Tom Parham <ethomasparham@gmail.com>	10:32 AM (0 minutes ago)
to me

from Ezra Klein podcast:
“Here is what this movement of millions should do, for a start,” Malm writes. “Announce and enforce the prohibition. Damage and destroy new CO2-emitting devices. Put them out of commission, pick them apart, demolish them, burn them, blow them up. Let the capitalists who keep on investing in the fire know that their properties will be trashed.

” …three blind mice. See how they run.”

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Counting flowers on the wall
That don’t bother me at all
Playing solitaire till dawn with a deck of fifty-one
Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo
Now don’t tell me I’ve nothing to do

(The Statlers)

One of my grandsons told my wife, “…Pop has a lot of words.”

Al Rehm once told me “…shut up and let us talk some, we’re drunk too.”

My brother-in-law once rolled the van window down in the freezing cold.

WHY? WE ALL CHIMED IN.

I had to let some words out of the van! ”

My 80th year (2020) will be known as Covid year. Lots of terrible things went on. Many changes were mundane, boring, lengthly adjustments. Not easy to adjust at eighty.

I had already changed some things in preparation for simple retirement. And, while for many Covid was retirement on steroids, that preparation was useful this year.

DIE BROKE had four basic suggestions: 1. Have only one emergency credit Pay cash. 2. Quit now. limit what you will do 3. Don’t retire. (I will come back to this one), 4. Die broke. “Your last check should bounce!”

President Fred Young of Elon had suggested “…always have a plan for the next day. It can be painting a chair or just about anything. But have something planned”. (#3)

What was left? Had to give up drinking, luckies, corinthians girls already. Can you imagine giving up smoking, booze, BBQ, and double scoops of ice cream while living in Wilson, NC? Even the healthy ones gave out. Tennis, Jogging, Hard to get out of a sand trap dragging a bad leg.

Got a new book on the way. That will be seven that look like books anyway. And where ever prayers of thanks go, some how I began to write. Just for me. For me—it has worked.

*Just wondering what percentage of couples create this scenario:

Spouse one interjects a new dinner table topic for conversation.

Spouse two pounces on the topic and their version overrides.

**************************************

One coaching friend said when his uncle ordered any meal at any resturant, the next voice came immediately

from his Aunt, the wife: “Naw–he don’t want that, he had that last week. Give him #4 with mashed potatoes

and green beans!”

Isabel Wilkerson’s new best seller is entitled CASTE, The Origins of Our Discontent. One chapter describes leadership assignment. A few of her comments are below. Hopefully we will pay attention to the entire book.

My sister’s granddaughter visited last week with two other lovely young graduate students. They are finishing up advanced degrees in the fields related to data, analytics, etc. The conversation turned to job interviews and their excitement and concern upon this next step. I noticed an odd thing about the three as they spoke without consulting their phones. Five years ago my Sister asked me to talk with the same young college applicant about college admissions and related interviews. I now remembered I had rebuked granddaughter about her watching her phone while I was giving her my time and best advice. I had wondered if I had been too harsh. And that now, she had warned her friends of that day.

So I did remain quiet for a while. Then I blurted out “what have you decided to do on your interviews?” Silence. I then asked my Wife the same question, reminding her of her role as head of selection for National Merit Scholars where she taught, She caught on and remembered crucial fundamentals. I bit my tongue and did remain silent for ages it seemed. After related discussion. one of the aspirants opened the door by asking if I had conducted interviews?

“Hundreds”! Who? Mostly coaches and /or teachers. Plus I’ve been interviewed a number of times.

Bright one #2 : “What is your advice?”

Finally!

Here are some ideas: 1. Somewhere before the session is over ask the panel or person this basic question: Is there anything you have heard or noticed about me that may not be true. If it influences your thinking I’d like the opportunity to address this criticism.

2. Keep in mind that even if you are not selected, these people in your arena may be able to recommend you to someone pulling the trigger on the next similar (maybe better opportunity). Headhunters often go to this panel to search for the next best candidates they are aware of.

3. Or you may have been the best, and missed this once. I can tell you that very often when the candidates have been studied, it is often really hard to chose a “best” one.

4, I asked about books that they have been impressed by? Having an interest in their field I wondered if they had read Sapiens? Yuval Harari? Homo Deus? 21 Questions for the 21st Century? Malcolm Gladwell. Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything? One said, “My dad has that book” (Sapiens).

5. I asked for those who had helped them. I told them of a really impressive teacher on their faculty who had broken some “ceilings” and maybe they could look her up. I offered to call her.

At this point I notice they one by one pulled out their phones, taking notes: “…How did you spell her name? What were those books again? Tell us about jobs interviews you had or hosted.”

The phones didn’t bother me.

GO AHEAD

I might as well pee while I’m here.

its not coffee or whiskey or beer.

Doesn’t take sage to know its old age,

nope, the problem it is really quite clear.

I quit carrying a modern cell phone

Every one I carried got lost.

but maybe a similar case

not quite as small, for seniors a

to conceal a portable urinal.

Some friends are now in diapers.

They come in his or hers.

The name of brands when read,

simply advise , dear friends, “GO AHEAD”!

Never blest with great speed in youth,

things still get slower in truth.

To open my fly, find myself and let fly,

not only in haste, but target forsooth!

The midnight trips to the head,

filled with fear and the dreaded more “goes”,

I’ve worn out the carpet

rushing in darkness, I’ve broken both pinky toes.

Old age doesn’t mix well with hurry,

be sure a growler is near.

so just to head off the flurry—

I might as well pee while I’m here.

John Stuart Mill’s essay “On Liberty,” specifically this famous passage:

The whole strength and value, then, of human judgment, depending on the one property, that it can be set right when it is wrong, reliance can be placed on it only when the means of setting it right are kept constantly at hand. In the case of any person whose judgment is really deserving of confidence, how has it become so? Because he has kept his mind open to criticism of his opinions and conduct. Because it has been his practice to listen to all that could be said against him; to profit by as much of it as was just, and expound to himself, and upon occasion to others, the fallacy of what was fallacious.

We required an “Exit Interview” for all teachers at Atlantic Christian College.   I asked one question of Clifton Black, our first black basketball player.   He was from a rural Eastern North Carolina town.

“How did you do so well athletically, socially and academically?”
“Coach, when I left Conetoe (home village) my Grandmother said, ‘Clifton Earl, you know the difference between right and wrong.   Do right!’ That’s about it.”

I saw Cliff this past fall for the first time in thirty years. What struck me was how proud he was of his children.

I noticed Sam Erwin IV got elected recently. That reminded me of Watergate Sam, and specifically his comment when the North Carolina legislature banned the teaching of evolution in the state’s public schools. Sam concluded that the one good thing about that law was that “…it absolves the monkeys of the jungle of any responsibility for the human race in general, and the North Carolina legislature in particular.”
Given the extreme political intransigency in this century one can only hope. I did notice Michelle Bachmann just recently has changed positions on “gay marriage”: “…boring! Plus homosexuality is hard wired, naturally.” That is evolution! And at a quicker rate than usual.
Author Bill Bryson put evolution in perspective in his A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING. Comparing the earth’s total age to one’s human wingspan, Bryson notes from the tip of one’s middle finger to the opposite wrist represents the time from the earth’s beginning (approximately 14 BILLION years ago) until the very first sign of life showed up. One nail file off the opposite middle finger? “The length of time mankind as we know it has existed on this earth.”
Maybe the gay issue isn’t such a big deal. Or prayer in school. Who gets to gun tote and where, the price of gas or the stock market.
Jared Diamond spoke at Elon University about the last two hundred years. One question from the audience was what about the next 100 years. “If we aren’t better stewards of the earth there may not be another hundred!”
As my friend, Jim Toney–retired Economics professor, often demanded,”,,,we need a PLAN!”
Where to start?
Try this: Google “unusual religions”. I wonder how many innocents have died by “…killing in the name of the lord”? But the bible says “…there will always be wars and rumors of war”. Really? No changing things? Hellfire—we used to be cannibals. And not that long ago.
How about greed. How is that working out in America? Corruption in 2000? Carolina basketball your big worry? How about hunger? ISIS AND GAS PRICES? Too close to talk about?
Do we really want to dis climate change? Green and clean energy a non-issue?
The dog has caught the bus. We don’t need any more gridlock. We need a plan. A GOOD LONG RANGE PLAN.

“…so let us not talk falsely, the hour is getting late.”
ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER–b.dylan