Today’s word: Zugzwang.

Image from theotherthomasotter.wordpress.com

(A brilliant poster named bemildred put this up on Democratic Underground this morning. The words are his: I just tweaked them a bit for context.)

In chess if you have no good options and still must move, it’s called Zugzwang.

And it means you lose. And losing always looks “weak.”

Sometimes doing nothing is the best thing you can do. It’s like waiting a bit. In my experience, in fact, most of the time it’s not time yet; there are no useful things you can do yet. So you wait.

Not everything can be fixed. And of those things which can be fixed, often it’s still the case that you can’t fix them.

A person who tries to threaten you or anger you or disgust you to get you to do something when you don’t want to is a salesman, a merchant. He is not your friend. The very fact that this person who does not know you from Adam is so vehement to get you to do something, and is willing to jerk your chain emotionally to get at you, tells you to ignore what he says. He has an agenda, and it’s not your well-being and autonomy.