1. When your child’s an introvert.
2. Economic incentives don’t always do what we want them to. Heresy compliments of two Nobel Prize winners.
3. The happy, healthy capitalists of Switzerland. More cow bell.
4. The virtuous circle of product placement in Apple TV+ shows. Sigh.
5. Avoid burnout before you’re already burned out.
Despite the demagogues rhetoric, the U.S. is becoming more inclusive. In part because of changing demograpics. Nearly eight years ago, we elected our first African American President. Then we re-elected him.
Odds are we’re going to elect our first female President this November. When though, will we elect our second female President? Our second African American? Our first Latino or Latina? Second Latino or Latina?
A conservative friend writes me and says this election shouldn’t have anything to do with gender. Only excellence. I guess I’m supposed to believe it’s a crazy coincidence that forty four times in a row a man has been most excellent just as one could flip a coin forty four times and have it come up heads everytime. Sure, that’s plausible.
Only when we join the following list will candidates’ gender start to fade in importance.
Countries that have had more than one female leader (includes acting, interim leaders etc)^
| Switzerland (6) | Six presidents* |
| Sri Lanka (3) | One president, two prime ministers |
| Haiti (3) | One president, two prime ministers |
| Finland (3) | One president, two prime ministers |
| South Korea (3) | Two prime ministers, one president |
| Lithuania (3) | One president, two prime ministers |
| Argentina (2) | Two presidents |
| Bangledesh (2) | Two prime ministers |
| Central African Republic (2) | One president, one prime minister |
| Guyana (2) | One president, one prime minister* |
| Iceland (2) | One president, one prime minister |
| India (2) | One president, one prime minister |
| Ireland (2) | Two presidents |
| Israel (2) | One president, one prime minister |
| Liberia (2) | Two presidents |
| Philippines (2) | Two presidents |
| New Zealand (2) | Two prime ministers |
| São Tomé and Príncipe (2) | Two prime ministers |
| Sengal (2) | Two prime ministers |
*Switzerland has seen six female presidential terms, though two of those were held by the same woman. Guyana’s tally is also debatable, since their female prime minister and female president were the same person.
^ Source
Removed from the realities of other people’s day-to-day lives, we lose touch with them.
Politicians lose touch with their constituents all the time. Many have no idea what a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk costs. If our politicians had to do their own taxes, think they might get serious about tax simplification?
One recent afternoon, the Prime Minister of Norway decided he’d try to reconnect with common people by posing as a taxi cab driver. I’d give him more credit if he didn’t film it so expertly so that it would get reported on even by distant bloggers. The catalyst no doubt was the fact that he’s behind in the polls. Norway’s population is similar to Washington State’s, so for me, it would be like getting driven by our Governor.
Living through my daughter’s transition from high school to college has taught me I’ve lost touch with the first year college students I teach. Now days, I don’t fully appreciate how hard it is to leave home, live in a small room with a stranger, and have to start from complete scratch making friends.
Similarly, I’ve lost touch with the teaching challenges my grad students will inevitably face when they student teach in primary and secondary schools. Visiting schools is a poor substitute for teaching day in, day out.
Accustomed as I am to having a well-stocked pantry and fridge, I’ve lost touch with people who don’t have enough to eat. Make that the poor more generally. I wonder, what it would be like to not have any savings? Or be in serious debt? To feel like the hole is getting deeper and deeper?
Last week it was reported that 40% of whites have only white friends (and 25% of ethnic minorities have only friends from within their ethnic group). My hometown lacks ethnic diversity for sure, but thanks to the GalPal, I spent one evening last week at a nearby lake with family friends from Mexico. Their 12 year-old daughter taught me how to jet-ski. Despite occasional lake get togethers, I’m not in touch with first generation Americans who aren’t terribly comfortable with English, are supporting extended family members, and are no doubt worried about whether we’ll ever pass meaningful immigration reform.
My favorite People Magazine news story from last week involved Oprah, a $38,100 purse, and a Swiss shop owner who lost touch with the fact that non-whites can in fact be extremely wealthy. O made $77m last year. Oops.
The shop owner’s gaffe is a reminder that all of us live in varying degrees of out-of-touchness. All the time.
The only antidote is curiosity. We need to acknowledge the limits of our understanding and ask questions of others. And listen and learn.
Pressing Pause 