Another year ends, another year begins...

(Pretend there's an image here that says Thank you 2023, Hello 2024)

Another year ends, another year begins...Thank you to whoever's in charge of that.

We get to keep going.

I don't have anything planned as a personal retrospective of my year for this blog entry Am I forgetting something major? My recollection in this last 3 hours of 2023 is that, in my personal life, this was a year of telling myself the truth about some of my blind spots and limitations, such as:

Work people are likely not friend people. Don't confuse the two.

I don't incorporate lessons for improvement into my daily life.

I still believe something magical, or to me unexplainable that I don't know how to replicate, will be the change agent for my life.

I'm still waiting for the change agent to come into my life.

Oh yeah - the change agent needs to be me.

I don't know why I continue making log entries here.

I guess this is a way to announce to the world that I'm still here and I'm still trying.

It would be remiss not to mention all the turmoil in the world at large right now. 

My heart and wishes for 2024 go out to all the people in the world suffering at the hands of their fellow human beings. What a tragedy it is that we, humans of Earth, have the capacity to hurt each other so profoundly when we are fearful.

I hope that people will feel the light inside them (wherever we think it comes from) and let that little light shine. We have to show each other the way out of the darkness of fear.

Let's all envision a world where everyone is valued and loved. 

I have a theme each year that I use to inspire me. When I started doing it years ago, I noticed that I would almost immediately forget my theme. At the end of the year I'd remind myself of the theme and realize that somehow (magically?) I had made at least some amount of progress. I figured that putting the idea in my head got my brain and my spirit and my soul working on the theme while I continued my day to day schedule.

No wonder I believe in magical things happening!!

So, last year my theme was Authentic Empowerment. 

I guess the fact that I learned a few truths about myself this year could be thought of as a bit of authentic empowerment.

I didn't incorporate it into my daily life. Although I did read the majority of "The Seat of the Soul", which was my guidebook, I don't think, though, I can truly say I am Authentically Empowered!

That goal will remain ongoing.

In 2024 my theme is "Act on commitments, not feelings"

I'm pretty good at following through on commitments I make to other people. I'm not good at keeping commitments I make to myself. Even things as simple as household chores or caring for my health. I very easily can say "Eh - I don't feel like it today," because I'm tired, too hungry, not in the mood, overwhelmed, frustrated, uncomfortable, or scared.

Actions will make change in my life (I'm pretty sure I wrote about that a few years ago!!) 

So, this year I'm trying to be more specific about goals and then will develop the habits that will help me reach those goals.

Goal - by the end of 2024 I hope I can successfully pass the sit down-stand up test; sit on the floor from a standing position without using your hands, arms, or knees to slow your descent. Then stand back up—without using your hands, arms, or knees to help boost you back up, if possible. (Hint: Crossing your legs on the way down and the way up seems to help, and loosely holding your arms out to your sides can help with balance.). The test requires flexibility, motor coordination, balance, and ample muscle power relative to body weight. I've been leading an excessively sedentary life in the last ten years. It's time I recognize that I'm aging. I should be able to do more than I'm currently able (I huff and puff walking up/down stairs for example).

Goal - eat more healthy foods. One of the reason my body doesn't respond the way I expect (even with my acceptance of growing older) is because I don't nourish it properly. I haven't worked out what my specific daily plan will be yet. I read that one way to get started without feeling overwhelmed is to pick three healthy meal options that I feel I can accomplish, and that I don't mind eating repeatedly. Practice with those three, make them the foundation. Develop the habit of eating healthy. Try preparing some aspect of the meal ahead of time (such as prepare a batch of quinoa) so a quick meal is always at the ready. I don't have my three recipes nailed down yet, but it involves potato, sourdough bread, carrot/celery/tomato/cucumber/spinach, quinoa, chickpeas, falafel, and hummus.  Maybe a few other things, but those feel like standbys to me. 

Goal - read 12 fiction books and 6 nonfiction books.

Goal - get window blinds

Goal - dental health <-- the one that scares me the most.

Goal - stop saving articles and books I won't read, plus don't spend excessive amounts of money on app games!!!!

That's a lot to accomplish this year. And I feel very cliche putting health and fitness as goals. I want to remember that (sigh) yes, I'm as ordinary as everyone else who wants to lose weight starting out on New Year's Day, but that also means (Yay!) I'm not alone.  

Honestly, I'm sitting here, New Year's Eve night - it's now 10:22 pm when I'm writing - and already dreading this lifestyle change; I don't want to have to do movement/exercise/cook food starting tomorrow and forevermore after that!!!  I want to be a blob (I've had an active couple of days).

This isn't going to be easy.

To me and all the others making plans and goals for themselves, for New Year and all year, who struggle with motivation and consistency...I wish us courage.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

We have a Speaker of the House.

From Axios AM 1/7/2023

8. 🖼️ Framer

Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Rep.-elect Katie Porter — a Democrat from Orange County, Calif. — reads in the House chamber last night.

• Later she tweeted: "The 15th time's the charm, apparently."

*****

15 times indeed...sheesh!

Here are my observations.

1. Elise Stefanik's standing ovations and McCarthy's humble surprise...each and every and each and every and each and every time McCarthy was nominated. It was like performance art. 

2. Campaign speeches included many references to all the 'investigating' and 'oversight' they'd be doing on the government (the Jan 6 investigation was a waste of taxpayer time and money, though, according to Republicans).  We can expect hearings about how the government tried to influence Twitter, Hunter Biden's laptop, the weaponization of the FBI and DOJ, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the origins of COVID-19, and lots of Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi investigations. 

3. As noted by CNN multiple times last night, particularly from John King...the faction of the Republican party that includes Kevin McCarthy, Scott Perry, Marjorie Taylor-Green, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Bobart, Steve Scalise and others are people who either directly or tacitly supported the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

4. Kevin McCarthy wanted this position more than anything, which is why he seemingly gave away everything. Naked ambition. I wonder what matters to him more than being Speaker? 

5. Hakeem Jeffries gave a speech. It was a good speech...kinda rousing. He even went through the whole alphabet using alliteration. I didn't notice until it was halfway through. Pretty creative even if it was 1/2 millimeter too much. The Republicans heckled him at a couple points (not just the alphabetic alliteration part [!! hey, I did it too!!]) but because he was giving a long-ish speech. If I were Jeffries I would have said, "every day I had to wait to give this speech I added 4 new paragraphs to it.", or "what do you think I was doing waiting for you all to get your act together?!", or "On Tuesday, this speech was 2 minutes long.", or "your indecision and inability to decide on a speaker gave me time to revise.". Something like that. He didn't respond to it, which I suppose is the right thing to do, but it wasn't 'satisfying' to the petty side of me that I'm trying to move beyond.

6. McCarthy's speech was an indicator of the horrible things to come. The one phrase that stands out to me was 'indoctrination in our schools'. I'm not sure that was the exact wording, but it was definitely the point.

7. The big question is what McCarthy 'gave' to all those holdouts. Some of them wanted what could be reasonable changes in how the Congress does business. (I don't know enough about the rules of the house to comment at this time). Others, though, wanted to be given leadership on committees or subcommittees. Matt Gaetz, one of the last holdouts who voted 'present' in the end, said they got everything they asked for.

I watched all hours of this drama on CNN. I was hesitant to do so because of the troubles they've been having. But I wanted to be immersed. I was. The good and bad side of CNN is that they have so much time to fill. That's good because it gives the panelists time to flesh out all the ins and outs of strategy (at one point I thought McCarthy and his allies should use strategy from 'Survivor'). It's also bad because they do a lot of speculating that may or may not end up being true, and often go over the same details multiple times.  As it turned out I liked the panelists  well enough and was interested in how things would work out - which I knew they would. It didn't work out for me or America, but it worked out for Kevin McCarthy and cable news.

The Republican House of Representatives

The House of Representatives - before they can swear in the new members - must select a Speaker of the House. Republicans hold a narrow majority of the seats. Under normal circumstances we would expect the Republicans to elect a person from their own group. Representative Kevin McCarthy - who apparently has always wanted to be Speaker of the House - can't get enough Republicans to vote for him (no Democrat will vote for him). They've had, over the last two days, 7 different votes and he loses each time. He needs 218 votes, but up to 20 Republicans will not vote for him.

McCarthy wants to be Speaker so bad he's been accepting all kinds of demands from the 20 who won't vote for him. It makes him seem like a shallow, empty vessel. He'll do anything to be the Speaker. It's disturbing to see naked ambition right out in the open. 

On top of it, McCarthy, and most of the people who don't want him, are Trump people and voted against the certification of the 2020 election. In my mind, they're extreme right wing. I listened to many of the nominating speeches and their view of the world is so different from mine, it's disheartening. Especially when I think about the world view of all the people who voted for them. 

It's likely this will work out for McCarthy - I say that only because these things usually do. Even if it doesn't and someone else becomes Speaker, it still looks like the extreme ideologues have shown that they can exert power over shallow, ambitious men. 

To be clear, this is my view of the extreme idealogues: they think Biden and Obama are the cause of every 'bad' thing in this country, they think federal government is too big and they want to destroy it by saying no and no and no, they believe there's a 'deep state swamp' that is run by elite liberals who are all Jewish, and they think white Christianity is being attacked, among other things. Their goals are to legislate their religious beliefs and deny rights to people who they don't like. They believe in freedom for all as long as the 'people' are white, Christian, heterosexual. and male. 

And then, there are the regular conservatives who think entitlements are handouts for lazy people, they believe in trickle down economics, they believe in everybody looking out for themselves, and they care more about their money than people. 

So, this is not good. I fear for the America I believe in.

From Dan Balz at The Washington Post

            https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/04/house-republicans-dysfunction-points-more-chaos-ahead/?outputType=comment