Yearly Archives: 2009

General

7th Best? Come on. Equal Justice? Crisis Leadership?

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Just days after the nation honored the 200th anniversary of his birth, 65 historians ranked Abraham Lincoln as the nation’s best president.

Former President George W. Bush, who left office last month, was ranked 36th out of the 42 men who had been chief executive by the end of 2008, according to a survey conducted by the cable channel C-SPAN.

Bush scored lowest in international relations, where he was ranked 41st, and in economic management, where he was ranked 40th. His highest ranking, 24th, was in the category of pursuing equal justice for all. He was ranked 25th in crisis leadership and vision and agenda setting.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090215/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ranking_presidents

Aging, Weather +Climate

Cabin Fever and Feeling Old

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Imbolc      Waning Wild Moon

I know this will continue a down refrain from the last couple of weeks, but I want to talk about it anyhow.

One of the more problematic parts of getting older lies in the corrosive nature of normal problems.  That is, today and this last week I have felt slightly sick, unwell but not moving outright into a cold or the flu.  This may be, probably is, a hangover from the vertigo of two Mondays ago, but I find it hard not to ascribe it to generally decreased vigor.

When I went to the  capitol on Tuesday, I was there from noon until 4:00 pm or so.  By the time I got home I felt completely worn out.  Yesterday at the continuing education at the Art Institute the thought of waiting from 4 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. to do a walk through of the Asmat exhibit found me on the way home.

A certain shuffle in the walk necessarily accompanies vertigo, since rapid movements often tripped the spinning/nausea cycle.  That shuffle, the tenderness and care with which I held my body, made feel only months away from assisted living.

As I write this, a more plausible explanation than age occurs to me.  Writing has a consitent therapeutic value, something I appreciate about it.  I’ve been inside and hunkered down since late December, only venturing out for Sierra Club, Art Institute, Woolly Mammoth or sheepshead events.

The cabin fever that can strike us  Minnesotans during this time has been noticeably absent from me this year.  I thought I’d beat it with interesting and varied activities.  Nope.  This tunnel vision, feeling like life has no breadth, comes from the inside life.  It also creates the old guy feeling of a life with no pizzazz and no energy, then reinforces it with whatever examples the environment offers:  vertigo, feeling a bit off.

There.  Now I have to get ready to go the Institute.

Art and Culture, Great Work, Politics

I Can Get Satisfaction

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Imbolc   Waning Wild Moon

I don’t yet feel a time crunch in my life, but I have sensed the increasing speed with which events zoom onto my radar.  I may have to alter my daily schedule, for example, I have worked out around 4 pm for several years now, but shifts in other events now make that difficult.  Workouts may have to move back to the mornings, where they were for many years.

The Sierra Club political work satisfies a deep need I have for agency in the political process.  Long, long ago I integrated “if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” into my Self.  I’ve tried to decide against it from time to time, but that has always proved futile.  Resistance is futile.

The Docent work satisfies another deep need, this one for constant contact with art and opportunities to learn and think about it.  The two year training program allowed me to put down medium roots in global art history; now I spend time pushing those roots deeper into the soil of the world’s artistic heritage and spreading them out across continents and movements.

So, change.  The only constant.  Again.

Aging, Politics

Working Myself Out Of A Glum Mood

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Imbolc   Waning Wild Moon

It’s cold again.  8 degrees with 3 for a windchill.  I’m always glad when the weather gets in synch with season, at least the seasons as I knew them.

I had drifted away from working out over the last ten days, too afraid I’d fall over on the treadmill or bonk myself with free weights.  Whenever that happens, I can get glum, down.  I did, but after a workout on the treadmill this afternoon my mood lightened.  Partly because I did not fall off.

The legislative committee for the Sierra Club meets via conference call every Wednesday night at 7pm.  I’ve chaired two meetings now since Dan, the chair, is also a lobbyist for Clean Water Action.  Some of our bills have begun to pop and the politics look complicated already.  Gonna be a good spring.

Aging, Politics, Weather +Climate

When The Bell Tolls, It Tolls For Tor and Celt and Morgana…

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Imbolc   Waning Wild Moon

Our Arcosanti bell has rung and rung today.  A north wind has blown in at speeds up to 24 mph.

Kate bought this bell quite a while ago on a trip to see her father.  When she brought it back, we had just experienced two Wolfhound deaths, I believe it was Celt and Scot.  I suggested we hang it and let it be a memorial bell for all of our dogs.  And so we did.

My day at the capitol yesterday wore me out.  I remember when I would go to the capitol and be there all day, sometimes until late in the night.  Geez.  It’s a long drive in to St. Paul, so I’m going to limit myself to one trip in a week for right now.  As the weather warms and the session gets more action oriented, I may go in more.

It’s important to be there from time to time, to take the pulse of the place myself for the Sierra Club blog.

General

Mystical Democracy

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Imbolc    Waning Wild Moon

Legislative Reference Library

Ate at the capitol cafeteria today for the first time in probably 15 years.  Met with Justin and Dan.  They both have the lobbying persona, happy positive upbeat.  Make only friends.  No enemies.  Why I’m not a lobbyist.

Walking up the capitol steps today I had a physical sense of the collective power of Minnesota citizens.  It inhabits this building, especially during session.  We come, from whatever role or status, to seek the benefit of this power.  This was the first time I recall feeling this presence in such a palpable way.

Democracy has its mystical side and on my way up the white granite steps it pressed inward, right to my heart. I do reverence here because  even wounded as it is by class democracy comes closest to the vox populi.

Here in the library the maroon covered tables have five filled seats.  Only one man, a strange little bald guy in a tweed jacket and hair dyed an odd reddish color consults a book.  The rest of us, in this literary chapel, stare at computer screens.  The new reality.

Aging, GeekWorld, Politics

Liverish Lips, Gray Hair, Needs Naps, Vertiginous OMG!

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Imbolc      Waning Wild Moon

The stomach has begun to return to normal.  Vertigo much less.

Got some pictures back from the retreat and noticed that my lips have taken on that old man’s coloring, a sort of liverish brownish red.  Goes great with the gray hair.

Off to the capitol for a noon lunch with the Sierra Club lobbyist and the chair of the Legislative Committee.  We’ll discuss my role as the guy in charge of legislative communications.  I also plan to sit in on a committee hearing at 3pm if my need for a nap doesn’t over power me.  (Let’s see.  Liverish lips, gray hair, needs naps, vertiginous. OMG!)

Gonna take my new netbook with me and join the crowds of under 40’s I see with their laptops everywhere.  When I went to the Jasmine last night for the Woolly meeting, the evening dinner crowd had gathered in the booths at the Bad Waitress.  5 booths along the window out of six had couples with food and a laptop each.  Most had their laptops on and were busy doing something.

It reminded me of the Arlo and Janis cartoon a couple of weeks ago.  Arlo and Janis both have cellphones to their ears and their land line rings.  Arlo says, “This is ridiculous.”  Yep.

Aging, Friends, Woolly Mammoths

A Locked Car Mystery

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Imbolc    Waning Wild Moon

The Woolly’s met tonight at the Jasmine across from the Black Forest.  Food is noveau Vietnamese, French accents.  I had spring rolls and mangoes on sticky rice.  Just right.

Got to give everyone a head’s up on labyrinthitis.  Tom has a friend who visited him yesterday and may be dead from multiple myeloma in two months.  Whoa.  Paul and Sarah have purged their home, shined up and have neared the day of the first open house.  Changes.

Stefan locked the keys in his car while x-skiing at Hyland Park.  He asked a cop if he could help.  The cop said sure and gave Stefan a ride down.  When he got out to work on Stefan’s car, he inadvertently locked his keys inside as well as Stefan who was in the back seat.  In a police car.  A locksmith had to be called for both cars.

The trip in is always worth it, a chance to connect and renew the connection.  Got several happy birthdays.  Guys just don’t remember birthdays well.

Art and Culture, Weather +Climate, Writing

Life-Long Learning

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7oaks250Imbolc    Waning Wild Moon

My weatherblog has been up for almost a month now at the Star-Tribune Weatherwatchers site.  The weather has not been interesting.  It has been either really cold or not so cold.  Little snow.  No storms.  Some days gloomy, some days not.  It taxes me metaphorically to comment.  I never appreciated how difficult attending to relatively stable conditions could be.  It makes the whole concept of news make a lot more sense.

I began yesterday a protracted period of study.  I need to get up to speed on the Sierra Club’s issues for the blog.  I have a special tour for Annie to put together, a piece on textiles and crafts.  In order to learn more about the weather I’ve decided to devote the next two or three weeks to cloud research since the type of cloud helps make the blog more weather savvy.

After my wondrous sheepshead night last week, I’ve also decided to read my two sheepshead books and see if I can pick up some tips for my play.  A big one:  14 trump, not 13.

On March 15th I have a presentation I’ve titled American Identity in the Time of Obama.  Work to do on that one, too.