Let's Be Sure, Shall We?

I'm confident attentive readers have noticed the six mid-January forays I've made into constitutional law, etc. Yeah, right. For the inattentive among you - no doubt interested in my savvy and prescience in matters constitutional - attached below is my first proposal, published in 2014. FYI, this is currently under consideration by Congressional committee. A simple search of my blog archive - using the word constitution or amendment - will quickly uncover my other brilliant proposals. Yeah, right (redux).

Reflections From The Bell Curve: XXVIII

In the meanwhile, given the circus that is about to unfold in this Presidential election year, it seems fitting to suggest some long-overlooked but obvious requirements for any presidential candidate. 

* An IQ test. At minimum, I'd feel much more confident if viable candidates were all empirically smarter than me, i.e., let's ensure we elect someone who resides at least above the middle of the bell curve, IQ-wise.

* A comprehensive test administered to all candidates regarding the contents of the U.S. Constitution. OK, my two amendments and the other stuff can be left out, if you insist. But seriously, isn't it time to ensure our Chief Executive actually knows the fundamental concepts upon which our nation was founded?

* Screening for Alzheimer's and other old-age, dementia-related ailments.

Reflections From The Bell Curve: Preserving The Republic (couldn't resist providing you with another link - it's connected both to my mid-January constitutional mojo and the last bullet above, I promise) 

I'll resist getting snarky by suggesting candidates have no pending criminal indictments. But please don't let my polite reticence stop you from adding to my short list. Isn't it about time we took some prudent precautions before we elect the person who has a finger on that button none of us want to think about too much? 

Bring On the Team

I genuinely appreciate and enjoy the before-song riffs Steve Van Zandt uses when introducing some of the music featured on the satellite radio station bearing his name. In particular, I like the serpentine fashion in which he strings together some of the wildly disparate elements contained in those riffs. I know a few listeners who think Steve overdoes it from time-to-time. Not me; I'm with him all the way, frequently laughing out loud.

At the same time, it's difficult for me not to be a little jealous of the research team I suspect is behind at least some of that seemingly effortless riffing. This mild jealousy visited me most noticeably while doing my own research for a recently developed music course I entitled Journey Through the Past: History Via Song. It felt like every rabbit hole I'd begin to innocently explore - connecting a song to a piece of or person from history - had no end. In particular, the three songs I picked as "epics" for the course (as one example, Al Stewart's Road to Moscow) made me yearn for my own team.

And that started me fantasizing about how cool it would be if each of us could have a research team at our ready disposal. If not as regularly as Steve Van Zandt, how about if we could have that luxury for one week a year? What week would you pick? I'd take the last week of the year. That way I'd have all year to advertise myself as a New Year's Eve party-starter, then use that last week to have my team ply me with material, enough to get the dullest party popping. How much do you think I could charge for my endlessly sparkling repartee? Hell, I'd offer a money-back guarantee. 

OK, maybe you don't want to monetize yourself like me. How about this instead? With that research team feeding you bon mots, puns, historical tidbits, and the like, imagine how well you could dazzle a potential romantic partner one week every year, predictably. Come on, tell me that's not enticing. 

Gotta Love Those Collections

Walking by any collection of "free" books is difficult for me. Doesn't matter much where I am, who I'm with, how much time I've got; almost without exception, I've got to have a look. To anyone sharing my inability to bypass these collections: What treasure did you most recently uncover in this way?

Andrew's Brain is an intriguing, inventive, thoroughly modern novel. Though unsure how this 2016 gem by E.L. Doctorow escaped my attention, I suppose that's reason enough to be grateful for my compulsive need to peruse these ragtag collections. After all, I've been enthralled with Doctorow since finishing Ragtime upon its 1975 release and this late title in his oeuvre is yet another example of his massive ambition as an author. Over a long career, Doctorow tackled a dizzying array of subjects, always with an eye toward the possibilities of the novel as an art form. In this experiment, he tells the story by using a dialogue involving Andrew - a man beset by unspeakable tragedy - and an unnamed interlocutor who may be Andrew's psychiatrist or his jailer or both. 

Andrew's Brain is an early 21st journey - including 9/11 and the subsequent and futile search for those weapons of mass destruction - meticulously constructed marvel by a modern-day master. Many of my favorite authors have disappointed me at least once; not Doctorow.

Endlessly Re-Training the Brain

The brain is an exquisite pattern-making machine. And the more I learn about creative pioneers, the better I understand how important it is to challenge those reflexive patterns regularly.

While roaming through Taliesin West, listening to an audio narration describing architect Frank Lloyd Wright's creative process, I was simultaneously inspired and disheartened. The inspiration compelled me to take notes in the hope that small pieces of Wright's process might find a way into my own.  

The disheartening came as I reflected on how easily the brain can box us into reflexive thinking. For example, when you envision a swimming pool, what shape does your mind's eye see? Because most of us see a rectangle does not mean we are not innately creative. My years of studying creativity has taught me that our brains, having seen many rectangular swimming pools, will reflexively re-create a rectangle. If we want to harness our creativity more completely, we must intentionally force ourselves to see different shapes, hear different sounds, use different textures, i.e., break patterns. 

Wright envisioned a triangular swimming pool. This happened in part because while looking at the spot he'd selected for the pool, he let his eyes take in the background. Consequently, his design for the pool mirrored the triangular shape of the Arizona mountainside behind the spot he'd selected. This is an elegant example of someone challenging the exquisite pattern-making machine that is the brain, a machine that reflexively warns when a saber-toothed tiger is nearby at the same time that it boxes in the innate creativity residing in us. 

Sit in a different place each time you're in church. Park in a new spot on each visit to the gym, favorite coffee shop, friend's home. Put your pants on left leg first instead of right for two days or weeks or months, and then return to right leg first. Notice how breaking any mindless pattern makes you feel. After trying that, move next to breaking patterns as you paint, take photographs, write songs. Then after trying that, return here and tell me and others how doing so opened a creative door for you.

Stop - Start - Continue: 2024

What is one thing you plan to stop doing as the new year begins? One thing you plan to start doing? Something you'll continue doing?

Each New Year's Day since 2012, I've asked you to join me in this exercise. And it's been gratifying to hear from more than a few of you that the stop - start - continue model has been helpful. In my experience, doing this instead of making a single new year's resolution increases the likelihood of sustainable success. In particular, the continue piece is affirming because - as each new year begins - I'm reminding myself of a new or longstanding practice I've already integrated into my life that has been beneficial. 

In 2024, I will stop adding any new writing vessels into my life. Juggling these vessels has started to get a little out of hand.     

In 2024, I will start taking guitar lessons with a local jazz guitarist I met in 2023. 

In 2024, I will continue the regimen established with my start pledge of 2022, i.e., consistently exercising four days a week. 

Avoid getting bogged down if you struggle coming up with a stop, start, and a continue for 2024. Instead, do just two of the three. Or, at minimum, take a moment and tell me and others just what you plan to continue. What's the downside to simply congratulating yourself for a past success as a new year begins? 

Best of 2023

Please join me by taking a moment to review 2023 and then share here one or more things that made this year memorable for you. If any of my headings gives you an idea or gets you started, great. Otherwise, use whatever comes to you. Your memory or idea for a heading could well inspire others. 

Most inspirational quote uncovered for future blog post use: "Success is not final; failure is not fatal." - Winston Churchill 

Best moment combining exercise and the natural world: A mid-August sunset over the Navesink River while kayaking with my wife. 

Best documentary: Chowchilla

Reflections From The Bell Curve: Chowchilla

Best party:  The surprise my daughter and I put together for my wife to celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary. My new son-in-law earned points for suggesting the party be held at the same bar where my wife and I met in April of 1978.

Best reading-related moment: While browsing together in a bookstore, it dawned on me how lucky I am to have a life partner who enjoys spending time this way. Our mutual love of reading is such a gift.

Happy New Year!

 

No Goofy Picture Required

It's been both a lucky and a record-breaking year. 

Counting two here in Arizona on our current trip - Petrified Forest and Saguaro - and the five in Utah from this past April, we visited seven National Parks in 2023. That's a record for visits in a single year in our mission to experience as many of the parks as possible. I'm grateful to have a willing travel and hiking partner, and also for having the means to pursue this mission. The National Parks are - without question - America at its best. Why not take a peek at the Wikipedia website below, see which is closest to you, and plan a visit? I promise you will not be disappointed. 

And when you do visit, get back to me here and we'll compare notes. No need to take a goofy picture like we did. 

List of national parks of the United States - Wikipedia

On The Day Before Christmas

On the day before Christmas, when starting this post - a Dickens-like carol appeared without ghosts.

Instead, right before me, my eyes did behold a landscape without snow and no winter cold.

No gloves on my hands and no hat, scarf, nor fire; with shorts and a T-shirt my only attire.

Stranger still than the weather on this day of cheer - the distance between me and some I hold dear.

My brother and sisters far from me this eve seems very peculiar. Now would you believe?     

On this day before Christmas for seventy years, three people in my life have always been near. 

You might think me foolish for wasting your time, and writing this nonsense, composing these rhymes.

But thinking about them and writing this way helped make me feel better not sharing our day. 

I thank you for reading on this day before. It's one of the things that I'm most grateful for.