Treasure or Heaven

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Over the weekend, there was a lot of chatter about the Kardashian divorce. Quite frankly, I'm surprised we care about that family. As far as I can figure, they became famous because she looks good naked in some sex video she made, not that I would know. I don't happen to find her that attractive actually. Yet, they have bazillions of dollars for the reality show about their lives and other crap. I happen to share the opinion with others I'm sure that the Kardashians are nothing more than a bunch of spoiled brats.

On the way to work this morning, I saw an interesting bumper sticker. Aside from the fact that it made me feel better about my car, it was rather interesting in its sentiments. It read simply, "Don't let my car fool you. My treasure is in heaven." As I drove behind this fellow, I considered what treasures people seek as evinced by how they spend their time.

Time is the only resource of which I am aware that is finite. Everyone has a maximum amount of time to spend as a mortal, determined partially by the length of their telomeres and partially by the choices they will yet make while alive. Yet, few of us invest our time, spending it willy-nilly rather in the pursuit of neither what we like nor what we ought. As someone once said, we spend money we do not have to buy things we don't need to impress people we don't like.  Even the president thinks it's recovery when we buy iPADS despite the number of people who can't pay their bills or buy food.  We attempt to please others, who have their own limited time with which to deal. Ironically enough, even if you manage somehow to accumulate all of something, it becomes worthless. Furthermore, it becomes a liability because then you have to defend it.

Nobody has to worry about defending their stance with their Maker. Our state of grace is not up to any of the other people we so desperately vie to impress. It is not for sale, trade, or exchange. We cannot fool our Maker. We don't even really know how He values things except from what He communicates to us that we should do and become. From those notes, He values very different things than we do.

During the Incarnation, Jesus talked about laying up treasures in heaven for protection. He also made it quite clear that our treasures indicate where our hearts truly lie. Not that people who care nothing at all for material goods care for God, but people who care about stuff certainly do invest their energies and their hearts into a god that does little more than collect dust. Just last night, we celebrated the pagan tradition where we clothe our children like fiends and miscreants, send them out to extort candy from strangers under veiled threats of violence, and then gather round to count our swag. Children no longer even have to do a trick to get their treat.

When I was young, my family transformed Halloween into a family night. My parents bought us each a bag of candy, a new family movie, and we retreated into a dark basement room to spend some time together. That is a memory and a tradition I will always treasure and one I hope to extend to my own posterity. You never see a hearse headed to the cemetary with bags of money or a U-haul full of property trailing behind. What you do see are family. In fifty years, very few people will remember who you were or what you did. What you're really leaving behind is your legacy in the form of your posterity. The rich men are the ones whose families love them.

American Graffiti

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Seventy years ago today, Mount Rushmore was completed. I tried to imagine what people hundreds or thousands of years from now will think of the faces carved into the stone. Today at the bank, a woman didn't know who John Hancock was or the reference when I signed some paperwork. What would Lewis and Clark have thought to find something like that carved into the mountain as they explored?

This weekend, as I have several times in the past few years, I hiked to an area in the desert southwest marred by graffiti. In order to mark these areas, people had to plan ahead and go far out of their way. Most of it mars the landscape, much like a great scar on an otherwise beautiful face. It really makes me feel sad.

Centuries and millenia from now, I suspect Mount Rushmore will be viewed as an irreparable form of 'American Graffiti'. It will come to symbolize how certain Americans tried to overwrite what was with what they thought ought to be. There was once a time when America was the bastion of propriety, where although you might get ripped off by someone dishonest or hurt by someone's immorality, it wasn't guaranteed like it was elsewhere. As we have grown more prosperous, we have done away with that.

Although long forgotten, American Pioneer and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints president Brigham Young was sensitive of man's impact on the world. When he arrived in Deseret Territory of Spanish Mexico, which is now the state of Utah, he worked hard to keep harmony with the land. Few American pioneers won the respect of so many natives. However, Brigham worried back then, at a time when Jim Bridger scoffed at the notion that Brigham would ever grow wheat in the Salt lake valley, that people would become too prosperous. He proved prescient.

Parts of American culture graffiti over what is good and brave and beautiful. Too many people confuse what happens on TV with reality. We forget that people go to the movies to escape reality, because if our lives were really like that, we would never pay to see those films. No longer concerned with survival, in our prosperity we turn to bread and circuses, drugs and intercourse, pleasure and pelf for substance. We forget that semblance does not equal substance as we concern ourselves with appearances. We think that the hotter the car the better the person.  We fear who we are that we can't wait for Halloween and Renaissance Faires so we can get away acting the way we wish we were.  Even worse, to reinforce these misbegotten notions we dress up our children and send them out to extort candy from strangers under veiled threats of violence. What will we leave behind?

I think it's interesting that they chose the Statue of Liberty as the symbol of ruined civilization in the Planet of the Apes series. America was supposed to be freedom, opportunity, and possibility. It does not mean guaranteed outcomes, equality, or indulgence. We have been bridled by unbroken success and seen Brigham Young's fear come true- that we would become too prosperous for our own good. We focus on the Kardashians and Charlie Sheen and the NFL and Barack Obama instead of actually doing things worth doing, discussing things worth discussing, and becoming something worth becoming. The broadcast of our media shows any other denizens of the galaxy that we are obsessed with things of no worth and disinterested in things that matter.

As a close friend pointed out, those messages we leave will reverberate forever. Even if monuments like Mt. Rushmore fall, what we are will endure. We are all made of matter and creating energies, and our own science tells us that our matter and energy will always exist. Rather than focusing on shaky morals and pretending to care about things, let us be something. Let us be something worth remembering, something that other beings on other worlds are interested in knowing more about us. We can be for something. We can be involved in something. We can be proactive rather than passive recipients. Either we can wait on the world to change and protest in the streets or we can do something that might actually make a difference. Rather than leave behind monuments and cave art or even stone clocks and cement ruins, let us leave behind great thoughts and great principles and great deeds, stories worth the retelling. Let that be the kind of American Graffiti that survives us.

I Also Have a Dream

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Most of the time when I'm driving, since I'm not forced to look at the outside of my car, I forget how it looks. Yesterday, I was passed by a guy driving a Ferrari who looked at me as he drove by with a look of disgust on his face. At first I couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong. Then I figured it out.

It is the disposition of almost all people to compare themselves to others. We get a new suit or into a new car, even if they're not ours, and then compare ourselves to other people. I can only imagine that, as he drove by me, the man looked over and asked himself as he looked at my jalopy, "Have you no pride?" Would that really be a bad thing?

Several times, I have considered replacing at least the paint if not the entire car. Then I consider all the money it has saved me by driving away women who were only interested in my car. One of the other fellows in Chemistry showed me a scientific study on women who go after guys with fancy cars. They don't stay. I could have told you that, but it's nice to have empirical data on which to base my conclusions.

I wonder where we got the notion that the hotter the car the better the person. I wonder how many people do what they do professionally not because they enjoy it but because they enjoy the 'stuff' they can buy because of wht they do. Far too many of us spend money we do not have buying things we do not need to impress people we don't like. The rest of us, comfortable and confident in who we are, independent of what we possess, are labeled as arrogant. What a laugh!

I have a dream that one day my Saturn will not be judged by the color of his skin but by the content of his character. With rare exception, this car has outlasted even the most liberal projections of its utility and reliability. While I have my own fears about how much longer it may prove dependable, so far it has not been the problem except in a few rare circumstances. My parents always told me that it's what's on the inside that counts, but that doesn't seem to really matter to anyone. It's high time that it did.

No Loans; No Debt

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As Barack Obama attempts to bribe students for votes with student loans, I see a problem. Loans are part of what got us in trouble in the first place. Work is the solution, but giving people loans, particularly people who take out loans without intending to repay them, doesn't encourage work. There are great numbers of professional students who never get productive jobs. There are great numbers of people I know in Vegas who intend to walk away from their loans.

I was fortunate to leave college without ever taking out a loan and without debt. I worked very hard in High School and received some timely 'motivational counseling' from my mother by which I received several key scholarships. I chose to attend a small state institution to save money because my parents had already paid property taxes to support them. I took full loads, kept up my grades, and worked a part time job. I went without a car, a cell phone, and some of the expected costs. I didn't go out to eat. I also paid far less just ten years ago than the students pay today.

Even while I was in school, the costs ballooned. I remember going to the Housing unit and asking them why, during the two years of absentia for a mission, the cost to live on campus had doubled when it had taken 27 years to double the first time. They even offered less for the increased cost. Most of my classes were taught by professors, but some of my friends were not so fortunate and discovered their teachers were really graduate students, not worth the increased tuition cost.

I am not convinced that as much of education as they want us to believe is about education. I have already written about how universities exist, not to advance the students, but to advance the faculty and entertain the community. Why else do they invest so much money into the football team? Too many colleges staff famous professors who barely teach a single class. Aside from the difference the diploma makes on the date of hire, I see very little value added by attending a prestigious university. I have excelled, as did one of my favorite professors, despite going to a small and inconsequential school as he did (He went to Univ. of Nebraska for his PhD).

I don't see why there should be a need for federal intervention in student loans. Why does it cost so much? Our students are less competitive at a time when it costs more than ever before to attend college. The undergraduates where I teach pay more for undergraduate tuition than I paid in graduate school, and I'm younger than some of them are.

Recognizing that they are our customers, I try very hard to give the students a good value for the money. I worry about many of them who pay so much money to get a degree just to be competitive that it will bury them in debt for years. I remind them that grades do not indicate what they know and point out how, despite my pedigree and alma mater, I have been offered an expanded teaching schedule next semester. The department chair told me in my review that she was glad they had not only hired a competant instructor but also someone who was passionate for the students and for teaching. I consider myself worth the money. Others are paid much more. Not everyone earns what they are paid.

Some students have no choice but to go into debt. Realize that when you do so, you owe someone else for what you have and are. Debt is a new form of slavery. Once you pay them off, then and only then are you completely free. I am convinced that the government likes expanding student loans to make more people dependent on and beholden to them. They do not like that you are free, but that is exactly what America is supposed to represent- freedom. Remember that as you plan your educational financing.

The Waaaambulence

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Within two hours of waking, I had heard from two people already commenting on how crappy their lives are. Another friend pointed out that people frequently equate things with happiness that don't make it so. Just because you have money or gadgets or love doesn't mean you are happy. Some things aren't real.

Society is in many ways a fraud. They are trying to sell you a Ming Dynastic Vase, telling you that will make you happy. Assuming it's something you really want, what they're not telling you is that although it was made according to Ming Dynasty specifications and on location, it was also manufactured last week. When you oppose, it's somehow your fault that you won't accept the premise and swallow the lie. Money and stuff is really only useful if you have something on or for which you wish to spend it.

Many of the popular people in society paint a dishonest picture too. Although they tell us that all you need is love, I frequently hear from people who have love or married the person they love who then opine the fact that they have no friends and no life. How can that be? So many people think the only thing I lack for happiness is someone to love. Shoot, even I think that some times. Yet, so many people I know are only experiencing moderate happiness because they look at what they lack instead on what they have.

We are a piratical society. We sometimes don't care how much swag we have as long as there's swag in someone else's ship. Lewis wrote that it's about our pride, that pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. Look at the Occupy Wall Street protestors. Their lives are better than others in many ways. They have jobs, they have clothes, they have their health, they have education, ad infinitum, all things for which an average modern Ethiopian or Jew from a 1940s ghetto would sell their soul. They are focused on what they lack and the disparity with other people.

Call the waaaambulence. I forget in which movie I heard this (maybe Bruce Willis in "The Kid"), but it's an interesting image. We are so whiney sometimes. We remember our riches, but not to thank our Maker from whom all blessings flow. We are ingrateful, and it shows. Without gratitude, I do not think it's possible to be truly happy.

Lots of people experience hard times. Most of them don't complain. No matter where you find yourself, it is likely that you will always know someone who has more of something than you do. It will always appear to be unfair in a free society. Rather than opine the disparity, we ought to applaud those who correctly apply their freedom. Rather than praising those who achieve, people view your success as an impediment to their own and complain bitterly. We hear the complainers because they shrilly cry their tales of woe from the rooftops. Some of them prosper because some of us feel bad for them. Why should we? Most people buckle down and put their shoulders to the wheel. These days, the Waaambulence is pretty busy because so many people think their sob story is a unique tale of misery and woe. It might take a long time for it to swing by and pick you up. By that time, maybe you can lift yourself and find an opportunity to lift someone else.

We are all of us richly blessed. We can think, reason, read, travel where the itch suits us, speak as we feel, eat what we can afford, and do what we like for a wage we consider fair enough. This is unique among the peoples and the ages of the earth. It is a time of great opportunity. These are the days, and I am determined to live them. God is good to me.

Will Ye Also Go Away?

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I am actually rather fortunate. I have a good friend and a best friend, someone who knows about what's going on and someone who's also gone through things with me. I have very few associations. While at the surface that sounds lonely, it also means there is no deadweight. A few of the people who are gone are people I'm glad to see go. A few are ones I miss and miss dearly.

There are competing schools of thought on who actually does the leaving and what that means about the one who does. Frequently, people will stay in bad circumstances to avoid being lonely or to avoid being labeled the villain. Some of my friends are still married legally although their spouses gave up on the marriage long ago. It's hard because of hope and love and known circumstances. I don't really know what's the best course of action.

Over the last few weeks, I have heard some general thoughts that sound true. Of course, general counsel doesn't apply to all circumstances. Men are easily villified by women and vice versa. I have never actually dumped a girl, and the relationships have not ended by mutual consent. I was still invested when the fund collapsed, just like I was with my WaMu stock before Joe Biden created a run on the bank that wiped me out. He'll eventually get a bill from me.

In the case of relationships, there's emotion involved. Eventually I do give up on people, not because I no longer care, but because the evidence available indicates that they no longer do. I have walked away when it was clear that I could say nothing to change a person's mind, that it wasn't up for negotiation. I wasn't trying to be mean. I accepted what they tol me, and if it was a game to see if I'd stay, well, they are the ones who lost. Ultimatums amount to emotional blackmail, and I find that a weak foundation for something that matters a great deal to me. Their part in my life is over. I am sad, but I am submissive. God knew this was coming, and he will still lead me to a fair shore and land of promise.

When you face the troubled times in life, you frequently discover who means it. Lots of us have fair weather friends. These remind me of Job's neighbors who blamed him for his circumstance and make me wonder with friends like that who needs enemies? Maybe they say things you don't want to hear, but they don't just blame you, and they don't leave you. They help you recover if they can. That's what God does too.

About a year ago, a friend who has since cut off all contact with me recently told me that I reminded her that there is no finding God. He is always there. We are the ones who move. We flit off to Pleasure Island or fall behind and then complain that God has abandoned us. We abandon Him.

After He finished feeding the multitude, Jesus was sad that the people went away. They came for the refreshments and not for His message. Turning to His disciples, the master asked, "Will ye also go away?" The disciples responded, where else would we go? If you're interested in bread, you can find that anywhere. There are bars and pubs and eateries and grocers aplenty from whom you can get those things. If you're interested in pleasure, the sources are likewise apenty. If you're interested in truth, there really is only One Source. Where else would we go? Even as the standards and morays and morals of the world change, God and His laws and promises stand resolute against the waves of popular sentiment. When we walk away, it's because we don't care. He always does, which is why you know how to find Him and how you will find Him when you get there.

Sometimes I wonder if He allows me these experiences so that I will understand. I begin to see a little bit of His sorrow and pain as I see people for and about whom I care choose to wander down paths that will not lead to lasting happiness. What they find might be a substitute or have the semblance, but they lack the substance. I know that, and I hope they don't realize it because I don't want them to suffer. I'm sure some of the people who have left me or who think I left them weep. I weep for them likewise. I know who and what I thought I lost. How much more painful must it be for God, who knows more than what He thinks- He knows exactly what is lost in a poor decision and what might be gained by hearkening to Him.

In the end, the most important thing for me is to keep my relationship with my Maker strong. I believe that as long as I honestly focus on strengthening my relationship with Him, He will help me take care of the rest. Some people are jealous and don't like this, thinking I should focus on them first. None of them are still around. God is. And so, I am faithful.

They Are Not the 99%

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President Obama and the Democrat Party are mistaken to embrace the Occupy movement and project it as representative of the country. They are not as random of a sampling of the population as the media would like us to believe. They are a representative random sampling of the type of kooks who typically support monarchists in a Representative Republic. They also project things onto regular folks at sidewalk level that they do, and they will not make any significant strides to increase liberty or prosperity in this nation. People like them cannot and will not advocate the policies that lead to it.

While they argue that they're for opportunity equality, there's a fundamental problem with their premise. They claim they are there to make things better for the people, but their solution requires that they first hurt some of the people in order to help others. At the same time they rail against government, they demand more of it. The government will not whither away. What was the last time a government actually withered away and left a protracted power vacuum? Each time that happens, another government comes in and conquers the previous one. Ironically enough, the protestors claim that other elements, like the TEA party, demand freedom from government. That's not the TEA party; that's anarchy. What most Americans actually seek is freedom under a government. We are smart enough to realize that we "must surrender a portion of our substance to furnish protection for the rest" but that the form of government that provides the greatest security at the lowest cost "is preferrable to all others".

One thing that frustrates me most is how leadership in the GOP echoes the phraseology of their opponents. Romney and Christie have both tried to connect with these people. At the same time, research I have seen shows they are not like us at all. A comedian I know personally who lives in New York did a mockumentary that was fascinating. So maybe it wasn't a scientific selection of those to whom he spoke or whose interviews he showed, but they are telling. Seriously? "Jews are the new Nazis". Have these people ever met a real Nazi?  I have.  That notion is absurd.

More scientific analyses have been done. Until I read Doug Schoen's analysis this morning, I wasn't ready to admit my knee jerk reactions towards the protests might hold water. I am not there, and the only person I know who has been there is a comedian. What I have posted so far questions their motives and methods, but Mr. Schoen is able to illustrate their mentality. His conclusions mirror my suspicions. Although his sample size is not terribly large, it's large enough to be a start.

Here is a summary of his findings:

-the Occupy movement is full of radicals and miscreants. The man in Brian Havig's video is not the only one who has brought up racist remarks about the Jews. In fact, "Wall Street Bankers" is a code phrase used by many people who are anti-Semetic.

-they preach hate and destruction of our society. They believe in the redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience, and violence. Mr. Schoen found that 52% have protested before, that 98% would resort to civil disobedience, and that 31% would resort to violence. When the police tried to enforce the law last Friday and some protestors were hurt, they railed against the cops. They are against law and order. They hate cops while they argue for a police state.

-although they claim solidarity with those on hard times, most of the protestors have jobs, although I can't imagine why their employers haven't fired them. That's not the kind of employee for which most companies are looking- someone who whines and moans when they don't get their way. If that were the case, we'd all hire children and teenagers.

-most of them are Monarchists/Statists/Socialists/Liberal in terms of the policies they represent. No matter how many are disaffected with Obama, some of them are upset he hasn't done enough. They still share a fascination with universal health care and a deep commitment to left-wing policies like: opposition to free-market capitalism and support for radical redistribution of wealth, intense regulation of the private sector, and protectionist policies to keep American jobs from going overseas. They think the rich should pay more taxes despite the fact that the rich already pay most of the taxes and some of them pay no taxes at all.

-they demand higher taxes for everyone else and bigger government as if those were magical beans that lead to a land of milk and honey.

-they have a flagrant double standard. If Steve Jobs were still alive, would they march on his house armed with their iPhones and iPads and MacBooks? Not likely. He's ok. It's only the other wealthy people with whose products and activities they take personal exception who are greedy.

If you believe in smaller government and more freedom, you are actually in the majority. Remember that news outlets show today at least what they want you to believe. Television is, after all, showmanship. As I have been saying for a year or more, most of what you see is a play. They want you to think that the Occupy movement is a plurality of America. Most Americans are not there. They are at work, earning money, paying taxes, and helping companies keep the jobs they have. Contrary to conventional wisdom, business does not exist to provide jobs. Jobs exist to support company goals. The Occupy movement is full of thieves and miscreants. It is not a mark of maturity to say "give me what I want or I will be a miscreant". That's exactly what they seem to be about.

Should forthcoming research illustrate them to be otherwise, I will alter my opinion. Meanwhile, at TEA party events, they cannot find criminals, miscreants, or anarchists, despite the media's best efforts to single out the weirdest people they can find. They claim the TEA party wants no government at all, which is not true. Most of them want the Constitution to apply even as Obama talks about everything he'd like to do to circumvent our governing document. The President even has the gall to say everything he's done has been the right decision even as he claims solidarity with people who are upset with the results of his choices.  Keep your eye on the truth. Just because the protestors claim they want the same things as you doesn't make it truth. What they want is something completely alien to America. They are the fringe, the exception; you are the rule, and thank God for that.

My Opposition to Obamacare

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It has fascinated me to hear that Obama insisted, despite widespread popular opposition to Obamacare, that Obamacare was good for the people. What he never mentioned however is which ones will benefit most from it. Like so many other Monarchist machintions, it is garbed in clothing to be beneficial to the people. Although that might be true, that is not the reason why they press it; it is coincidental thereunto.

For the first time since leaving my parents' house, I have a job that gives me healthcare. Well, I pay for it. I pay more every year for less coverage. I would rather they give me in cash the $560/month they claim it's worth in my benefits. I could probably get a better deal for that amount of money. Likely, I'd just save it for that rainy day and pay the bill in cash. I have found you frequently get a better deal that way.

Health care touches many people in powerful ways. I know individuals who suffer from horrible diseases. A good college friend has two sons who will eventually die of DMD; my banker needs a very expensive medication just to stay alive; a former student has a virulent disease; several coworkers have cancer. Many people depend on health care for continuation of life. Health care is not the answer.

By the time you need to go to the doctor, whatever your problem is, you have already lost the front line. They say that an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure, and frequently the way we live and eat and interact is more the problem. Instead of curing it only once something manifests symptoms, why don't we start fighting things before they become deleterious to health? Well, that requires work and responsibility. The health care system under Obama however requires exactly the same thing. It relies on people to keep working and be responsible so they can be taxed. The same people they claim can't be trusted up front to make good decisions on health are expected to make good decisions elswhere so they can be taxed. That's just silly.

Although I do not personally put much stock into insurance, I leave that choice up to you. What I really oppose is that a government, any government, tells me what I must buy, when I must buy it, how much I must pay, and from whom I am allowed to buy anything. That is not in the benefit of the people; that is in the benefit of the government.

Obamacare is about Obama and the party apparatus that put him in power. They care nothing for you. They will use you to get power. They will foment class warfare, greed, envy, and personal pride in order to pit you against 'the rich'. They will, if they can, render it deleterious to be successful. In my opinion, the best way to make the lives of people better is to make things better for everyone. If your proposed method to make things better for everyone is to first hurt some, you have negated the premise. Yet, when they talk about redistribution of wealth, that is exactly what they propose- to hurt some people. Every physician knows the first part of Hippocratus' oath is to do no harm. Yet, that's always their first idea- cut you open and take a look.

Fundascopic examination is not revealing in most cases. Cutting holes in the economy isn't the answer. The process must be repaired. We must stop hemorraging good money chasing after bad money, even as Reid proposes more stimulous spending. If it has not worked before on a larger scale, what makes them think it will help now on a smaller one? They are not interested in truth or health or equality- they are interested in power.

It is the sad state of almost all men that as soon as they get a little power as it were that they will begin immediately to exercise unrighteous dominion. They will talk of Christian values, not because they practice them, but because they know you do. They forget that Christ was interested in a kingdom and reward that was not to be realized necessarily in this world. Obama and his ilk think they can use the Adversary's Method to enforce the Father's Plan. They keep trying to make earth, which is fallen, the utopia that heaven alone can sustain. They're very vain, as are their efforts. Let us now apply liberty.

People Who Get Out of Their Cars

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I completed one of the longest hikes at Red Rock NCA on Saturday morning. For the last mile or so of the hike, rather than take the trail that parallels the road, my friend and I walked along the road. Suddenly, he turned around and shook my hand, thanking me for being one of those people who get out of their cars. It kind of took me back.

Truly, lots of people see only that part of life they can see without getting off the couch or out of their car. I remember going around a car so as to get out of the way of a woman snapping pictures through her window and seeing at least one woman snapping pictures with her iPAD. At the final parking area, we noticed lots of folks debark their cars, take a few steps down a trail, but only as far as it was clear that men had encroached on nature, before they turned back to the climate controlled comfort of their cars. It was 67F in the park at the time.

As a consequence of this attachment, very few people see or experience some of the things I do. Frequently, people will look at my pictures, declare their interest to see what I have seen in vivo, and then not actually show up because it requires a hike or a drive or some money. It's a little unfortunate because there's more to life than being among the living.

I realize some people can't get out of their cars. I realize some people have to drive their cars a long way to see some of the scenic beauty that's essentially out my back door. What I find kind of silly is how many people who come to Vegas and stay in Vegas, when the beauty of the desert and its historic relevance can be easily seen by renting a car and driving an hour. Even two years ago when I went to Boston, because I rented a car and stayed outside of town I was able to see Cape Cod, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Salem, Lexington, and lots of pretty countryside, and the car rental and gas cost me the same as I saved by staying in a hotel outside Boston Proper.

There are many great things one can do at home. I consider raising and rearing children to be the noblest profession and greatest endeavor in which a person can invest his time. Beyond that, as children quickly discover, there is much to please the eye and gladden the heart. Some of my best photos and fondest memories and greatest discoveries have been because I was in the right place at the right time. I have seen things other people will not, because some of the places I have been no longer exist. I have experienced things other people have not, because I have met people who no longer live and gone places others will not go. Maybe in some ways I'm timid, but because I have gone today where others will not, I have experienced things others never can.

I thank my parents, who encouraged us to get out of the car and off the couch, for many of the things I have been able to do. For all of you who also get out of your cars, it's a pleasure. For the rest, I hope I don't appear in your pictures or videos. I don't go to Red Rock so that people can post it to YouTube. I go there to reconnect with nature and to measure my individual health, and sometimes I get to share my discoveries with those who come along. For that, you'll have to get out of your car.

Normal and Good

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I know so many people who are told they are not normal. Sometimes this is done to affirm them, but sometimes it is done to discourage them. It is frequently assumed that normal is synonymous with good, which is not necessarily true. For example, in prison it is normal to have committed a crime, which is not good.

Two of my favorite books are prescient to this discussion. The first comes from Stephen Douglas' Hitchhiker books. He introduces a character named Wonko the Sane who never enters the asylum. Wonko lives in a cave and believes he is the only sane and normal person on the planet, and near the entrance to the door of the cave he has a sign announcing you are about to enter the asylum. Now, the people on his planet naturally think he's bonkers. What if he's right?

The other book to which I wish to make reference is GK Chesterton's "What's Wrong With the World". In this book, he lays out his argument that what's wrong is that we do not ask what is right. We ask what is trendy, easy, fashionable, expedient, advantageous, or normal. Nobody bothers to ask what ought to be. Everyone wants what they want to be truth.

Too many people on our planet are in the business of trying to boss God about the heavens. They tell Him what they want and what they demand and try to blackmail Him to bless them by promising things contingent on miracles. We assume we know what's best for us, but how many people really do and how many of us even really know what we want?

What we see today is nothing more than a bunch of people acting like they have their act together. A professor asked me today what it was about people who seem to be able to have things fall into place. It's easy. Either they're pretending or they're blind. Remember that most of what you see is a play. People group together to fit in, because they know that even though the squeaky wheel may get the grease, sometimes it gets replaced.

People ought to be more concerned with what is right. We ought to care more about what's right than what's popular or normal. Who's to say that those of us who think we're normal aren't the ones with the problem? What if Wonko the Sane is correct?

You see, people equate normalcy with goodness. They think if they're like others they're ok. Sometimes, however, it is the people who are not normal who are right. Patton, More, Moses, Steve Jobs...none of these people were normal, but they were validated as being right. The world would be a better place if right were normal, if good were normal. The world would be better if more people were concerned about what they ought to do rather than what they elect to do. Even if it is not normal to be good, it is always good to be good.