I hope you are okay with my weekly reflections, observations, and reveries. I try to keep my thoughts on mental health, but my mind often wanders and ends up in a philosophical orbit around life and living. Please know I appreciate our conversations each week. Lucy listens with excellent eye contact and cocks her little head back and forth as I chatter, but its’ not the same as organizing my thoughts with the written word and sharing them with you, my readers. Thank you!

I want to talk politics today, which is taboo, but I spent most of my TV time this week watching the process of electing the Speaker of the House. From a mental health standpoint, I should have stuck with Hallmark and the Wheel of Fortune.

I watched the proceedings with discouragement. I didn’t care who “won” the position, but I wondered how in a pool of 435 adults, not one said, “This isn’t working. Maybe we need to change our tactics or choices.” They kept doing the same thing repeatedly, expecting different results.

I thought the process was a cosmic view of extremes—chaos and order. I’ve worked in and with many systems and learned that the system’s rules might not be perfect. But with logical, compassionate, and cooperative effort, system values and protocol can be upheld while working
toward successful solutions. Systems fail if a few people are more interested in their agenda or advancement than the good of the whole. I’ve also thought if you don’t like the system, leave and take your friends.

Following are my general conclusions from the proceedings:

If what you are doing is not working, change what you are doing

Don’t give energy to the bully—it fuels them.

Listen more than you talk.

The end doesn’t justify the means.

God bless the worker bees who perform with expertise, efficiency, and patience.

Success is more complex than just winning.

Silence is powerful.

Untrue words spoken to avoid personal loss are empty.

Money, men, and women can control yet not lead.

Is victory a win if we compromise ourselves or the system we represent?

Friends and leaders are our mirrors—it’s best to like, trust, and respect what we see.

People use people.

Buyers and voters, beware.

History confirms that the desire to control can deprive us of morals, values, and personal responsibility.

Leaders are influential if they rule with expertise, compassion, and communication.

Bully leaders attract followers out of fear and the desire to belong with power.

Some of the 435 lost the battle, some lost the war, and I lost a little hope.

McCarthy won the gavel, and time will tell what he sacrificed and compromised and how polished he is at leading 435 adults. I wish him well—I wish them all well.

Until the next time: Live while you live.

Jennifer Goble, Ph.D., LPC, is the author of “My Clients…My Teachers,” and the blogger and writer of Rural Women Stories: www.ruralwomenstories.com.

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