​Cognition testing’s time has come. It applies on a couple of critical fronts in the U.S. – voter registration and gun permitting.
 
On the voter front, to be eligible to vote you’d have to pass a short test to demonstrate you didn’t think A was B or someone’s political position was the exact opposite of what you believe it is. It would also be good to lay out some simple facts and test the applicant’s ability to demonstrate that s/he knows the facts from the farce. Pass and you get your voter card.
 
Same thing applies to guns. To demonstrate you can own and operate a gun, you must pass a mental health test. Questions designed to ferret out schizophrenia, severe anger management problems, bipolar disease and (throw in your personal favorites here) would need to be passed before a permit was issued.
 
Like any test, neither of these would be perfect. But both would serve important functions in our society.
 
For voter registration, the test would identify people who either don’t face reality about certain political facts by choice or lack of ability to recognize facts. If an individual cannot make a correct decision to pull the lever based a clear understanding of an actual situation at hand, then it doesn’t make sense to allow that person to select who leads our country (or your state of local community, for that matter).
 
Similarly, if you cannot demonstrate you are mentally stable on a simple test, putting a gun in your hands is not a good idea. People who believe in the good guys having the guns should jump on the bandwagon for this test.
 
While we’re at this, let’s throw in terms limits for people who are elected to the U.S House of Representatives, Senate and the Supreme Court. It’s time to open the door to continual fresh blood.
 
For years and years, I’ve supported letting voters chose when they go to their polling place. The greatest way to change faces is to exercise your right to vote. But for some reason, I’ve changed my view on this the past 3-4 years. Too many long-term entrenched elected officials have stayed in office for years past their prime.

Experience is a good thing. So is knowledge. Both qualities help get things done the right way.

But being in office too long breeds complacency. It also tends to give a larger voice to the big bucks contributors who support these officials, taking the voice away from the little guy. Having term limits – though it would not eliminate that problem -- would at least shake it up a little bit. And shaking things up is sometimes all you can do.
 
POTUS (President of the United States) is already term limited. It’s actually kind of odd that we don’t say you can be a U.S. Senator for 12 years (two terms) or Congressperson for 12 years (six terms) or a Supreme Court justice for 10 or 12 years before it’s time to exit and let someone else have a crack at the difficult issues of the day. If there’s gridlock, fresh blood can hopefully break it.
 
Breaking the long-term stranglehold that big money and entrenched interests have on our national political process will not be easy. These steps would help.

​The week before last, something new in a professional environment happened to me. It was a simple action, yet profound. The action should have occurred years and years and years ago, but hadn’t. Who knows why?
 
I attended a presentation in Waukesha County, WI. After the presentation, the Waukesha County Business Alliance, which put on the session, had someone at the door to collect your clear plastic name tags so they could used it again. To the best of my recollection, I can’t remember that recycling taking place at any other business presentation I’ve been to since those clear plastic name tag holders were invented.
 
Many times over the years I’ve ranted about the waste of one-time use plastics (and other materials). Something is manufactured. It’s packaged. That takes energy and resources. You buy the item, break it out of the container and throw away the waste (or if possible, recycle it).
 
The company making the one-time use product sold it and turns a profit. The costs of disposal are internalized and consumers ultimately pay.
 
My rant is more about the waste though. Using something one time, then tossing it just doesn’t make sense. And name tags are the worst.

“Here, Mr. Knothead, pin this to your shirt. Wear it this morning. Then throw it away. Enjoy the presentation.”
 
When I attend sessions like that, I fume about the lack of forethought. “Could someone please think about re-using these plastic receptacles?” We don’t need to keep pumping them off the production line, mindlessly shipping them all over the planet for one-time use.

When I attend meetings where name tags are handed out, I ask what will happen with them afterwards: “Are you going to recycle these? Have you thought about using them again?” Typically I am met with the blank stare of indifference or a shoulder shrug like, “It’s not my decision.”
 
It makes you wonder who takes responsibility for organizations in these situations. It makes so much sense (and is extremely easy) to implement. Get a box. Have someone stand at the door after the session ends and ask you to drop your clear plastic name tag holder into the box. Return to your office. Use them again next time you have a conference, seminar, summit, convention, meeting, presentation.
 
It can’t be that I am the only one who has thought of this. That’s probably what burns me more than anything. It’s not hard to come up with this solution. So why aren’t more businesses or organizations doing this when it makes so much sense to re-use this type of plastic product?
 
One can only assume that the product is either so cheap or the manufacturer has marketed key buyers so thoroughly and intensely that common sense is overwhelmed. “Uh, okay, ship me 17,321 plastic name tag holders for next year’s convention at one-and-a-half cents per item. That sounds like an awesome deal!”

And it is. It’s cheap. You feel like you got away with something. “YEAH, I can tell Humpenback that I saved $97 on this year’s $259,579 budget. That will get me a raise.”
 
Of course it won’t. Maybe it will make you look good in your boss’s eyes. I don’t know. But it certainly doesn’t look good when you think about all the garbage it creates from every one of those conferences going on around the globe. Next time re-use those name tag holders. You’ll feel better and do your part to cut plastic out of the supply chain.

​Recovery is not a straight line. Funny how people think there is a natural progression, and POOF, at the end of a few days or a week or three months (depending on your age and the natural healing powers of your body), you’re all better and back to normal, and able to dunk a basketball again. Not so.
 
Figuring out the body is not a machine (though it is a LOT like a machine in many ways) takes years. Some of us figure that out. Others don’t. The ones who don’t understand this tear some muscle that they should have stopped pushing years ago. When you reach the of stage of life where a repetitive athletic endeavor is causing you issues, it makes sense to moderate, if not stop the activity.

Instead, we often push on. There’s an injury, and you think, “Okay, I’ll be fine by the weekend.”
 
Years ago, I sprained an ankle playing basketball after coming down with a rebound. It had happened many times before, but at that stage of my life, I was also a referee and had a decent high school and small college schedule and didn’t want to back off from those games. So in John Wayne terms, “I laced up my shoes tightly” after taping the ankle, and limped through the next few games blowing the whistle.
 
The swelling went down quickly and I was fine probably a week or so later, with some twinges here and there to serve as a reminder. There were bad and good days, and it was one of those first situations where I understood your body doesn’t come back instantaneously from an injury.
 
More recently, I’ve had major surgery to remove bone spurs from my left heel, and in the process, the foot doctor had to pull my Achilles tendon out, tighten and replace it, and cut into my plantar fasciitis. That was a lot of stuff. I knew healing would take time, including rehab and backing off many activities.
 
But I didn’t realize how long it would take to better, nor the erratic nature of improvement. There were those first two months where I expected nothing. I knew there’d be pain and swelling and I’d be in physical therapy and needed to stretch, ice and rest. Slowly, things got better.
 
People would ask, “How’s it going?” For the most part, I could answer, “A little better than last week.”
 
Then, suddenly, for about eight days, excruciating pain returned 10 weeks after the surgery. It was sudden, unexpected and odd. “Why now?,” I thought. “What did I do to aggravate the surgical areas?”
 
I couldn’t figure that out. What I did figure out was that healing is not a straight line. You don’t incrementally every day (or week or probably even on a monthly basis) improve. There are good days and weeks and bad days and weeks. You must accept that.
 
Respect the little victories. Celebrate mild improvement.
 
Several months ago, someone posted a picture on LinkedIn that showed a bunch of squiggly lines looping around and around, crossing each other. They were juxtaposed with a straight line. The headline was something to the effect of the squiggly line image being “What Success Looks Like.” The straight line was not. It’s the same with getting healthy.