My new posted picture, politics, and my seminar yesterday

At my last book sale event downtown, one of the men who approached my table remarked that I did not look like my picture in my back cover. I was not too disturbed about that. The author on my right was constantly being informed that she did not look like her picture. So recently, I looked at myself in the mirror and decided it was time to put on another face. During one of my business seminars, I learned that we should post professional pictures etc......So of course in this instance I did the opposite. This is me, in the morning, with no makeup, with blonde hair, making faces, snapping pictures and having fun. The birds are a nice contribution from my new computer. It is two years since my last photo. I forgot that I change my hair colour as often as the sales permit. Anyhow, enough about my photo. We need humour in life. Yesterday, I attended another day event. This was outside my professional organizations. It began with a politician. We were informed that she came, regardless of her busy schedule. That killed me. I am always amused by politicians. They have this aura of importance, sophistication and smoothness. This of course excludes the city favourite "Rob Ford". After all the people voted for him, perhaps because of his no nonsence, matter of fact, let's stop the "gravy train." After her short speech and before she disappeared to another venue, where she would be appreciated because of her busy schedule, we were informed by the host to vote for her. Again, I was amused. I turned to the woman at my right and said "conservative." She nodded in agreement. So much for that attempt at voting liberal. However, I am sure that many will vote for who they are told to vote for. We forget that in a democratic society that voting should always be a personal and informed choice. All I can think of is what I call the "billion dollar apology." We were placed in groups of about fifteen or twenty and then my group went into our first stream. The facilitator is an actor and he conducts some sort of what I would call therapy. He has everyone describing themselves as a fruit. Then we play a game where we call out the fruit, from one place of the room and exchange places with that person at the centre of the room. It was quite fun and I determined that it was a form of memory exercise. I was also interested in how people defined themselves as a particular fruit. Then we had to identify some aspect of ourselves and if someone else shared that, then we would have to move to a place that was emptied by another, and if we were the odd person out, than we would be the ones to identify something new. Finally, and before a bell rang that our time was up in this group work, we described our health perspective from when we were 10 years old, to our present time, from a half point time in our lives. We would move from one portion of the room to the other from a percentage of 1 to 100. At the end of that, people had the opportunity to share why they felt their health merited the score they gave themselves. I found it interesting to note that health changed and reversed itself. Some of the group felt better as an older person. Before people had the opportunity to share the bell rang that our session was over. This was too bad, because it would have offered the people to share more. I found this technique quite interesting and will certainly want to lear more about it. I deduced that this was a type of memory exercise, reflective exercise, physical exercise and support exercise. It also offered the group to talk about something that bothers them. I stored this into memory for the future. A fairly big space is required. During our next session, the woman identified herself as a "specialist," the word medical was in there and something else that I cannot recall. I never heard of this title before and no qualifications were offered. I have no idea if she has university training, college or a certificate. I am always cautious when no education is revealed. I am cautious when no college or association is revealed that the person is responsible to. It did not take long for her biases to be revealed. She believes that female physicians are better than male physicians. She talked about being informed and medications that may not be suitable for the individual. I listened and then having a big mouth, I called it. I spoke of biases. I informed her and the group that there are no differences in the quality of service by a doctor simply by gender alone. I also spoke of the importance of not disregarding the importance of medication. I was afraid that people would leave the room and stop taking their medications. I said as much. I think her information was much more guarded afterwards - biases removed. Later she approached me, thanking me for making her more aware of the consequences. I told her that people come from a variation of cultures and education. With some in the group, their English language is limited. They may not have access to what is available to make an informed decision. In other words they may take what she is saying as gospel. I was not impressed. OUr final session was very informative. She is a dietician and she quickly made us a smoothie and a healthy bean spread. I left there deciding that I am replacing ice cream with yogurt. I will search for my blender and will eat more healthy. Lunch was also very, very healthy. Let's see how I make out? I believe in balance so I am not giving up my pizza, banana splits etc....However, they will not be my staple food, no sireeeee. It was a very informative day in more ways than one. Next week I will be going to a FSNA meeting and a business forum type of day. The latter will be my first. I shall let you know if there is anything I learn that may be of interest. To summarize from what I learned today which was either learned through observation, omission and actual instruction: Vote for who you want and not from a person telling you who to vote for. There may be interior motives. There are countries where people have no choices. We are not one of them. Know the qualifications of who is speaking to you. Titles can be very glossy and misleading. Try to separate biases. This is learned and subjective. Always take medication as prescribed and don't just stop medication prescribed. This can have serious consequences. Speak to your doctor about your concerns and if you are not happy with your physician, find another. I shopped around after my last physician closed up shop. I saw three before I halted at this one. It is your body and it is your final decision but you want the best care and need to get it from the people who are trained to provide it. What do you think?