02:21 - 12.09.07
Pause
I'm running quite late tonight because of the two piecework jobs. Both required a lot of extra time tonight. One required editing some writing as well as some additional research. The other required taking the training and then the test that is required before one is allowed to carry out the work. About four hours altogethr I think. More really positive emails that are rebuilding my sense of competence and self-worth. As I'm certain you've guessed, dear diary, those have taken quite a beating the past nine months.
Today was a good day with my grand-daughter. She was being rather naughty, but in a delightfully playful way mostly. There might have been some underlying anger based on issues I mentioned in yesterday's post exacerbated by the solar eclipse. I was travelling on the bus and train and there was an edginess among passengers that normally isn't manifest that time of the day. On the other hand maybe it was just me that was edgy. I received two invitations to functions that each had an oddness to them, but that also hinted at other opportunities opening up if my participation was involved. Unfortunately I can't attend the first because I will be looking after my grand-daughter still.
It is a speech by a maverick Member of Parliament at a nomination meeting this Wednesday night. He was elected as a member of the governing party but was booted out for the sin of blogging about some of the issues that affected his constituents and also about some of the interactions among his confreres. When the whole thing blew up at the caucus table I was actually reading his blog on a daily basis. The whole affair confused me because he wasn't saying anything in that diary that wasn't already public knowledge through the mainstream media. To me that kind of management of group dynamics doesn't demonstrate the qualities of a leader - in this case the Prime Minister. It's more of a dictator persona. If one can't respect the elected members of one's own caucus to represent their riding, then one isn't likely going to respect any other aspect of Canadian society. Ruling is not the same as governing, you see. One is stewardship of the nation - rallying support, while the other is simply a junta.
A case in point is the current set-to between the new head of Elections Canada and the leaders of parliament. At first the stand he took left me quite bemused - letting women vote while veiled, you see. But the point this lawyer - his day job - seems to be trying to make is that the government of the day was boasting this summer about it's reforms of the Canada Elections Act to guard against corrupt practices, yet at the same time refusing to close several gaping holes in the legislation that allow anyone with even a little bit of an axe to grind to subvert the process. A guess would be that none of the elected officials had the cojones to offend any particular group of electors. In this case the potentially "offended" group in question didn't even request such special treatment of their membership. Having been a federal Returning Officer for the past decade I can attest to the fact that many of those gaping holes in the legislation were exploited on a regular and very organized basis - mostly by established political parties, by the way - and regardless of what individual Returning Officers did we were censured for trying to ensure the spirit of the Act was not transgressed. If any citizen or candidate complained we were left on our own recognizance - no support even when one begged in writing - as I did - for some sort of ruling from head office. You know - that one man, one vote thang? Maybe the boss knew that I was blogging to you too. Maybe that had something to do with the decisions made last winter. Never know I guess. "Anyone who does not support the best that is within you, is too small for you. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us."
The other invitation arrived in the mail. My son noticed it was hand-written and addressed to me and I noticed it had been opened and resealed. It is for a weekend workshop in October with the writer of that book the secret as well as an opening presentation by one of the most well-known/notorious entrepreneurs in real estate in the US. I have to think my name came off some mailing list or other but I don't belong to any type of group that I would consider a target market for that type of enterprise. Just curious that's all.
Anyway I'd better crawl into bed now or I won't be functional enough should my grand-daughter continue on in the vein she played today. Too easy to outwit a grand-mother with only half her wits about her. Good night dear diary.
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