{"id":12473,"date":"2017-01-06T11:53:29","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T16:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=12473"},"modified":"2017-01-07T11:07:41","modified_gmt":"2017-01-07T16:07:41","slug":"5-friday-faves-politics-and-a-confession-beyond-the-guitar-must-see-documentaries-writing-your-story-and-the-tail-end-of-life-plus-bonuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=12473","title":{"rendered":"5 Friday Faves – Politics and a Confession, Beyond the Guitar, Must-See Documentaries, Writing Your Story, and the Tail End of Life – Plus Bonuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Friday Faves <\/em>– my favorite finish to a writing week. It suffers when I travel…today, I’m home. Lots of faves over the last several weeks went without my pushing them forward to you. I’ve added some bonuses to this one to pull in a few more.<\/p>\n

Hope you are doing well in this first week of the New Year. I wrote about making resolutions and experiencing real change<\/a> earlier. New resolve is something as welcome as each new year. It helps me, for sure…no matter how successful, I am energized by resolution. Glad for new beginnings.<\/p>\n

Here are this week’s 5 and a handful of bonuses:<\/p>\n

1) Politics and a Confession – <\/strong>Whatever your political bent, we are in a new era in the US. The presidential inauguration is fast-approaching, and President-elect Trump will become the next POTUS. I have enjoyed reading the pundits on their take on the new normal<\/em>. Two of my favorite finds this week are from very different: pieces by New York Times writer Ross Douthat<\/a> and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich<\/a>. From\u00a0opposing sides, their\u00a0articles (with Gingrich, it was a speech delivered after the 2016 Presidential election)\u00a0are enlightening and the stuff that will help us move forward and cross aisles toward a nation for all Americans.\"\"<\/a>Photo Credit: Joshua Lott, New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n

Hope you take the time to read them…would love to hear your take on them (Comment below). Also Gingrich refers his audience to an article<\/a> by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. In it, Taleb describes the Intellectual Yet Idiot – “the inner circle of no-skin-in-the-game policymaking ‘clerks’ and journalists-insiders, that class of paternalistic semi-intellectual experts with some Ivy league, Oxford-Cambridge, or similar label-driven education who are telling the rest of us 1) what to do, 2) what to eat, 3) how to speak, 4) how to think\u2026 and 5) who to vote for…The IYI pathologizes others for doing things he doesn\u2019t understand without ever realizing it is his<\/em> understanding that may be limited.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I felt so vindicated in Taleb’s article –\u00a0probably not an intellectual, hopefully not an idiot.<\/p>\n

2) Beyond the Guitar – <\/strong>When Nathan’s Facebook hits on his Star Wars Medley<\/em> <\/a>passed 1.3 millions, I was like, “What?!” Not because I don’t complete agree with the beauty of these themes when arranged for classical guitar…but because of that whole social media phenomenon. Wild! Anyway, here’s his latest arrangement of Princess Leia’s Theme<\/em><\/a> – as a tribute to Carrie Fisher:<\/p>\n