I’ve explained before that on occasion I like to stop new posts just to lest one particular post sit at the top of the blog. In our Board agendas we call these “placeholders.” They are subjects that we will soon revisit at later meetings. The previous post which has reigned at the top for a couple days now has been a placeholder. But its time to forge ahead.
Placebo effect – All I’ve done is to see a doctor but its been a little like visiting a shaman. I feel much better not ignoring my health. It looks like I’ll live.
Zealotry – I’ve only received a single comment from my email in the preceding post and it suggested that I may have a blood feud with Frank Wanner. To which I replied that I had no such thing and that as an example of our relationship shortly after Frank threatened to defeat me when I ran for reelection to the School Board in 1999 and failed to stop my reelection I sought him out afterward and we had several candid and cordial conversations.
Blood feuds are the stuff of Zealots and I’m pleased to report I just finished reading Reza Aslan’s book of the same name. I ended up having some heated conversations with my wife, the theology student, about the author’s certainty in his analysis of Jesus. I think he made a pretty rational case which I’ve always been inclined towards and did an even better job explaining the facts on the ground so that I finally have a coherent understanding of politics and sociology of 1st Century Jerusalem.
Getting rid of the clutter – It still surrounds me in my office but I did finish up the lesser of two jobs attacking it. The lesser one was organizing my multitudinous computer passwords which have been accumulating over the years. The next job is much bigger. I have all those pages of budget information which I pulled together a couple weeks ago. In light of my assertive request for a good budget forecast I have a responsibility to organize them so as to ask the many questions they raised for me.
Priorities – All my priorities (the public ones anyway) can be lumped into a single goal. Fixing the Duluth Schools. I am reconciled to the possibility that I will fail in helping bring this about. On the other hand I have more confidence that if there is a cliff out there for us to plunge over at least I’ll be able to keep my eyes open as I take the fall. Think the movie Gravity at the point when the heroine finds a possible means of escape.
