Where's the Dog Whisperer?

Cesar Milan, the popular television star, trains pet owners. He teaches owners to project a calm and assertive presence toward their animals. The unruly pets respond dramatically. Their neuroses evaporate. They calm down, become obedient and may even be grateful for the presence of pack leadership. Owner-pet teamwork flourishes. Milan ought to expand his practice. Leaders in congress could use his training.

Cycle of Angst

The morning after the congressional $700 billion bail out bust, Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor wrote, "Two cities joined Monday in a mutually reinforcing cycle of angst and fear that shook the nation's political and financial foundations and sent the Dow spiraling into its worst one-day loss." While Taylor doesn't explain how the cycle of angst and fear (in Washington D.C. and New York City) actually worked, the capitol was a laboratory of illustration.
Lawmakers, resonsible for making a clear and rational decision on a critical issue created instead opportunities to give and receive offense from and to each other.
Given the behaviors, we can have no confidence that non-anxious and calm leadership was used to explore, consider, think through and act on a best course.

Every Ten Minutes

A good friend, a music teacher, and I were talking about the need for improvisation in the classroom. He describes public education administrators as rigid formula-following folks who advocate the use of processes often dreamed up in someplace other than the local classroom.
My friend mentioned a conversation he had with an administrator who asked him, "How often do you modify your cirriculum"? My friend's answer, "Every ten minutes". It wasn't the answer the administrator expected. The standard frequency is about four times during the school year.
But, the music teacher understands the fluidity of the learning/teaching moment and how he must continuously adjust his environment to make learning happen for his students.

Plan on more anxiety

I had a conversation with a bright woman who runs an important and successful community theatre. She had invited a group supporting a state referendum measure to use the facility for their mission advocating for a particular vote. Another user of the facility was offended and angered. She called the decision "inappropriate". My friend was managing her own disappointment at the reaction but remained confident of her decision on behalf of activism. Later, I wrote her an email, a portion of which stated, "The sabotage and resistance you get to this sort of thing has absolutely nothing to do with the correctness of your decision. It has everything to do with the current state of peoples’ anxieties. Expect this condition to worsen around you before it gets better. Anxiety inviting phenomena are growing around us. Your best response is to remain confident enough of your position so that you refuse to enter into others’ fears about whatever they are fearful about".
Things are scarey. They're getting scarier. Resist the powerful pull to join others in their deepening anxieites about their lives.