1/10/2021
MDFP, JRB,
How are you dealing with all of the assessments people are offering about your performance in your first year of office? I find it hard to handle negative feedback so I tend to avoid reading my course evaluations until I am in just the right mindset. I only get those a couple of times a year. I can only imagine what it must be like to have people judging you on a daily basis.
M.D. Shear, writing in the NYT, posits that you have changed your tone & are on the attack. Being a Quaker, I prefer to avoid pugnacious vocabulary so rather than claiming that you have “come out swinging against the GOP,” I prefer his characterization that you are “forcing a choice” so Americans are clear about what you stand for. In any case, his article shows that you are getting attention which, as I have been telling you lately, is essential.
Richard Ford’s assessment of you is a bit different. He says you aren’t getting the credit you deserve because people don’t really know you. He would, “feel better if I knew what made Joe Biden really angry, and beyond that could know who fears him.” I disagree. In fact, I am attending some professional development today to learn to avoid anger when having a “crucial conversation.” People find it hard to process your message when it is delivered with a hostile tone. So, I’d prefer you stay calm, but make it clear when you are disappointed when someone doesn’t follow through. The Buddhists might call it “detachment.” They suggest that we need to be curious about our negative emotions so they don’t get the best of us.
Speaking of Buddha, I continue to hope that some monks will use their status in Myanmar to bring peace to the nation.
Finally, please help me understand why we don’t have energy star ratings for stoves. I am contemplating getting a new one & would love some unbiased info from the govn’t to inform my decision. If we want to CCC we need energy efficient appliances. Time to get busy on that front.
BYBS,
