VOICES

Today NPR did a piece on the effect of voices on the electorate . While interesting and quite likely accurate, it seems a sad testimonial to people's relationship with their mothers. Senator McCain was criticized for having a soft, tired sounding voice which made him sound like an old man, coincidentally which makes him sound like who he is. Senator Obama has a strong, masculine voice and sounds like a preacher and is, therefore, very effective in getting people to listen to him. Senator Clinton has a woman's voice (what a surprise!) which our country is less used to listening to in politics, certainly on that level. She lacks the softness of Nancy Pelosi (whose voice sounds more like the nurse holding your hand and saying, "This is going to hurt but I will be right next to you holding your hand."), and when Clinton gets excited, she sounds angry. While Obama sounds like he can shout to all 30,000 at one of his events, without a microphone, there is no criticism for that. When Clinton raises her voice, trying to be heard over all the noise, hecklers, and to make a point, she sounds (said this researcher) like the scolding mother.

That people respond on a gut level to their introjected mothers rather than competence, issues, substance, experience, ability to lead, is saddening. Would it then suggest that, should she be elected, people will fight her or follow her? Only a study of the relationship to their mothers for each voter might determine that outcome. It further suggests that we behave like reactive children to the foundation in our ears set by our mothers our whole lives.

Presidential timber has been rated for many years. Apparently our voters do not recognize quality or substance if it is not delivered with the right kind of voice. Schools offer voice training.
Bush 41, it was predicted by a voice specialist, would never be elected president because of his nasal, whiny-sounding voice. Those who forget that more than one element decides a vote to a candidate are often wrong in their predictions. Accurate predictors are able to see the whole system, but they are few and don't seem to be represented in today's media.

THE SNOWSTORM

The world continues to harp on political trivia. Was Hillary sincere? Was she being unfair to Obama? The debate was a tie but Obama was clearly the winner because he wasn't the loser. Someone sees a silver lining, another sees a miracle on the horizon. Other talking heads say the debate was a 'ho-hum', just not interesting. Of course not, it wasn't meant to be entertainment! Will the media never learn how dispensable they all are? How does a shut in spend the day and fill the air space when TV is unwatchable and infuriating?

Near mid-day it was clear there was no joy in Mudville. I decided to shovel the snow (phase one) to get the fallen two inches cleared from the walks and parking areas even though it was still snowing. The hope was to get out there before someone trampled the snow down with icy footsteps that instantly freeze in place and can't get shoveled up. Not a lucky day. Mail had already been delivered. No doubt the mail-person had the same idea...get it over with before the snow gets too high. The snow continued and by late afternoon another four inches had fallen.

I raced out to shovel again, before my grandson arrived to park a friend's car in my yard, off the street in front of his apartment, to prevent the car being towed. This time I thought I was forewarned, but hadn't predicted a UPS delivery man had trodden on the walk. Oh well, I muttered in resignation, and scraped as much as possible before anyone else arrived to crunch icy lumps on the walk.

Back indoors again, in the warmth, I began to watch some of the movies I had recorded on my computer so that I could then delete and make space for more of them. This was interrupted by an hour long phone call from a friend, as the computer in front of me blinked weather alerts for my town. By 11 PM, the computer had ceased giving weather alerts, so I looked out and saw some fluffy clouds on the horizon (bright moonlight), All precipitation had ceased. Yet it was too early to cheer. Back to the computer for the latest update, more precipitation was predicted until tomorrow afternoon at which time the sun will magically appear. The icicles hanging off the front bow window, dripping water as though it was below freezing out, mayl have a new outlook on life by morning.

The nice part of the day is that it was so guilt-free. It is such a reward to be a prisoner at home (my favorite place to be in the whole world) and while I didn't get any of the things done that are required, I did all the things that relaxed me. It felt like the kid I once had been whose school day had just been called off because of bad weather. Sadly, I didn't have my siblings there to make tunnels with blankets over the dining room chairs laid on their sides. Of course, that would have been at least the day before yesterday, plus a few decades.

GETTING TO KNOW YOURSELF

One might think that living with yourself and looking in a psychological mirror might be sufficient to 'know yourself'. Sadly it is not. There are so many factors to inhibit that process. Negative feedback from early childhood, inability to win approval from those who control you and on whom you depend, the ego defenses (of denial, repression, rationalization, etc), and one's biology are very integral to the formation of a self-concept. Add to that the amount of nurturing and early physical contact one might have had in preparation, or lack of it, for a good self image. All these elements contribute to the definition of who we are in our heads. If you throw in traumatic stress, it is like knocking out the underpinnings of any structure previously standing.

These facts are what explain why, a person being told how they shouldn't feel, what they should ignore, and that they should 'pull themselves up by their bootstraps', doesn't work. Eventually, just as one can quit smoking or drinking only when one makes a firm commitment to doing so, people can begin to form a new self-image. No matter how others may tell you how positively THEY see you, until your own self-image can be super-imposed on their impression of you, congruently, will things become clearer to you about who you really are.

Therapy helps pull people back into events that they experienced as children and have never moved away from that solidified-by-time memory of the experience. They blame themselves when they are blameless, they are feeling worthless because those they had thought of as omniscient and omnipotent didn't seem to find them lovable or sufficiently worthwhile to rescue. In therapy, when they can re-experience these memories as an adult, it occasionally becomes possible for these adult children to realize they were not to blame. They are not unlovable. They do not have to go through life hiding from the world. It is most gratifying to vicariously experience when that hood of blame, shame and guilt can be thrown off and acceptance of their lack of blame and guilt ceases to cause them shame.

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OBDURACY

American voters are obdurate. It is difficult for some of them to stray from a first impression to change their minds. They stubbornly cling to the hopes they had, when they voted initially, in face of all history and evidence to contrary; the results not at all fulfilling campaign promises. And so it would seem we are about to repeat this pattern. We will vote on hope and promise rather than substance. The difference in 2008 is, the man likely to be President seems (by his history) to be of a very different character.

It is said that, "Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it." Many of those who voted for our current president still believe he is an honest man and a good leader. People were shocked at a sexual indiscretion by the sitting president at the time, so they voted in a man who was spoiled as a young man, demonstrated a weak character, and who wanted and got his own way throughout life with disregard for those around him. However, he promised change. In fact he delivered it. He changed the lives of many families, made many children orphans, almost wiped out the whole middle class to leave only upper and lower class Americans, and very few of his campaign promises were kept. He promised to bring honor to Washington and has failed.

Many who look at issues and not the candidate form their own opinions, but sadly, average is average for a reason and those who rise above that, of mathematical necessity remain in the minority. Now we are voting for a Pied Piper with the missionary's zeal and appeal.

There is a delightful book by Cordelia Fine: a mind of its own: How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives. Everyone should read it to better understand themselves. One chapter is called the Pigheaded Brain. Research was done giving people false information about how poorly they had done in a research project in picking those most likely to suicide. Since it was given by figures in authority, people were told they failed to pick those likely to suicide; a phony pre-determined response to the subjects, even though the information was later repudiated as made up and untrue. Those who had been told this acted as though it was true and behaved like failures. This effect lasted for quite a while. However, if they were not permitted the time to stew over it and were kept distracted immediately after being given the information, they were more likely able to give up the notion of their own failure.

As long as we have media space filled by Rush Limbaughs, Chris Matthews, Humes, Hannitys, and all those opinion dictators, we will continue on the course we have followed in this country and call it a democratic process. What the media is doing to our electoral process offers as much choice to the voters and the cattle in StockYards have choice, in my humble opinion!

FRUSTRATION

Firefox has a neat little add-on that is supposed to synchronize your bookmarks, It stores them off your computer so that you will always have them except when it tells you to download a new version and the bugs lose all your bookmarks! However, all is not lost because they tell you how to fix it. Of course nothing they tell you follows anything on your computer screen and gives no fix. Not to be upset, they offer a support site which I wrote to and got an email back that it will take 24 hours to answer your request.

I finally figured out that I can get a copy of the bookmarks I had up on my screen and can open them in a separate window, copy and paste them to a word document, then maybe get rid of the add-on and keep them forever for myself on hard and soft copy.

Consequently, since it took hours for me just to get my dashboard back...my faithful audience just gets to hear my profound view of the world in a rant!

WE WHO TAKE OATHS BUT DON'T FOLLOW THEM

Robert McKee has sponsored bills this year dealing with minors, including the Child Protection From Predators Act. Where do pedophiles go to hide. Many turned to the Catholic church for safe cover since people believed that the oath of celibacy meant something.

How can Bush's decision be squared with his solemn Presidential oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States". BREAKING: Bush got US Attorneys fired, after Gonzales denied any political involvement under oath Then there is the loyalty oath people were asked to pledge before campaign rallies during the Bush election.

For a full discussion of the Presidential oath, go to this site. A video with Keith Olbermann is included discussing the death of habeas corpus.

Nostalgia in Jazz

One of the lost greats in piano jazz was Errol Garner. Referred to as the 'Elf', he used to sit on the New York phone book to sit taller. He played so uniquely that his sound could never be missed. This was pure talent, not just another mechanical technician.

Another off-beat pianist who stood out from the crowd in originality was Thelonious Monk.. Wikipedia describes him: "Thelonious Sphere Monk who died in 1972. He was a Jazz pianist and composer. Widely considered one of the most important musicians in jazz, Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire (including his classic works Round Midnight and Blue Monk. Blue Monk is a jazz standard written by Thelonius Monk that has become one of his most enduring tunes. It is based on the jazz tune "Pastel Blue". He is often regarded as a founder of bebop, although his playing style evolved away from the form. His compositions and improvisations are full of dissonant harmonies and angular melodic twists, and are impossible to separate from Monk's unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of silences and hesitations. He made seconds sound good and probably would have done half-tones if pianos permitted it then

Some of the most beautiful music came from Gil Evans' arrangements for Miles Davis, on muted trumpet...a beautiful series of ballads. Summertime was one of my favorites. The whole Porgy and Bess Suite was spectacular.

An early innovator of musical sound was Stan Kenton, who composed Artistry in Rhythm. While sounds were changing radically in terms of harmonies, rhythms, orchestrations and style, music of the post WWII retained melody, complicated and lush chording, and lyrics that didn't require a cheat sheet to understand. Eardrums remained intact even after concerts then. Am I nostalgic for much of the past...absolutely not! However, I do miss the music amd musicians from that period, little of which is heard broadly today. Like the Spotted Owl and Polar Bear, the music seems to be just trying to hang in there before total extinction hits.