idiocorb

Keeping Covenants (continued)

2010-07-21T00:02:00.010-04:00

In response to a comment left on the previous post “Keeping Covenants” I write the following.

While I was initially writing my talk I thought maybe I should clarify a couple of items but decided that the intended audience would understand, but now I see I need to clarify as I have presented this talk to a much wider audience. I am hesitant to post what I have written as this may make me out to be a religious fanatic or some crazy lunatic, which I might be, but I guess if I believe what I have already stated previously that I must hold up the light which is Christ then stating what I have below is not wrong as my intent is humble and I seek truth and understanding.

In the quote by Sister Ann Dibb she speaks of blessings of being a member of the LDS church. The blessings of which she is speaking include the covenants that members of the LDS church have entered into with God for which she is expressing gratitude, but she is also expressing gratitude for what the covenants enable her to do as an LDS church member. My purpose was to show the significance of covenants in the life of an LDS church member which is why adding that the blessings are “everything” as stated by President Monson, president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was important.

In general, a covenant is something that exceeds the bounds of this life and our present understanding of time. It is essentially eternal by nature and as such must be viewed from that perspective. Given its nature it is difficult to weigh its importance within the bounds of just this life. Though a covenant in this life may act like an anchor giving one guidance and stability in a world full of disruption and commotion a more important purpose (in my opinion) is that a covenant binds us to eternity or to God.

Entering into a covenant with God means to accept and keep his commandment and in return receive something from him. It is essentially a promise between two individuals but with more meaning and ritual involved. As Sister Dibb remarks, the blessings of being a member of the church are part of the return received from God but the covenant is not complete just because one made a covenant or received a blessing, as a covenant is eternal by nature and does not end there.

The question is asked whether or not one can have fulfillment in this life and not be a member of the LDS church. I say one can have whatever life one wants, and can fill it with whatever one wants. Whether it is fulfilling is dependent on how the individual defines fulfillment. Entering into a covenant with God does not make my life fulfilled but rather moves me a step closer to knowing and understanding God. Going back to an earlier reference, making covenants is like following the rod of iron to the Tree of Life. I have seen a figurative tree as Lehi did and I want to partake of the fruit. In order for me to get it I must follow the prescribed path laid out by one who has authority and knowledge to guide me. I believe that authority is God as described by the LDS church and the covenants I make are an essential part of the plan that he has authored.

I don’t believe that fulfillment can happen in this life regardless of religion, but this life is a stepping stone to the next phase in the eternal progression. Additionally, I do believe that the covenants I have made with God as a member of the LDS church are taking me in the right direction in that eternal progression, and that is where I want to go.

As for those who are not members of the LDS church, I believe, and it is taught as doctrine, that all people will have an opportunity to knowingly receive or reject the “blessings” that God has to offer. That time may not be while alive in this state but rather after you die. I do believe that in order for one to have the fulfillment as God intended then the covenants must be made as prescribed by the LDS church, but that is only if one wants that type or kind of fulfillment.

I ask the same question again as I did previously, and as Alma did in the Book of Mormon, have you experienced a mighty change of heart or felt to sing the song of redeeming love? If not then you may not want the fulfillment which I am discussing. If you do or are at all curious to know then I would suggest you find out.

Additionally, I mentioned that there are those who did not grab hold of the iron rod and were left to themselves or to Satan, but I should clarify by stating that they are left to whichever god, dogma, or philosophy they choose. To make a broader application of the figurative tree, everyone, LDS or not, finds their own tree that bears them fruit and they go after it. It is a matter of where you choose to place your faith or whether you choose to have faith at all.

For those who are LDS and have made covenants with God they should realize that these covenants are not something idle but need to be treated with upmost importance. For those who have not entered into the covenants per the LDS church, they are still left to decide what they will do. As Lehi’s dream describes, all people are out in the midst of darkness trying to find their way. Where they are going is up to the individual though it could be argued that there are other forces in play as well (e.g. addiction, mental illness, peer pressure, or pride) which dictate to a degree one’s behavior.

I think the following conversation between Jesus and his disciples is appropriate to highlight here as it suggests why I, and I assume most LDS members and other Christians, follow Christ.

John 6:66-69 “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou are that Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Similarly, it is my choice whether I stay and follow Christ or leave. It is the same for everyone, but I choose to follow him.

Can one be happy not being a member of the LDS church? Yes.
Can one live a fulfilling life and not be a member of the LDS church? Yes, because the individual defines it as such.
Do other religions say the same thing? As I have explained it I would say no.
Does being a member of the LDS church bring me automatic happiness? No, but there is a lot of potential happiness in store.
Do I believe that fulfillment is subjective? Only to a degree as I think there are limited capacities to many types of fulfillment that are possible, but obtaining fulfillment is according to what one desires and is a personal journey (i.e. in Lehi’s dream there was no one keeping each person’s hand holding the rod of iron as they went along though there were outside influence all around).
Do I think that happiness is a one size fits all? No, but there are common universal threads.
Are there those who will find more fulfillment outside of religion and the LDS church? Yes, because that is how they decide to define it and shape it, but here is where I start to wonder about limited capacities.
Do I believe that the LDS church is the right place for everyone or can one find the most happiness possibly desired in the LDS church? Yes, but only if he/she, as I previously stated, has a desire to enter into the path, is humble to do all that God asks, has faith in the power and authority of God, hopes in the promised blessings, and strives to obtain charity otherwise no.

Keeping Covenants

2010-07-11T22:14:00.006-04:00

I was asked to speak in church today and the following is the main body of my address if you are interested in reading.

I would like to read part of Lehi’s account of his dream of the Tree of Life. This account is one of the most profound yet simple to understand of all analogies concerning God, life, and our existence and cannot be pondered enough. Elder Jeffery R. Holland says it is “a great parable of life, an extended allegory of hope versus fear, of light versus darkness, of salvation versus destruction” (General Conference October 2009).

Lehi states:

“For behold, methought I saw in my dream, a dark and dreary wilderness. And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed in a white robe; and he came and stood before me. And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me follow him. And it came to pass that as I followed him I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste. And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies. And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field. And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy. And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen. And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy.” (1Nephi 8:4-12)

This passage helps to explain why as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we do what we do. We have seen a “tree, whose fruit is desirable to make one happy," and we are going forward to partake of it. This is a figurative tree like one you might see in a dream, as Lehi did, but the affect on our resolve and belief is not figurative. We can liken the seeing of a “tree” to what Alma inquires of the people of the church during one of his great discourses asking if they have “experienced a change of heart” or “felt to sing the song of redeeming love” (Alma 5:26). If we have lost sight of this “tree," have weakened our changed heart, or forgotten how to sing the song of redemption then we need to be reminded again and humble ourselves. And as Alma continues:

“Behold, he (God) sendeth an invitation unto all men, for the arms of mercy are extended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you. Yea, he saith: Come unto me and ye shall partake of the fruit of the tree of life; yea, ye shall eat and drink of the bread and the waters of life freely.” (Alma 5:33-34)

I would like to stress that in Lehi’s dream the fruit’s desire was and is to make one happy. This fruit, as Nephi describes it later, is representative of the Love of God. Therefore, God is the one who desires us to be happy. It is Jesus Christ who is the True Vine from which the True Fruit grows and all that is a product of that Tree is focused on making him or her who partakes of it happy. Thus, when Lehi partakes of the fruit he is filled with joy and he calls it “most sweet”. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf states, “Heavenly Father’s love for His children is the core message of the plan of happiness” (General Conference address October 2009).

As the vision continues Lehi describes:

“And I beheld a rod of iron, and it extended along the bank of the river, and led to the tree by which I stood. And I saw numberless concourses of people, many of whom were pressing forward, that they might obtain the path which led unto the tree by which I stood. And it came to pass that they did come forth, and commence in the path which led to the tree. And it came to pass that there arose a mist of darkness; yea, even an exceedingly great mist of darkness, insomuch that they who had commenced in the path did lose their way, that they wandered off and were lost. I saw other multitudes pressing forward; and they came and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press their way forward, continually holding fast to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree.” (1Nephi 8:19, 21-23, 30)

Please make note that the mist of darkness falls upon all people, everybody, and everywhere. The mist of darkness in the dream represents “the temptations of the devil, which blindeth the eyes, and hardeneth the hearts of the children of men and leadeth them away into broad roads, that they perish and are lost” (1 Nephi 12:17). These temptations, like the mist, are all around us and they come to us all. In the dream, those who are able to escape the mist of darkness and come to the Tree of Life are those who caught hold of the iron rod and didn’t let go. I think it is worth mentioning that these individuals upon reaching the Tree of Life fell down. In my mind I picture them being exhausted from just having finished a very difficult and extensive journey.

Nephi later describes the rod of iron to be the Word of God. I would like to be a little more specific and for my purposes describe the rod of iron as being the covenants that we enter into with God from the day we are baptized, until we enter into the temple, and beyond. It might even be suggested that our first covenants with God didn’t start with baptism but were made even before we came to earth as President Spencer W. Kimball states:

“We made vows, solemn vows, in the heavens before we came to this mortal life. … We have made covenants. We made them before we accepted our position here on the earth. … We committed ourselves to our Heavenly Father, that if He would send us to the earth and give us bodies and give to us the priceless opportunities that earth life afforded, we would keep our lives clean and would marry in the holy temple and would rear a family and teach them righteousness. This was a solemn oath, a solemn promise” (“‘Be Ye Therefore Perfect’ ” [devotional address, Salt Lake Institute of Religion, 10 Jan. 1975], p. 2).

Based upon the dream that Lehi had and the significance of the rod of iron that led the people to the Tree of Life, in our time and for us the covenants that we make are as important and will in fact, if we are true and faithful, lead us to the Tree of Life as well. The covenants that we enter into throughout our lives are so very important and will guide, sustain, and enable us to return to God. Once we enter into a covenant with God it is ever present with us. Baptism is the gate by which we must enter to return to God’s presence and each covenant that we make thereafter brings us one step closer to God.

Just like those who struggled in the dream through the mist of darkness, we too must struggle against the temptations of the devil to stay pure and uphold our end of each covenant we make. And when we do reach our goal we will be exhausted because it is hard and we have put forth much effort to continually hold to the rod of iron and keep our covenants. For God said that “we will prove them herewith to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them” (Abraham 3:25).

Sister Ann Dibb of the Young Women’s General Presidency shared the following discussion she had with her father, President Monson. “One evening I was feeling a bit discouraged and said, ‘Oh, Dad, the blessings we experience as members of the Church and the promised blessings of the temple are so good, if we will only reach out and choose to accept them.’ He responded without hesitation, ‘Ann, they are everything’” (General Conference address October 2009). It is my witness that they indeed are everything. The covenants we make are not meaningless actions that denote we are part of a church or religion, nor are they just to remind and reconstitute us to the prescribed path. Entering into and keeping our covenants are in fact what allows us to prove to God that we will do all that is required at his hand.

Making and keeping covenants takes a desire to enter into the path, humility to do all that God asks, faith in the power and authority of God, hope in the promised blessings, and charity which Moroni states is “bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that we may become the sons and daughters of God” (Moroni 7:48).

Each Sunday we participate in an ordinance which gives us the opportunity to be reminded of our covenants and with whom we have made them. The Sacrament is a time to remember Jesus Christ. When we administer and partake of the sacrament Christ states, “it shall be a testimony unto the Father that ye do always remember me" (3 Nephi 18:7). The Sacrament is most sacred and should be administered with devotion and love for Jesus Christ. Those who partake of the sacrament should ponder upon the Savior and his power and authority to save. It should be an opportunity to tighten our grip on the iron rod and to weigh carefully the steps ahead and to ensure we stay shielded from the mist of darkness as we continue on the path toward the Tree of Life.

Jesus Christ is central and necessary to each and every covenant we make with God. He is our advocate “who is pleading our cause before the Father” (D&C 45:3). Without Christ we are left to ourselves or to the devil. The iron rod in Lehi’s dream led straight through the mist of darkness to the Tree of Life which is representative of Jesus Christ. When Nephi is being shown the dream of his father by the Spirit of the Lord he is shown the Tree of Life and after recognizing it as the same tree that his father saw he asks to know the interpretation thereof. The Spirit of the Lord tells Nephi to look and Nephi sees the baby Jesus being born of Mary. An angel comes to Nephi and says:

“Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw? And Nephi answered saying, Yea, it is the love of God which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men. Wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things. And the angel spake saying, Yea, and the most joyous to the soul.” (1 Nephi 11)

Nephi continues to be guided by the angel and sees the life of Jesus Christ and the condescension of God. Just as the iron rod led the people in Lehi’s dream to the Tree of Life, the covenants we make will lead us to Jesus Christ and to an understanding of His great condescension unto the children of man.

At baptism we are choosing to become a disciple of Jesus Christ and to live and serve as he did. Last year while I was sitting in a hotel room I was reading the Book of Mormon and came upon a verse of scripture in 3 Nephi 18 which states, “hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up – that which ye have seen me do.” I paused in my reading at that point and felt an overwhelming desire to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. That all of my choices which have guided me to follow Christ throughout my life have been worth all the effort and that I should continue seeking the Lord and to do his will. This verse expresses to me not only what my effort should be as Christ’s disciple but also what kind of Master Jesus is. He is the one who lived the perfect life and he is the one who “trod the wine press alone” (Isaiah 63:3) and through his actions has set an example of love and humility. By being his disciple I too strive to love and be humble.

President Uchtdorf in his conference address last October asked the question, “How do we become true disciples of Jesus Christ?” His response is a quote from the Savior; “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” President Uchtdorf continues by telling the story of when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is and his reply was “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matthew 22:37-39). President Uchtdorf continues:

“Love is the defining characteristic of a disciple of Christ. … No, God does not need us to love Him. But oh, how we need to love God! For what we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do. What we think and do determines who we are—and who we will become. …When we truly understand what it means to love as Jesus Christ loves us, the confusion clears and our priorities align. Our walk as disciples of Christ becomes more joyful. Our lives take on new meaning. Our relationship with our Heavenly Father becomes more profound. Obedience becomes a joy rather than a burden. … Love is the guiding light that illuminates the disciple’s path and fills our daily walk with life, meaning, and wonder. Love is the measure of our faith, the inspiration for our obedience, and the true altitude of our discipleship. Love is the way of the disciple.” (General Conference address October 2009)

"We'll never be musical ... before we recognize the forms"

2010-04-15T09:13:00.005-04:00

I think they have recognized a form.

Society on Shaky Ground

2010-03-22T23:30:00.002-04:00

The passing of Sunday’s health care vote demands a few words about its reflection on society. The fact that we had to legislate health care only expresses that our country and society are in a mess. This vote is being marked alongside other “historic” votes which brought about social welfare change (Social Security, Medicare), and on the principle that life is important and needs to be ensured none of these are destructive. The problem is that in order for some people to obtain affordable healthcare the U.S. Congress had to pass a law. This action itself leads to a society that isn’t able to maintain the values upon which it was built, and if the only way for society to stay stable and sustainable is to pass laws that make us reliant upon a government that shifts with each election then we can be sure of more problems to come. Already the pollsters are predicting that the GOP will be back in full swing come November’s election and win back so many of the seats that just two short years ago the Democratic Party won with astounding numbers. How can a country and society keep going back and forth on its public opinion and voice so frequently and to such extremes? Lincoln and others have stated that, “a house divided against itself can not stand.”

Society can be represented by a house with its foundation being columns representing values, beliefs and interest common among those who established and created the society. As time passes these columns are tested and strained by conflict which take place among the members and groups of society. Change happens and with it comes social conflict that has a direct impact on these columns. Governments (which are a product of society) enact laws to help brace these columns through times of change but the laws are only a temporary fix that will not sustain society for long if the columns are being changed to an extensive degree. Society and its people make the final decision about which columns bear them up by the values, beliefs and interests they hold. With too much change society will fall and out of the rumble new societies will be built upon shared values, beliefs and interests.

The passing of the health care bill show a few different reflections about society which include: society does not value life as much as it does money, to care for the poor has become insignificant, the hearts of men have grown cold, leaders of our government and economy have lost their integrity by significant degrees, luxury is seen as an entitlement, empowerment is only received through financial means, and others.

No prediction is being offered that our society is about to fall nor is it being suggested that the health care bill should not have passed, but the question is being asked to what degree are our columns changing and will they hold? Personal agenda needs to be set aside and principle needs to be reinstated as the driving force behind this nation. We need stability. We need values and principles that are surer than laws. Abigail Adams wrote to her son John Quincy these words, “Improve your understanding for acquiring useful knowledge and virtue, such as will render you an ornament to society, an honor to your county, and a blessing to your parents … and remember you are accountable to your Maker for all your words and actions.” If every member of society could have this desire as described by Mrs. Adams then our societal columns will hold and we will have many years of constructive living ahead of us as we have had in the past. If you choose not to believe in God as “your Maker”, as I think was intended in this quote, then please think of “your Maker” as mankind and the passage is significant still.

A Reply

2010-01-28T11:27:00.003-05:00

“How to respond to Jane? I could affirm her statement by simply stating that 'I am well. How are you?' but that may not be whimsical enough for her, and I think she deserves a more substantial reply than that. I am usually so long winded and full of discourse that it bores her, but maybe that is exactly what she is missing? I could discuss the idea of presence and say that it is a fluid word and it usually defines a physical state of being but that there are other states of presence of which we both share for each other, but that might be confusing for her. I could tell her that she would recognize me still if we were to see each other on the street and my hair is a bit longer than it was the last time she saw me. The last time we saw each other was a long time ago and we haven’t contacted each other since then so I can understand why she might be having this quandary about having a friend, but I have never been expedient at keeping in touch with people who are not in my physical presence unless there is a specific purpose. I could certainly discuss her wish for a friend and the sociological implications a friend has on one’s life and presence of both mind and being. I could do all of that but it may not be enough and she might even get angry with some of my assumptions which I think are just funny if not witty. I am glad that she wrote on my wall. I am glad that she remembers me and thinks of me as a friend. I don’t know when I will see her next, maybe soon, maybe later. So with all of that I think I will just say....” Hi Jane, it is nice to hear from you. I am doing well and I hope the same for you. What is going on in your life?

To Mick:

2009-10-06T23:45:00.001-04:00

I am sorry to hear of your passing. From what my friend says you were pretty exceptional. He says you changed him for the better and so I thank you. I thank you for being what you were and what you are; for taking the time to get to know our friend and for being so kind to him. I am glad you got to know him because he his pretty exceptional as well, but you know that already.

I was hurt inside by the abruptness of your death and its tragic scene. I hope that you and the individual directly involved will be reconciled one with another. I think about this individual and what his response and subsequent actions and emotions were. I hope that he feels the loss caused and in response works to improve others as you have helped to improve others.

My hope and faith are that you will see and be with your friend again; that you will again get to plow your head into his body. But for now I am at peace because I know that you were loved and that you loved others. I think that this marks a fulfilled life and a life that reminds others that not all is lost when something beautiful existed. That which exists will always be but it may be in a different form.

We are grateful for the time we have,

corb

Corb Herzog

2009-10-04T20:42:00.003-04:00

About eight years ago I saw a German film called Fata Morgana by Werner Herzog (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067085/). This film is mainly all footage of Africa set to the music of Leonard Cohen. Since seeing the film I have thought about it often over the years and always wanted to make my own version. Here is a little clip to understand what I mean (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGtl7LvPjfg&feature=fvw). The footage captured by Herzog in my mind gave a very real and insightful view of Africa. The landscape was everywhere and was everything, it was dead but also living and it flourished but also struggled. The film allowed a view into part of the world where I had never been and it showed Africa for what it was. I was able to experience a part and time in Africa that I never would know otherwise.

Cohen’s music is a nice complement to the film but otherwise I found it hard for me to connect with his monotone sound. A few years ago while in Portland I stayed at the Ace Hotel (http://www.acehotel.com/portland) which had the lyrics to one of Cohen’s songs written on the wall. As I was reading them I recognized them from somewhere but had a difficult time remembering the song without the music to accompany them. I spent the rest of the evening finding the source of the lyrics and then listened to the song once I found it over and over again. As soon as I heard the lyrics with the music I recognized it from Fata Morgana. It is called "Suzanne" and there is one version of this song that I like in particular which I have shared previously on this blog (http://idiocorb.blogspot.com/2008/09/turn-and-face-strain.html).

A few weeks ago I returned from Africa and while there had a chance to create my own little video in the "Fata Morgana" style. The song which plays along with my video is not Cohen but one of my favorites Joseph Arthur and the song is called “Toxic Angel”. I hope you enjoy.

“Redemption’s Son” Explained

2009-08-21T15:53:00.003-04:00

I was sitting and discussing religion with a friend who had to leave which left me sitting at the table to finish my dinner with the cool weather, beautiful trees, and nice live music playing. As I sat pondering that which had been discussed the band started playing Bob Marley’s Redemption Song and as I sat listening to the words “Won’t you help to sing these songs of freedom? Cause all I ever had: redemption songs” I pondered my own life and different times I have sought redemption. I left the restaurant and went back to my room and turned on my IPod and finished listening to the playlist that was started. As I listened I began to notice a common thread that all of the songs of this playlist shared. They all discussed redemption in some way which I found to be significant so as the music continued to play I started picking our phrases from each song to help tell a simple story. Is the story mine? Not really, but yes. I think it could be the story of anyone.

This playlist was created months ago with songs coming from a variety of genres and artists but were selected to be on this specific playlist because of what I felt when I listened to them. I hadn’t thought much about them having to do with redemption or anything of the sort and it only struck me months later that there was a common thread that ran through them. Sometimes I think the IPod Gods are very aware.

"Redemption’s Son"

2009-08-19T18:51:00.003-04:00

"When I was young I thought I knew everything. I was young and unafraid and dreams were made and used and wasted; there was no ransom to be paid. I taught myself how to grow but now I’m crooked on the outside when the inside’s broke. I can’t believe what I have become. Couldn’t imagine what it was with soft hands forcelessly pulling me away. Is it overwhelming? Is it getting heavy? I realize, I thought it was already as heavy as can be.

No matter what happens now I shouldn’t be afraid because I know darkness creates these illusions; love comes at dawn. It’s a good time for Superman to lift the sun into the sky. Angel of love shine a light on me and forgive me of what I have done. I have it all here and should try to on hold as best I can because my hand is made strong."

Left for the Duration

2009-07-21T13:54:00.001-04:00

A while ago there were lights from within which illuminated these eyes. Now they are clouded and wretched, even covered, with no one of concern looking out. There use to be a cover upon the crown keeping everything safe from misfortune but now it is gone, scathed and ripped out of its place causing tremendous rot upon the unprotected. It seems the cracks on the sides have grown deeper as the years go by, getting older with time, so deep it seems they were sketched within the plan.

The rain seeps in.
The sun bears down.
The snow creeps up.
The decay spills out.
The wind furies around.

There once was purpose which was the finest utility known to accommodate those lodging here, but it is gone. It vanished without any consent from those left behind. No one thought that it would end so soon or without more notice.

But we hold on. We still stand, as best we can. There is goodness still within in us. Even in our anguish we hope for a return of yesteryear, to the time when we were not left abandoned, forgotten, rejected …

I thought that this song by Sufjan Stevens: http://sites.google.com/site/idiocorb/music/03FortheWidowsinParadise%2CfortheFatherlessinYpsilanti.mp3?attredirects=0
went well with these pictures: http://www.100abandonedhouses.com/.

"A Country of Money"

2009-07-19T10:03:00.005-04:00

I have been reading Atlas Shrugged and came across the following monologue. I find it to be instructional and that everyone, from CEO and powerful political figure to orphaned child on the street, can learn something from the principles detailed by Ayn Rand. The setting for the monologue is a wedding party where many of the powerful and wealthy have gathered for an enjoyable evening. Francisco d’Anconia has just overheard someone say that money is the root of all evil and he begins to speak to the gathered group around him. My favorite part is the woman's response at the end of the speech as she turns to walk away, maybe because I feel that it has been said about me sometimes, and then again maybe I shouldn't give myself so much credit.

"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

"When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears nor all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor—your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money. Is this what you consider evil?

"Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions—and you'll learn that man's mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.

"But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made—before it can be looted or mooched—made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more than he has produced.

"To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will. Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgment of the traders. Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for their own benefit, not for their own injury, for their gain, not their loss—the recognition that they are not beasts of burden, born to carry the weight of your misery—that you must offer them values, not wounds—that the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best that your money can find. And when men live by trade—with reason, not force, as their final arbiter—it is the best product that wins, the best performance, the man of best judgment and highest ability—and the degree of a man's productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?

"But money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. It will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires. Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality—the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind.

"Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he's evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he's evaded the choke of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to purchase the brains of his superiors to serve him, with his money replacing his judgment, ends up by becoming the victim of his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him, but the cheats and the frauds come flocking to him, drawn by a law which he has not discovered: that no man may be smaller than his money. Is this the reason why you call it evil?

"Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth—the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one, would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve the mind that cannot match it. Is this the reason why you call it evil?

"Money is your means of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life. If the source is corrupt, you have damned your own existence. Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men's vices or men's stupidity? By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment's or a penny's worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an achievement, but a reminder of shame. Then you'll scream that money is evil. Evil, because it would not pinch-hit for your self-respect? Evil, because it would not let you enjoy your depravity? Is this the root of your hatred of money?

"Money will always remain an effect and refuse to replace you as the cause. Money is the product of virtue, but it will not give you virtue and it will not redeem your vices. Money will not give you the unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit. Is this the root of your hatred of money?

"Or did you say it's the love of money that's the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know and love its nature. To love money is to know and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men. It's the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money—and he has good reason to hate it. The lovers of money are willing to work for it. They know they are able to deserve it.

"Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

"Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another— their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.

"But money demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it. Men who have no courage, pride or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich—will not remain rich for long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters that stay under rocks for centuries, but come crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will hasten to relieve him of the guilt— and of his life, as he deserves.

"Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard—the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money—the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law—men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims—then money becomes its creators' avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they've passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.

"Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion—when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing—when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors—when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you—when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice—you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that it does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.

"Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked: 'Account overdrawn.'

"When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, 'Who is destroying the world?' You are.

"You stand in the midst of the greatest achievements of the greatest productive civilization and you wonder why it's crumbling around you, while you're damning its life-blood—-money. You look upon money as the savages did before you, and you wonder why the jungle is creeping back to the edge of your cities. Throughout men's history, money was always seized by looters of one brand or another, whose names changed, but whose method remained the same: to seize wealth by force and to keep the producers bound, demeaned, defamed, deprived of honor. That phrase about the evil of money, which you mouth with such righteous recklessness, comes from a time when wealth was produced by the labor of slaves—slaves who repeated the motions once discovered by somebody's mind and left unimproved for centuries. So long as production was ruled by force, and wealth was obtained by conquest, there was little to conquer. Yet through all the centuries of stagnation and starvation, men exalted the looters, as aristocrats of the sword, as aristocrats of birth, as aristocrats of the bureau, and despised the producers, as slaves, as traders, as shopkeepers—as industrialists.

"To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money—and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man's mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being—the self-made man—the American industrialist.

"If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose—because it contains all the others—the fact that they were the people who created the phrase 'to make money.’ No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity—to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words 'to make money' hold the essence of human morality.

"Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters' continents. Now the looters' credo has brought you to regard your proudest achievements as a hallmark of shame, your prosperity as guilt, your greatest men, the industrialists, as blackguards, and your magnificent factories as the product and property of muscular labor, the labor of whip-driven slaves, like the pyramids of Egypt. The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide—as, I think, he will.

"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns—or dollars. Take your choice—there is no other—and your time is running out."

There were people who had listened, but now hurried away, and people who said, "It's horrible!"—"It's not true!"—"How vicious and selfish!"—saying it loudly and guardedly at once, as if wishing that their neighbors would hear them, but hoping that Francisco would not.
"Senor d'Anconia," declared the woman with the earrings, "I don't agree with you!"
"If you can refute a single sentence I uttered, madame, I shall hear it gratefully."
"Oh, I can't answer you. I don't have any answers, my mind doesn't work that way, but I don't feel that you're right, so I know that you're wrong."
"How do you know it?"
"I feel it. I don't go by my head, but by my heart. You might be good at logic, but you're heartless."
"Madame, when we'll see men dying of starvation around us, your heart won't be of any earthly use to save them. And I'm heartless enough to say that when you'll scream, 'But I didn't know it!'—you will not be forgiven."
The woman turned away, a shudder running through the flesh of her cheeks and through the angry tremor of her voice: "Well, it's certainly a funny way to talk at a party!"

Sufficient Still

2009-06-24T22:54:00.002-04:00

To build upon my last post about charitable acts I thought it necessary to further discuss joy which I suggested is a direct result of kind and charitable acts. I don’t want to get hung up on definitions but I find it helpful to ensure that the correct idea is being understood. Joy is a word that denotes happiness, peace, love, humanity, bliss, and gladness. All of these words are to some degree linked to each other and to charity or the act of being charitable.

Why do I say that joy is a direct consequence of charitable acts? Because it is the word I feel best describes the emotion or feeling when one shares something of great value with another who receives it. Joy is communal; it is something experienced when shared with another. As the song reads, “Joy to the world the Lord has come let earth receive her King.” A charitable act was made and was received and the consequence was joy. Again it is not the word that is the focus but the idea that more than one participated in the event thus making it larger than one’s self. Joy is centered on others not itself.

I do not disagree that people can be very happy singularly and as individuals. My assumption is that there is a degree of happiness which can only be experienced when it involves more than one and that this happiness, which I call joy, is greater than the singular happiness experienced only by one individual. In construction one 2x4 is strong but when you combine it with another the strength more than doubles. A fire scattered and separated into individual burning logs will burn but not as bright or as long as when they are together. This is joy, a group or community effort.

Please watch the following video. This video I do support and hope you will as well.
http://serve.gov/

Something Sufficient

2009-06-19T12:58:00.004-04:00

Please watch this video.

I do not advocate or support this specific organization nor do I expect you to. It is simply a video I watched which spurred the following thoughts.

http://www.artistsforpeaceandjustice.com/

Regardless of your opinion about policy, public figures and practical outcomes I ask what is wrong with working toward a world/community/humanity where there is peace, sustenance, love and joy. If there is something truly wrong with it please let me know. We are often told by institutions and philosophies to be charitable and to give to the poor and needy in order to bring about these types of changes in the world. The following are suggestions how one can be charitable using Paul’s words as a guide (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

To be charitable means to suffer with someone until the suffering is finished; to be kind to all; not to envying anything or anyone; not to boost about one’s self; to be humble and not think one person is better than another; to always respond and act in an appropriate manner; to not be selfish but give freely to others; to be calm; to have thoughts that are constructive not destructive and act accordingly; to seek out and embrace truth wherever it may be found; to be strong and support others; to believe in the good of humanity and life; to hope for a better outcome; to endure the disappointments and devastation of life; to never fail in your attempt for what is good.

If we are to be charitable then we would see and treat all people as ourselves. One might think that this seems impossible for me to do, but when there are many doing it the impossible becomes reality. I don’t think it is necessary for everyone to move to a place of poverty and devastation like Haiti because there are many opportunities for charitable acts within the community one now lives. Every one of us has specific talents that when used and combined with others can bring about great change. Please remember that people living in places like Haiti or who need help of any sort also have talents and abilities to contribute to the community as well. The idea that we are all beggars is appropriate to remember in that we all from time to time need assistance and charitable acts preformed in our behalf.

It is often heard that if you are feeling down then try doing something good for someone else. The reason for this is because when we are providing a charitable act to someone we are creating joy with that person. Joy can only be experienced with someone else. Joy is a direct consequence of charity. Sorrow, the counter to joy, is a consequence of no charity.

Is This Heaven?

2009-04-14T23:36:00.004-04:00

If not it certainly does sound like it.

When I meet someone who understand this music I feel like I have met someone who understands a part of me that is pure and genuine. It seems that many people bypass knowing this part of me because they don’t “get it.” This music builds bridges between people that allow them to understand without even knowing it.

When I hear this it feels like I am turning my face toward the sun and smiling.

Being in Lima

2009-03-27T00:17:00.001-04:00

My first visit while in Lima was to the US embassy. A huge wall surrounds the property and even as a US citizen there was no way to get inside. Fortunately I was able to take care of my business at the delivery gate but I wonder what would happen if I were in an emergency and needed admittance. I always imagine something happening like in the movie The Saint when Elisabeth Shue is running from the Russian mafia toward the US embassy yelling “I am an American” as they open the gates just in time for her to get inside before being captured. If I had to run into the embassy in Lima I would first need to learn Spanish because no one working at the front gate spoke English. Before I figured out how to say in Spanish “I am an American, let me inside” it would be too late.

Oh well, no need to worry about that anymore. Lima is a beautiful place that seemed to be very safe. After the embassy visit I went to a market where I met an artist who spoke English and we discussed his paintings, his travels and his life. A very nice man and a decent artist, I now own one of his paintings.

From the market I wandered the streets until I came to a busy park with a beautiful church sitting on one corner. I also stopped to eat at a nice restaurant and had ceviche for the first time not really knowing what it was. After I had finished my meal the restaurant hostess came up to me after she noticed the waitress take away my plate with a substantial amount of food remaining. She asked me how I liked it and I said that it was great, somewhat untruthfully, which she called me on by saying that I didn’t eat very much. I said I didn’t really like raw fish and I didn’t know what ceviche was but that I had heard that it was a Peruvian dish I had to try. The hostess said that it was her favorite dish and I readily agreed that it was very good. She gave me a nice smile.

I wandered up and down the coast for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. A security guard stopped me and asked what I was doing. I replied that I was just walking around. He asked me where I was from and we started talking. We had a conversation for about an hour during which time he asked me to help him find a job in the US. We discussed the living conditions in Peru and the desire everyone has to earn more money. I thought about my present income and financial standing and though I am not a wealthy person nor do I make a lot of money I would say that being able to pleasantly sustain oneself and family makes one rich especially when compared to the majority of the people in the world.

Later I met a man in his early twenties who didn’t speak English very well but who relentlessly tried to get me to come to a techno dance club later that night. He said that everyone was going to be wearing Speedos and that it would be a lot of fun with great techno music (please picture him while he is saying this pumping his fist in the air while thrusting his pelvis around and making techno sounds like dun, dun, dun, dun … the system is down, the system is down… dun, dun, dun). This man was not joking either he really was going to a dance club and wanted me to come. I sadly had to decline telling him that I had left my Speedo in my other suitcase and that I would feel uncomfortable borrowing one from someone I didn’t know. I have no doubt it would have been great dancing and he had me curious enough to go until he mentioned the Speedos.

The ocean is calm with little ripples which shimmer from the sun.

Once the sun had set I walked back to the park where I had had lunch earlier in the afternoon. To my surprise there were more people out and about than there were during the day. There was a multitude of children playing on the playground equipment, new street vendors had come out to sell their goods, people were standing in long lines waiting to buy what looked like delicious food and everyone else was sitting, standing or lying around talking. There were so many people enjoying the evening and just being part of a community. At first I thought there must be some type of celebration going on for so many people to come outside, but no, they were enjoying the great weather and their surroundings.

I loved the sense of community that I felt, of belonging to a greater entity with nothing other than just being which made me mutually part of the whole. I don’t feel that very often, mainly only around my family and a few friends. “But isn’t that the way that it is suppose to be” some may say, “to feel like you belong with only a few rather than the many.” I would disagree. Belonging is something that one should feel all the time and in all places. It would seem that it would be the healthy way to live. I find it strange that I felt it so strong while I was in a different country where a different language and culture are experienced, as if the communal expectations weren’t staring me in the face, but I was free to feel what I wanted. Sometimes I feel like a foreigner in my own community and amongst people with whom I am familiar. The words “have you ever been alone in a crowded room” come to my mind quite often and have for many years. I understand that belonging is a two way road with exchanges being mutually given and received. It would seem that one’s givings need to be in par with the level of belonging desired. One can not expect to receive more than he is giving.

Last but not least is this giant statue of a couple kissing. It over looks the ocean and is a memorial to lovers young and old. With this kind of art being in the city who would think that Lima isn’t a great place to be.

Message from Haiti

2009-03-14T20:08:00.003-04:00

I am in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and have been here since February 26. I return to D.C. this coming week and will find my departure to be bitter sweet, but leaning more toward the sweet side. I will have more to share about my trip to Haiti later as well as some details about my one day trip to Lima, Peru to deliver a “package” earlier in February. In the mean time my colleague sent me a link to a website that has some pictures of Haiti (www.88daysinhaiti.com). I hope you will take the time to look through them because I find Haiti to be one of the most interesting places on Earth and deserving of your time.

Since the second day I arrived in Haiti I have been thinking that this would be a great place to make a film. A documentary would be too easy and cliché for such a place as Haiti; the film would need to be something that could capture the way of life here but in such a way as to stay true to lifestyle, culture and prospects. Yesterday I realized that my main character would be a DJ. A story about a musician would be the only way I can think of to relate the vibrant yet dire life in Haiti. I was remembering the scene from the movie The Matrix Reloaded when all of the people have gathered in the great cavern and they begin to dance. I can imagine this scene taking place in Haiti. This scene shows those gathered celebrating though they are encased in political and economic struggle for survival the likes of which the people of Haiti know too well.

Sustainability

2009-03-12T00:55:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago I was asked to speak in church and for any that have an interest here is the main body of the speech that I gave.

As we all know, the current state of the world is in an uneasy and unsecure position. The economic crisis, as many are calling it, has disrupted lives and business in countless ways. The political unrest and turmoil in many parts of the world, even in our own country, makes negotiation and compromise difficult and even unwelcome. War and the fear of war are raging throughout the world. Even in our own communities we see poverty, desperation, and need in countless instances. During these times of unrest we all seem to be looking for any glimmer of hope that might present itself in some shape or form. It may seem like we are facing days that seem unpredictable and even terrifying; that the “golden era” in which we were living is over.

My mind has been pondering the idea of sustainability and how it associates with my personal growth and development. The word “sustain” as defined by Merriam Webster is: “to give support or relief to; to supply with sustenance, nourish; keep up, prolong; to support the weight of, to carry or withstand, to buoy up; to support as true, legal, or just; to allow or admit as valid; to support by adequate proof.” Often times we use the phrase “endure to the end” as a way to describe this idea and sustainability is a condition for enduring to the end. We can not hope to endure without being sustained and sustainable.

In his speech The Test, Pres. Boyd K. Packer relates how in the early days of the church the Saints underwent many malicious and cruel events at the hand of their neighbors and countrymen. In the face of these events they sought to be sustained by the government which many had helped create and defend. They received “no pity and were turned away.” They had no one else to appeal to and so they turned westward and left behind all that they knew to start a new home in the desert.

When Jesus was teaching in Galilee he fed five thousand with a few fishes and some loaves of bread. The next time he taught was in Capernaum and this time he did not feed the disciples who came to hear him with bread made from flour but rather he gave them that bread which if man eat they shall hunger no more. In response to his sermon many of the disciples who were expecting temporal food said, “'This is a hard saying; who can hear it?' Christ replied 'Doth this offend you?' From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, 'Will ye also go away?' Then Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life'” (John 6:60 – 68).

And so it is, the Saints in Illinois were sustained by no one except the God in whom they believed and whom they loved. The prophet Isaiah talks about how the Lord’s “hand is stretched out still” (Isaiah 9:21). Not only does the Lord, himself, sustain his children, but he has sent prophets to lead and guide his Saints today. Pres. Packer states at the beginning of this General Conference address:

It is my purpose to show that in troubled times the Lord has always prepared a safe way ahead. We live in those ‘perilous times’ which the Apostle Paul prophesied would come in the last days. If we are to be safe individually, as families, and secure as a church, it will be through ‘obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

Pres. Packer speaks of a celebration that the Saints had in 1849 held to remember their settling in the Salt Lake Valley. He states:

It may seem puzzling, incredible almost beyond belief, that for the theme of this first celebration they chose patriotism and loyalty to that same government which had rejected and failed to assist them. What could they have been thinking of? If you can understand why, you will understand the power of the teachings of Christ.

President Brigham Young led a grand procession to Temple Square.
He was followed by the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy. Then followed 24 young men and in their right hand, of all things, each carried a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. The Declaration of Independence was read by one of those young men. Next came 24 young women and each carried a Bible and a Book of Mormon. Almost but not quite as amazing as their choice of patriotism for a theme was what came next: 24 aged sires (as they were called) led by patriarch Isaac Morley. They were known as the Silver Greys—all 60 years of age or older. One carried the Stars and Stripes. These men were a symbol of the priesthood.

Pres. Packer calls these three groups of people (the 24 young men, 24 young women, and the 24 aged sires) “symbolic and prophetic.” A little meaning as to why he calls them this may be found in the follow passages of scripture.

“That law of the land which is constitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me (D&C 98:5).

“We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law (Articles of Faith 12).

“Behold, I am God; give heed unto my word, which is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of both joints and marrow; therefore give heed unto my words” (D&C 6:2).

“Which priesthood continueth in the church of God in all generations, and is without beginning of days or end of years” (D&C 84:17).

One would think that, compelled by force of human nature, the Saints would seek revenge, but something much stronger than human nature prevailed. The Apostle Paul explained: ‘The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. . . . We have the mind of Christ’ (1 Corinthians 2:14). That Spirit defined those early members of the Church as followers of Christ. If you can understand a people so long-suffering, so tolerant, so forgiving, so Christian after what they had suffered, you will have unlocked the key to what a Latter-day Saint is. Rather than being consumed with revenge, they were anchored to revelation.

These Saints of which Pres. Packer speaks were sustained by the Lord because they were sustainable. They were true Disciples of Christ. First they possessed a degree of Charity, and second they followed the prophet. These two principles sustained them and they will sustain us today in these times of crisis.

Elder Robert D. Hales stated in his most recent General Conference address Christian Courage: The Price of Discipleship:

Some people mistakenly think responses such as silence, meekness, forgiveness, and bearing humble testimony are passive or weak. But, to ‘love [our]enemies, bless them that curse [us], do good to them that hate [us], and pray for them which despitefully use [us], and persecute [us]’ (Matthew 5:44) takes faith, strength, and, most of all, Christian courage.
When we do not retaliate—when we turn the other cheek and resist feelings of anger—we too stand with the Savior. We show forth His love, which is the only power that can subdue the adversary and answer our accusers without accusing them in return. That is not weakness. That is Christian courage.

And in my words I call it Humility.

To further be sustainable it is necessary to have prophets who guide us in God’s will and receive revelation from Him. Pres. Packer states:

We are guided by the same revelations and led by a prophet (as were the earlier Saints). When the Prophet Joseph Smith died, another took his place. The order of succession continues today. President Monson is ideally suited for the challenges of our day. He is sustained by two counselors and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—all prophets, seers, and revelators.

I do not know all things, and my understanding of that which I do know is very small and finite. I will add that I do not completely understand God’s love, but I can say that I can and do see the evidence of God’s love all around. I will witness of Him and his love and that it is true because I see the evidence of it in my life and in the lives of people I know and in the world. As the prophet Alma states: “all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator” (Alma 30: 44).

Where some choose to doubt, I choose to believe, and that makes all of the difference. Faith is a precursor to all knowledge. Just because many in the fields of science, industry and media call faith by a different name, scientific method or hypothesis, doesn’t make it any less valid or reliable. The principles of these scientific tools are similar to what faith is: a belief in something not seen (Heb. 11: 1; Alma 32: 21). We can see the evidence of faith in all things if we have the ears to hear and the eyes to see. Choosing to believe and recognizing God makes us sustainable.

Pres. Packer concludes his remarks by stating:

That same Lucifer who was cast out of our Father’s presence is still at work. He, with the angels who followed him, will trouble the work of the Lord and destroy it if he can. But we will stay on course. We will anchor ourselves as families and as a church to these principles and ordinances. Whatever tests lie ahead, and they will be many, we must remain faithful and true. ‘The standard of truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing.’

“This is Music for Creativity's Sake”

2009-02-09T01:16:00.003-05:00

A friend who was watching the 51st Grammy Awards commented to me that Radiohead had performed and that maybe I was right about them being a great band. I actually think they are genius and one of the greatest bands ever (please read posts I made on this blog for August 11, 19 & 21, 2008). Not having cable television I decided to go online to see if I couldn’t find a video of their performance. Not finding the video while searching I come across a couple articles and postings which I read that discussed the performance and one of them wrote the following:

“Radiohead performs 15 Step with the USC marching band. This is so utterly different than everything else we've seen tonight. This is music for creativity's sake -- and the album, In Rainbows, still sold more than a million of copies.” (http://blogs.courant.com/eric_danton_sound_check/2009/02/50th-grammy-awards-1.html)

I am a bit confused by this statement and I feel that there is an underlining tone of sarcasm with a derogatory attitude toward Radiohead. First, that fact that Radiohead performed with a marching band is amazing. No other performing act used a marching band during the awards ceremony making Radiohead unique, exceptional and able to exist beyond the mundane, or as the commentator above states, “so utterly different.” Second, I don’t quite know what the commentator was meaning when he states, “this is music for creativity's sake.” I am going to interpret creativity to mean beautiful, original, inspiring, visionary, and thought provoking. This is what I thought all music and art attempted to be. It would seem strange to me and even worthless for art or any effort not to attempt to be “creative.” Third, I am confused by the follow-up statement “-- and the album, In Rainbows, still sold more than a million of copies.” Was that stated as if in disbelief for a “creative” album to be so popular?

I could be interpreting the entire statement wrong, which if I am I will stand corrected if anyone cares to do so. In fact, this statement supports my sentiment that most music produced today is not “creative” and lacks any real depth. It also supports my argument that Radiohead is a “creative” music group about which the general public doesn’t know or care. It seems to be a common trend in society today for popular and public taste to not care about “creativity” and rather settle for that which is most pleasurable. I understand that Radiohead is not the only music group in the world and that there are other groups and types of music that people appreciate of which Radiohead doesn’t take part. This is fine. But I must state that I never tire from persuading people to know things of beauty nor do I tire being persuaded of the same.

A Stranger’s Lie

2009-02-08T00:14:00.005-05:00

Have the hearts of men grown so cold that we have to lie to beggars when we don’t feel like giving them money? I was walking down the street with a group of people, a man approached us asking for some money and someone in my group adamantly expresses that none of us had any cash and to leave us alone. That was a blatant lie, we had just come from dinner and I know three of us in the group had cash, including the individual speaking to the man.

I have given lots of money to individuals on the street but I also have passed up many more. The point isn’t the money, how often money is given to a beggar or even if it is of value to give money to a beggar. The point is that a lowly man was lied to by a stranger who had means to help. It would have been better for this individual with whom I was walking to ignore the man completely than to lie to him. It seemed this lie came from arrogance and self-importance.

I know that I have been lied to by homeless people, but they have much more at stake than I do. They need to eat and survive and so I can understand why they might lie to me and I can see beyond it to give them some simple assistance. But what characteristic did this man present to my group that justified a lie being told? He presented no harm or threat except being a bother and a burden for some. Were we in such a hurry that we couldn’t stop for a moment to listen and give assistance when someone needed it? That sucks. Have respect for others, for people, for individuals. All people matter and all people are worth something even if it is only a listening ear as I walk by them, but no one is worth so little to deserve a stranger’s lie.

Music for This Day

2009-02-07T22:49:00.002-05:00

Even Tho

I'm getting cold
You used to have a heart
Now I guess it’s just a stone
You said Leave me alone
But even tho I'm here
You know that I'm already gone

We've got some time
So let’s walk hand in hand together
And hold our heads up high
Since I can't read your mind
You've got to tell me what you're thinking
I won't write in the sky

We're getting old
We've planted our seeds and now we wait for them to grow
You said I'll never show you how I really feel
Or which way I'm going to go

No one to hold
The world will make a dream
And a prayer out of our bones
To find where we belong
Our shadows will remain
Even after we are gone

Gone, Even tho I'm here you know that I'm already gone

~ Joseph Arthur

Same Mistake

So while I'm turning in my sheets
And once again I cannot sleep
Walk out the door and up the street
Look at the stars beneath my feet
Remember rights that I did wrong
So here I go

Hello, hello

There is no place I cannot go
My mind is muddy but
My heart is heavy does it show
I lose the track that loses me
So here I go

And so I sent some men to fight
And one came back at dead of night
Said he'd seen my enemy
Said he looked just like me
So I set out to cut myself
And here I go

And maybe someday we will face
And maybe talk but not just speak
Don’t buy the promises cause
There are no promises I keep
And my reflection troubles me
So here I go

I’m not calling for a second chance
I’m screaming at the top of my voice
Give me reason, but don’t give me choice
Cause I'll just make the same mistake

So while I'm turning in my sheets
And once again I cannot sleep
Walk out the door and up the street
Look at the stars
Look at the stars falling down
And I wonder where
Did I go wrong?

~ James Blunt

Virtue Saved

2009-02-03T21:10:00.006-05:00

Todd could see quite a distance in front of him as he tried to regain his strength.

He watched awhile,

as others, who were hopefully also experiencing pain in spite of their persistence, advance down the long road.

His might was not only fatigued but all his vigor had been depleted.

He was extremely hungry for any sort of nourishment.

The image came into his mind of a ship and its crew lost somehow on their voyage home.

They had just exhausted their last storage of food and water and were now destitute in the vast ocean.

Here was Todd;

failed.

It was in this moment of dire need for sustenance that one of the most cherished individuals Todd had ever encountered appeared.

A woman, who lived not afar, had come to offer slices of orange.

When Todd reached the woman he fell upon the ground, wasted and spent.

Todd lifted his eyes as the woman bent down to hand him an orange.

It was a vibrant color, juicy, and glistened in the sun.

It was as if this orange fruit was sent from the gods and the woman standing before Todd was Hermes with provisions from Zeus.

“Thank you”

was all that Todd could speak as he finished consuming the fruit but as he looked into the woman’s eyes Todd tried to communicate what immense meaning this simple orange possessed.

After his crew had their fill of ambrosia Todd continued on the voyage having swapped callous for humility as his cargo.

Virtue Spent

2009-01-23T08:41:00.003-05:00

I will follow but only as long as I can lead.

I will listen but only as long as I am heard.

I will behave but only as long as I am made.

I will laugh but only as long as I mock.

I will appreciate but only as long as I need.

I will fight but only as long as I win.

I will submit but only as long as I endure.

I will hope but only as long as I fear.

I will love but only as long as I can stand.

I will be but only as long as I must.

Inaugural

2009-01-20T20:08:00.009-05:00

I attended today’s inauguration of President Barack Obama along with a mass of people. What was it like? It was great except when it came time to leave. I am sure everyone has had the experience before of being trapped in a large crowd trying to get somewhere and no one going anywhere. There were thousands of us and we were trapped shoulder to shoulder, front to back by a barricade of outhouses and an endless row of buses while trying to exit the mall. The estimated number of people attending the event was 2 million and there may have been an individual outhouse for each one of us because they were everywhere as seen in the photos below. The way in which they were positioned caused a bottleneck effect which as we tried to leave forced us right into a wall of buses. About 20–30 minutes I was caught in this throng, but besides that it was great.

Yes, those are outhouses across the reflecting pool. Like I said they were everywhere.

I appreciated Pres. Obama’s gracious acceptance of power and his acknowledgment for the office he holds, it was a demonstration of his character. I also very much appreciated Senator Feinstein’s opening remarks and her description of the process in which we all were part.

The world is watching today as our great democracy engages in this peaceful transition of power. The freedom of a people to choose its leaders is the root of liberty. In a world where political strife is too often settled with violence, we come here every four years to bestow the power of the presidency upon our democratically elected leader. Those who doubt the supremacy of the ballot over the bullet can never diminish the power engendered by nonviolent struggles for justice and equality. No triumph tainted by brutality could ever match the sweet victory of this hour and what it means to those who marched and died to make it a reality.

Below are some pictures of the event as well as other points of interest taken today and yesterday. I also include some of Pres. Obama’s words from his speech which I found to be of value and worth repeating here. I have also included some of my own words (noted in italics).

It is in the principles and truths themselves that we should be trusting and placing our hope.

“Those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths.”

The values in which we believe do not advocate oppression or coercion by way of acceptance or implementation but rather friendly persuasion and diplomacy. Conceit and vanity are contrary values which we as a nation can not afford to take part in for they will be a means of destroying ourselves.

“As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.”

Men and women will rise and fall, parties will come and go, and times of peace and war will be interrupted but the founding principles and truths that are contained in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States can not and will not be lost if we as a people will ever bear them up and ensure their protection.

“At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: ‘Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it.’”

Many individuals have brought forth ideals and values that have helped sustain this nation, with its government, through many marvelous and dire events. It is upon their foundation that we have continued to build and develop these United States of America. It is from this vantage point of the present that we look to and prepare for the future.

“We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.”

Please note the singular voice in this video calling out Obama’s name. He cracked me up the whole time with his shout-outs.

Talent

2009-01-19T20:01:00.013-05:00

I am and have always been impressed by the talent of others especially when it is good. Some have big talent and others not as big. But regardless of the amount or intensity of talent one possesses it is great when talent is shared with others. Below are a few examples of great talent.

The first man of talent I would like to discuss is an Italian painter named Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Introduced to me by a genuine artist, I find Caravaggio to be sharp in his contrasts and beautiful with his detail. My favorite of his paintings that I have seen is titled Incredulity of Thomas (shown below). Please take a moment and view the painting before continuing to read and form your idea of what you see before reading what I perceive.

My opinion of the painting varies from the experts that I have read and listened to discuss this painting. I see a Thomas who was in disbelief but now is astounded to see and feel the body of his friend and teacher Jesus. I see a Jesus who, in some degree might be feeling pain, guiding the hand of Thomas into his side. This is a very different perspective of the resurrected Christ than I have seen before. He, who has overcome death, is humbly bowing and gently teaching his friend of the cause for his life and mission on earth. I see a Christ who is humble and wanting people to know that he is not was. Christ’s face doesn’t seem sad or to be in pain or grief but is somber because of what Thomas is experiencing. I see Christ pulling his garment away from his wound and inviting Thomas to know that he is in fact real. I appreciate the contrast of light within the painting as well as the detail that Caravaggio uses to portray an event the world still finds to be incredible. http://www.caravaggio.rai.it/index_en.htm.

My next portrayal of talent is a photographer named Matt Clayton. He shot some photos of my friend’s twin boys and has posted some of them on his blog (http://mattclaytonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/01/double-trouble.html). The boys are endearing, there is no doubt about it, but Matt has done his part successfully by endeavoring to capture moments. Yes, the boys were probably told to sit here and do this or that but the beauty is found in the moment that the photo reveals. Life is full of moments that we wish we could capture and keep and the photos that I find most appealing are those which capture them.

The last talent I would like to mention is a French band that I saw perform at that the Kennedy Center named L & O. They were unique and lively with great sound and variety. The following link will take you to the video of the performance that I saw (you will need RealPlayer to be able to watch it). I would recommend watching the entire video but if you haven’t the time or interest skip to minute 51.30 to watch their last song. It was great. http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/kc_video_dyn.cfm?encoded=http%3A%2F%2Fplay%2Erbn%2Ecom%2F%3Furl%3Dkennedy%2Fkennedyg2%2Fg2demand%2F01132009%5F1800%5FMSN%2Erm%26amp%3Bproto%3Drtsp&header_image=header_mil_video.gif.

Now, I know that the three examples of talent that I have mentioned do not capture the infinite spectrum of where talents lie, but they were just recent examples of some great talent that I have come across. I would say that talent can be any acknowledged individual ability that is showcased in some fashion for the benefit, beauty and life of others. Everybody has talent and the key is to recognize it and then to use it for The Good of all. Talent becomes great in its practice and distribution.

The Holidays

2009-01-03T01:25:00.015-05:00

One Holiday character said “The most enjoying traditions of the season are best enjoyed in the warm embrace of kith and kin.” This Holiday season, I had many such warm embraces. It was full of joy and laughter. I don’t really feel like a travel log is necessary of my holiday events, nor do I think that would be of interest to many, but I would like to share some thoughts about the holidays and some pictures that I took along the way.

The Holidays should be simple and beautiful, and in their simplest form the Holidays are beautiful. These first two pictures were taken in Pennsylvania while I was visiting an old friend and his family for Thanksgiving and driving to meet up with another friend. Simple beauty is all around us during the Holidays, and the message that we share during this time should be like this church, blended in with the landscape. It doesn’t need to be elaborate or fancy but rather fitting and in its right place.

At the Holiday gala my company furnished its employees I was what some might call a dancing fool. I loved it. I danced along side my peers, my supervisors, and the top executives of the company. We all were dancing and we all were enjoying it. The Holidays should be enjoyed. Feelings of doubt, fear, and stress should be forgotten and left at the door. Making the most out of the moment and enjoying the Holidays for what they are and what they are worth is what should be remembered, not the anxiety and despair.

My friend Smash is a great example of enjoying the Holidays. Even though she was busily trying to finish her law school finals she found time to be with friends and family and even break out the great Christmas decorations. Her tree was one of the most beautiful trees I have seen. I saw many Christmas trees this year and each was unique and beautiful because each was a transformation of something mundane into something glorious. The Holidays should be focused on making that which appears to be common or even out of place feel welcome and special. It is a time to build up relations so that the coming year will be spared the tiresome and worn out struggles and unnecessary suffering.

By popular demand:

I went to New York City to celebrate the New Year. This was my first time being in NYC and I liked it a lot. My time in NYC was spent with people that I had never met, with the exception of one person who I met 4 months ago, staying in an apartment that was not mine and which I had never been, doing things that I have never done before. From this experience I was inducted into the NYC subway system, ate at a great diner, met some amazing people who I will have continued relations, met a stranger and learned about a way of living that I have never known and was taught a great life lesson, had a life changing experience at a McDonald’s, found strength to pursue something that I thought was out of reach, felt what it was like to freeze my fingers to the point where I could not feel them and as they warmed up they burned because a stranger asked me to take a picture for them while on the Brooklyn Bridge, saw the world from a different view, forgave a stranger, recognized my pride, and etc.

My point is this; sometimes the traditions that we burden ourselves with during the Holidays become more like a chain that has to be carried from year to year because we think that it is a necessity in order for the Holidays to be great. Sometimes the chain of tradition needs to be broken. I am a firm believer that, to a degree, traditions are, with some exception, a hindrance to growth and life. Traditions might remind us of the past and the way things use to be but what about the future and the way things are going to be? I was part of several new “traditions” this holiday season and I am most grateful for that. They gave new meaning to my Holiday celebration and made me feel like what I was doing mattered and made a difference in the present. A need was recognized and adjustments were made to make way for new experiences to fill in where the old could not.

This is the only photograph I have of me in NYC for the first time.

My fingers were so cold at this point that I didn't care that the pictures were too blurry to see much of what they were trying to capture.

The New Year's gang

I leave you with a short video of the New Year fireworks from Central Park and my New Year’s wish for you. Enjoy.

D.C. in November

2008-12-08T21:21:00.009-05:00

A Word about Patriotism

2008-11-06T01:06:00.004-05:00

November 4, 2008 should be a day remembered by all Americans as a great and significant day. This day returned hope to many Americans who, for whatever reason or length of time, thought none was to be found. The day after Barack Obama was elected President of the United States a woman expressed to me that she sang the national anthem outside the White House the previous night and that it was the first time that she had sung that song in many years. She sang it because of her deep sense of emotion while witnessing the first African-American elected president. Regardless of the color of your skin, the political party with which you have registered, or from which religious background you come the election of a man of color to the office of President of the United States is very meaningful. This is America, a place where you are judged “by what you do, not by who your father was. Here you can be something. Here you can build a home. It's the idea that we all have value, you and me” (quoted from the movie Gettysburg).

November 4, 2008 reminds us again of the values and principles upon which this great and amazing Republic was founded. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” It is this government wherein we live that such events take place. The founding documents that have been preserved and which preserve our nation need to be protected and supported in all times and in all places and at all cost. To me this is patriotism. Men and women will rise and fall, parties will come and go, and times of peace and war will be interrupted but the founding principles and truths that are contained in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States can not and will not be lost if we as a people will ever bear them up and ensure their protection. It is because of these documents that all of us should be standing in front of our own houses singing the national anthem.

In the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held just last month in Salt Lake City, Utah President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of 12 Apostles, spoke about patriotism. If you would like to read his words, which I would encourage you to do, please follow this link. http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-947-27,00.html. The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have not always been liked by their fellow citizens. In fact, the members of the LDS church had to leave the United States in the 1840’s in order to find refuge, peace and a place where they wouldn’t be destroyed for their beliefs. They traveled hundreds of miles by wagon and handcart to settle in a desert wasteland now called Utah, a place that no one else wanted.

Two years after they entered Utah and begun to make the area thrive the Saints had a celebration and they chose patriotism as the theme. President Packer makes comments on why choosing this theme was so important and why it was so amazing for the Saints at that time. I won’t mention them all, you can read them for yourself, but I would like to point out that on this day of celebration there was a parade and at the front of the parade walked 24 men wearing crowns with swords at their waist all holding copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. The Declaration of Independence was read at the celebration. A man named Phineas Richards, who was over the age of 60, stood and spoke these words at the celebration, quoting President Packer, “He spoke of the need for them to teach patriotism to their children and to love and honor freedom. After he briefly recited the perils that they had come through, he said: ‘Brethren and friends, we who have lived to three-score years, have beheld the government of the United States in its glory, and know that the outrageous cruelties we have suffered proceeded from a corrupted and degenerate administration, while the pure principles of our boasted Constitution remain unchanged. As we have inherited the spirit of liberty and the fire of patriotism from our fathers, so let them descend [unchanged] to our posterity.’”

This should be the sounding call to all of us today. It is our obligation to make sure that the principles of freedom and liberty are ours today and tomorrow no matter what our circumstance. If we want the United States to be great then we need to make sure that every citizen of this country is thought of and treated as being great. History was made on November 4, 2008 but that doesn’t mean that all of our problems have been solved. Barack Obama has persuaded us that he will help lead in the fight to protect the principles of the nation’s founding documents but he is only a man. It is in the principles and truths themselves that we should be trusting and placing our hope. It is because those documents are intact and preserved that Barack Obama has been elected president. It is because those documents are still honored that I am able to write this entry. What we need as a country is to stand by those principles that have brought us through the years to this historical point and not redefine new principles. What we need is to be true patriots to the cause “and for the support of this Declaration [of Independence], with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

A Little Bit of Help from a Friend

2008-11-01T11:58:00.008-04:00

Last weekend my friend Kerri came to visit me here in the D. of C. and we had an enjoyable time together. On Saturday we decided to go and visit the Eastern Market which is an outdoor market that has all sorts of vendors selling all sorts of things. One can get fruits and vegetables, flowers, clothes, artwork, jewelry. It is quite the event and a great Saturday morning excursion.

This Saturday happen to be very overcast with rain expected to fall at anytime. Kerri and I had just arrived at the market when the rain began to sprinkle and then began to fall. The rain itself wasn’t so bad but it was the wind that was starting to blow that made all of the vendors start worry as they began to “batten down the hatches” so to speak. Kerri and I were just trying to stay clear of any flying debris and stay dry but as we were walking we came across one vendor who looked somewhat panicked so I asked if I could help. She gladly accepted and Kerri and I helped her hold down here tent and pack her artwork and gear into the van. For helping her she gave Kerri and I each a piece of her art (which are pictured below). Kerri and I hadn’t expected anything in return for our helping hand but this kind and generous women believed that “generosity needs to be rewarded.” She was very kind and very thankful as were Kerri and I for the beautiful and original artwork that she had given us. I can’t say that I would have ever purchased a piece of art from this particular artist but now I find her gift to be quite beautiful mainly because of the experience of which it reminds me.

Is there a moral to this story? Sure, but it is not if you help enough other people get what they want you will get what you want. I find that “moral” to be amoral. The lesson I learned was from the thankful artist who kindly and without hesitation offered her gratitude to two strangers who just happened to be in a position to offer assistance at the right time. I just happen to be the person in the story who got the material prize but I think that the more grateful artist got a whole lot more.

It feels good to be grateful. I find it to be very difficult to be sad or mad when I am reminded of something for which I am sincerely grateful. Being grateful is an act of humility that many people see as a weakness but I find humility to be one of the greatest and most powerful strengths that a person can possess. Being grateful is an easy way to identify a humble person. I myself am far from being humble and find it difficult many a time to show my gratitude. So this picture will hang in my house as a reminder to be grateful for all the good fortune that has smiled upon me even during the times when fortune’s face seems to be hidden. November is a month of thanksgiving for the harvest but also for so much more. Let us not forget to be grateful.

Kerri and I decided to name these pieces of art "Sisters".

**To all who read this post please click on “comments” and read the first comment left by Jorgen. I invite you all to accept his invitation as I have to have compassion on someone in such a way that it is anonymous, doesn’t involve money and changes their life for the better. I wanted to say “good luck” in your search for finding someone to show compassion but rather it is not luck that you need but probably courage. So I say to you all: have courage.

Global Handwashing Day

2008-10-15T13:07:00.003-04:00

I hope everyone takes the initiative today to advocate and support Global Handwashing Day. Below I have given you the link to the website so that you can participate accordingly. If you go to the website there is a short music video made by "The Wiggles" to endorse and celebrate Global Handwashing Day.

I don’t know if we can yet consider Global Handwashing Day a holiday, but it does have a song and so it is one step closer to becoming a fully recognized holiday. I know there are a few people who read this blog who would be happy to see a day on the calendar recognized just for washing hands. Washing hands leads to holding hands which leads to a peaceful world. In reality Global Handwashing Day is all about world peace and I support that.

http://www.globalhandwashingday.org/Index.asp

A Word

2008-10-12T08:09:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I spent most of my time listening and watching the broadcast of the General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The conference takes place twice a year and has participates from around the world with the proceedings being broadcast everywhere on earth except for maybe Antarctica. I don’t know if they broadcast there but with the internet you can watch it online from anywhere.

I look forward to these conferences as much as some people look forward to a birthday or Christmas. I love them. Besides this past conference and the two years I spent in Austria I have spent every General Conference with family. Getting together with brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews and parents is always one of the highlights to conference weekend and I have many fond memories of such weekends. This past weekend was spent with friends that I have made since moving to Washington, D.C. and was also very enjoyable. In addition to the time spent with family and friends, and the delicious food that is usually on hand in between sessions, I truly experience a renewal of spirit after each conference closes. This is the subject that I would like to discuss for a few moments.

Regardless of what your religious affiliation is, or is not, or how and where you seek spiritual enlightenment there is something that was spoken about at this conference that you would agree with. You may not agree with everything or understand and accept everything that came from this worldwide conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but what you can find are some answers, guidance and counsel to questions that have wearied your mind and soul. This is what has happened to me and not to a small degree.

Truth is one of the few things that inspire me in this world and I try to find it wherever I can. Many people may think that I am somewhat naïve or have not had enough experience with the world to know what truth is. I would suggest that life experience is only an avenue that allows man to come across truth but that it is an open heart and an open mind that allows for the truth to be found. An old man may say at the end of his life that he has experienced everything under the sun and has found nothing true. A young man who has his heart and mind open may say that he found truth in simple things like watching an ant, hearing a song or seeing a sunset.

I go to church services each week and participate in them happily and sincerely. I try and give meaningful service where I am able and hope to give more in the future. After listening to ten hours of spiritual messages and doctrinal discourses last weekend I feel ever more eager to do good. My heart is lightened and my spirit is reenergized. I attribute this revitalizing feeling to come from hearing the word of God spoken by men and women who have received authority to speak in his name. Others might say that I feel inclined to believe these individuals because they are smart people who have spent much time studying and pondering topics and issues that pertain to society, the church, government, business, times of war and times of peace. I am going to credit their time and studying habits as well as the authority by which they speak. I choose to believe where others would choose to doubt, that is the difference.

There was nothing extravagate about what was said or presented at the conference. I will attest though that truths were taught. I find these General Conferences of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be one of the billions of avenues that can be taken to come across truth but that the truth that is taught in them is very pertinent to my life in today’s world and reality. Over the next few weeks and months I will be discussing some of my favorite speeches that were given at this conference and allow you to read some of my thoughts and insights on them. I invite you to go to the link below and read and re-read the speeches that were given. Many of you who are reading this probably watched and listened to the conference but regardless of whether it is your first time or tenth time reading the speeches if it is true then it won’t do you harm (I won’t say that it can’t hurt).

http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-947,00.html.

Amazing Things

2008-10-03T20:15:00.006-04:00

I was walking down the street and saw an ant dragging a cockroach along. I was amazed by the whole scene that I had to stop and watch for a few minutes and take a picture. You can clearly see the ant is several times smaller than the roach but that didn't seem to stop him. Imagine dragging something so large through harsh terrain like cement (for an ant it can't be very smooth). I get tired carrying myself around let alone something that is substantially larger than me. This little ant, with his miniscule legs and odd shaped body, is amazing and should be admired for what he is and his potential to do amazing things. Mark Twain thought highly of him and gives him special credit in the essay "What is Man" as he describes the ant's character and abilities being greater than mankind's.

I believe in fairness and the equality that it is able to bring to a situation. I also believe that music is amazing and that it has incredible power to persuade, destroy, build-up and inspire. Life is many things for many people depending upon who you are and what you experience but I would dare say that everyone’s life is enhanced because of music. When it comes to aesthetics I accept Plato’s philosophy that good art points to the all encompassing Good. When I am able to experience good music which presents something more than just lyrics and melody, something that is greater than the song itself, then I feel that I am part of something more than myself. It is something so great that I understand so little about it, but yet have experienced it and felt it many times before. Because of it I am drawn toward greatness and the Good. Life is beautiful and hard. Something that shares both characteristics needs something to help maintain the fairness of it all. This is why I believe the sign below.

A sunset should always be looked upon with awe, admiration and amazement.

Meet Mut

2008-09-30T20:16:00.002-04:00

He is my newest friend. I just found him on Saturday.

"Turn and Face the Strain"

2008-09-13T19:19:00.004-04:00

This is a great song worth remembering.

So is this one.
I heard this song several years ago as I watched a movie at school. The movie had no words but only music from Leonard Cohen with footage of Africa showing on the screen. The footage was of a variety of places both beautiful and wasted. I don’t know the name of the movie but it appeared to be made in the late 60’s early 70’s. I had never heard of Leonard Cohen or his music but really appreciated the film and how it told its story. When I was in Portland earlier this year the lyrics from this song were written on the wall of the hotel where I stayed. I stood and read them all and knew that I had read or heard them before. As I read the words I was so impressed by them that I took pictures of them so I could remember them and find their source. So here it is. I like this version with Judy Collins better then Cohen by himself. Judy Collins is classic and has such a pure voice.

A Home

2008-09-13T17:36:00.008-04:00

I haven’t been very diligent at writing on the blog over the last few weeks and I do apologize about that. I have been spending most of my time without internet service because I just moved into my own apartment. But have no fear; though I still don’t have internet service at my apartment, I am committed to ensuring that this blog keeps me in touch with the world or at least my thoughts, ideas and insights in touch with the world.

When I moved to DC I brought with me two suitcases and a carry-on bag full of stuff. Mainly the items were clothes, so that I could get a job and look professional, along with some shoes that would be appropriate with the clothes selection. The vast majority of my possessions are sitting at my brother’s house in a closet. As I was packing and deciding what I would bring with me and what would be left behind in Utah there was one thing that I wanted dearly to bring with me but couldn’t seem to fit it in my baggage and keep within the set weight limit the airline had restricted me to. As hard as I tried I couldn’t fit in some speakers that I am able to plug my IPod into and listen to music without the aid of headphones. Last night a kind friend lent me her speakers so that I could have music in my apartment while I await my speakers from Utah (I hate to go buy something that I already own). You might ask why I didn’t just use my laptop and listen to music through those speakers but it isn’t the same. Laptop speakers are good for listening to newscasts and youtube videos but not music and movies. I tired and it just isn’t the same. So, last night as I was getting ready for bed I plugged my IPod into the speakers and let the music reverberate off my walls and into my ears and my apartment became more a home than it has since I moved in.

I thought what I might want to play for the first piece of music from the IPod and a few ideas came to mind but sometimes I like to see what fate has in store and let “shuffle” work its magic. The song that played was “What Led Me to This Town” by the Jayhawks. I chuckled a little bit because it was so appropriate for the moment and how I was feeling (sometimes that shuffle option on the IPod just knows exactly what I need). I sang along and continued to get ready for bed and a couple of other great songs played, of which Radiohead was one selection.

This morning I woke up and was thinking about what I was going to do today and my first thought was to blog and show some pictures of my new place (which are below). I started to warm up some water for some chamomile tea with honey, because I have been filling a little sick with a sniffley nose, and turned on the music. The song was Andrew Bird’s “Lull” which I found to be appropriate for what I waned to blog about today and how I was feeling in general. I have inserted some of the lyrics of the song in between the pictures below so that you can get a sense of my thoughts as I listened.

Because I have taken so many pictures it may appear like there is a lot of space in my apartment or that it is big. Though it is not that small it isn't that big either. I just wanted to make sure that you got to see all of it in its grandeur and beauty.

being alone it can be quite romantic

like jacques cousteau underneath the atlantic

a fantastic voyage to parts unknown

going to depths where the sun’s never shone

and i fascinate myself when i’m alone

i’m all for moderation but sometimes it seems
moderation itself can be a kind of extreme

so i go a little overboard but hang on to the hull

while i’m airbrushing fantasy art on a life
that’s really kind of dull

i’m rambling on rather self consciously
while i’m stirring these condiments into my tea

and i think i’m so lame

bet i think this song’s about me

don’t i don’t i don’t i ?

Radiohead II

2008-08-21T22:33:00.002-04:00

In the summer of 2003 I attended a band's concert which had been newly introduced to me by a friend. The band was Radiohead and I didn’t really have much desire to go to the concert except that my friends were going and it was an event to take part in. I had heard of the band previously but never gave them or their music much attention because it wasn’t "popular." I went to the concert being indifferent and disinterested in the music that I was subjecting myself to. While at the concert I listened half-heartedly to the music because I had never heard most of it before and I was not interested in becoming acquainted with it. As the evening progressed I remember standing and looking over the crowd and hoping for the show to end so we could go home. The band started to play a song that I faintly recognized from my friend's CD. I can’t say that I liked the song from the previous times that I had heard it played, but this time as I stood with the other fans in the crowd something happened while listening to it being played live.

The song that they played was Fake Plastic Trees and it was during that song that I made an aesthetic judgment about Radiohead; their art is beautiful. I have continued to make that claim known too many people for the past five years and have often been contradicted as well as asked why I believe it. For the past five years my answer to people’s questions have ranged from the variety of sound created by the band makes them great to just simply stating that they are genius. These answers never adequately summed up why I think that Radiohead’s music is beautiful.

Throughout my life I have always found it difficult to understand lyrics as they are sung. When listening to music I generally listen to the harmony and melody and not worry about understanding the lyrics. Usually I have to listen to the song multiple times and have the words repeated over and over again before I catch on, or I read the lyrics while listening to the song being played. That night at the concert was no different; I had no idea as to what the purpose of the song Fake Plastic Trees was. I knew that there were lyrics being sung, that the music set a mood and the song had some representative purpose, but what it was trying to tell me, teach me, or direct me, I had no idea. The purpose was and, to some extent, still is ambiguous and unknown to me, which is one reason why I can still call it beautiful. As stated previously, for the past five years I have tried to explain or define why I thought Radiohead was beautiful but the answers have never fully explained what I experienced that night and how I truly felt about the band’s music. Beauty is not a concept and can not be expressed in a definition, like I have been trying to do. As to the universality of my claim, I leave that up to the common sense of each individual who hears Radiohead and I allow them to come to the same conclusion that I have; Radiohead’s music is beautiful.

Is Radiohead the greatest music group ever to exist? That is a question for a different time, place and author, but I would simply state no. They are but one imitation that exists to help people obtain the great Form of beauty and they are only beautiful based upon my framework’s perception. I believe that I will never be able to truly know Radiohead’s music in its purest Form because of the chain that I wrap myself in that binds me to my perspective and keeps me watching shadows on a wall. For a moment though, I saw beyond myself and into the “other” and knew the beauty of Fake Plastic Trees.

Radiohead

2008-08-19T21:35:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow I was suppose to be joining some friends for the Radiohead concert in Washington State but due to a change of events in my life I will not be going tomorrow. I had the great fortune of going a week ago, as you may well know, and it was amazing. To those of you who will be listening to Radiohead tomorrow I do hope you love it. For the rest of you here are a couple of clips from the show I went to. I hope “it wears you out” a little bit to hear such beautiful music.

Swifter, Higher, Stronger

2008-08-14T07:28:00.003-04:00

The Summer Olympics are now happening in Beijing for anyone who may not have known. Athletes from around the world have made their way to compete in some of the most demanding sporting events this world has ever seen. A couple of nights ago Team USA's men’s swim team beat the French for the gold in the 4x100 meter relay. It was amazing and reminded me how much I love to watch relay teams come from behind and win. I have seen some amazing relay finishes in my day and they are always the most exciting.

Not only is the Spirit of the Olympics present in China but also here in D.C. If you would like to see some great photos of some true Olympic Spirit then follow this link and you won't be disappointed. http://smashgfunk.blogspot.com/ or just click on the link to the right for "Secret Simmerings" and that will take you to it as well.

“The Most Perfect Day I’ve Ever Seen” (at least one of them)

2008-08-11T19:24:00.005-04:00

On Saturday I drove to the Liberty State Park in Jersey City to go to the All Points West music festival. I can only think of a few things that could have made this day better. I got to drive for about 8 – 9 hours, and even though there was some slow traffic, it was still driving and I loved it. The sky was a beautiful blue color with huge white battleship, spaceship and attackship clouds in the sky the whole day. They were amazing and there were so many of them that I could only imagine the type of battle they were off to fight in. Later in the day the sun setting made a spectacle only the sun can. I got to see across the bay to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and be reminded of the historic past that we all are part of. There was a food vendor who was selling the most delicious corncake sandwich with mozzarella cheese in the middle. It was so sweet and appetizing for a perfect day. The temperature was mild and cool and I was never hot or cold but always just right with the most pleasant of breezes blowing the entire afternoon and into the evening. And if all of this were not enough to make it one of the most perfect days ever I got to dance with Thom York while Radiohead played Idioteque. Thom was on the stage but he was dancing and I was dancing and the whole crowd was dancing, minus the stupid people who came and didn’t do anything but stand there like zombies the whole time. For 2 hours I got to listen to Radiohead play their music and not only did they play Idioteque in their repertoire but also Fake Plastic Trees and Reckoner, my favorite three songs that they have. With all of this how could it not have been a perfect day? Please enjoy this little video I made of some of my experiences while at the Liberty State Park and just a note, the song in the video is called Let Down, not one of the three that I mentioned.

I laughed until my head almost came off

2008-07-30T23:18:00.004-04:00

So it has been a few days since my last post and some of you may be wondering where I am. "He moves to DC and then falls off the face of the earth" you might be saying. Well to put your minds at ease I have been laughing, almost uncontrollably, at the following video/song for the last few days nonstop. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. My forever thanks to those two individuals who introduced me to "Dayman, Champion of the Sun"

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Make A Difference

2008-07-17T23:58:00.004-04:00

A couple of days ago there was a lot of backed up traffic downtown. There was no way that a bus was going to be coming any time soon and so I decided to start walking. I turned the IPod on to some great music and headed off. There are moments in my life that I picture myself in a movie and I always love having the IPod readily available so that I have a great soundtrack to go along with the scenes from the movie, this was one of those times. I eventually ended up walking the whole way home which is about 35 blocks. I made it to the bus stop that I would have been getting off at right as the bus arrived. It was during this walk that I had a lot of good thoughts and some of them I would like to share with you.

No matter how I or anyone else looks at my life I have many advantages, benefits and opportunities that the vast majority of the world’s population have never had nor will have. Some of these advantages are due to my race and sex, being a white male in the world still has its privilege regardless of what society or people say. Many of my advantages have come at the hand of my parent’s hard work and sacrifice. Both of my parents were not privileged people as they were growing up but both have done much to enable me and my siblings to be. My siblings have also contributed to a large degree to my advantage in life. But no advantage really makes any difference if I don’t myself accept and take the opportunities as they are presented. To some degree I have experienced both acting and not acting on those opportunities. Being able to move to Washington, DC is a great opportunity and one that I have been waiting a long time for, the time was finally right and I took it.

One thing that is all around where I am living is poverty. I don’t feel that it is extreme in the area that I live, but coming from a fairly wealthy area in Utah this area is fairly poor in comparison. As I have been living here and taking the public transit I have seen and observed to some degree the way that people live who don’t have much. This is not the first time that I have been exposed to homeless individuals or people who live in bare circumstances, but it has been along time since I have been around it consistently.

The day following my first night here, on the way to the bus stop, I noticed litter and trash lying on the ground in people’s yards. There are no piles of garbage lying around but broken bottles, papers, wrappers and what appeared to be used contraceptives on the street, sidewalk and lawn. No one in the neighborhood seemed to be concerned by it, not even the broken glass that was scattered on the sidewalk that some kid could cut himself on, but don’t worry I picked it up. Even on the bus an older man, probably in his mid 50s, was drinking a soda out of a plastic bottle and when he was done he just threw it on the floor of the bus. He didn’t even think twice about it, but just threw it over his shoulder as if it were meant to go on the floor. This other older gentleman was eating some food and then threw the wrapper on the ground.

Since I have been here I have only seen one other person besides myself who has picked up some litter off the ground. Why is that? Growing up I remember people who were out walking for exercise taking along a sack so that they could pick up trash along the way. I recall neighbors picking up trash off of their lawns and sidewalks as soon as it was noticed. Why does that not take place here? Some have said because people don’t own the property and that it is not their job to take care of the upkeep. Maybe because everyone is to busy trying to work 2 or 3 jobs and take care of a family that they don’t have time to clean up a little trash off of their lawn. Maybe it is due to the higher population density living in the area. And let us not forget the reason that rats need food too.

I don’t know what the reason is. I only know that there is a difference between a low-income and high-income area and one of those seems to be the amount of litter on the streets. It isn’t that I want to be Captain Planet and save the world, though it is a worthy cause, I just think that it is nice when you can walk down the sidewalk and not see a bunch of garbage on the streets. Am I much different than most people? I hope not. Is it because of the way I was raised and the place? Don’t other people like to live in a nice and clean neighborhood? I don’t feel that I am way off base but for some reason I think that people around where I am currently living don’t have the same desire as I do and/or their desire has been extinguished to some degree.

I should give credit to those in the neighborhood who do keep their yards nice and clean, and they do look really nice, but there defiantly is a difference between the community that I just came from and the one that I am in now. Regardless of where we live it is our responsibility to improve upon that which has already been established and as Michael Jackson said “make the world a better place for you and for me and the entire human race.”

One Week in DC

2008-07-12T21:47:00.009-04:00

The night I arrived my friend Ashley picked me up at the airport. She was late getting there and so I gathered my luggage from the carousel and waited. Initially, I thought that because it was July 4th there was probably a lot of metro traffic and that was slowing her down. As time went on and I was sitting at the terminal with fewer and fewer people around and my thoughts started to make me worry about being stranded in the airport for my first night in DC. Who knows what would happen by morning if she didn’t show up? Ashley did arrive and it was very good to see her, not just to ease my stress.

It was super humid outside and in addition it was raining so I was really miserable trying to adjust to the weather. The metro ride was great, we laughed and discussed all kinds of things like crazy tourists adorning themselves in large amounts of American flag pins and other such paraphernalia. We got to the metro stop and now had to heave my luggage 4 to 5 blocks through the streets of DC and the light rain/mist. It being the 4th of July a lot of people were still awake and shooting off firecrackers. Ashley mentioned that usually when you hear loud bangs it is best to duck but since it was Independence Day we should be alright. We got to her place and I have been sleeping on the couch since.

I really like it here. I have been spending a lot of time trying to find a job and filling out applications. No positions have been offered yet but I have a temp job next week with the American Institutes of Research so that will be nice to actually be working. I don’t have a car and have been taking the bus and metro everywhere which has been nice. I don’t have to worry about stupid drivers and can just sit back and wait for my stop. It does take a long time to get around and planning ahead is involved which I am not very good at when it comes to getting to places on time but for now I like it.

Here are some more pictures of me not being a tourist.

These first two pictures are for you mom, I know how you think Kevin Costner is good looking. I saw him at the movie premier that I went to.

I would recommend the movie Swing Vote to everyone. It was a good movie with a good message. It reminded me of what I would like to do sometime in my life.

Ashley, Chandana, my new friend, and I before the movie.

This one is for you "Tinman", a replacement for me until a more permanent and better one can be found. A winged dog and some man riding some strange creature.

A crazy pig monster at one of the art galleries. Look familiar to anyone?

A wood carving of death and war.

This exhibit is made out of tinfoil and cardboard.

Some beautiful pictures of a great building.

The Way We Should Be

2008-07-11T16:01:00.007-04:00

This guys name is Matt Harding and as far as I know he travels the world and finds places to do his crazy, somewhat awkward dance and for some reason people come join him. Though it is a bit strange and unusual I think it is way cool. How great would life be if people came together just to dance. I know I would love it. When people dance they are happy. The music and the movement is amazing and so why not dance? What are you waiting for? You know you want to. Go ahead. Do it.

No Tourists Here

2008-07-10T00:29:00.008-04:00

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go downtown DC and look around a little. I got off the bus and started walking down F Street. I stopped in a few shops along the way but mainly I was just walking around trying to occupy my time as I was going to meet a friend in a little bit. I turned down 10th Street and noticed a lot of tourists, mind you I am not one, and thought "oh look at all those tourists, glad I'm not one of them." They were going in and out of tourist gift shops exclaiming how great and wonderful the stuff inside was. One lady could hardly stop from yelling as she told her not so interested husband that the pencil she was holding had drawings of all the great monuments of DC on it. It's a pencil, it isn't that cool.

As I continued down the street I saw a sign that said "this is the house were Lincoln died." I thought that Lincoln died in a theater not a house. As I continued to look at the sign and the building it was attached to I saw people walking up the stairs in a line with a tour guide leading them. Thinking there must be something legitimate to the building and not sure what to think about the house I looked around the street to see if a theater was near by. Sure enough directly across the street was Ford's Theater where Lincoln was shot and then he was brought to the house and later died there. At this point I wanted to take a picture of the historical place but didn't want to seem like a tourist, but I was in a tourist area with lots of tourists around; I could blend in for a minute. So here are my non-tourist pictures.

This is Ford's Theater.

This is the house directly across the street from Ford's Theater where Lincoln died.

A little further down the street is the J. Edger Hoover building otherwise known as the FBI building. Did you know that this year celebrates the 100th birthday of the FBI. I think the whole building is made out of concrete, at least that is what is looked like.

The Sweetness of Friends

2008-07-08T23:29:00.004-04:00

A few days before I left for DC a couple of friends brought over a delicious yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Some of you who may not know but yellow cake with chocolate frosting is the best kind of cake that there is. The cake is so moist and is wrapped in chocolate goodness. What could be better? Here are some pictures of the ambrosia and my heartfelt thanks to Ashley and Paige, you guys are the best.

The Flight

2008-07-04T18:04:00.011-04:00

It may appear to some that I look like I am in a jail cell or have gone crazy but in actuality I am at the Denver airport waiting for the plane to get fixed. I was en route to Washington, DC where I am now living. I had a 2 hour layover in Denver and then 20 minutes after we were already suppose to be in the air the airline employee announces that the main computer on the plane wasn't working and needed to be reset and would take about an hour. So we (meaning my fellow traveling passengers not just me, myself and I) waited. Here are some pictures of my trip to the East.

Whenever I fly and see these types of clouds, the big puffy ones, I like to think of them as big spaceships or battle ships going to war. In my head I play out scenes from that war and if you look really close at the clouds you can see little soldiers ready to slay some invading aliens.

This picture proves that aliens exist. Look at the perfect circles they left as signs.

Just some nice clouds of a different sort, not battle clouds but nice nonetheless.

As I continued to travel east the sun set in the west and made some beautiful colors in the sky.

I made it safely to Washington, DC and have been enjoying my time here.

Mr. corb goes to Washington

2008-06-30T12:40:00.006-04:00

I am moving to Washington DC this coming Friday which happens to be July 4th, the Independence Day of the United States. Moving to DC has been a dream of mine for many, many years and thanks to the degree that I just earned and to a kind friend I am going to be moving out there to live for a while. In a sense July 4th will be my own Independence Day, the day I left my home and went east. I am very excited about the move and am looking forward to the change that will take place.

I thought it appropriate at this occasion in my life to share a paper I wrote for a college political science class. The class was concerning politics and literature and we focused on rhetoric and its role and usefulness in politics. It was a great class and we read some great literature (plays by Shakespeare and Machiavelli, speeches by great statesmen, theory and philosophy by Plato and Aristotle as well as others). One assignment the class was given was to write an inaugural address. We were to imagine that we had just been sworn into office as President of the United States and were giving our first address in that office. Some of my thoughts in this speech may be innocent and some people may even think them to be naive, but I believe them regardless. I understand that the world we live in is much bigger and more corrupt then the hopeful ideals I try and express in this speech, but I will argue that our society is founded on and its actions carried out based upon the values that we hold. If our society is corrupt it is because of the values that we hold and practice that are corrupt. We hide our real intent under a blanket of hopeful and Christian ideals as a society to make ourselves feel better about what we truly believe and desire. To commemorate my “Independence Day” I give you my speech.

Fellow Citizens

All significant events in the course of one’s existence obligate him to ponder the past actions that have led to that moment and to embrace a sense of the future. Looking back at the past generations of this great republic and to those who have served this nation with dignity and respect I feel a great sense of appreciation. As I look upon them I notice qualities of lasting worth as well as characters that have helped to define this nation. These great and meaningful people have brought forth ideals and values that have helped sustain this nation, with its government, through many marvelous and dire events. It is upon their foundation that we have continued to build and develop these United States of America. It is from this vantage point of the present that we look to and prepare for the future.

The look back through history conveys that in each era of this republic men have been required to stand as statesmen and make decisions that have affected this nation and its citizens. Each decision made was based on values and ideals that were felt to be right and just for the great cause of the United States of America. And so to this era in which we are now present, we find that we are still encountering events that have great consequence and the decisions made in response still continue to be based on American values.

We have traveled long and hard since the devastating events of 2001 and some have opposed the direction in which we have journeyed, but regardless of this opposition we are here and must find resolution to bring ourselves to a united path. The decisions that have led us to our current status in Afghanistan and Iraq were based on firm American beliefs that we should be free to live without fear of attack and harm, to be able to engage in our lives without threat of death and injury. These values, freedom, liberty and equity, are as much a part of the foundations of this nation as is the Mayflower and the pilgrims who rode upon her, George Washington and the framers of the Constitution, the Civil War and the freed slaves, and the many people offered hope by the New Deal. We Americans are made up by the very essence of these values and as such have a high reputation to maintain.

The world has embarked on a new era and we are part of it. Technology and science have brought individuals together from the most remote parts of the world and they have also brought nations together. In this vast America we talk and associate with our friends and neighbors in spite of the diversity of our communities. We make compromises and negotiate with one another and do so in a manner that is peaceful and tolerant of everyone. These are some of the attributes that make the United States and her communities so desirable to live in. These are some of the attributes that we need to instill in our global community and to the people and nations of the world.

The future of this nation is closely tied with that of the world. We are no longer an entity that is separated by oceans but a member of a global community that is more connected today then at any other time in history. In our conception as a nation we founded ourselves upon values that all men dreamed of and desired. We are now in a position to assist and help more of our global neighbors attain and live these same values. For the past 200 years these United States have been a force for good and humanity and we will continue to be, but we should not suppose this as a superpower but as an equal member of a global community. The values in which we believe do not advocate oppression or coercion by way of acceptance or implementation but rather friendly persuasion and diplomacy.

The United States of America is a promoter of liberty and freedom and as such we as a people must embrace our global neighbors as friends. Conceit and vanity are contrary values which we as a nation can not afford to take part in for they will be a means of destroying our global community as well as ourselves. The values that we hold at our very core are the values that will sustain us through the future as we remain a vital role in the global community and continue to bear up our legacy as the free people of this republic.

More Cats

2008-06-20T15:20:00.004-04:00

For the sake of the owners here are three more videos of the cats.

“We never look for such things inside us.”

2008-06-17T16:17:00.002-04:00

I just read the book The Brothers K by David James Duncan. It is an excellent read and would recommend it. The book has many similarities to the classic Dostoevsky novel The Brothers Karamazov, which is one of my favorite books. Duncan does a great job of exploring some of society’s major issues such as religion and faith, war, social responsibility, family dynamics, care of sick and elderly, abuse and poverty. While reading the book I didn’t feel pressured or the need to change my opinion based upon what the author was writing. He did a fine job representing various viewpoints on all of these issues. Duncan also has a great writing style that is intellectually stimulating but not to the point that I felt incompetent.

This book set off a conversation with a friend about differences between authors and writing style. I shared the idea that some authors take a story that they have imagined and try to give it life whereas other authors take life and put it into a story. The difference is that one is trying to create something out of nothing, which is fairly difficult, while the other is taking life that exists and is real and puts it into story form. I like to think of life as a representation of truth, that it is something that exists and doesn’t need to be created but rather found and learned. Authors who take life and put it into story form are doing just that, they take truth and share it while others are relying on their own imagination to create it. By this distinction I don’t mean to place fiction in the category of “no life,” all of my favorite books are fiction and would even argue fictional books relate stories about life the best. Some examples are Les Miserable, The Brothers Karamazov, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Hobbit and 1984. The difference then lies in the author and his representation of the story and its truth concerning life.

The quote “we never look for such things inside us.” is from The Brothers K (pg 211) and represents both ideas that have been discussed about authors. Everyone reflects upon his own experiences but to what degree and how often does this take place? Often this reflection is somewhat superficial and if we were to look deeper inside we might find greater things than what we understand at the present time about ourselves, things that are grand but also things that might scare us. Maybe humans don’t like to know the type of person they really are? It seems to be easier to live life not knowing what we really are, or at least that is what is heard often as people state “ignorance is bliss.” Entertainment and pleasure are sought after to often when truth and life are what is needed. Not to say that entertainment is wrong to experience but the degree and quantity might be. Authors who use their own thoughts and creative spirit to formulate a book are only looking at the shallow parts of their vast resources of truth within themselves. It seems that they are seeking to entertain rather than share truth. This is a shame and a waste of energy.

I have also recently finished reading the book Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I do not wish to offend anyone but this next part might and so I apologize now if that happens. Twilight is a representation of an author who used her own imagination to bring life to a story. I would not recommend this book to anyone unless you wanted to understand and see the differences between authors that I have tried to describe. Meyer’s book is a drawn out love story between a vampire and a human that is founded on nothing more than unbridled passion. Her attempt is completely superficial at trying to represent truth and it is a shame because she does have potential for writing a really interesting work of fiction that could inspire and teach others. Her book fails to do either of these, which is fine (trying not to judge her) but I do not understand why so many people like it. The reason that I read Twilight was because I was so interested in finding out what the appeal was for so many readers and frankly I was quite discouraged. Because of the book’s superficial nature it seems that the only point to reading it is for entertainment value and even for that reason it is a bad choice.

I would be interested in knowing other books that might fit into one of these two classifications that I have explained. If you don’t quite know what I am talking about then please read the two books that I have discussed here and I hope that you will see what I mean.

Cats

2008-06-16T15:18:00.004-04:00

I have had the pleasure of taking care of some great cats over the past couple of weeks. This video is more for the owners of the cats rather than everyone else, but everyone can enjoy it and behold the greatness of Mr. Orange, Billie, Dignan and Boomer. I will say this about cats after taking care of these ones, they are clever curious and very persistence about it. My brother likes to say that dogs think they are human while cats think they are god. I will have to agree with this statement.

Sitting at my computer as the rain beads on the window

2008-06-04T15:07:00.002-04:00

A robin, red breasted and gray pokes his head into the grass and brings up a worm. Bet it is tasty. The other day sitting and looking out the same window a cat was prowling along the edge of the field, sly and focused. She stopped, sat for just a moment and then – pounce. She pawed and then brought out of the weeds a mouse, caught between her razor teeth. She dropped it on the ground and started to tear it apart. She was not just biting it in half but tearing it, flesh, sinew and bone. The sound must have been terrible to hear, the squeaking, ripping and crying sounds, but not as terrible as the pain. The mouse never had a chance.

The robin takes to flight with worm in beak. What kind of chance did the worm have? Less than the mouse imaging how slow the worm moves. And in some nest somewhere little baby birds will fill their stomachs with the meat of the worm. Probably not stretched and ripped apart like the mouse but swallowed whole to be killed by digestive acid.