Nine Bullets | 100 Days Gone. What We Know

1) Donald Trump is not ready to be President. Didn't plan on it, doesn't know how the government works and is not a serious enough person to try. He has been weirdly confessional on this point but makes the typical rich idiot mistake of presuming that because he didn't know something, "nobody" could have known it. Presidenting is hard work, and Trump has never had to work hard. So he goes to Florida and plays golf every 5 days.
2) Donald Trump lies a lot -- pathologically so - but it is not clear he knows he is lying. It is more like he just doesn't pay any attention to what he says from one minute to the next. His toadies don't have the courage to tell him the truth. He also just doesn't care. Moreover, much of what the Administration says and does appears designed to troll the nation.
3) His gaps in knowledge and policy are being filled by the Russians, Nazis, and super-fundamentalist Christians. It would be one thing if he was thrust into this job while competent politicians were at his side to educate and guide him. However, he is surrounded by political neophytes and ideologues. No one in the White House knows anything about legislation or policy. He is learning about the world from some of the worst people you could assemble.
4) Meanwhile, Jeff Sessions is an example of competent evil (by comparison). Session's has been waiting his whole life to restore Jim Crow to the South and now he has the power to do it. His goals are to strip citizenship from immigrants to keep them from voting. Strip voting rights from protesters and people of color.
5) The Trump administration doesn't care about increasing his base because Jeff Sessions doesn't plan to let Democrats vote in the next election. Sessions efforts are part of a larger Republican plan fueled by White Nationalist fears of being outnumbered by minorities in the future. Sessions believes that the only way for Republicans to remain in power is to structure the democratic institutions so that non-Republicans can't vote. See North Carolina for examples of that tactics they plan to use.
6) The Russian thing is big, and Trump's inner circle knows it. Flynn, Manafort, Page, Gorka, Sessions - the list goes on. As the investigations continue, it will eventually be easier to list the people who weren't on the Russian payroll.
7) Trump is a bully, but he backs down easily. China figured out right away that Trump was a "paper tiger." A bully that backs down at the first hint of resistance. Paul Ryan and Congress took a little longer, but they are figuring it out too. He has no core principals, he does not do research and doesn't understand how the US government works. So even if he threatens you, he's got nothing to back it up and so he's an easy mark to roll.
8) Trump loves evil dictators, apparently. In his dreams Trump sees himself as a beloved mob boss or long ruling dictator. No surprise then that he's cuddling up to strong men while denouncing Democracies. This will come in handy when Sessions starts stripping people of their citizenship.
9) Republicans are misreading and misplaying the Trump victory. Most Republicans think that Trump's voters could primary them if they don't fall in line. As we've seen, however, Trump doesn't really have anything he cares about other than Trump. Congressional Republicans can't agree on any legislation to pass that will be popular, so they are going to face a referendum on Trump when they come up for reelection. By that time the Republican brand may be so tarnished by Trump's incompetence and mendacity that we could see a big loss for GOP in the general.

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The Hucklberry Hajj and other stories

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Never Stop Learning: Confessions of a Dilettante

When I was a kid, I used to read encyclopedias.

We had two sets. The World Book 1975 was my favorite. It had a few color photos and it was amazing. Pick a letter off the shelf, open the book up and learn about something.

I loved learning about things.

I still do.

My parents set the example. My dad started his career on a slide rule and finally retired just a few years ago using 3D printers and computer modeling.  From moon boots, to grocery checkout scanners to actual jetpacks for astronauts, my dad enjoyed a rich and varied career in the world of industrial design.

The trick he always says, is to never stop learning.

As a newspaper reporter, learning new things about the world was part of my job -- the absolute best part.  As the editor on an online news site during the dot-com boom, I taught myself the nuts and bolts of how to design and publish using HTML code. We were trying to create a model of sustainable success on the web before anyone thought there was a future in online journalism.

The dot-com bubble burst, I changed careers.

A Whole New World

Next came nursing, where I went from an expert in one field to a complete novice in another. I had a whole world of medicine that I had to understand.

Continuing education is required for doctors and nurses because medical science changes rapidly. If you don’t keep learning, you aren’t practicing good medicine.

I try to teach myself how to fix things. Often, doing it yourself is barely worth the time and materials, but learning how to do it is where I find the reward.

The internet, of course, makes all this much easier. When we bought this old house 24 years ago we had to learn restoration and repairs ourselves. I thumbed through old handiman books that I picked up at thrift stores to teach myself the basics getting an old house livable.

My motto is “there is nothing I don’t know how to do, only things I haven’t learned yet.”

I am a notorious dilettante. I’ve taken flying lessons and classes in wood carving.  Sometimes I find a new skill or area is just not for me.

Often I just fail.

A couple years ago, I bought a bass guitar and tried to teach myself how to play. I’d picked bass because I played trombone in school. I figured I’d try bass because I could still sort of read the bass clef. It didn’t work.

Learning from Failure

The most important part of failure is learning, and sometimes the most important part of learning is failing.

This year I swallowed that failure and am trying something new --

I have always been in love with the sound of the banjo. Probably a side effect of watching too much Hee Haw when I was a kid.   I knew nothing about it other than I liked the sound. The open backed banjo is a perfect accompaniment to a rainy day.

With a Christmas gift card I bought a kit from Backyard Banjos and I’m trying to teach myself to play.

I had to start by putting the banjo together myself -- staining the wood and assembling the components to make the musical instrument. Then I had to learn how to string it and tune it.  

A few books from the library and an online video lesson plan and I’m starting to actually make music.

When the rain forces us inside, it is a great time to open our minds. We have libraries at our fingertips, experts a few clicks away.

The internet is wonderful, especially if you live in a rural community. It opens up all sorts of opportunities to learn new things. That said, it has its limitations. I’ll try my online lessons but I may need to resort to in person classes.

Lifelong Learning

Thankfully lifelong learning opportunities abound in our community. We have two excellent community colleges and amazing libraries as well as a host of opportunities for learning all manner of skills to test and expand our minds and bodies.  I’m dying take a class at the Barbey Maritime Center someday where you can learn everything from building boats to basket weaving.

For now, however, I am focused on my little blue banjo.

I think it will be good for me.

Learning to play an musical instrument at any age seems to confirm neurological benefits. Music keeps our brains young, even if we don’t start taking lessons until we are much older.

One researcher studied the impact of piano lessons on adults between the ages of 60 and 85. According to an article in National Geographic, she found that after six months, those who had received the lessons showed gains in memory, verbal fluency, information processing, planning ability and other cognitive functions when compared to a control group.

"People often shy away from learning to play a musical instrument at a later age, but it's definitely possible to learn and play well into late adulthood," University of South Florida  researcher Jennifer Bugos explained. "Musical training seems to have a beneficial impact at whatever age you start. It contains all the components of a cognitive training program that sometimes are overlooked, and just as we work out our bodies, we should work out our minds."

Musical training has been shown to help improve motor skills recovery after a stroke. Other research is ongoing to see whether choir singing can help stave off the advance of dementia.

“Music reaches parts of the brain that other things can’t,” University of Westminster neuropsychologist  Catherine Loveday told the Guardian. “It’s a strong cognitive stimulus that grows the brain in a way that nothing else does, and the evidence that musical training enhances things like working memory and language is very robust.”

So even if I never play a note for anyone other than myself, I’ll still get some benefit from whatever neural connections come together during this learning experience. That will help keep my brain in good shape to learn other new skills in the years to come.

I’m determined to never stop learning.

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This essay was originally published in the Daily Astorian, March 31, 2017.

Light in the Darkest Days

Newgrange in Ireland via loveireland.com

These are the darkest of days.

Overcast skies rob us of precious minutes of sunlight in the late afternoons. Veil the sunset in coal dust, ink black with a mist of rain swirling ‘round a 4:30 porch light.

We of northern latitudes and coastal storms hunch our shoulders and steel our minds against the short tongues of daylight wrapped in anemic gray, punctuated by occasional  shards of sunlight, silver knives cutting through woolen clouds down to sodden earth.

This season of dwindling day, coldest days and chill, longest nights robbed of stars, December’s cruelty.

The days shrink and wither away, an erosion or life-giving hope that ebbs as we approach the nadir of the year. Winter solstice arrives Dec. 21st at 2:44 in the afternoon when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn. It is the shortest day of the year, late sunrises and early sunsets. Long nights of starless forever-skies.

It is the day when the Sun reaches its southernmost migration on our horizon. It is the first day of astronomical winter - yet from the solstice forward, each day will get fraction longer, each noon the sun will be a little higher in our horizon.

It has been a year full of darkness.

Long before it had a name, or before we really understood what was happening human beings  understood this cycle of ebbing light.

I have stood inside Newgrange in Ireland - a 5,000 year old monumental structure of massive stones and white quartz designed to permit a shaft of light on the winter solstice such that on this one day each year - sunlight will travel down a 60 foot passageway and the interior of this man-made mountain will be illuminated with golden light.  

Newgrange is older than stonehenge, older than the Great Pyramid of Giza. Men and women designed and built this complicated structure with stone imported from miles away. Intricate neolithic architecture celebrating light that marks the end of creeping darkness, the return of the hope.

We do not know the minds of Newgrange’s creators, nor  their system of beliefs to be sure. We know only that they went to great effort to capture the sun on the solstice each year - to illuminate hidden decorations deep within.

We know a little more about other solstice traditions that came later.

Yule logs  are a remnant of the Norse feast of Juul. Bonfires were lit as the sun “stood still” on its lowest point on the horizon. The fires heralded the return of the sun -- feasting would carry on while the Yule burned for days.

Yalda was an ancient Persian celebration of light over dark and the birth of the Sun God Mithra. Similar pre-Christian traditions exist around the world.  In parts of Pakistan, the Kalash Kafir celebrate Chaomos -- a time ritual purification with torchlight parades and bonfires. Slavic traditions celebrate Koliada or Koleda in similar fashion.

Jewish families celebrate Hanukkah, the rededication of the second temple, lighting a candle each night in the festival of lights. Symbolizing knowledge and creation, here too was a miracle marked by light as a single night’s oil burned bright for eight days.

Lindsay as St Lucia

Some Scandinavian countries still celebrate St Lucia’s Day -- a festival of lights that evolved out of Norse solstice traditions of lighting bonfires during the longest nights of the year.  Honoring the Christian martyr St. Lucia, young girls dress in white robes with a wreath of burning candles on their heads and serve bright yellow saffron buns to signify the return of the sun.

Early Christians focused more on Easter than Jesus’ birth. It wasn’t until the 4th century that the Church decided to celebrate Christmas and fixed the date in December to coincide -- and perhaps co-opt -- the Roman celebrations of Saturnalia and Sol Invictus -- the birthday of the “unconquered sun.”  As Christianity spread, the birth of the son of God and the festivals that celebrated the return of the sun co-mingled and influenced each other.

We fight against the darkness with artificial light. We string up our Christmas tree, light the candles on our menorah or advent wreaths. We make a fire in the fireplace, yule log, bonfire.

It is perhaps not surprising that these cold dark days are when our hearts are most open to our fellow man, when we give a little more, care a little more. Charity and cheer, generosity and forgiveness  are built into all of these solstice traditions because it is understood that in the darkness is when we most need the light.

This is a dark time for our nation and for the world.

Hatred has sunk its teeth into our flesh. Many of our brothers have turned a cold eye to those who don’t look like us, worship like us, love like us. We point fingers rather than open our arms. Hopelessness and fear threaten to curdle our goodwill.

In these darkest days, we can be the light that travels down the cold stone passage, that illuminates the darkness and brings hope of better days.

We can be the light that opens hearts with kindness, charity and goodwill to our neighbors around the world and in our backyard.

We may never know the words or ceremony of 5000 years past or exactly how that thread may be woven into our modern traditions and beliefs.

Yet we understand the need to capture the golden light in darkest December days.

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This article originally appeared in the The Daily Astorian on December 19, 2016