The thing I enjoyed most about Trump being president was that it went against the rules we conform to, and since conform to all over again. That you have to be a certain person with a certain background in order to do a certain job. I don’t think that’s true as often as people want to believe it. So many with the correct credentials, the correct pieces of paper, do not necessarily do their jobs well because intelligence and understanding aren’t answers to a multiple choice questionnaire. Received a compliment one time from the pianist I studied with. I didn’t find his teaching skills so memorable or even useful. What stood out in my memory was the pleasure he seemed to get seeing students humiliated. I kept my distance. But he could play much better than me. Hanging out with someone more skilled was the lesson. The experiential situation of listening and frequently viewing his techniques, posture, skill, helped me comprehend new things just from proximity. More than anything said or exercise shared. The compliment happened during my final exam, there was another person in the room, a young female student he was friends with (whatever that means) and while I played he turned to her and pointed at me, “you can’t teach people how to do that” and I tried to stay cool but was thrilled and flattered. Last night I applied to be the Dean of a creative faculty at a certain school. I’m no Dean but I had to change a transmission during a tour once in the Rockies while making sure the drummer didn’t quit while making sure the t-shirts were mailed to the right location in Vancouver while making sure the promoter put up posters while making sure I did the interview on time while making sure there were drink tickets for the band while making sure the housesitting friend was correctly taking care of my cat while remembering my lyrics and I probably won’t get an interview but I read the details and thought how much harder can being a Dean be? I’m not saying Trump was good or bad, just that the way we frame what makes someone worthy of an authoritative position doesn’t convince me as much as fascinate me. I bet many non-brain surgeons, who have jobs like cleaning houses, or teaching kids, or collecting garbage, or selling cappuccinos, or driving cabs, could shadow a brain surgeon and be good just because they have the basic intelligence and understanding that isn’t necessarily teachable but experiential. (now insert Peggy Lee)Let’s break out the booze and have a ballIf that’s all there is…