Nice and rough

A guy I work with told me a few weeks ago that I am "not a normal person."
Then last Friday he told me I was "nothing like Tina Turner."

He's cruisin'.
-------------------------

You know,

Every now and then,

I think you might

like to hear something

from us, nice --

and easy.

But there's just one thing.

You see, we

nevah --

evah --

do nothing --

nice.

And easy.

We always do it nice --

and rough.

Now we're gonna take

the beginning of this song--

and do it --

easy.

But then we're gonna

do the finish --

rough.

That's the way

we do

"Proud Mary."

-------------------

Aside from being a white woman with no talent,

I am (wish to be) -- EXACTLY.

Like Tina Turner.

------------------------------------------

The name of the book (reviewed last week in NYTms) I've referred to is, Daniel Patrick Moynihan: A Portrait in Letters of an American Visionary.

Looking at the Times review, I found so much that seemed relatable.

The review (written by David Brooks, October 15, 2010) says,

"Moynihan, for much of his public life, wrote long, substantive letters. These were neither gossipy notes nor dishy character sketches. Though a skilled writer, Moynihan didn't have a literary mind....

Instead, his letters recorded the evolving intellectual adventure of a restless mind. Moynihan explored the grand themes of history and tried to understand the times in the most ambitious of ways: the cultural implications of the shift from the industrial to the post-industrial society, the disaffection of the intellectual class, the foreign policy implications of ethnic tension in a post-Communist world."

Trying to figure things out.

Moynihan became an adviser to a series of elected leaders --

Gov. Averell Harriman, New York;

and Presidents

Kennedy,

Johnson,

and Nixon.

(I liked the bipartisanship of that. He wasn't stuck with only one party. And THEN -- look how he advised...)

Brooks writes, "He [Moynihan] urged Nixon to lead an administration of 'Tory men with Liberal principles' -- a characteristicallly hybrid formulation, this time blending opposed ideologies."

----------------

That's because of course there are good ideas on both sides.

Political leaders and people in government, just like in any environment, need to Get Their Work Done, not spend their time fighting and saying terrible, mean things about each other.

Not a complex idea.

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