The Nun Theory

The Wall Street Journal has a new name for Hillary's strong performance among Catholics. They christened it 'the nun theory.'

The theory holds that Hill is doing so well with Catholics because we are familiar with strong female authority figures who can be both tough in their approach and specific in their remedy of social injustice. This fits in with my own feelings of Hillary that I shared here last summer.

In recent weeks I've actually attended mass a few times: both Roman Catholic and American Catholic. The latter is a liberal and gay-friendly Catholic denomination that is under no authority of Rome. The American Catholic community meets in an Episcopalian church in my hometown right across the street from the Roman Catholic parish where I was brought up and had my first communion and my confirmation. I'm not too religious, but you have to admit this is a pretty strange coincidence, especially in light of the fact that the first American Catholic mass I attended was at Northeastern University, not in the South Shore.

But back to HRC:

In a separate "Financial Times" article, Clive Crook had this to say about our own Iron Lady:

"If Mr Obama surges back in Pennsylvania, all this will be moot. If Mrs Clinton wins comfortably there, as the polls say she will, I would hesitate to bet against a Clinton-Obama ticket.

More than anything, this is a tribute to her titanic will to win. Here is the oddest thing about this peculiar race. Totting up the arithmetic, almost every political commentator in the US regards Mr Obama as the favourite to get the nomination – while harbouring, it seems to me, an inner conviction that Mrs Clinton will somehow find a way to steal it. You cannot imagine her giving up, short of being bound, gagged and sedated." [It's such a dark line, I couldn't help but laugh!]

I do hope Sister Hillary comes through. I just hope she doesn't rap Obama's knuckles in the process.

Discipline and flow

Gosh, it's been a while.

First things first, I'm cancer-free and have been since late October 2007. Four and a half months later I find myself a full time secretary and part time gym bunny. Recently I've enrolled in a beginner's creative writing class at the BCAE (Boston Center for Adult Education) called "Getting Started." It's the perfect antidote to a late winter malaise. My professor, an old, Southie retired firefighter named Jack Canavan, is having us do homework inspired by Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way." Namely:

1.) Write morning pages (3 pages of stream of consciousness a day).
2.) 30 minutes of "artist walking a day" (seeing, feeling, smelling, hearing the world around you).
3.) One date per week with your artist within (nice way to treat yourself).
4.) Read and become familiar with a little poetry.

It's good advice. A little 'discipline' applied each day doesn't make the word so crotchety. I'm not averse to 'discipline' but I do fancy the word 'flow.' Like a stream you have to let your creativity flow wherever it may wander. A flow is a stream's own discipline, an innate sense of its' own ways. Having 'discipline' however is having the humility to accept outside advice. I want both.