Three Beautiful Things 05/23/18: "Power Causes Brain Damage", More Clean Up, I Was a Basketball Clown

1. A recent article in The Atlantic posits a compelling thesis, summed up in the article's title, "Power Causes Brain Damage" (hat tip to Russell for posting this piece on Facebook). The claims the article asserts about power, much like a traumatic brain injury, causing a lack of empathy, an increase in impulsiveness, a diminishment of awareness about risk, and a shrinking of the ability to see the individual qualities in people, thus relying more on stereotypes, gave me another way to read the actions of Richard Nixon as I continue to make my way through Lukas' Nightmare: The Underside of the Nixon Years.

The reading I did today had the old Guess Who song, "Undun" running through my head as the carefully planned and orchestrated cover up of illicit activity put in motion by the Nixon Administration slowly fell apart. The dirty tricks, break-ins, money laundering, and other underhanded schemes didn't seem to bother Richard Nixon. Neither did the fabrications to cover them up.  Seizing power, holding power, screwing over enemies, exacting revenge, and having loyal people working for him mattered the most. But a host of people under his power were bothered, couldn't sustain the lies, and began to tell the truth, whether motivated by conscience, feeling betrayed by Nixon operatives, or both. The unravelling got underway.

2. I borrowed Christy and Everett's pickup and took the lilac branches and trunks to the Transfer Station along with a few other things. I swear, if I had a pickup I'd go to the dump every day. It's so easy. We pay to use the dump through our sanitation fees so all I have to do is have the person working at the entry make a quick check of what I'm disposing of and head to the proper bins and get rid of what I've brought. It's also a great relief to me just to get stuff like weeds, lilac branches, broken furniture, recyclable cans and magazines, etc. out of here and simple clear up the clutter before it builds up too much.

3.  If you'd like to read about my most farcical performance on the basketball court in high school, I've posted a piece that tells the story. In our most recent Sibling Assignment, my sisters and I each shared a memory of performing on stage at Kellogg High School and, for me, Andrews Gymnasium, Kellogg's home court, was the stage as I made the whole gymnasium laugh at my ineptness. The story is here.