Legalization of Drugs

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At my previous job, I was injured at work. After the doctor's evaluation, I was offered pain killers. Given my low use of pain medication, he opted to prescribe me simply a heavy ibuprofin dose with the proviso that I could always return for something stronger. "I don't want to get you addicted to a medication from which we have to walk you down stepwise when we're done," he told me. My coworkers were beside themselves at my choice and told me I should have filled the prescription because they would have bought the pills from me, but I had no interest in becoming a drug dealer. More to my dismay was the speed with which my fellows jumped at the chance to obtain a controlled substance. Who controls whom?

While the argument might be tempting on the surface to legalize drugs, it creates new problems. There are those who refrain from drug use now because it is illegal. Whether out of fear of punishment or respect for the law, those people do not currently indulge. If it were legal, suddenly you would find more people addicted with the consent and possible the assistance of the government. Despite what you may read in the media, Portugal's experiment has not actually worked. Whereas deaths may have declined and captures of individuals carrying illegal narcotics has decreased, those have simple answers. Portugal now has large groups of addicts hanging out around government facilities to get their next fix, and so they are not worried about overdosing or using poorly cut drugs. Fewer arrests come because people have started abusing and using legal drugs, not necessarily because narcotic use is down. Plus, coincidental things are not always causative.

I make it a habit to have good habits. I don't drink or smoke or do drugs, because I don't like other things or people to control me. I try to avoid buying chocolate, because if it's in the house I can't stop eating it. Yet, we have scientists and doctors out there justifying the wonton access to drugs on the auspices that it will help public health. They say they are here to help people survive, but are they really alive if they are addicted to a chemical? Their oath begins, as I read in Hippocrates "The Sacred Disease" to first do no harm.

Government, under the same guise to do no harm, depends to a large degree on things that do us harm. "Sin taxes" levied against these commodities are a source of great revenue for the government, as they know they can count on increased tax receipts because of how addictive the subtances are. I oppose legalizing something on the argument that you can then tax it. They would not call it a "sin tax" if they knew there was nothing wrong with these substances. They know full well that they're bad for you. Even King James I of England wrote in his Counterblast to Tobacco that the use of this narcotic would hasten the ruin of civilization, and that was almost 400 years ago when his cousin Elizabeth allowed that stinking weed into British society! Government is behind or confederate to most of the things that make your life miserable. As Reagan said, “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.”

Fortunately for us and for me, the US DEA is heavily opposed to the notion of legalizing drugs. Of course, if drugs were legal, it would cease to exist, but they offer some interesting thoughts on their website.

-Like America, the various countries of Europe are looking for new ways to combat the worldwide problem of drug abuse.

-In the Netherlands, it is illegal to sell or possess marijuana products. So coffee shop operators must purchase their marijuana products from illegal drug trafficking organizations.

-Furthermore, drug abuse has increased in the Netherlands.

-The strong form of marijuana that most of the young people smoke, he says, produces “a chronically passive individual—someone who is lazy, who doesn’t want to take initiatives, doesn’t want to be active—the kid who’d prefer to lie in bed with a joint in the morning rather than getting up and doing something.”

-Many proponents of drug legalization or decriminalization claim that drug use will be reduced if drugs were legalized. However, history has not shown this assertion to be true.

This is simply another example of poor science. They theorize before they have any facts and then bend the facts to fit their theories. Like I tell my students, do your own homework, and discern for yourself. Everyone who does research does so with an agenda, because they are patronized by people who pay them hoping that they will discover something that rewards and reaffirms the patron. When people make sweeping conclusions, I usually ask to see the data, because even if I agree, I like to know why before I jump on the bandwagon with them.

Legalizing drugs will not make life easier, it will make it more difficult. Even as Utah became the last state that brought us an end to Prohibition, Heber J Grant bewailed that alcoholism would break the hearts of women and children, and his prophetic warning has been verified in our day. There was a good reason to render them illegal before. Accepting that we cannot defeat the drug dealers is not going to help us defeat them. You discover your own strength not by relenting to opposition but by pressing forward and advancing your own positions in the face of opposition. Press forward.

Same Currency Scam

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As the President blames oil prices on speculators and our economic struggles on plagues, war, and evil corporations, we all wonder what can be done. The irony is that this is the same old game played by governments throughout time and is one of the reasons for which the Founders established a Constitutional republic. Politicians continue to ignore the solutions that will actually alleviate the crisis in favor of same old lang synes. While they fiddle, you get poorer. Most of this is because they force you to use paper money.

Roger Sherman came from New Haven, CN, to help draft the US Constitution. It has been said, although I don't have the ability to prove it at present, that Thomas Jefferson called him "a man who has never said a foolish thing in his life". He was instrumental to article 1 section 10 of the US Constitution, but the wording in that article has an older history.

In 1752, he wrote "A Caveate Against Injustice" in which he blasted the inflation and use of paper money for the payment of debts. At the time, vestiges of paper bills were still floating around in the Americas from every colonial power that had ever claimed land or transacted major trade. From the Dutch to the French, to even colonial powers, everyone had done this to keep things simple. Even worse, the British Crown had made it illegal for the colonies to mint coins, making them reliant on the arrival of numismatic materials from the mother country while still holding prices the same, despite the scarcity of coin.

Although the Connecticut Legislature took effect to prevent depreciation of paper currency, the other bills were another problem. Like our government is currently doing to encourage economic growth, Sherman wrote "some of those Governments having issued much larger sums of Bills than were necessary to supply themselves with a competent medium of exchange, and not having supplied their Treasuries with any Fund for the maintaining of Credit of such Bills" occasioned embarassment and injustice. Even he wrote "widows and orphans have been great Sufferers thereby" echoing the oft touted media phrase "women and minorities hardest hit". Today, our government has issued much larger sums of bills than the funds in the treasury can support. Much of this is accomplished with clever accounting, the same kind of thing that is villified in hollywood movies and usually lands corporate tycoons in jail or the grave.

Who's doing this to you? Your own government. It isn't speculators or businessmen or God, unless the speculator is the president who is out seeing if something will work. Obama regards the economy as a federally funded fishing expedition.

In 1933, FDR wrote an executive order (EO6102) that forced all Americans to surrender gold currency and trade it for "an equivalent amount of any other form of coin or currency coined or issued under the laws". Now we are held prisoner of paper currency. What this means for you is that your dollars are worth less in terms of buying power with every Quantitive Easing, which is washingtonish for "printing more paper". Our government is now guilty of the same thing that precipitated an article of the Constitution they are obligated to uphold and defend.

You may say that you have gold or stocks that are worth money. Well, that's not really true. Gold is only valuable if someone can trade it for something they want. Stocks are up because the dollar is weaker, not because the businesses are worth more. Gas is partially more expensive because the dollar is weaker, in addition to other direct government interferances. Beware the temptation to trust in Gold. Like all laws, the current gold standard was written by men. Men have violated their oaths and promises for millennia, and politicians make promises as if they were Hershey kisses. If you want to secure your family's future, get out of debt, then establish yourself to be as self-sufficient as possible, and then store whatever you can. Governments and the money they print cannot save you, and God can only multiply your oil and meal if you first store up some.

For decades, I have heard the sage advice to get out of debt. Even if you have meager means, if you don't have to pay anyone, you can sometimes eke out an existence. This is why I really don't get when women go after guys without practical skills, because those are going to be the guys who are worst off in a technobubble or further economic depression, because at least farmers can grow food. I know farming isn't sexy, but it keeps you alive. Then again, we no longer have to worry about survival, and so we no longer make decisions based on that moniker. Perhaps to our detriment.

So what do you do? We need some kind of standard. Maybe you don't like Paul Ryan's budget. When, since 2010, have the Democrats even offered an alternative? Maybe you like your wage and want to keep it. That's fine, but it won't cut the mustard if a roll of toilet paper rises to $1000 like it did in Russia. The more the plans fail, the more the planners plan. Sherman's paper shows that this is the same problem we had centuries ago, and they want to solve it with the thing that caused the problem in Connecticut in the first place.

I see no clear way in which it is possible to believe in the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution and be a socialist. You are either for freedom, or you are against it. It really is that simple. What our government is doing is a scam, and you will be rendered poor because of it. Question politicians. Look at what they do and why and if it's been done before. I might have wasted years in graduate school repeating things already done if I hadn't searched the literature myself. Do your own homework. That's always my best advice.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never can be." --Thomas Jefferson

Manipulating Jesus

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Over the Easter weekend, politicians and journalists tried to leverage the thought of Jesus Christ to advance their own aims. They do not care what Jesus would do. If they were really interested in what Jesus would do, they have their answers- Jesus would lower our taxes to 10% and ask us for a "generous fast offering". He would ask us to follow his example and go about serving everyone he met, regardless of their wealth or influence, something most liberals would never do.  Don't coopt a man you denigrate at every chance.

The mission of Jesus was one of service and love. Jesus also warned against sloth, infanticide, and injustice. Yet, the Democrats use guilt, bribes, and manipulation to force people who are moral to fund and otherwise support things they find morally irreprehensible (partial-birth abortions, contraception, wars in foreign lands, etc. depending on your Faith). What the Democrats ask of us does not serve us or show love. Under their rule, we do things not because we feel like it but because government forces us to. That sounds a lot like the plan of Lucifer- to force everyone to be happy, harmonious, and holy. Jesus was not concerned with what men did as much as he was concerned with what they became. Remember that the Pharisees kept the law of Moses. Doing wrong things better doesn't make you a good person. Practice of bad habits doesn't make you perfect- it makes bad habits permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

These efforts are all attempts to manipulate Jesus to fit a political end. The rest of the year, these closet Christians clandestinely conceal any vestiges of Christianity with which they happen to be imbued. It's because their piety is a play. Beware when politicians paint themselves as moral authorities and talk in sweeping gestures of Judeo-Christian principles, for they generally do so not because they mean to be virtuous but because they know that you do. Politics and economics reward people, not for their virtue, but for the advancement of their interests.

What did Jesus really represent? He represents the road to true happiness, one which leaders political, economical, ecumenical, and ecclesiastical have attempted to counterfeit for centuries. Actually, true and lasting happiness is a fruit of the spirit. People who try to live like Christ frequently get caught up in the Commandments. They think that they've managed to accumulate quite a positive sum in their favor if they manage to keep the commandments some majority of the time. Perhaps that's why people look down on Christians so much, not just because they aren't very good at keeping the commandments, but because that's not actually the Christian way.

When Jesus was on the earth, He taught men and showed them what was required of them as his followers. He set the standard fairly early on on the Mount Beatitudes. The Beatitudes ought to be the highest guide to moral living because they were taught by Christ as the higher or new testament to His disciples, and hence infinitely more ‘christian’ edicts than the law given to Moses. Whereas the Commandments tell men what to avoid, the Beatitudes tell people how to be. It follows then that to really live like Christ means more than keeping the Ten Commandments- it means a great deal more.

A man who claims to follow Christ who adheres only to the Old Law of Moses is not really a good follower of Christ. Whereas the Commandments teach us how to avoid hell, the Beatitudes show us how to get into heaven. Just as avoiding a punishment is much different from receipt of a reward, one can avoid the devil without coming anywhere near the Savior, at least for now. For those of my own faith, having a Temple Recommend doesn't mean you are a good person; it only means you are not a bad one. We become Saints through association with the Savior, in His Service, His presence, and eventually because His substance also becomes ours.

This is also the fallacy of the world at large. Whereas most people are focused on avoiding evil, very few focus on being and inviting good. It's why none of the utopian models of economics, politics, or even religion have succeeded. They are focused on avoiding excess and sin but not on the search for and acquisition of righteous traits. It is why all the Great Societys of modern America and Enlightenment Experiments of the pilgrims have failed to establish a utopia on earth. They tried to establish one without the assistance and substance of Heaven.

In order to establish any ideal society, it requires people to be what is right. Ideal societies focus on ideals and principles rather than on semblance and rhetoric. It is not enough to avoid what is wrong; to be ideal, to really be happy, you must also do what is right. Happiness is a fruit of the spirit. Don’t spend time trying to be happy or find happiness. The only way to truly be happy is to have the Spirit with you. That’s why happiness is linked to righteousness, because the longer and more purely we live in accordance with the gospel of Christ, the more frequently and deeply we will be able to enjoy the companionship of the Holy Ghost in our lives.

The more we live like the Savior and "be" as He taught us, the happier we will be. While you might not be giddy and frolic and sing gaily the songs of yore, people will see when they look into your eyes that you are happy. When you live according to your beliefs and are true to yourself, it invites into your life the bliss that allows you to hold your head high, sleep well at night, and confidently choose. Then shall your confidence wax strong in the presence of God, and you will see the Savior as He is for you will be like Him, which is the point of all of His ministry. He came to make bad men good and good men better, and it's time we focused on being better by being what He taught on that Mount.

What was the bottom line of the Gospels? Jesus went about doing good and increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. Joy to the world- let earth receive her king. Like Herod, that tyrant of old, these people would slay him in the manger if they could, and they will use him to serve their own ends, just as Herod repeatedly did the treasures and observances of the temple. Before you trot out anyone who is dead to support your edicts, ask if they would respect your intent. If you truly desire to serve the Savior, find His intent and follow it.

Grateful For Bad Days

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By the time I got home last night, I felt pretty sorry for myself. I think I have both a cold virus as well as allergies at the same time. One of the professors at work told me I looked like death warmed over, and when I talked to the department secretary this morning, she said I sounded terrible. However, I had things to do, so I soldiered on through the day as best I could, feeling pretty miserable.

Then I realized what we're celebrating this weekend. My Dad commented last night about how many people would be off work for Good Friday, and I remembered that this is Easter, when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

When I was a missionary in Austria, more than a decade ago, one day just before Easter, I did something I never had done nor ever have done since. I told this story to a woman as I folded a piece of paper and then ripped it. When you unfold the paper, it left paper in the shape of a cross. I still have that same sheet of paper today. I wrote on it back then, "Thank you, Lord. I'm so glad I had a bad day." Some people think I'm too morose or staid, especially when I remind people that they should be grateful they can get sick because it means they're not dead.

I am grateful for bad days. They make me appreciate more the days I have that seem sometimes monotonous. When I have a really good day that just doesn't have fireworks at the end, I remind myself how lucky I am to not be trapped in a mine in Chile. Today, I reminded myself how lucky I am that I'm not going to have to go to Gethsemane on the way home and bleed from every pore for everyone's sins. I'm not sure I even want to bleed for my own.

Bad days help us appreciate the good. Adversaries help us become better. If we were, 'unbridled by broken success' we might become 'too proud to pray to the God that made us' (Abraham Lincoln). Bad days help keep me humble, grateful, and as a consequence happy. Several months back, a dear friend of mine said:

If I am down, I am just being ungrateful. If I think of all the blessings I have been given, I realize there is every reason to be happy. -J.C.L.

There really is every reason to be happy.  Happiness isn't really an attitude or a choice or anything else.  It's a fruit of the Spirit, and it comes when we spend more time with the Spirit and invite It to become a greater part of our life through gratitude for the things we suffer.

Thank you, Lord, I'm so glad I had a bad day.  I'm happy today.

Some Scientific Questions on Environmental Apocalypse

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The media and government frequently turn our attention to the increase in disasters, real and projected, with which the world is or may be plagued. However, there is one aspect of 'human activity' they seem to have ignored in their doomsday analysis. Is there a link between the biomass of the population and the events they say are coming?

For years, they have blamed humans. They say we are too many, we consume too much, waste too much, and burn too much. They forget that the Icelandic eruption and the two eruptions of Mt. St. Helens in the 1980s belched more carbon compounds into the air each than all of recorded time since the Industrial Revolution. However, humans might be responsible. It might be our habits, but it might also be our habitations.

As civilization developed, we started to concentrate and congregate. Large cities grew, often in places that would without industrial innovation never contain enough resources to sustain such estensive accumulations of people (like Los Angeles or Las Vegas, which lack enough easily obtainable water to be anything more than the backwaters they once were). As we congregate, we also accumulate. Now, the amount of matter on the earth is conserved, but our activity relocates it. We move dirt and mountains quite literally to dig up stuff with which we manufacture other stuff and sell to people in other places. Could this put extra pressure on the earth's crust, causing the tectonic plates not only to shift but also to lean or sink, accounting for rising sea levels?

They blame it on temperature. The truth is that with increased temperature, we should also see higher levels of atmospheric precipitation accumulation. My brother's Geosystems textbook discusses that the con trails created by planes help block heat transfer. While they trap escaping heat, they would also prevent heat from accumulating. Perhaps we're at a point where the temperature is not high enough to evaporate the water, but eventually, rising temperatures should put so much water into the atmosphere via evaporation that it would either rain and cool the earth or block solar radiation from warming us in the first place. The con trails from air traffic alone affect the earth's daytime temperature by lowering it 1.67C.

Perhaps this phenomenon has already occured. Maybe that's what actually happened in the time of Noah. The earth warmed enough that water deluged from the sky.

Is there really a problem? Can man weigh down a plate of crust or really change the temperature? Is temperature really the concern? Is man a culprit? What about water? It's specific heat makes it not only the coolant of choice in our bodies but also for the earth. Almost every apocalyptic claim you hear from the fearmongering left is based on half truths and whole lies. They theorize without facts and then interpret the facts to fit their theories. I think it's extremely vain for people to think they have power to destroy the earth. As soon as the earth feels threatened, it will wipe us out, I guarantee it.

There is God and there is government. God is greater than government, and government doesn't like that. --Inga Barks

Aiming High?

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Most of the students in our department are headed into the medical field. Most of those will go into nursing, with a smaller number going into dentistry or going on to medical school. By the time they get through the filter courses to anatomy, the shirkers and slackers are supposedly long gone. However, even back when I was in graduate school, you still had a large enough portion of students who just weren't quite with the program who made it through to the higher echelons.

Although I wear a labcoat almost every day at work, I am surprised at what they will reveal in my presence. I was just sitting in the hallway (I suppose I look enough like a student that they just think I'm a nerd), when I overheard the following:

"If I get 202 of the 270 points still available in the class I'll get a 79.5%"

"But 80% is a B."

"79.5% is 80%, rounded. I shoot for the bare minimum."

More to the point, he seemed proud of that. How much, on a scale of 1-10 increasing, would you like that person to be your nurse?

I hope that after they leave here they get a better vision of the work into which they are about to enter. Before you jump on the bandwagon of "we need more money" or "teachers suck" or "parents just don't care", consider how this particular young man made it into the nursing program. I don't know what his motivation is, and I question his commitment to learning.

Ghost Gas Stations

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On the drive back from Salt Lake City yesterday, I noticed a great deal of abandoned and closed symbols of bygone eras. Whereas the landscape along I-15 once boomed with hotels, eateries, and gas stations, it's now lined with the empty and dilapidated hulks of buildings whose broken marquees declare they once hosted scores of travelers.

The trip up to Salt Lake was once one in which you enjoyed the journey. I try to enjoy it as much as I can, but without anyone with whom to share it, I tend to lean towards destination over waypoints. Abandoned buildings are a sign of changing focus as well as changing economic fortunes. People just don't have the money to make the trip unless they must, and then they cut any pleasure spending along the way.

Cars and the trips we take with them are about freedom. If we had more money, we would go places. If we had more money, we would travel more. In turn, that would bolster the economies of places, like Las Vegas, whose lifeblood has been tourism. Instead, parts of places like Las Vegas look like the vacant but still named locales that line the Interstate corridor. The bureaucracy marches on.

Obama doesn't care. Even if the government had 'shut down' ten days ago, he would still draw a full paycheck, travel wherever he pleased, eat whenever and whatever he felt like, and continue to impact your life. He is so far from sidewalk or rest stop level that almost all of America is flyover country for him except the places where he goes to court votes and donations. Govern this people? How can you? You don't even like them. You certainly don't know them.

If the policies in place continue, the number of ghost gas stations will continue to rise. There will be fewer places to stop, and even fewer at which we want to stop. We'll be too worried that we won't arrive. Give us our money. Let us see our country. Mr President, let my people go. Let them go wherever they like and spend as they please. That would be a very American thing to do.

Be a Teacher

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My grandfather wrote what he wanted said of him at his own funeral, which was held yesterday. One of the things that stuck out was that if he were to do it over again, he would be a teacher. That kind of struck me for several reasons. First, it finally explains why he was so earnest about me getting a PhD, because he misunderstood what 'teacher' really means or requires. It struck me also because that's one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite movies, where Thomas More tells Richard Rich to be a teacher because of who would know: "You, your pupils, God, not a bad publik, that." Finally, it struck me because grandpa, whether he knew or admitted it or not, was a teacher.

Grandpa was a teacher his entire life. Even though he was already dead, he taught us at his funeral. All of his sons spoke of the lessons he taught them, either in general principles or in specific examples. What many people remember most about him were the speaches, talks, and lessons he put together, some of which have now circled the globe even though the teachers don't know from whence the lessons originated. Every family gathering had a 'message', because he took his stewardship seriously to teach his children to walk in the ways of righteousness.

Although it's not the major point of the Savior's life, it is also in form to become like Christ to be a teacher. Frequently, people refer to him as the Master Teacher. He used parables, patience, and powerful prose to prick the hearts and minds of those with whom he interacted on earth. The teachings, and more importantly how Jesus lived what he taught, is the real crux of Christianity.

Teaching is one of the most crucial and yet one of the most visibly absent virtues of the modern world. Many 'teachers' are really lecturers. Many educators present what ought to be and do something completely opposite. Many parents are noticeably absent and pass off the duty to teach their children to strangers who either don't care or teach them adversely to the values of the home. Many of the teachers are there for a paycheck. As the quality of teachers continues to decline, what is being taught cannot elevate the children.

Of course, the children have a responsibility to learn. Many of them do not want to. There are even adults who will not confess they have anything to learn, no matter how common that attitude is among adolescents. Teaching is a mutual improvement association.

Grandpa John died as he lived- teaching. Even though he is now interred in the earth, the good he did lives after him. I sit here and think about things I learned at his funeral and resolved to do in light of this new experience. I am grateful I was old enough and mature enough to learn these things from his death. It has and will I am sure continue to teach me and remind me of things I already know. And I'm also sure he was snatched up quickly in that Next World to teach others as was the subject in which he was most expert. Godspeed grandpa, and thank you.

Living Like Christ

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People who try to live like Christ frequently get caught up in the Commandments. They think that they've managed to accumulate quite a positive sum in their favor if they manage to keep the commandments some majority of the time. Perhaps that's why people look down on Christians so much, not just because they aren't very good at keeping the commandments, but because that's not actually the Christian way.

When Jesus was on the earth, He taught men and showed them what was required of them as his followers. He set the standard fairly early on on the Mount Beatitudes. The Beatitudes ought to be the highest guide to moral living because they were taught by Christ as the higher or new testament to His disciples and are hence infinitely more ‘christian’ edicts than the law given to Moses. Whereas the Commandments tell men what to avoid, the Beatitudes tell people how to be. It follows then that to really live like Christ means more than keeping the Ten Commandments- it means a great deal more.

A man who claims to follow Christ who adheres only to the Old Law of Moses is not really a good follower of Christ. Whereas the Commandments teach us how to avoid hell, the Beatitudes show us how to get into heaven. Just as avoiding a punishment is much different from receipt of a reward, one can avoid the devil without coming anywhere near the Savior, at least for now.

This is also the fallacy of the world at large. Whereas most people are focused on avoiding evil, very few focus on being and inviting good. It's why none of the utopian models of economics, politics, or even religion have succeeded. They are focused on avoiding excess and sin but not on the search for and acquisition of righteous traits. It is why all the Great Societys of modern America and Enlightenment Experiments of the pilgrims have failed to establish a utopia on earth. They tried to establish one without the assistance and substance of Heaven.

In order to establish any ideal society, it requires people to do what is right. Ideal societies focus on ideals and principles rather than on semblance and rhetoric. It is not enough to avoid what is wrong; to be ideal, to really be happy, you must also do what is right. Happiness is a fruit of the spirit. Don’t spend time trying to be happy or find happiness. The only way to truly be happy is to have the Spirit with you. That’s why happiness is linked to righteousness, because the longer and more purely we live in accordance with the gospel of Christ, the more frequently and deeply we will be able to enjoy the companionship of the Holy Ghost in our lives. The more we live like the Savior and "be" as He taught us, the happier we will be. While you might not be giddy and frolic and sing gaily the songs of yore, people will see when they look into your eyes that you are happy. When you live according to your beliefs and are true to yourself, it invites into your life the bliss that allows you to hold your head high, sleep well at night, and confidently choose. Then shall your confidence wax strong in the presence of God, and you will see the Savior as He is for you will be like Him, which is the point of all of His ministry. He came to make bad men good and good men better, and it's time we focused on being better by being what He taught on that Mount.

The Beard is Not the Man

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I don't normally grouse about other people's blogs if I actually know them, but I found this particular story interesting. One of the blogs I follow religiously posted a story about a conversation he overheard that involved profanity (warning, this post contains that profanity). Why do I grouse on the story? The author made it a point to point out that the men in the elevator with him were bearded.

I posted a comment and asked why he felt necessary to mention that they had beards since there was no relevant link drawn to their language. Plenty of clean-shaven people have potty mouths, and I happen to have much more elevated language than that. I felt stereotyped.

The beard is not the man. I find it funny that all of my life people have taught me that 'it's what's on the inside that counts'. The reasons for this are twofold: they judge me because I have a beard, and they tell me that I should overlook their visible faults. Wait, you expect something from me you are unwilling to afford me? Many of these people have known me for years before I ever grew a beard, and yet they still take issue with it.

Years ago at another job, I had a coworker who said this, "I'm glad I was forced to get to know you because I wouldn't have otherwise, and that would have been a shame." Yes, I have a beard. I also have a brain, a home, a heart, and 'the nerve'. Lots of people who shave daily act as if they have none of those things, people like, oh, I don't know, Charlie Sheen.

I am what I am, just like Popeye said. I am more than my car, my face, my job, my clothes, my wage, my age, my address, my family, etc. I am me, and I am okay with who I am.

Objectives: Key to Success

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I just spoke with a professor who was venting about his frustrations in education. He explained to me that the person responsible for changes in his organization does not share his vision. I pointed out that, for various reasons, the problem is that nobody does. If that guy quits, dies, or takes vacation, there is probably nobody around who can explain why and how he did what he did because he hasn’t connected with anyone else. We are not a team because we lack vision. Our problem in education is the same as in every other facet of society. Education languishes not due to accountability but rather due to objectives. You can tell us all day long we're not meeting benchmarks and not generate any change until we know what they are and believe they can be reached.  This young fellow has decided he has a better way, a better goal, than that given to him by my friend because my friend’s superior has not laid out a vision to the entire team and guidelines to help them arrive at the expected destination. Leaders lay out objectives that can be reached and empower those they task with meeting them to make the decisions necessary to meet them with the tools and resources available.

For years, politicians have set objectives that are vague without laying out any kind of roadmap with signposts and benchmarks with which to measure progress towards the goal. They tell us that they want to end poverty and then drive off on a road that will not end poverty, never asking if it's possible to really end poverty without killing everyone.  Don't even get me started about the language- we shouldn't be about 'eliminating poverty' as much as we should be about 'increasing opportuniy and prosperity'.  Think about the different energies of those two phrases!  Even if prosperity is your major goal, you cannot also increase debt, because those two are mutually exclusive directions of travel as a means to arrive thereat.

It has long been accepted that if you improve the economic status of a community, educational status of community members will improve. While that can happen, it is presented in such an post hoc ergo propter hoc that if we change their economic state, their intellectual state must then follow. Education and prosperity are not colligative properties, and the one will not affect the other proportionately if at all. Many of the least educated are the wealthiest and vice versa. Even if it did work, it would work for only some and at different rates for those affected. What ought to happen is that we teach children who return to their communities and use what they learn to transform the economic state of the places where they grew up. Otherwise, it’s sort of a ‘giving a man a fish/teaching him to fish’ argument where we give men fish so we can teach them to fish and then have no need for anyone to learn how to fish as long as we keep feeding them fish without the work necessary to obtain them. After all, Sir Walter Scott reminds us: “All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.” Had Sir Walter been in our educational system, he would have never risen to the heights of literary scholarship he attained. This one-time lame but brilliant student would have been lumped in with other ADA students had he not had opportunity to excel.

Leaders who are serious about accomplishments give people vision. They explain to them where we are headed and how we intend to get there. They listen for hiccups along the way and suggestions of alternatives that might work better. Most of all, they make choices so that we can move forward. I have told supervisors at previous and current jobs that I can accomplish almost anything if I know what you expect and you back me up when I make decisions to meet those objectives. My current administrators have been excellent in that respect, and I have deferred others to them for clarifiation of procedure and policy when I enact their edicts. At Wal-Mart, their decision was to empower me to make the decisions, which was fine as long as they had my back since the right to choose was theirs.

What we really need are people in positions of responsibility who know how to lead and have experience requisite therefor. They need to go to those who will be expected to carry out their vision and say, “This is our vision. These are our objectives. I don’t care how we get there, as long as it is legal, ethical, and moral, but get us there. I will have your back and support you as you do this.” A recent article in New York Times Magazine tells the story of a Bronx Middle School teacher who shows how an empowered principal can transform education (10 April 2011, pg 34). We are not prepared to support or encourage people to excel.

The real failure of leadership is well illustrated by the exchange between General Trimble and General Lee in the movie “Gettysburg”

Yes, sir. Sir... I said to him, General Ewell, these words. I said to him, "Sir, give me one division and I will take that hill." And he said nothing. He just stood there, he stared at me. I said, "General Ewell, give me one brigade and I will take that hill." I was becoming disturbed, sir. And General Ewell put his arms behind him and blinked. So I said, General, give me one *regiment* and I will take that hill." And he said *nothing*! He just stood there! I threw down my sword, down on the ground in front of him! [he stops and regains his composure] We... we could've done it, sir. A blind man should've seen it. Now they're working up there. You can hear the axes of the Federal troops. And so in the morning... many a good boy will die... taking that hill.

Ewell knew the objective needed to be taken. He knew what he needed to accomplish it. Later, his men would know the cost of not meeting it, paid with their own lives. As long as the legislatures, federal and local, refuse to define the true aims of education, as long as the bureaucrats and teachers at every level are not clued into those, allowed to help form them, and empowered to reach them, any effort to reform education will meet the same fate as those good boys who died in a futile effort trying to take that hill at Gettysburg. It will die trying to take ground that no body of men, so hapless and impotent, can take. Pickett’s men were brave, battle-tested, and autonomous, and they still could not take that hill. We have too many leaders who are not willing to set objectives and empower their men to meet them, and so we continue to throw money at education as Pickett threw men at the Bloody Angle with the same results. We take no ground, capture no battle flags, and lose many of our best and brightest educators in the din of battle due to inept leadership and who go elsewhere to work.

What are the objectives of education? What do we hope to accomplish? Can those things be accomplished? How do we measure our progress? What can we afford? To be successful in this fight, we must meet somewhere between what we want to achieve and what we can achieve, tempered by what we can afford and then stretch ourselves to reach those goals. Until we are united in a common objective and supported by good leaders behind, our order of battle will never take the copse of trees at the end of this long, sloping ground, no matter with how much money and manpower we assault it.

Consistency in Principles

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A few weeks ago, while going through some books and files, I came across an old notebook of mine. I started collecting quotes in it when I was 14 years old, and it covers almost the entire four years of my high school experience. What struck me most about the book was how much the things I wrote in that book are still reflected in my beliefs, values and norms. I was into Shakespeare then as I am now, and I was interested in the Founding Fathers as I am now. On things that really mattered, I still believe the same things as I did over half my life ago.

Many people change their opinions. With new information, scientists, economists, parents, and a slieu of other categories will change their course to arrive at a place that is more true. The more nefarious and malicious among us change their opinions like they change their clothing- to suit an image, to gain an advantage, and to communicate a message, all of which is really a ruse designed only to gain your support long enough to abuse the authority that comes with it. We have to be able to change our minds in order for there to be debate and discussion and deliberation, and so when someone genuinely changes their mind, you will see it in more than just their rhetoric.

One of the quotes in that book is still one I use, from a speech given in July 1972 by S. Dilworth Young:

Just as surely as he walks, his manner, his attitude, his clothing, his complete self will be concrete evidence of what he is in his soul. He cannot conceal himself.

We are what we do. People can talk all day long about what they endorse, but if you look at the choices they make, how they spend their time, and with whom they choose to associate, you can tell what kind of a person they really are.

What does this have to do with Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit? Quite simply, there are many people out there who are lying to you, who teach for doctrines the commandments of men and deny the power and position of our Creator. Happiness cannot be found in iniquity, and truth cannot be found in lies. Happiness and truth are found as you are true to yourself and your principles. You have to be looking for something in order to find it, and so many people, as I learned as a scientist, go looking for things, not to find what actually is true, but hoping that they are right.

Distrust every politician you meet. Today, Senator Hoyer said that the theory that government tax revenues increase when taxes are cut has been disproved. As a skeptical scientist, I would like to see the data that proves anything. Like I tell my students, "Science never proves anything. It removes all other possibilities until only the truth remains". At the risk of repeating myself again because it's relevant, I have also said this:

Assume every politician is always lying to you about what he believes and what he thinks is good for you. Treat them all as guilty until they prove innocent. Force them to justify themselves at every turn along the way. That way, they will have shown you how they arrived at the decisions they make, and you can weigh whether it is ideology alone or a reasoned and logical argument for improvement. You pay them to do their job. Hold them accountable.

Most politicians have taken both sides of every issue whenever it was expedient to their agenda, and if you look hard enough, you can find quotes that attest to the same. I am different. Look back as far as High School, and in my case on most salient points, being matters of principle, I have maintained the same stand I took then into the present day.

It is easy to hold your position when your position is rooted in principle. It is easy to defend your beliefs when they revolve around things that really matter: faith, family, and freedom. That's why we remember the martyrs and the heroes and the statesmen of yesteryear, because they stood for what they felt was right even when it cost them their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. --Benjamin Franklin

Chicken Little Stories

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As fears continue to ramp up about the Nevada budget situation, more Chicken Little Stories creep out. Of course, we're going to lose teachers and policemen and firemen, because logically that's the first thing you cut in education, law enforcement, and emergency services. You never start by trimming fat- you always go for the beef in the center.

The media immediately does us the disservice by publishing the worst stories they can find and enflaming our fears. They talk about how lack of personnel in prisons has led to attacks, how cuts in education will lead to an end to fine arts, etc. These are the same old arguments that are made everywhere in every generation. They never cut deans or counselors or hall monitors, they always go after the people who get the job done and ask those who remain to do more with less.

Some of the comments in the articles are interesting. Like in the second article, I also know people who work for schools where they cut teaching positions in science and math. Why don't we hear about administrative positions that are being cut? One of the problems in Nevada is that education has never been very important until now. Why should you go to college if you can earn $70-$100K per year parking cars or bartending? The environment of Nevada's economy has dissuaged and devalued education, and now we see some of the fruits thereof come full circle.

I see the same arguments about how money will hurt their education. Honestly however how many of the students are there to learn? They are there for sports or friends or because there's nobody at home anyway. Even those who come to class are not really present; they are texting, emailing, or chatting with people whose bodies and minds are far from the classroom thanks to the cell phones and internet.  They choose schools often for sports teams or reputations rather than academics.  Notice that for my entire life, they have never cut football, because football brings in money for the schools. Nobody I know goes to the academic bowls because those are boring.

Just like Chicken Little, the media, the students, and other people stir up excitement with claims that the sky will fall. I have previously argued against these spurilous conclusions, having myself graduated from one of the worst reputed high schools in the state. Education is just as much the responsibility of the learner as the teacher, and since they are children, some of that responsibility falls to parents. You cannot throw your kids whil-nilly to the wind and expect teachers to make the successful. You get out of education what you put into it. Since the money spent and the efforts of parents and administrators are not focused on education directly, it comes as little surprise that we're not getting much bang for our buck. However, that will not necessarily change if we cut funding or give them more.

The bottom line is that we don't know what will actually happen. Everything now is putative and planning by administrators. I find it kind of ironic that there were CEOs who agreed to work without pay, but administrators won't take pay cuts. Anyway, all the stories are done to inflame fear and get us all up in a tizzy about what might happen. You know what might happen? You might die tomorrow. Better not leave your house. Good grief, if we were worried every time we stepped out the door that the sky might fall on us, we'd never get anything done.  If your only reason for fear is that something might happen, dismiss that fear and take courage.

If the sky is falling, do something about it. If there's nothing you can or are willing to do, then drawing attention to it will just get everyone upset for naught. The clarion call ought to be for better teachers and less administration, because in a classroom where the teacher is king, a teacher can command respect, focus, and accountability, which are things education no longer seems to produce.

Obama and Military Pay

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Just because I haven't seen this reaction yet doesn't mean it isn't the one Obama hoped would result. Obama waited until after the 11th hour to do anything about military pay last Friday for one reason only. He wanted to swoop in at the very last second and 'save the day' so that you would thank him for what he did. "Look, you get paid on time! I'm a hero!" Most people get paid on time. Give that man a medal.

A real man would have done it at the first opportunity. Real statesmen don't give a flying flapjack who gets the credit. If Obama wanted to be like Jefferson, he would have. He'd also spend "Millions for Defense and Not a Penny for Tribute", but that's another story.

So, if you care about anyone in the military, point this out. Obama didn't do them any favors. It should never have come down to Congress to have to add that as a rider to a resolution. He wanted you to sweat so that he could look like a hero.

Notice in the stories that yes Superman arrives in the nick of time. He also frequently has to: break out of a kryptonite necklace, stop a nuclear weapon, fly across the entire continental united states, stop a second nuclear missile, and then try to stop the San Andreas fault from killing the woman he loves. Even in that instance, he didn't make it in time, but there was a happy ending because he could turn back time. Superman arrives in the nick of time because he often doesn't know what the bad guys are planning. Obama IS the bad guys, and he knew weeks ago that this might happen and did nothing until the absolute possible last second.

That rubs me wrong, and I hope it does to you too.

Pointless Random Stuff

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Before driving home yesterday from Salt Lake City, I paid a visit to my paternal grandmother. She made an interesting point that has been much on my mind since then. The funeral has been stretched out longer than she might like to allow family to gather who are currently on vacation, and she finds herself working as best she can to put things behind her so she can move forward.

One of her greatest encumbrances is all the 'stuff' that has accumulated. While she spoke glowingly and with fond memories of the couch on which I sat which was purchased by her parents about 90 years ago, most of the stuff seems to be in the way. At 86, my grandmother is not physically capable of moving anything, not even small boxes, and she can't find certain things that she needs, like grandpa's checkbook. If I were the same build as grandpa, she might have offered me a coat right then and there just so as to be rid of one more thing.

She said something that stuck with me. "John has everything that's worth having with him now. I'm stuck with all this stuff". Most of what we have is really just pointless random stuff. Sure, the scrapbooks and a few pieces of scrimshaw will persist a few more generations, particularly parts in which I am personally interested, but much of the stuff isn't likely to interest most of my extended family as the decor screams 1920-1930, and since most people don't read the kind of books that interested grandpa or have better tools than he had. Stuff that meant something to him means nothing to those who remain or painful things to some.

Grandpa has with him all that really matters. He took with him the only things that any person can and left behind the only things that most people do. Grandpa wasn't a big whig or power player or a member of the Good Old Boy Network. He was just an ordinary man, but he was a man, and the best parts of him are in his descendants, people like me, who remember his example and live like he taught us. We sat for a while and reminisced about a great man and his life's message, and I was very very glad that I braved 4.5 hours in snow to drive the 450 miles to visit her.

When I arrived back at my place last night, I observed how much quisquilia I already own. I already have plenty of pointless random stuff. Some of it is there for the daily minutia, to accomplish the responsibilities and goals and activities I have, but I have plenty of jejune junk. Someone will have to deal with it when I die. If I die alone, it will probably all go straight into the trash.

Perhaps this is why, as we age, we don't really ask for or need much for our birthdays. For years, I have simply kept a list of things I intend to buy anyway and offered it. That way, I don't end up with a lot of things I don't need that others can ill afford to purchase. My grandmother was probably most grateful that I gave her the gift of my time when I came to visit, because that is something I cannot recouperate. A while back, I wrote about how important it is to pass things on to people we love while they are around to hear it. So, during my visit, I hugged my grandmother tightly and told her how much I appreciated her. Our significant others like to hear why they are significant to us.

The opportunity passed to do so for my grandfather. At least I got to speak with him on the phone Tuesday night when I called to arrange to visit them while I was in Salt Lake City. Not many people get to speak to their loved ones that close to their mortal metriculation. So, thank you Mr. Alexander Bell for the telephone and Mr. Henry Ford for the automobile, both of which made this likely, and to Mr. Brandon Mull, whose performance group gave me cause to travel to Salt Lake in the first place. It seemed like pointless random stuff, but I got to talk to my grandfather just a few days before he died, and that from an entire state away. Thank you God, for inspiring me to make this trip so that I could speak to them at least one last time. That meant something to all of us, and it's something I will take with me wherever I go.

The Birth We Call Death

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A very rare event occurred today in my life to which I pay attention for many reasons. It started with my phone ringing at about quarter to seven with my mother on the other end telling me my grandfather had died in his sleep last night. He is the first close relative to die in my life thus far, and as you might suspect, many thoughts ran through my mind. As I shaved, the title of this post came through my mind, the title of a book by Paul H Dunn that I first read at least a decade ago.

I was oddly calm. I wasn't peaceful for the same reasons as many other people were and will be, with the notion that 'he's in a better place'. Although that is true, he wasn't in a bad place here either. Sure, he was almost 90 years old and had his share of health problems. Even still, he was as active as he could be under the circumstances and still took care of his wife and responsibilities to his neighbors, congregation, and family as well as a man can who cannot easily leave his own house.

As I said my morning prayers, I thanked God for two things. First, I thanked him that I had the clairvoyance enough to call my grandparents Tuesday night in advance of a visit I was going to pay them this weekend. Not many people get to talk to the ones they love so close to the time of their mortal metriculation, even if we know they will die soon. I suppose I should be grateful for the telephone too, without which I would have had no contact with them for the past eight months. Secondly, I thanked God that my grandfather had gone as peacefully and quickly as possible in his circumstances, because many people are not as lucky.

My grandfather's funeral will not be attended by loads of dignitaries or leaders of civic groups, religious organizations, or corporations. He was a simple man who lived an ordinary and honorable life, the kind of life to which I actually aspire. I am grateful as I think about him now for the example he left us, because I am in part who I am because of the way he was and how he lived.

Most of my peace comes from my understanding of the Atonement of Christ. We are familiar with the verse quoted at many funerals from John 11:25 used frequently to comfort those who feel pain at the loss of another. Perhaps it's because of all the CS Lewis I have read and perhaps it's just a matter of my own faith, but I feel differently. Grandpa has gone, but soon I will join him.

The Bard wrote about how all the world's a stage, and the people merely players. Each has his entrances and exits. Not every exit is terminal. Like Paul Dunn, I believe that death is a birth into another world, another plane of existence, and another adventure, because our birth into this one was just such a transition from a former one.

Sure, I will miss my grandfather. We didn't interact all that often, and we didn't always agree, but he is and was a good man. He lived the rest of the phrase from John 11 often ignored in the funeral orations. Grandpa believed in Christ and it was clear from his rhetoric as well as his actions that his faith was real. Jesus told his disciples that those who believed in him would do the acts he did, and my grandfather was that type of man. Maybe one day, I will acquire some of the strengths he had that I have yet to develop, and maybe at that day, I will be born into the next life as quickly and peacefully as he was.

Godspeed grandpa, and thanks for your example, your love, and your life.

Leadership: Tough Choices

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It has been said that leaders have two jobs. First, they are responsible to accomplish the mission. Second, they are to take care of the people who help them accomplish the mission. Leaders strike the balance between the two that serves to accomplish both jobs as well as possible. You take care of the people because you can't usually accomplish the mission alone.

Leadership, consequently, requires tough choices. Particularly in war, asking a man to do something for the mission comes difficult because it might cost that man his life. People are frequently asked to take one for the team, and yet each member of normal society secretly hopes he will never have to give anything at all.

In education, there are some tough choices to make. The Governor of Nevada has announced that he will do away with the furlough program because it inconveniences all the customers of the few individuals who are absent on any given day. It might work if they agreed to change the schedule of offerings, but even if they closed the campus, I would have to come in, unpaid, and do the work anyway because the schedule precludes me doing it when I am actually here any other way. Someone wanted to cut one of our campuses. The trouble was that campus sits amongst the greatest number of residential applicants to the school whereas the others are in commercial districts, and as such it would impact a high number of our customers. We have more students accessing us than ever before, and it costs less to offer additional sections at one campus than to offer lots of courses in lots of locations. They have opted to close the satellite campuses, and they could continue to run the rooms at or near capacity. We have some instructors who are 'good enough' but not ideal. We would like to hire people who are better at the same rate of pay.

No matter how much we try, nobody's got a perfect idea. What it will take is leaders who know enough about what happens in the trenches to make enlightened decisions who also have authority to see it through. I am happy to provide ideas as long as leadership will back me up on what I recommend and see any of my recommendations through that they choose. I know how we can do some things. Leadership takes tough choices.

Perhaps some missteps in leadership come because they trust the wrong people. I lack the laundry list of credentials possessed by some who look good on paper. What I do have is theatre-specific information because I am on the front, interfacing with customers and instructors, on at least a weekly basis. I serve more of a supporting role, but Douglas Adams would warn you not to ship all the janitors away to settle another planet. The price might be dire!

When all is said and done, I am glad I don't have to make the decisions. What I hope they do is first of all make decisions and then stick with them. It's much easier to follow when a firm course has been set. Speaking of courses, once they set the objectives, it will be easier for teachers and students alike to meet them. Otherwise, the leader's role is more to manage a club than to lead an organization.

Look for the Good in Them

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I frequently think, truth be told, about the exchange between Polyanna and the Pastor in the movie Polyanna. I think it's also kind of funny that people choose to think I am haughty, arrogant, or judgmental, especially compared to them or other people they know. Frankly, I think I'm just as opinionated as other people; I just choose to share my opinions more frequently than you do. What it tells me about them might be that they don't know me as well as they think they do.

There are times in my life when my communiques sound harsh and times when they are lauditory. Depending on when you catch me and what you hear or read of my entire oratory may color your opinion of how I view people. Actually, I don't think people are arrogant or dumb or stupid. I think that things they do are that, but the people themselves are much more and usually made of better stuff. I think we did ourselves a disservice when we allowed our children to believe that little boys are made of frogs and snails and puppy-dog tails. Back in February, I said this in a chat conversation: "Other people manufacture labels to describe us quickly without having to get to know us. Each man is far too complicated in his facets to be so accurately distilled." Furthermore, in the preface of my copy of CS Lewis's 1963 edition of the Screwtape Letters, Lewis talks about how if you take away all that is good in man, you are not left with a bad man. You are left with nothing at all. I am quite confident I have written that on this blog before, because I BELIEVE IT.

Sometimes it takes more effort to see the good in folks. I will admit that it took me years to see the 'good' in the fact that I was divorced. As a consequence of that unfortunate chapter of my life, I drew closer to the Savior, and in that sense, it was a blessing disguised as a trial for which I am very grateful. Ironically as well, I have thanked the people who were my very greatest challenges in life in the forward to one of my books, because without them, I might be a different person, and I'm happy with who I am.

As the pastor tells Polyanna, "we looked for the good in them, and we found it". You have to want to find something in order to look for it. For that reason, it seems that seeing the good in mankind is nothing more than a matter of taking the time to look. We look for good things in people we want to get to know because we hope it's there. We look for rainbows after it rains because we hope the sun will come out. We look for milestones on journeys because we hope we're almost there. We look at our retirement portfolios and statements because we hope we will have enough money. We hope for good things at the end, even though we might know exactly what we deserve.

In December 2009, a woman I once knew spoke with me about what I 'deserve'. I think that's rather illuminating in light of the fact that other people are critical of me, for I am more cognizant than you all of my weaknesses. A few years back I put to memory the poem, "I will be true", and in that it reminds me "I will be humble, for I know my weakness." How we choose to spin what we say tells us much about how we are inside. Perhaps that's why Jesus was concerned about those who point out the mote in the eye of their brother and ignore the beam in their own eye. Maybe they're just attuned to see those things when other people see other things.

Nobody writes down everything he thinks, says, and feels. Rarely do people record their dreams, their secret desires, and their honest errors. Much of what is quoted is either misattributed or taken out of context. When someone tells you something, consider their motivation. Even the best compendiums of thought are produced by interested albeit disaffected individuals long after the speaker dies.

In his funeral oration, Marc Antony opines that "the evil that men do lives after them [while] the good is oft interred with their bones". What we point out and why tells us much about our true motivations. The conspirators were trying to justify their aberrant and abhorrent behavior- they had just murdered Caesar in cold blood! Marc Antony wanted justice for his friend and power for himself. Shakespeare wanted us to see the tragedy in the struggle for power.

Allow me, if you will, to close with the words of CS Lewis from "The Weight of Glory":

There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit.

Just a few days ago perhaps, I wrote that each of you, even if I don't happen to like you very much, are amazing. As Shakespeare wrote:

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals (Hamlet Act II Scene ii)

Each of you is a glorious and wonderful being. Sometimes you do dumb things. I know I have and probably still will. There is much more to you than that, and I hope you will believe that and know it as your Creator knows it about you. For that reason, He provided a Savior, so that all who will may return to His presence.

And that is a good thing indeed!

Neighborhood and Neighbors

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I live in a fairly quiet neighborhood. It's fairly representative of America in terms of demographics. Members of the HOA presidency even monitor the homes that are being rented or in various stages of foreclosure and keep tabs on the residents so we know what might be coming. They even remember my name.

Last night while walking back from the mailbox, Jim, who is the treasurer, approached me. We discussed his tree, his cars, and the neighborhood, in which he has lived since the house was built over a decade ago. He mentioned previous owners and current neighbors, and as we spoke, he attracted other people who came up to him to find out what was going on. Jim pointed out that my house numeral wasn't lighting up and that he knew why because he had just repaired his the previous month. He even offered to come over and help me get it back up to snuff. It was a pleasant experience.

The America of today is rather void of this type of neighbor and neighborhood. We don't really know the people who live next door sometimes or we don't care to know more than we happen to discover. Our neighbors are complete strangers and might as well be in another nation for all the good it does to have them. Heaven forbid our neighbors ask for our help!

Real neighborhood is about real community. While politicians and pundits talk of communal living, it's real relationships that allow for communities to arise. Many people want us to do it regardless for who is there or their circumstances. How many people, however, voluntarily help strangers? We usually help people we know, and usually only people for whom we care. In order to care, you must first get to know folks, which means that we need to confess that life isn't about us. So many people, particularly in my generation, have Center of the Universe Syndrome (CotUS) and think everything revolves around them. Trouble is that when trouble rises, folks with CotUS rarely have anyone revolve around them at all.

For some reason, my mind is drawn to Frank Capra's "Its a Wonderful Life". Look at the difference between how Potter's bank and the Savings and Loan handle their customers. For Potter, he cares little for their struggles because he doesn't know them. It's only really possible to mistreat other people when you do not know them, care about them, or see them. That's usually why burglars rob random strangers. They're not hurting anyone for or about whom they care, at least not directly. The Bailey's, by contrast, are willing to grant extensions and trade in bartered goods because the people with whom they deal are real people to them.

People desire to be real. It wasn't just Pinocchio who opined to cast off his wooden self to become a real boy. We look for politicians, leaders, coworkers, and particularly mates with whom we can be our real selves and who are ok with who we really are. Community relies on reality, and reality involves real people who teach other people how to make things real for themselves.

I'm still pretty independent, and so I am probably not going to ask Jim for his help. Still, it was nice to know that he first of all remembered my name and then second of all offered something of himself to make our small corner of the world a better place. For the first time since I moved in, this place kind of feels like a home.