Instead of being out the door for my morning walk shortly after 5:30, I started out at 6:15. That wasn’t going to give me much time to get my steps in.
As I entered the driveway on my return home, I saw Scott chasing a chicken. One of the yogis caught the chase on videotape. The chicken has an unusual headdress; She’s a black chicken with a fan of white flowers on top of her head. Scott couldn’t catch the bird, but he did manage to chase it out of the driveway. He closed the gate immediately. Since we do our yoga with four dogs, why not one chicken.
I sent Judy the video because I had seen that chicken in her driveway. Yes, this chicken had just arrived one day and joined the chickens in their compound.
It was a dull day. I did a lot of writing. At the end of the day, I finally composed my introductory words for the video, demonstrating word recognition and phonics.
When it came time to do my before-dinner walk, I called Darby to join me. I was starved for in-person contact. I can’t imagine what it must be for those confined in apartments, going out only to shop -if that, with no personal contacts accessible. OMG!
I set out on my walk. I planned to make it longer than usual because I hadn’t met my quota on my morning walk. I had become obsessed with reaching the 10,000 steps and see the column for the day on the pedometer turn green. I have done this successfully for seven days straight. There are some days when I have done more than 10,000. I fulfilled more than 100% of my weekly objective. Hmm!
I watched Manchester by the Sea with Casey Affleck. He is actually a good actor who doesn’t get the hype his brother does. I looked up his biography on Wiki. He was an alcoholic; it runs in his family. His addiction is less spectacular than his brother’s—what a burden for people to bear.
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Musings:
I am reading the Twilight of Democracy. The ancient Greeks understood that democracies were vulnerable to demagogues. Is there any system that avoids it?
Applebaum, the author, sees our current surge for populism as a result of meritocracy. She sees those who failed wanting a system that is based on loyalty, not competence. I see that as happening in our national government now.
Trump appoints people based on their loyalty to him, not their competence.
I have heard people say, “Trump has a right to choose who he wants.” Yes. I can’t imagine a president putting someone in a position of power who strongly opposed him/her. The question is, what percentage is loyalty, and what percentage is competence. When people who have no background for a job are assigned based only on their loyalty, that’s a problem.
The question is, how large a part does the loyalty factor play. If a leader is off enough, only sycophants may apply. If someone never wants to hear criticism or a contradictory word, we have a problem. -and we do have a problem.
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