Thing To Do Today: join a ginger group.

Groucho Marx famously didn't want to join any club that would have him as a member (which is one of the worrying things about the idea of heaven: I mean, some of those saints...).

But what if you want something done, and the only way to get it done is to join in with a group of other people?

Well, the thing to bear in mind is that most of the energy of any group goes into maintaining its own structure. This will keep the majority of its members perfectly absorbed and happy, so if you want anything actually, you know, achieved, then it will gradually become clear to you (unless you allow yourself, like most of your colleagues, to be diverted by Rules of Procedure and Any Other Business) that you will have to Do It Yourself.

Now the problem with Doing It Yourself is that the reason for joining the group in the first place is that you can't Do It Yourself: and so you will have to gather together a few friends who are similarly frustrated and form a ginger group to gee everyone up.

Everyone else will profess admiration and support for you. They may even put your cause (rather a long way down) on the minutes of the next meeting.

So your best bet really is that some idiot will change the Rules of Procedure and get you a shot at power. And then you'll find out whether what you want to achieve is a good thing.

Mind you, by that time, you'll probably have got institutionalised by all the rules yourself, and won't want to change anything.

Ah well!

Thing To Do Today: form a ginger group. Ginger is spicy enough to wake up even the blandest meal, and that seems to be the idea behind a ginger group. The word ginger comes from the Latin zinziberi, from the Greek zingiberis, probably from the Sanskrit śrńgaveram, from śrńga- horn, plus vera, body, from the shape of the root.