October 24, 2023 a thought for today, He is wise in vain who does not use his wisdom for his own advantage. Latin Proverb

The first upload for yesterday was “dark.” This was taken from a darkened room into a room with the lights on. I like the position of the lighting from the darkened portion.

This is the “busy” week. Two days at food pantry, an evening meeting, the weekly bulletin and the monthly newsletter as well as two inserts for the bulletin. The bulletin, newsletter, inserts and one meeting are done. 

We are having a gorgeous autumn day. The sun is bright, the temperature is dropping and the leaves are in full color and falling with the breezes. 

......I’m back from food pantry. It was a comparatively slow day. We only had about seventeen families. We have been having about thirty plus families. When people are coming in at a slower pace the time seems to drag. Those of us working the pantry have time for chatting and “bonding”, which is nice. 

The next upload is another of the “my choice” image. This one is from the archives and seems to fit the coming season of harvest and Halloween. 

Now it’s time to catch up on this and that around here, picking one thing up and cleaning up a space as we play catch as catch can. 

My first upload for today is “light”. I was sitting at a traffic light an intended to snap a shot of the traffic lights but notices that I was catching the sun also. 

The word today is belief. Be sure you put your feet in the right place then stand firm, Abraham Lincoln.  What we wish, we readily believe, and what we ourselves think, we imagine others think also, Julius Caesar.  The distance is great from the firm belief to the realization from concrete experience, Isabella I.  Alas, the fearful Unbelief is unbelief in yourself, Thomas Carlyle. I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. Isaac Newton. All the great ages have been ages of belief, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Men are most apt to believe what they least understand, Pliny The Elder.  Human beliefs, like all other natural growths, elude the barrier of systems, George Eliot. Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. You believe easily that which you hope for earnestly, Terence. We are slow to believe that which if believed would hurt our feelings, Ovid. We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples, Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

The second upload for today is another of the “my choice” and another from my archives. I liked the position of the two evergreen trees and of the clouds against the blue sky. 

I’m not a politically minded person but the right form of politics are necessary to a peacefully working society. I think the question in this article is necessary to understand. This question was posed by a 13-year-old student in Arizona “Why do voters have to pick a Republican or a Democrat in the US? Why can’t it be Republican vs. Republican or Democrat vs. Democrat?” An Assistant Professor of Political Science wrote an answer to her question. The article began with the statement that we have a variety of choices about so many things in our lives, except in the choice of the president or governor or mayor. The professor wrote that there is a law called “Duverger’s law, named after French political scientist Maurice Duverger.” Basically it means that there are a set of rules “known as single-winner plurality voting.” It means only one candidate can win. Boiling it down it means that a party “is most likely to win if it runs (or nominates) only one candidate.” An example in the story is a teacher throws a class party and will order food the students want. The teacher will order only one food for all the class “(single winner)”. That food will be whatever gets the most votes “(plurality vote)”. There are ten votes for pizza with different toppings. There are seven votes for ice cream. There could be a winner if pizza is chosen with only one of the many toppings chosen. So in the two party system of voting people with similar “but not identical preferences” can work together or they will lose. The people running the party have to build a collection of expectations that a group of voters want to happen. One of the “parties” will offer a set of ways to accomplish something, the other party will have a different way to fulfill a need. The article went on to explain that many voters want to chose only between two parties. But it doesn’t mean that there can only be two parties running. The article mentioned the fact that “the U.S. Constitution does not allow for only two political parties.” Many of th Founding Fathers were “skeptical” of this notion “fearing that they would divide the American people and serve the interests of ambitious politicians.” Eventually these “visionaries” helped to form the first political parties as they realized” the importance of coordinating with like-minded people to win elections.” There are times in elections that “independents” not affiliated with a party run but they rarely win. At times there may be two candidates from the same party that want to run. Then an “open primary” vote occurs where one of the people who choose to run are chosen before the main election. In any case the winner in the final election is the candidate who gets more than 50% of the vote. 

I am going to have beer battered fish and shoestring fires in the air fryer for dinner. 

Joy

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