Nothing will make your evening more than being woken up by a child with explosive and uncontrollable diarrhea. Luckily his room was littered with dirty clothes because that made the clean up a little easier as a lot fell on them. But I still had to strip the bed, pick up the clothes, clean the carpets on the landing (of the stairs) and hallway, and shower the kid. Then I remade the bed and got the laundry started, so all in all a long night – if you don’t count the stress of thinking “Maybe it was something he ate?” Because you know that you and everyone else ate the same thing.
All ended well and he felt better in the morning and nobody else got sick. Then I went into the small bathroom to take a shower before work. Upon shutting the door is when I saw it – the brown smears down its length. Maybe I am a bad man or just a bad father/husband, but I got dressed went downstairs and as I headed out the door said …
I can’t have all the fun; that wouldn’t be fair (or equitable).
Monday, July 6, 2009
World Light - Book 60
World Light
by Haldor Laxness
To read Icelandic literature means visiting the work of Laxness, considered to be their greatest writer and the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1955. It seems the strength of his writing is in making broad statements about society/life, without explicitly coming to definitive conclusions. Anotherwords it is left to the reader to mull, debate, and contemplate their own place in life through the work. On a specific note we did have the great pleasure to visit the Haldor Laxness museum while in Iceland. He built a beautiful home and when he died his wife turned over the house as is with contents to the historical society. It is interesting to walk through, a life size time capsule, and see were he wrote his books and lived. Below are some pictures from our visit.
World light is the story of a young, feeble, unloved, poor, and abandoned boy who despite his circumstances gains an insight into the world of poetry and beauty. The story is broken into four sections, each detailing different points in his life, from beginning to end. While never fulfilling his truest desires, he never gives up trying to reach them. So I am of two minds; it is a sad book and yet it is a story of hope. Unfortunately the protagonist tries to stay aloof from the dull routine of the real world; the real world will not leave him alone. So we see a lot of hardship in his life as he blindly follows his passion without regard to what is considered proper, ultimately going to jail for sexually assaulting an underage girl.
What is the message to be obtained? For me, and I am open to debate on this, I see a man can pursue his vision of truth and beauty regardless of his circumstances in life. That is because beauty comes from within and it is not dictated by the world. That said, the book does provide some sobering lessons on those who chose to completely ignore the world.
Who should read it? Those of you who want to read a “classic” that is not American or English; or wants to experience Icelandic literature and culture. Having been to the country helps fill in the details that the brief descriptions provide within the text. If you only read one book by Laxness though, Independent People is considered to be his best – UNLESS –
Mormon Mentions: None. But Laxness did have great respect for the church and had many kind things to say about it. Furthermore he did visit Utah three separate occasions and spent years researching and writing another of his significant works, Paradise Reclaimed. It involves an Icelander who joins the faith and travels to Utah, only to become disillusioned and return home. It is in my to be read pile and might be a better choice if Mormon things interest you and you want the one book option.
by Haldor Laxness
To read Icelandic literature means visiting the work of Laxness, considered to be their greatest writer and the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1955. It seems the strength of his writing is in making broad statements about society/life, without explicitly coming to definitive conclusions. Anotherwords it is left to the reader to mull, debate, and contemplate their own place in life through the work. On a specific note we did have the great pleasure to visit the Haldor Laxness museum while in Iceland. He built a beautiful home and when he died his wife turned over the house as is with contents to the historical society. It is interesting to walk through, a life size time capsule, and see were he wrote his books and lived. Below are some pictures from our visit.
World light is the story of a young, feeble, unloved, poor, and abandoned boy who despite his circumstances gains an insight into the world of poetry and beauty. The story is broken into four sections, each detailing different points in his life, from beginning to end. While never fulfilling his truest desires, he never gives up trying to reach them. So I am of two minds; it is a sad book and yet it is a story of hope. Unfortunately the protagonist tries to stay aloof from the dull routine of the real world; the real world will not leave him alone. So we see a lot of hardship in his life as he blindly follows his passion without regard to what is considered proper, ultimately going to jail for sexually assaulting an underage girl.
What is the message to be obtained? For me, and I am open to debate on this, I see a man can pursue his vision of truth and beauty regardless of his circumstances in life. That is because beauty comes from within and it is not dictated by the world. That said, the book does provide some sobering lessons on those who chose to completely ignore the world.
Who should read it? Those of you who want to read a “classic” that is not American or English; or wants to experience Icelandic literature and culture. Having been to the country helps fill in the details that the brief descriptions provide within the text. If you only read one book by Laxness though, Independent People is considered to be his best – UNLESS –
Mormon Mentions: None. But Laxness did have great respect for the church and had many kind things to say about it. Furthermore he did visit Utah three separate occasions and spent years researching and writing another of his significant works, Paradise Reclaimed. It involves an Icelander who joins the faith and travels to Utah, only to become disillusioned and return home. It is in my to be read pile and might be a better choice if Mormon things interest you and you want the one book option.
Friday, July 3, 2009
My wife is the greatest person in the world
What can I say, she is as close to perfect as anyone comes. I love you and adore you Lisa. Thank you for being who you are and not trying to be anyone else. You are the greatest.
Sometimes it is your fault
As I was riding my bike home from work last week I witnessed a fellow cyclist get hit by a car. Now if you read enough cycling blogs you will get an impression that all such accidents are the fault of a careless or angry driver. While no doubt that is true most of the time, sometimes, just sometimes it is because of an idiot cyclist. This teenager was traveling at high speed on a busy downtown sidewalk. Upon arriving at a heavily trafficked and parked intersection she continued straight out into the road without breaking speed. Unfortunately for her, the car that was pulling up to make a right on red never saw her coming as she entered the roadway almost instantly (though fortunately for her the car was already slowing down to stop). A squeal of brakes and a loud crash later, I turned and saw her and the bike go flying. We can argue degrees of responsibility all day, but in the end this girl almost got herself killed because she was stupid. Plus she set back the legitimacy of all cyclists with her antics. Remember you are a vehicle just like a car and as such you should obey all traffic laws, so I present a short list of things a cyclist should keep in mind as to not be the cause of their own demise.
- Never ride on the sidewalk – cars aren’t looking for fast moving vehicles on them. This probably gets more people hit than anything else.
- Ride in the road WITH traffic. Would you drive your car in the wrong lane?
- Keep your lane. Anotherwords do not keep weaving around parked cars to be near the curb. The more predictable you are the more likely a driver will not be surprised by you. It it is way more safe than the few seconds on the curb will gain you.
- Give parked cars their space – getting doored is never fun and at speed itc an really do some damage (i.e. a driver opens their door in front of you).
- Use deliberate hand signals at intersections so all drivers know what you plan to do.
- Do not cut corners through parking lots or alleys. Unless you are a bike messenger on the clock, the few seconds you save are not worth your life.
- OBEY ALL TRAFFIC SIGNS – that means stop signs and lights as well.
- When in doubt always give the car the right of way – no matter how RIGHT you are you will lose that fight/collision.
All the above can basically be summed up by this: You are a vehicle too, the more you act like a driver of a vehicle (as to traffic laws), the more other drivers will treat you as such. It is amazing to me that people will drive like maniacs on their bikes and expect to be safe, yet they would never imagine doing that in their cars for fear of crashing. In this case predictability equals safety.
Drivers do not react well to surprises; they have too much information to manage with the driving, radio, cell phone,and talking with other passengers. Yeah, that shouldn’t be but it is reality. Maybe a collision with you will cure them of that, but is it worth your life?
And if you are like me riding the same route at the same time everyday, your fellow drivers will get used to seeing you and will watch for you. But if you abuse the social contract you have entered by riding like an idiot with no respect to the rules of the road we all should be using, then they will have no respect for you. They will learn to accept you are a maniac who is and unpreventable accident waiting to happen, and there will be nothing they can do to prevent it. Once they think that you are toast, because then they will do nothing to prevent it. The more respectful you are to the road, the more respectful they will be to you.
**BTW I do accept there are some asshat drivers out there who are a danger to cyclists regardless of how well they ride. For the most part I have had nothing but respect on my commute, only a few people have tarnished anotherwise perfect driving record of my community. Mostly it is idiots that think the extra half second they gain by speeding around me for a righthand turn is totally worth cutting me off.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Proximity & Obedience
Closeness can lead to confusion - and maybe some complaintsA wonderful series of letters between George Albert Smith and J. Raymond Cope were recently highlighted in a blog post at By Common Consent (which btw is a great blog for all things mormony). I recommend all go there and at least read the post if not the discussion as well. In essence though, we do not believe as a church that we should blindly follow our leaders, rather we should ponder and pray to gain our own testimony about the counsel.
Of course any sane person (I make myself smile with that adjective) will have a gradient of personal confidence when it comes to their individual church leaders. This comes about due to our personal relationship with said leader. The logic works like this; all of us are human – being human we make mistakes, like all the time – the more you know someone, the more of their mistakes you are exposed to – the more you are exposed to the less confidence you will have in their counsel. So the closer the proximity to the leader, the more pondering/prayer it will require to accept the counsel.
Now I think this is a good thing as life and the general experience that lands you in one of the red chairs at conference is a lot different than your local Deacon’s quorum president. We are all learning as we go through life and I would like to think that those who have reached larger responsibilities have retained and used some of that knowledge. Don’t get me wrong, I am not discounting the calling and leadership of the anyone; it is possible to accept that sometimes people, even though called of God, can and do make mistakes. But they can and do get a lot of things right and do tremendous work.
I am just saying it is worth your time to think about what your local leaders say, and then pray about it, and then being okay with the response. Sometimes that means changing your general direction in life to get in line with the counsel, and other times that means they are just plain wrong and just weather the storm while still retaining your testimony the church is true but managed by human beings (and of course be very very grateful you aren’t the one having to make the decisions).
Now all this is just prelude to my initial thoughts I had about the two letters referenced above. What is my personal gradient of confidence of my church leaders’ counsel based on proximity? So for the basic positions I have (off the top of my head):
Of course any sane person (I make myself smile with that adjective) will have a gradient of personal confidence when it comes to their individual church leaders. This comes about due to our personal relationship with said leader. The logic works like this; all of us are human – being human we make mistakes, like all the time – the more you know someone, the more of their mistakes you are exposed to – the more you are exposed to the less confidence you will have in their counsel. So the closer the proximity to the leader, the more pondering/prayer it will require to accept the counsel.
Now I think this is a good thing as life and the general experience that lands you in one of the red chairs at conference is a lot different than your local Deacon’s quorum president. We are all learning as we go through life and I would like to think that those who have reached larger responsibilities have retained and used some of that knowledge. Don’t get me wrong, I am not discounting the calling and leadership of the anyone; it is possible to accept that sometimes people, even though called of God, can and do make mistakes. But they can and do get a lot of things right and do tremendous work.
I am just saying it is worth your time to think about what your local leaders say, and then pray about it, and then being okay with the response. Sometimes that means changing your general direction in life to get in line with the counsel, and other times that means they are just plain wrong and just weather the storm while still retaining your testimony the church is true but managed by human beings (and of course be very very grateful you aren’t the one having to make the decisions).
Now all this is just prelude to my initial thoughts I had about the two letters referenced above. What is my personal gradient of confidence of my church leaders’ counsel based on proximity? So for the basic positions I have (off the top of my head):
- Current Prophet – about 99.5% confidence (i.e. I would just about always accept their counsel with little need to ponder it – but I still would anyway). I would be totally there but we can all bring up times wherein certain theological theories have been put out there that have over time lost favor or been denounced as mistakes – Adam God anyone? (Proximity – seen him speak)
- Current Apostles – 97% (Proximity – handshake once or twice)
- Past Prophets – 85% (not that I think they are wrong that much, it is just their counsel can and is dated)
- GA’s – 80% I have heard one or two doozies from this department.
- Stake President – 60% ((Proximity – actual conversations)
- Bishop – 50% - Proximity gets really close here as I know these guys from way back, when they were young whippersnappers. I have hung out with their families. You get it.
- My Elder’s quorum president – 10% this guy is an idiot and about 90% of all my life’s mistakes have come from following his counsel**
I think about the second half of the old saying about church leadership:
The Mormons say that the Prophet is a fallible man and does not always speak for God, but no one believes it.
And for the record, I do have one church leader who I can give a 100% rating to. That would be my Home Teacher as I haven’t seen him ever. No proximity means he has yet to screw up, and I can have complete trust in his counsel.
**When I get released I am sure the next guy will do much better – he can’t do any worse.
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