this mental space and what can happen when we embrace it.

Everyone, man or woman, anchored in their ego, is fast to judge.  Judging someone else’s response to the moment.  What do we know of that other person or the moment? Whether judging or being judged, neither has anything to do with the nature of a man.  Judgment has to do with the Ego.  Not the best part of the Ego.  What happens when a man responds according to his nature and is not restrained by his Ego?  A man not limited by judgement  is a man fast to offer his service.  Because it makes him feel valued as a man to be of service to others.  Despite his vulnerability.  His vulnerability is powered by how he feels as a man.  Whether he knows it or not. His vulnerability is accentuated when he cannot be a fast man when that is what is required.  That pains a man greatly.  To the point of boiling over into violent.  At the expense of self respect and dignity for his wife.  

Likewise, without a doubt if the sincere nature of a man is not appreciated, especially by those close to him, then his sense of service will come from his own need for self-respect. Meaning he will uphold what is right like the clean vigour of a man or the cleanliness of a job well done.

Problems start; and don’t stop when the fast nature of a man gets interrupted by misunderstandings, unclear relationships, money/work/stress, heavy traffic on the drive home, bad habits, fear, lack of confidence, lack of self belief.  That is his challenge.  To be clutch in the moment. Or even be the clutch that allows himself to change gears between fast, slow and visionary. To self elevate above his hesitation because he thinks he doesn’t know what to do. To find a way to keep going.   Without damage.  A stealth Satisfaction.

If he doesn’t have the ability to generate from within himself the sense of being a man when his feeling of accomplishment is delayed by life problems, then he bangs up against his limit.  His limit of patience, of conversation, of listening, of acceptance, of transcendence. What happens when he is face to face with his limit:  Frustration;  Yelling; Quit; Blame; Solutions; Creativity; Reflection;   Insults;  Violence? 

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The fast man is he who is connected to his instinct.  Perhaps he has maintained this connection since birth.  Or by adherence to it at great personal social cost.  Or some combination of both.

The instinct is fast.  Beyond my fast and your fast.  Human fast.  Naturally fast.  Planetary fast.  Forest fast.  It is known that trees communicate with each other through their roots using a fungus called mycelium.  As soon as the first tree in the forest senses someone entering the territory the last tree knows it. Even if the last tree is 20 km away. That fast.  Our communion with the instinct is facilitated by belief.  Belief in a man. 

Be that man – fast in the moment – or striving to be so.