Lookalikes

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For the first time I can recall, I showed up to work last Thursday wearing the same clothing as a coworker. I imagine this happens more frequently to other people, but it was a first in my memory, and it was rather fascinating. My coworker immediately put on a lab coat so that “we won’t look like twins”. I saw it as a sign that whoever buys his clothes has the same taste as I do or at least shops at the same stores. It’s not like there weren’t several of this shirt to buy.

Imitation used to be the most sincere form of flattery. When students first started quoting me back verbatim in class and on exams, I felt a little strange, but I knew they were paying attention and remembering what I said. If I were a celebrity, people would be dying to do their hair like mine or buy the clothes I wore or go to the places I frequent. Since I am a coworker, it has become a form of embarrassment.

I am sure that some people live in ghastly horror of showing up in the same outfit or doing “the same old things” as someone else. We are all desperate to make our mark, to be “unique”, and to stand apart from our fellows, but I’m not sure that’s a strength. A tree on its own is more likely to be blown over by the winds of fads and cliques than a group of trees that share values. I don’t feel threatened when people are like me, because I like who I am.

Sometimes, it’s best to just be you. Years ago, an ecclesiastical leader of mine told me in an annual interview that he wished there were fifty of me in his congregation. Years ago, a woman I once dated told me I needed to have children and replenish the population of people who are like me. In our haste to become unique, we become more and more like one another. I see this in the classroom, in the corridors, and in the cliques, that when everyone is unique, nobody will be. The best way to be unique is to be you, and sometimes others will be inspired to follow your lead. When people want to be like you, it is not a threat. It is still a compliment, particularly when it’s about something more than your wardrobe like your work ethic, your values, and your intellect. We do need more good people. You can be the right kind of celebrity by inspiring others to follow you because they like what you are and where you are headed.

Pull Out a Plum

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I frequently tell people that I’m not part of the administration’s MyFaves at work. I am not on the naughty list per se because I am not involved in anything untoward and because I am reliable as a source of solutions. I just don’t hang out with the GOBNet or validate them or brown nose them. Consequently, I have little hope that my lot will look better as long as the current administration remains in power. The funny thing is that long term it’s the best strategy because I don’t have to brown nose. I am known by my merit rather than my associations, and I don’t have to keep up the tribute.

When Thomas Jefferson became president and discovered that we were paying tribute in perpetuity to the Barbary Pirates, he was aghast. He ordered the construction of four new frigates and sent them over as the year’s tribute because the pirates were still attacking American ships even though we were paying the tribute of $2 million in 1804 dollars. “Millions for defense; not a penny for tribute” became one of his slogans. You see, he knew that, like lying, bribery, and brown nosing, that once you start it’s almost impossible to stop.

The children's nursery rhyme about Jack Horner actually deals with this. It was the practice during medieval times to send a pie to your liege or Lord with a bribe, or a plum, stuck in the pie. Jack Horner in the poem takes the plum for himself, and the poor blather scythe who was supposed to bribe the king probably lost his head over it. You see, the lords came to rely on these bribes as part of their incomes, and since they like our modern government spent money in anticipation of as yet uncollected taxes, you can imagine how important it was that the plums kept coming. It's a self-licking ice cream cone that eventually consumes itself. Once you start, you can't stop, or your final plum is followed by a trip to the guillotine.

Once you start, when do you stop? In order to stay in the good graces of the administration, I would have to continually send them pies with ever-increasingly valuable “plums” to stay in their good graces. I could buy better favor and opportunity with it, but the cost might abrogate any gains I came to expect to keep up with the expectations of the granting authority. Plus, when the administration changes, I am no longer in favor and must either start a new bribing regimen if the new authority can be bribed or hope that I can get by on merits. Many people who engage in bribery have no merits on which to get by.

When you rely on merits, you can rely on employment. Maybe the GOBNet will let you go to keep their MyFaves, but someone will pick you up for what you can do. I have been blessed in my life that, each time I have changed employers, I have been hired on merits and my resume rather than on my associations. So the jobs may not be prestigious or pay as well as others receive for the same work, but my conscience is clear, and I am not beholden to them for special favors.

I have decided for me to be me. Be you. Do what you do. If you don’t like where or what you are, improve your lot and then hold your ground. If you cheat and lie and bribe or brown nose, you have to keep doing it and hope that it continues to pay. You are basically allowing yourself to be blackmailed rather than earning what you receive. I cannot see how the law of the harvest will back you up in the end. If you do not sow, how can you reap? If you reap ill, how can you not sow the negative consequences? I will be me, and maybe I’m not great, but I ams what I ams, and God is ok with that, so things will work out fine, and He will lead me to a land of promise just like He did for Moses.

Cars Free Commuters

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An old high school friend posted today an interesting bit of news. After spending money on a municipal transportation program that allows him to borrow a car, use the bus, and access other mass transit programs, he determined that it might be more economical to procure and operate his own car. I know part of the premise is to cut down on environmental impact, but it’s becoming increasingly ludicrous because the total cost of mass transit use increases while we’re supposedly saving money, and we’re increasingly dependent on reductions in schedule availability. Furthermore, they keep hiking rates, and the reasons for that may not be about the customers for whom they allegedly exist.

While they hike rates, they spend money on things indirectly related. Here in Las Vegas, they just revamped all of the bus stops, even though one of them was immediately destroyed by a drunk driver. We had stops already, and the ones near my house remain simply signs along the roadside. They hire consultants and build a massive transit center in one of the bleakest parts of downtown where none of us want to be. Of course, they hire more people, display more advertising, and yet the buses are no more reliable or cheaper or more comfortable to ride.

While they hike rates, they cut services. Old routes die, the frequency of buses declines, and the on time arrival continues to be piss poor. The monorail alongside the strip is cutting services, and all talk of a light rail or streetcar system has died (I like those, but I don’t know how feasible they are in the desert). All we have is our stupid, cramped, smelly, bus system, and it would take me an hour to ride the bus 11 miles to one work location or two hours to get to the one 18 miles away. It’s ludicrous.

While they hike rates, it becomes more attractive for people to furnish and procure their own transportation. It gives them options, and it gives them more control over the costs. I can ride my bicycle to work faster than I can ride the bus. Since it’s already 90F here, I choose to drive a car instead and do it in 70% of the time. Plus, if I want to, I can always go over to my dad’s and have him charge up my AC Condenser and help me swap the serpentine belt so that it engages the AC. My car gives me options, and I can go when I like and run errands during lunch or leave early. In fact, the car gives the greatest flexibility even when things go badly.

I started Wednesday morning with a dead car battery. Accordingly, I walked the 1.5 miles to the auto parts store with the old battery and then back with a brand new one. I know many people can’t do this or wouldn’t know how to swap it themselves, but I was only late for work by an hour, and that because it takes time to remove a battery, walk to the store, and then reinstall a new one. I would have to wait an hour if I happened to miss the bus, and this time I was in control.

They tell us that time is money. Every hour you spend waiting for the bus is an hour you are not doing anything productive. Although the cash outlay might be some small percentage less, the amount of lost opportunity, discomfort (particularly in the summer in Vegas), and the lack of flexibility is more than made up by the extra cost of owning and operating a car even with the current gas prices. Assuming you do any of the maintenance yourself rather than farming it out, cars are cheaper, easier, and more flexible, particularly as the cost of public transportation rises. The one weak suit is that we pay for public transportation anyway through taxes, and if you don’t use it you kind of throw away that money. If it’s bad money on a bad idea, I prefer to do something else.

Pageants, Pistols, and Pigtails

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I finally tracked down the ads from the controversial Mom’s Demand Action campaign against guns. They appeared in an article on Yahoo Shine. That also quotes the organization’s leader. It illustrates a very typical knee-jerk-reaction, long on emotion, reactionary, and illogical, because none of the things they propose would have stopped the event they leverage for action and because a thing done quickly is rarely a thing done well. What times like these really remind us is that there is evil in the world and why it is dangerous to trust in men. Just as Julius Caesar.

On the off chance, you haven’t seen the images and if they go down, I have decided to reproduce them here. They tell an interesting and misleading story. While there are myriad stories attesting to how helpful it could be to have a gun, the media ignores those stories.

Most of what passes for journalism today is little more than editorials masquerading as news and political propaganda. Reporters project, not the whole truth, but that portion of the truth that corroborates what they already happen to believe. "We chose these images to point out the absurdity in America's gun laws right now," Shannon Watts tells reporters while her own images are even more absurd than her premise.

The campaign is predicated on poor facts that strain at gnats while they swallow camels. It uses children because we all ostensibly care about what happens to the most defenseless among us. The fact of the matter is that those children in New Town Connecticut were helpless sitting ducks in that classroom until police, who are also armed with guns, arrived and shot the gunman dead. Interesting that if they got their way and we had a world without guns the police might not have been able to stop Adam Lanza before he slaughtered more babies. “I believe in a world without guns” the jury consultant says in “Runaway Jury”. “That’s a little naive” Dustin Hoffman tells him back. One day, we’ll have better weapons anyway, but we still won’t have peace because we will still have evil men.

Looking at the images, the campaign bases itself on false premises and emotional pleas. Both of these are logical fallacies, but that doesn’t matter to the promoters. They have an agenda. You can take a look at the pictures and draw your own conclusions. Here are mine:

The book pictured is banned for the cover image, and only in two schools, not carte blanche for the nation entire. At the same time, they propose to limit gun access for everyone, everywhere, at all times, because some single nutjob slew some children. By that logic, it should be illegal to even mention the title of the book depicted let alone read it, but again it’s true for only two schools. Ah, the beauty of federalism…

First False Premise “we have limited the 1st amendment for the safety of our children” Watts claims. What limitations have there been? Also, it assumes that the 1st Amendment protects ALL speech when it only protects political speech although the Supreme Court may decide to change that.

It isn’t even clear what kind of ball one child is holding. The other child’s finger is on the trigger, a clip is loaded, and the breach is closed, so we can’t tell if it’s armed even if you can tell if the safety is on. This, any trained gun user will tell you, is one of the worst things you can do. At least it’s pointed at the ground… Isn’t Michelle Obama responsible for that advertisement campaign to play at least an hour every day? What are they supposed to play? Aren’t all children’s games potentially hazardous? Isn’t oxygen toxic to humans and water for that matter?

Second False premise “"What is absurd is that we're talking about having guns in our schools in this country," she says, as if there are not already armed policemen on school and college campuses. Oops! Guns get in all the time, and their efforts would not have stopped Mr. Lanza. From the accounts I saw, he BROKE in after being denied access through the front office. If you’re going to break into a school, gun laws won’t keep you from procuring one. In fact, several stories this past week featured criminals in possession of stolen firearms or firearms acquired through straw sales.

A girl holds a gun at the ready with her finger on the trigger, again with a magazine inserted and the breech closed so we can’t tell if there’s one in the chamber. I’m not familiar with this model, so I don’t know where the safety is, but it’s not being handled safely. For my part, I have never understood why Kinder Ueberaschungseier are banned in the US. Aren’t the small parts from IKEA furniture also choking hazards? Also, I wouldn’t give a small child one of those anyway, because chocolate is bad for them, but then I see some parents using their iPhones as toys, distractions, or even in lieu of pacifiers, so maybe we’re looking at the wrong issue here.

Third False premise “"The NRA has been very very good at creating fear among their members that their rights are going to be taken away or somehow the government is going to turn against them. We're trying to create debate and discussion about the facts” Watts claims. Isn’t the use of tiny children holding guns a fearmongering technique? Ah, projection. In the demo, the person holding the gun, who is clearly an adult by the size and age of the hands, handles the weapon much differently. They focus on the breech is open so you can tell there are no rounds in the chamber, and he is firing, not at a person, but in an indiscriminate direction while emotional pleas are played in the background.

Final premise Assault weapons are already banned in schools. When Adam Lanza brought one on campus, it was already illegal. None of the school shootings would have been stopped by background checks. When the shooters had the guns legally, they had already passed the checks, and where not they stole them from people who had. Criminals don’t line up to report themselves or get into lines where they are going to get caught. Usually they go out of their way to find another way in.

Final and interesting observation. In all the images, the child holding the gun is white. That’s racist.

I protest this kind of pageantry. Trotting out kids to be props in a show that won’t do anything. How about harsher punishments for parole violators? You can’t have world peace as long as there are criminals, which kind of makes world peace a red herring. Finally, why are the guns even in the schools? Isn’t that a crime? Why aren’t the people who did these ads serving time? I know if I brought a gun on campus (the two bills in the NV Legislature to allow carry on campus failed to get out of committee again this session), it’s a one way ticket to State Penn, do not pass Go.

While they worry about law-abiding citizens, they propose nothing actionable to protect us against other threats. Gangs continue to slaughter children in Chicago, and they do nothing. Today, someone blew up spectators at a marathon, and they will do nothing. Drug dealers, terrorists, and other undesirables flood over the Mexican border, and they will do nothing. Under siege from every direction, they take a political opportunity to make of the citizens the miscreants and of the miscreants new heroes for their cause. Their cause is to subjugate people to their wills. They must be very insecure and very small to think it makes them bigger people to make someone else low. These people are bullies, outlawing things they happen to dislike, which is an abuse of power. If you want to lift people up, you have to be in a position to be uplifting.

Low Information, High Return

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I hear a lot of discussion on the internet and radio about people who jump to conclusions. In the last week alone, I have asked for citations from a half dozen posts, including a few that I really wanted to be true. Some people ignore my requests for citations. They aren’t interested in whether it’s true or not; they are more interested in whether it confirms their preconceived notions and makes them popular. Rather than do their own homework, they pass it on, even though in many cases it’s an uncorroborated string of text overlayed on a JPEG.

Most of what’s available on the internet is not very useful, which is probably why it’s free. You know, I frequently find that the faster something spreads, either the less useful or true it actually is. That’s partly because people are dealing with images and emotions, and their knee-jerk-reactions are usually ill timed and ill advised. When you call them on it, sometimes they say as John Ensign once foolishly told me, “I felt that to do the wrong thing was better than to do nothing” notwithstanding that he should have studied the Sacred Oath of Hippocrates which directs him first to do no harm. Sometimes they are ignorant and they don’t care.

One of my coworkers knowing my interest in Dilbert shared with me this particular segment from that comic strip dated 7 October 2012.

It shows that the educational aspect of doing your own homework is little valued by the lazy and feckless. Wally does not want to do the work to get an informed opinion, because then it’s no longer an opinion. It’s corroborated. The problem with the people who resist my informed opinion is that sometimes they make sense, but that’s only because they work with low information to people who maintain a diet with as little truth as possible. This particular demographic would rather listen to music, watch reality TV, play video games, eat junk food, and collect handouts than do things that are actually substantive, and I’m tired of cowtowing to them.

Earlier this week, the Dean of our College sent us a study on the F-word: flunking. At the same time we shore up the weakest among us and ensure that they perpetuate not only their genetics but also their ideal of “civilization”, my bosses insist that I show people the utility of failure. Failure is not about showing you that you can’t do a thing but showing you where to focus your efforts to achieve. Outside academia, however, so many people reject achievement as a concept lock, stock and barrel as they check things off a list destroying every vestige of freedom on the auspices that it saves one person from failure. In a state like Nevada where the economy is based on risk, that makes zero sense. Under the mirage of gaming and winning, most of the people who come here fail miserably to achieve anything other than getting out of here without a felony arrest.

Most people want us to make life easy for them. This is what attracts them to Vegas- the something for nothing mentality. It’s why I oppose free college for everyone because many of those I do teach seem unwilling to prove to whomever is paying for it that it was money well spent. The do not want to be informed. They want to be entertained and taken care of, with the bread and circuses mentality that brought down Rome before us. Politicians love the low information crowd because it’s easy to reach them- start a rumor on twitter or spread a meme on Facebook, and tens of thousands of people will Like or Share it until it spreads without anyone having to do anything to hear about it besides log in to their accounts. These companies dutifully assist in passing on the jejune because it drives traffic, generates revenue, and enriches them. They are not interested in truth. They are interested in their own enrichment.

One of my favorite scriptures lately comes from the Book of Job and deals with this subject. Job has just opined his state of grace after his ‘friends’ pass on their opinions to him. From Job 38:2-3

Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

So much of what we pass on and share is nothing more than “words without knowledge”. Very few people cite their source when they even have one. They just throw it out there and let it spread like wildfire without regard for the ramifications, very much like what happened to the Duke Lacrosse team. Meanwhile, people’s reputations are ruined, and damage is done, and no justice is available to set right what is now lost. At other times, they cast things out and dress them up, feeding us platitudes without details, and because far too many people think with their gut emotions, they get behind a bandwagon without knowing what’s actually inside it. Then they act all surprised to discover that Congressional costumery hoodwinked them once again to its own enrichment.

Follow the money. Who benefits? Show me the money. From where does it come? Yes, I work at a job that is funded via taxes, and so I know that they forcibly take your money to employ me. What I do differently, as I told my class last night, is point out that I’m giving them information so that they can make better decisions. I am not telling them that they cannot drink soda or eat sugar or own a firearm. I explain to them what that does so that if they decide to do it anyway they can own the outcome. I want them to choose their own adventure and find that the adventure they chose was choice. I hope it brings anywhere near a commensurate return.

Rising Up and Rising Above

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I remember the look on my kid sister’s face the first time she heard me curse. It was as if I had just told her there was no Santa Claus. As her delusions about my virtue vanished before my eyes, rather than try to recapture what I could not regain, I simply told her, “Now you know the truth about me, that I am also human”. It was nice to realize that until that day my sister might have thought I was perfect in some small facet of my being. It has been nice since then to realize that it is ok to be human and that I need not be afraid to discover my weaknesses.

We have this somewhat irrational fear as human beings of being imperfect. In our schools, we begin with the misbegotten notion that everyone has an ‘A’, and that mindset transcends into the rest of our lives to where we act as if a thing is worthless if not perfect. By this logical fallacy, we turn away potential mates, vote against potential statesman, withdraw money from potential profit, and edge ever further from potential success, peace, and happiness. I believe that this accounts for most of the problems in the Christian Faith. Far too many of my brothers and sisters in Christ think that they must first cleanse themselves in order to be acceptable to Christ. For this reason, they pray to Mary and crusade to Jerusalem, hoping to do some great thing and earn redemption. You cannot redeem yourself. You are what must be redeemed.

Like I tell my students, failure does not indicate your value. It shows you where you need to focus your efforts. Rather than roasting people and celebrating that they are weak like we are, we should use those opportunities to reinforce redemption and reformation as principles of mortality. I read today on Facebook about an old friend and her daughter. Her daughter asked her what silly or stupid things she did as a girl and then seemed relieved to realize that her mother, whom I am sure she idolizes and idealizes, is also human. Moments like this, rather than reasons for ridicule present us with precious potentialities to punctuate principles that help make bad men good and good men better. Far too often we laugh and point out the weaknesses in others without realizing how others see this. When we mock people we know in front of our children, our children may relate that mockery to themselves when they make unwise choices. Be careful while looking for the mote in another person’s eye not to gouge something out with the beam that is in your own.

It is odd sometimes that we can cast out a man for a moment in an otherwise brilliant and bright life while we extend exigent mercy to others who have shown a disposition to destroy. We strain at gnats and swallow camels, excited over a human mistake in a man who declares his intent to follow the Master. Intention and execution are not the same, but just because we fall short does not mean that we are liars or moving contrary. Take three steps forward and one step backwards, and you still made a little progress. Do not belittle people for failing to live perfectly a moral code you are unwilling to even attempt. Jesus commanded us to be perfect, but He made intercession for all men, not for ‘if’ we sin, but for ‘when’, knowing that none of us would be always able to be perfect, no matter how we tried. Then, to show us that redemption really works, He set Peter over His church after Peter thrice denied Him and called Paul to the Apostleship after Paul helped persecute His disciples. They, after all they had done, were saved by Grace, not of themselves lest they should boast, but Grace of God made manifest through His Only Begotten Son.

Everyone makes mistakes. I do not think it is possible for any man, on his own, to always be on his best behavior. My close friends know that I try very hard to be, but even they know finally that I am not the paragon of virtue they once thought me to be. The difference I think between people who appear paragonal and those who don’t care is that the former are inclined to own their mistakes and then correct them while the latter insist that “it doesn’t make any difference” and hope that other people will forget them. What God requires of us is unwearied diligence, to evince a spirit of dedication and discipline and improvement in our actions, and uncompromised submissiveness to His will, timing, and plan for our lives. Only then will it, by the grace of God, become possible for us to follow every commandment with exactness.

The great opportunity for people of faith in mortality is to realize their humanity and their reliance on a Redeemer. We should not be afraid to realize our weaknesses. They show us how much we need a Savior and they help us know where we really stand, what we really mean, and where it would be best to focus our efforts on self-reformation. In order to arrive at our intended destination, it behooves us to know where we really stand. Only then can we set a true and reliable course to where we intend to be. Christ offers men the opportunity to rise up when they fall, realizing that reformation is possible and rise above the instincts and proclivities of the natural man for something better.

Choosing to Follow

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Last night in our church conference, we rose as a group to sing as is customary the intermediate hymn. Normally, the chorister is not of the kind that he or she commands the attention of the organist or the congregation, and so the congregation follows the normal beat to which they are accustomed or they follow the musical instrument. This time was not the case. The organist followed the chorister who led the music in a way, at a cadence, and with a flair I have never seen and which the congregation seemed reticent to follow. Consequently, we were off key, off tempo, and sounded awful until finally at the end because I know how to follow a musical leader I sang loudly enough to get people to follow my lead as I followed the chorister.

My observations told me a few things that are consistent with some other thoughts I had of late. Despite all of what we know and are taught, we do not know how to be led. Despite all of our testimony to the contrary, we do not desire to be led. Despite our previous stumblings, we refuse to acknowledge when being led resulted in a better outcome than we otherwise might have expected. Let us consider each of these individually.

We do not know how to be led. Going back to last evening, it was evident then as it was when I was young that most people do not understand who leads the music. As a teenager, I had a mentor who taught me how to lead as well as how to command the attention of the accompaniment, because that’s how you get the congregation to follow. You take charge and you set the terms. Whenever you gather a group of diverse individuals united by a narrow sliver of common ground, you find that each among them follows his own way, partially because he does not know the rules of the road. We all have our own experiences, and I drive around my neighborhood differently now that I understand the timing and traffic and back roads than I did before I knew the area. Sometimes, when we find the best we for us, we act as if it’s the best way for everyone. In the row ahead and to the right of me was a certain pillar of the Faith who I know from experience views himself as more important than others. When I started changing the tempo loudly, he looked over with disgust to see who was throwing off his groove. The trouble is that in that instant, no matter his title, he was not the leader of the music. There was another subject matter expert present with a better plan. I read a story recently about people who got lost in Death Valley because their GPS gave them bad directions. It gives you the most direct route, which may not be advisable or passable, and taking bad roads remains the largest reason why people die in Death Valley.

We do not desire to be led. Along with “our way or the highway”, this particular officer in the Faith believes he is smarter and better than I am. Because he is learned and exalted in station, he is wise in his own mind and is unwilling at least betimes like some of us to be led by someone in a better position. We get wrapped up in our stations and don’t listen to people of lower rank or age or wealth or title or whatever. At other times, we get wrapped up in the traditions of our fathers and refuse another leader because “that’s just not the way it’s done” without asking if that’s the best way. The story is told of a woman whose husband asked her why she always cut the turkey in half on Thanksgiving before cooking it. The story unfolds after some inquiry that her grandmother did it because the oven was too small, but there’s no otherwise good reason to continue this tradition. We get into patterns sometimes that keep us from a more excellent way. Some of us don’t like patterns at all because we reject limitations and leadership. Years back, the TV Show “Home Improvement” made popular a line of t-shirts imprinted with the phrase “real men don’t need instructions” that implies that if you need to be led you are weak, and no real man wants to appear weak.

Being led is the best way to lasting happiness. If you ask me, I can give you specific examples of times where I thank God I did not get what I wanted at the time. How many of us really know what we want, let alone what’s best for us? Frank Luntz talks in his book “What Americans Really Want, Really” about how much of what we want is impressed upon us from outside sources rather than from internal desires. Furthermore, the example of scripture from Genesis on repeats the theme that if we obey, God will lead us to a land of promise. One chief key in this life is to realize that you can only really live when you choose to live your own adventure, not the one dictated or suggested by people who ostensibly love you. The highest way to love someone is to allow them to act as an agent, even if that means they will make mistakes, because that is what God does for us, and then provide a way for them to return after the prodigal realizes his error. That’s why Christ matters so much, because even the best of us is a sinner and needs intercession from the Savior to reenter the Father’s presence and receive what the Father hath. After you choose to live your own adventure, which is the easier of the two phases, the next challenge comes in embracing the life that God chooses for you and submitting your will to His. He knows what can come from the challenges He allows, and so His plan for your life will be better than any you can dream up on your own.

Years ago, I followed this pattern and learned this lesson. Today, I am reminded by God to keep on that way. A problem at work threatened my livelihood. My vocational prospects were dim, my legal status was in jeopardy, and I was allowed to be treated like a perpetrator when I was the victim of another person’s piss poor choices. Friends advised me to retain Counsel. Some suggested I quit my job and move away. Family members suggested I back down from a principled position and roll with the status quo. I prayed. I felt impressed to trust God and seek only that remedy that would remove the problem. As this person continued to escalate the situation, life grew more stressful. Eventually, someone in a position to act transferred me to a better location with more opportunity and other advantages without any ramifications, and I testify that I am in a land of promise.

Although I did not know how to be led when this began, I chose to be led by God. Sure, I wanted to feel like I was in control, but all I could do was choose what particular entropy I faced. I knew what was and it made better sense in hindsight to stick with what I knew rather than complicate it, but in the moment I could not see what might be best for me. Wrote the anonymous poet “We tangle up the plans the Lord hath wrought, and when we cry in pain, He says, "Be quiet, dear, while I untie the knot." Desiring to be led requires that we admit that we are not the subject matter expert in our own lives. It requires us to surrender our delusions of control and submit to the will and wisdom of our Creator in helping us find the best life for us. Knowing how to be led requires us to recognize that He can do more with our lives than we can. Choosing to turn our lives over to God will, like it did for Israel in Egypt, lead you to a land of promise. I testify that continuing to trust God to lead your life will lead you to a land of milk and honey. It has for me; it will for you too.

Obedience to Law is Liberty

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Like many of you, although I do not do anything worthy of this reaction, I grow more self aware when I see a policeman. I know that I do not know all the laws, and I worry that some of these men, because they have power, might exercise it unrighteously to my mortal detriment. For instance, it’s illegal to hunt camels in New Mexico, and if I were inclined to do that and didn’t know that, my ignorance of the law would not excuse me in a society that has decided to prosecute on expediency rather than consistency.

Several instances this week have made me more aware of my own behavior and encouraged me to a greater degree of exactness in obedience. My mother told me of a case of which she is aware where a man faces charges for stealing necessities like toothpaste, toothbrush, and dental floss from a local grocer. The associates in a local Wal-Mart told me that half the air filter and oil filter boxes in their store are empty, and while they told me this, there was a page over the intercom about a woman trying to flee the store with items in her purse. It’s so common they no longer broadcast in code. One of my students was opining her lack of funds because she has received three traffic violations in the last year totaling over $1500. I told her that the easy solution was to stop breaking the law.

I have had my share of brushes with law enforcement. I remember one time on the freeway passing a patrolman who was driving 55mph in a 65mph zone. All the cars were staying behind him for fear he might ticket them when in his absentia they would have passed me as if I were standing still. As I pulled ahead of him, he glared at me. I pegged my speedometer to 63mph and kept it steady as he pulled in behind me and drove there for the next seven miles before tiring of the fruitless pursuit. Another time, a highway patrolman pulled me over for driving 80mph in a 55mph zone. What is the likelihood honestly that my 1995 4-cylinder Saturn can even drive that fast? I have actually never driven it that fast, and now that the speed limit in rural Utah is 80mph, I have finally driven that fast. She really pulled me over because my plate was too dirty for her to read.

My heroes are those who steadfastly held fast to the law and the Law. One of my great heroes is Sir Thomas More. He became famous for standing up to King Henry VIII and refusing assent to the King’s divorce because it was against God’s law. At his final trial, when threatened by the king’s chief ministers with justice, Thomas replied, “If it is justice with which you threaten me then I am not threatened”. At a much later date, Eric Liddel refused to compete in an Olympic event on Sunday when he told the future king of his country that he would not run. Their faithfulness to the Law gave them liberty, not as the world defines it, but as Charles Piggott defines it in his dictionary dated 1795: “the indispensable necessity of keeping sufficient for others to use, particularly our own families”. Liberty is not license; it is responsible stewardship over what is so that others may also have in kind.

Either the law applies or it does not. Nothing annoys me more than when police violate the law or when politicians write themselves special exemptions to the laws they impose on us. When I obey the law, I leave it open to apply to others as well. The children of Israel were commanded to only take what manna they needed so there would be enough for others. Manna did not keep. It was replenished every day because some of them took liberties with their benefits that did not keep things just for others who went out to gather. Consistent application of the law ensures liberty, because people come to rely on its lines and follow them safely to their destinations. The more some people have exemptions, the less convicted we are that, when a policeman pulls behind us, we will be treated with Justice. If it is justice with which you threaten me, I am not threatened. Christ is my pilot. I am His passenger. If justice is done to Him, I will arrive safely, and so will you.

Who Knoweth But That They Will Return

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Since I worked in a plant laboratory as a graduate student, I try to keep plants growing in my office and lab space. I feel it’s important to legitimize my work and because I enjoy watching living things grow. I have learned from this that the size of the seed is no indicator of how likely it is to grow and that sometimes the skill of the sower is not enough. Sometimes, the seedling does things you don’t expect even after germination and dies suddenly despite your efforts. Sow anyway.

One of my favorite things to grow are avocado trees. I eat a few of these every month, and so I take the seeds and shore them up and hope that they will germinate into trees so I can grow avocados some day in my own yard. The avocado pit is a rather large seed as seeds go, and it takes quite a bit of time to germinate, if they ever do. Many of them are contaminated by fungus which quickly kills the fledgling root, and sometimes even after the cotyledons and first true leaves emerge the trees die for no good reason. I have only been able to get three seedlings to grow large enough to make multiple leaves.

In one powerful way, growing avocados this way resembles our efforts to share our testimonies of Christ. It’s one of the most important things in this world and for our eternity, and yet sometimes we have no idea how to get started or why it fails after the cotyledons emerge from the seed. Even one seed I germinated, despite substantial root growth, never sent forth a shoot and never made leaves. I do not know what happened or why. I continue to water it anyway.

Ministering in the gospel has always been a sore point for me. Those who know me well know that I claim no fruit in this regard. Although I have shared my witness of Christ with folks who now follow the Master, none of them did so when I was around. I returned almost 13 years ago from my full time mission in Austria after having labored by what might be measured according to man’s metrics as an abject failure, having failed to my knowledge to help anyone repent and come to Christ of those I was called to rescue. One thing I remember from my interview at the time of my release was this quote that was originally given to Heber J Grant upon his return from Japan in similar circumstances : “His success was that he continued in the absence of success”.

I am not the first to feel as if his labors were without useful work. Elijah opined the wickedness of Israel when he petitioned God, “It is enough, Oh Lord, take thou my life, I pray thee”. Abinadi was executed by King Noah after calling the king to repentance without seeing that one of the priests had heard him and felt the call to repent. My own father taught a nice fellow named Guenther who finally allowed himself to be baptized almost a decade later. Like the avocado seeds I attempt to nurture, we water them and care for them and watch them and hope that they will leaf out and take on lives of their own. As God advised the people of Ancient America, “unto such shall ye continue to minister, for who knoweth but that they will return and repent and thou shalt be the means of saving some soul”.

Far too many of us are willing to act if and only if there is a guaranteed harvest for us. As much as I grow tired of feeling as if I’m the Johnny Appleseed of Christianity, spreading seed wherever I go without ever harvesting, I know that someone has to sow in order for there to be a harvest for anyone. I feel very strongly that God asks me to witness, to write this blog, to call friends, and to do all the things I do that seem silly, strange, or psychotic to people of no Faith whatsoever because I am willing to go and do. My best friend told me years ago that this is what made my faith noble- that I move forward without knowing if it’s right but without caring what happens to me. Neal A Maxwell wrote that God gives the picks and shovels to the chosen because they are willing to go out and get the work done. They may not be the most capable, but they are the most available.

Before I left for my mission, I heard a story. It does not matter if it was true, because it made what I did as a consequence something that was true. In the story, some missionaries elect for the first time in their service to travel to the gym dressed as missionaries, change clothes there, shower, and change back into their missionary dress before they go home. They did this, and a woman approached them at the bus stop looking for Christ’s help; although she had seen them many times before, she did not recognize them as servants of Christ because they looked like everyone else. Consequently, I resolved to be the kind of person that would be available and recognizable if and when, like Moses, God had a work for me to do.

A few nights ago, I felt impressed to call a friend of mine who I knew has been struggling. I did not know why, but I did not need to know. I called anyway. She wept as we spoke of Christ and His atonement and the hope of a better world to come. She asked me how I always knew when she needed help. I don’t. I act on impressions and trust that God will make useful work of my quick response to His promptings. I do not know what will happen, but I will continue to minister unto her, “for who knoweth but that she will return and repent and thou shalt be the means of saving some soul”.

I have seen many of the seeds I planted wither away and die. Some are cankered by the fungal contamination of continued defiance of commandments. Some grow roots but never put out any leaves to capture the light of truth, relying only on what I give them rather than seeking for God. Some of them grow leaves only to die inexplicably. Many of them never germinate at all. As with the avocado, I continue to plant and nurture seeds anyway because I know this isn’t about the sower; it’s about the seed. The fruit is not mine; it is God’s.

Every spring, farmers all over the globe venture into their fields and sow seeds. They have absolutely no guarantee that any of them will grow, let alone grow fruit. However they know that if they do not sow, then none of us will have aught to eat. They know that because of their diligent efforts those seeds may germinate, send forth tender shoots, and eventually bear fruit.

I sometimes think of the people I met as a missionary and those to whom I have witnessed of Christ in the intervening decade. Many of their faces and names remain clear to me to this day. I hope they decided to access the Atonement of Christ. I know that there is no way nor means by which man can find peace in this life and lasting happiness in the world to come except through the atonement of Christ. Unto such shall I as they allow me opportunity continue to minister, for who knoweth but that they shall turn unto Christ and repent and I shall be the means of saving some soul. I know God looks forward to that fruit. I hope I will continue to be able to continue in the absence of success until He calls me home and says, “Well done thou good and faithful servant. Your success was that you continued in the absence of success.” Sometimes the seeds don’t grow into what you hope or as fast as you might like. Sow anyway.

Peter Pan Syndrome

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Most of you remember the story of Peter Pan- the boy who would never grow up. He found himself in a world where the children played all day, outsmarted the adults, always were virtuous, and went from one grand adventure to another. When bad things befell them, other children from our world were sent to help, and that’s where our problem begins.

Children are heroes only in fiction. In today’s world, we have far too many people who are children trapped in adult bodies. They are fascinated with entertainment, spending lavishly of their time and money on elaborate entertainment systems or gaming consoles in an attempt to play all day and put off the responsibilities of adulthood. At the same time, they think they know everything, and whereas there may have been a time when they knew everything about their world, that does not mean that they know everything about ours. I am old enough already to understand why old people are annoyed by young people- the young people are unaware of anything that isn’t touching their lives directly, and they think they have all the answers.

This becomes a problem when those adults bring their childish attitudes, opinions, and experience with them into the adult realm. Politicians are too often elected at a young age, where they think they know everything. When you give them power to do anything, it reinforces their misbegotten notion that they have all the answers and that their answers will work. Some recent accidental billionaires dropped out of college and made money selling people things they were convinced they needed and became wealthy. This reinforces their own ideas of self importance, and more and more they insert themselves into the lives of everyone else, not realizing that their importance is accidental or illusion. As I wrote about ammo fleecing, I wonder how many CEOs justify fleecing people because they got away with it when they were young and felt that justified continuing to do it today on a much larger scale. You see, in order to govern something well, your life or a nation or a business or a family, it takes wisdom. Young people do not typically have wisdom quite simply because they have not had time to experience enough in order to attain to it.

Perhaps the worst sufferers of Peter Pan Syndrome are the retirees. Even as they insist that they love their children, pick candidates who will look out for them, and do things for them, they are wasting their substance. I have seen bumper stickers that pronounce the travelers as those who are “spending our children’s inheritance”. We know that even as they talk about adoption rights for homosexuals 'for the children' who otherwise have no parents, those same people deny children the opportunity to participate in the deliberative efforts that enslave them to debt for government largesse. We are making our descendents slaves to the lusts of our present focus on a continual entertainment and indulgence.

I used to think about old people as the harbingers of wisdom. I don’t typically associate youth and wisdom, but I see far too many older persons who have not put their hearts to understanding and have thus not been wise. From time to time, I am otherwise myself, but I am not so foolish as to continuously at great expense of time and specie attempt the same things expecting different results. When our elders were in school, I know they learned more about history than the rising generation does, and it surprises me to think that they know how Rome fell and insist that America is too big to fail while they follow Rome’s lead.

As for Peter Pan Syndrome, far too many of our leaders are children in the garb of adulthood. They want to act like adults but be treated like children many times in class. They want the privileges without the obligations, the freedoms without the responsibilities, and the opportunities without the costs. Those of us among them who are adults take responsibility and attempt to hold it together like Wendy did in Barry’s story while the boys go out on adventures and play games and get in trouble. Captain Hook was right to laugh when he heard that Peter Pan would save them because the Peter Pan he knew wasn’t serious about anything adult. He was vanquished because Peter Pan grew up enough to look out for those who relied on him to be their leader. I wish ours would grow up and act like men.