The Greatest Thing You'll Ever Learn

My sister Meredith got married this past week. right now she's on her honeymoon in Cancun Mexico and i hope that she's having the time of her life as she should be. as the wedding drew closer and the preparations began, i thought a lot about what was happening and the gravity that marriage (or the preparation of marriage) brings to a relationship. i remember wondering if what meredith was doing was right, if it would last, and how happy she would be. i suppose only time can give those answers with certainty but none the less they passed through my mind on several occasions. my mother seemed to be worried, my dad somewhat passive, my brothers in favor of it and i just wanted to be supportive. i love my sister very much, and i've come to really love her husband tony too. they are wonderful people, and they are wonderful together. the morning of the wedding, as my sister was getting everything ready, i asked her very passively if she was nervous. i think i was somewhat nervous, but then again i get nervous about everything. she calmly told me, with a sort of "duh"-tone to her voice that she was very calm about everything. later in the day, as we were in the Bountiful temple together as a family and with some close friends, i realized a few things that become very apparent to me. first off, i realized what a wonderful and sacred thing marriage is in the church. to know that we aren't just married by civil law like everyone else in the world but that we are married by the sealing powers of god which were restored through angelic ministers to prophets of god. what an incredibly powerful thought that is. i know this is something that most people already know in their brains, but to feel that power in the temple as your sister is being married by that power was something else. when the sealer (who's a friend and neighbor of ours, Bill Jones) began explaining the blessings and promises of the temple, i thought about the stereotypical relationships at BYU. there are so many people who find a cute girl or boy, date for a few weeks, "fall in love", and then get engaged after knowing each other for anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks. i know that isn't how all the engagements go, but stereotypes come from somewhere and there are a lot of people who really do that. for something that is so sacred and so important and filled with so many blessings, cant more people take their time getting to know one another? i'm heart broken when i hear of friends that break off their engagements after having put so much time and emotion into it all. obviously these relationships probably would have ended whether or not they were engaged, but breaking up is already hard to do, let alone breaking up an engagement. after seeing my sister get married, it is so plain and obvious that patience and time are key ingredients to good relationship.

One lesson that i hope that i've leaned, is that any lasting, loving, good and virtuous romantic relationship is not about love. it's not about love; at least in the sense that most people would define love as. most people when they think of love, they think of these overwhelming feelings of affection. they think of being selfless and giving everything that they have to someone else. they think of the passions and erotica and the euphoria and all the mixed emotions that come with the rapture of being caught up in the craving desire of someone else. well, that's great and all, but is that what being in love really means? i suppose everyone has their own definition as to what it means and there probably aren't any two people that feel exactly the same. i know that i have always felt different in every relationship, but allow me to give what i think it could all be about. now, i admit that i wonder if i've ever really been in love with anyone. sometimes being caught up in the moment, i believed that i had begun to tap into the reservoir of love and it's true that i had felt some of the powerful feelings described above, but as i've explained, those are only fractions of the equation, slices of a pie, or small pieces to a puzzle that should portray a picture much more beautiful. but despite all that, i believe that being in love is much more about the constant concern for the welfare of the other person. it's about sharing a companionship that grows together. it is about passing through hardships, trials, adversity, challenges and hell itself in order to understand each other better. i believe love is mostly about understanding each other's hearts and then doing everything in your power to fulfill the needs of the other. that is why "Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves" -1 Corinthians 13:4-7. If love is this powerful and this cogent, shouldn't we learn to love a little more and to do it right? I have a quote on my wall that is framed and written in beautiful calligraphy which reads, "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return".

O Captain! My Captain!

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

The Tree of Freedom

Often we take for granted what has been given to us as Americans. How often do we get down on our knees and thank all mighty god for the free practice of religion? How often do we speak out in the public square in thanksgiving for the right to free speech? How often do we vote in elections; not just to give consent to our public officials, but because millions have fought and died for that sacred freedom, never having obtained it.

How often are we thankful for those who have worn the flag on their shoulders? Those who were willing to pick up a gun and stand at post; who, in the name of the United States, were willing to fight, to kill and to be killed because they were called upon to do so. How often do we drop to our knees and give thanks for their sacrifices.

The men and women in uniform will tell you that they do not fight for their country alone. They don’t put their lives on the line, going bravely into battle just for their country. They don’t go hungry, dodge bullets and endure explosions just for their country’s sake. Ask any soldier and they will tell you that they do it for their families, and for us individually.

Do you realize that they forgo all the comforts of home, family and peace so that we don’t have to? Do you realize the sacrifices of the families of the soldiers? Think of the children who are left fatherless and the wife’s that are left widows. The price of freedom has always been great. Thomas Jefferson wisely said: “From time to time the tree of freedom must be watered with the blood of patriots.” By fighting for us individually, truly this is a country “by the people, for the people and of the people,” build upon the foundation of those “who more than self their country loved” and who asked not “what their country could do for them but what they could do for their country.”

In the course of war and bloodshed we have been able to free ourselves of a repressive nation. We have loosed the bonds of oppression and granted inalienable rights to all persons both who were bond and those who were free. Aristotle said, “We make war that we may live in peace.” In fact, we have given rights so freely to our citizens that some have lost sight of what it all originally meant. The flag that our men and women fight under and the flag that they wear on their shoulder, is the flag that they solute as they go into battle. It is the flag that covers the coffin of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice as they are laid to rest; and it is that flag that represents freedoms so unbound and so emancipated that it’s citizens are even free to burn that flag.

We cannot be apathetic towards these sacrifices. In gratitude for the freedoms and the sacrifices given in our behalf, let us rise up and join the men and women who have given so much for these rights, and participate in the progression of this great nation. Let us do so by loudly raising our voices in the public square, by silently casting our votes in the halls of government. Let us choose good, honorable, and wise men and women to lead us. Let us become knowledgeable in the current issues of our day. We need to know the problems that face us, the issues that challenge us, and the trials that stand before us. We must arm ourselves with knowledge, sympathy and a strong voice. We don’t have to love politics. It doesn’t have to be our favorite branch of learning or our preferred past time but we do need to become active participants in a government that has secured its power in the hands of the people.

Apathy towards voting or participating in public elections shows apathy towards those who have died securing those freedoms. To become indifferent is to give away your power in government; a power which is an endowment at the cost of American blood. It is to give away a right that is inalienable to you, to someone else. Raise up your voice! It doesn’t matter if you are republican, democrat, an independent, a conservative or a liberal. It doesn’t matter who you vote for, what you vote for, where you vote, or when you vote. It only matters that you do vote, and that you vote for what you believe in. And that matters because it has mattered to those who’s bodies lay scattered across the battlefields of war as well as for those who have had to burry them.

It is clear that freedom is not free, that sacrifice rarely is convenient, and that a duty and power has been entrusted to everyone of us. Let us rise up together and use this god-given power, written by the hand of our founding fathers and secured with the blood of our forefathers, to sing the song of freedom and make this “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

In conclusion, I encourage everyone of you to recognize what has been sacrificed in your name. To give thanks for the rights granted to you by those sacrifices. And to take advantage of those rights, specifically by voting in public elections. Not every nation has been able to vote so freely and safely as we do here in America.

fragrance

eyes reading words, mind read something else- her. with every turn of the page the air caught a sent of her perfume. i turned more pages.

Write, that i may know thee.

"Someone once told me that writing opens the mind and frees the soul." I admit that i've never really been much of a writer, and i don't know that i believe that it's something that i've ever really been good at, but i do believe that there is something about it that can change a person. I was reading through some of my writing from a few years ago and found that quote at the top of one of them. but my question is: what is it that makes writing relaxing and emotionally relieving? what is it that makes writing easier than speaking, especially in sensitive moments? have you ever written a love letter because it was too difficult to tell someone that you loved them? have you every written down your thoughts so that you could really find out what it was that was going through your mind? have you ever typed out your ideas so that you could organize them and think about each one? there is a certain domain of writing that speech cannot access.

Write, that i may know thee.

A Wasted Mind

despite having this blog for several months now, I'm still trying to figure out what the grand purpose is in having it.  i suppose it may serve no other purpose other than to complain about the world and the personal frustrations that i have in it.  you see, i hate people who complain, which makes me the biggest hypocrite on the face of the planet.  but i figure that if i complain through a blog, which is completely optional to read, i might complain less in person.  with that in mind allow me to elaborate on the frustrations that i'm having at this time.  

      it all began with chemistry.....  i hate chemistry.  not only do i hate it, i think it hates me too.  which makes for a perfectly symbiotic relationship, especially since i have to take two years of it.  when i started my first pre-med chemistry class (chem 105) i detested the subject with every molecule of my body.  i hated the thermodynamics,  the molecular theories, acid/base reactions, oxidation/reduction reactions, the stoichometry, the quantum mechanics theory, and everything else that i had to learn.  i got the worst grade that i had every received (C+) until i took organic chemistry, where i received a C.  i'm currently in chemistry 106 and chemistry 107 which are horrible classes.  for instance, the 107 class is only 1 credit and is a lab for the 106 class.  despite it only being worth 1 credit, there are 6 hours of in-class work, with an average of 3-4 hours outside work, bringing a total to 10 hours a week for a 1 credit class.  the test in the class is a 12 question multiple choice test worth 120 points.  this means that if you miss a single question, you are automatically dropped to about a B+ (you can only imagine what happens if you miss 2 or 3).  

      next is the chem 106 class.  here is what i hate most about it, is that the professors think that it's so important to memorize stupid things such as polyatomic ions, or the solubility rules of certain compounds.  along with that they want you do memorize all the strong acids, strong bases, formulas and equations that serve absolutely no purpose outside of this one class.  i spend more time in frustration with chemistry than i have with all my other classes combined.  i think that medical schools should require basic chemistry and basic physics and dive more into the anatomy, physiology, orthopedic impairments, and biology subjects.  even doctors agree that chemistry and organic chemistry are a complete waste of time.  all those classes do is weed people out of trying to make it to medical school. so, in conclusion, when i'm god i'm shaking things up around the scholastic community. 

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson died today at the age of 50.  now, am a music fan.  i like Michael's music, and i suppose that there is a lot that can be said of the man, his music records, and all the other things that went on in his life.  i remember being first introduced to Michael Jacksons music when i was in the the 3rd grade by a friend of mine named Steven Brady.  we would practice his dance moves in his front living room and sing at the top of our pre-pubescent voices.  my friend was obsessed with Michael, and being impressionable at the time, i also became obsessed.  as time passed from the 3rd grade i became less obsessed with Michael's music but i always held a great amount of respect for him and his success.  everyone i've ever met has at least some enjoyment in listening to some of his biggest hits such as Thriller, Beat It, Billie Jean, Smooth Criminal, and Man in the Mirror.  he raised millions of dollars which he used gave to charities centered around helping children.  in my opinion, i think he was a mental basket case.  i think he had a lot of hard things to overcome and perhaps even some mental problems, but regardless of his faults, his music was incredible.  

golf

today i beat my brothers Austin and Mason on the golf course. it is alwasy such a satisfying feeling to hammer them. golf is quite competitive in my family and the winner of any golf game has bragging rights until the next time that we play. well, today i had one of the best rounds ever. i was even par up until the 7th hole. i had had one bogie and one birdy (the birdy came on a par 3 where i missed the hole in one by about 3 inches). i ended up boging the last three holes which kinda sucked but i ended up shooting only 3 over par for a 38. it's a great score and i think it's my new low score.

of the people, by the people, for the people

for those of you that know me, i love to know what's going on in the world.  i am a self-proclaimed news junkie.  i especially love politics.  i'm not a radical and i cant stand it when people cram ideas down each others throats.  i welcome healthy debates about issues that are going on and i think that as americans in a "free nation"  we have not only the right but the obligation to stand for what each of us believes.  i believe in a a nation "of the people, by the people and for the people." i love our american heritage and the sacrifices that our founding fathers and our fore fathers gave, especially those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.  i believe so deeply in this nation and the freedoms that we enjoy that apathy has become, to me, a gross misunderstanding and a revolting characteristic.  i'm not saying that you have to enjoy politics or watch the news everyday, but elected officials are accountable to us, the people, and if we are apathetic towards them we only fail ourselves.  i dont care if you are republican, democrat, liberal or conservative, what i care is that we the people of the united states take the freedoms and opportunities given to us by the men who gave their blood and lives on the battle fields, and make our voices heard.  we must take a stance for what each of us believes is correct according to the dictates our our conscience.

today on the Glen Beck show a letter was read, written by a woman in colorado, that sums up some of my political beliefs.  i think she expressed beautifully both the responsibility that the government has to the american people as well as a political view that i personally agree with.  the letter is lengthy but i really like it, so i've included it here in my blog.  the letter was written by Janet Contreras.  it reads:

I'm a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?

Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This isn't to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don't you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why ‑‑ what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band‑Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try ‑‑ please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.

Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when hewill rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.

Self Reliance

On several occasions i have heard people quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson's article Self Reliance.  typically, when listening to the quotes taken from his essay i have have found myself agreeing and extremely intrigued with what Emerson had written and what his thoughts and opinions were.  initially i had assumed that Self Reliance was a political statement and expressed the importance of the citizen's responsibility to be "self reliant", free and independent of government.  this is a political belief that i hold to be true and of great importance, but as i took the time this week to sit down with Emerson and read through the article i found that it wasn't a political statement at all but a statement given to each individual to internalize and apply personally.  his writing is very thought provoking and i wanted to quote some of the parts that i think sum up his ideas the best.

       "Familiar as the voice of the mind is to each, the highest merit we ascribe to Moses, Plato and Milton is that they set at naught books and traditions, and spoke not what men, but what they thought.  A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of the light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages.  yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his.  in every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with certain alienated majesty.  great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this.  they teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when whole cry of voices is on the other side... Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.  accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events.  great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being.  And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort and advancing on Chaos and the Dark."

i openly admit that i do not understand all that Emerson was trying to say, but it is obvious that he believed deeply in independent thinking and that each should express himself as his inner soul so desires.  i think he points out some great principles that have great personal application to them, but his ideas are also written with relativistic overtones that contradict objective/universal moral and LDS doctrinal truths (at least in my opinion).  although i don't agree with everything Emerson wrote here, i still think it's worth reading. 

plagiarism on prop 8

There are only two other blogs that i follow outside my own blog.  one is "high ridiculousness" by Oliver Wallis, and the other is "in the name of the best within us" by Bryce Gessell.  today, after reading a post by Bryce about an article in the Deseret News about prop 8 in california and the reactions against the Mormon church, i thought that i would be worth restating what Bryce has said on his blog.  i'm not going to try and put into words the points and principles that he (Bryce) has eloquently laid out but i think it's important for people to see what he has written about.  so, without permission or further tactless writing on my part, i'm going to plagialristicly copy his post onto this one.  

THE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE "BUSINESS" 

In today's Deseret News, there is an article on the continued efforts of Proposition 8 opponents to vilify the LDS Church. Here is a passage from the article, written by Karl Vick:

"The Mormons are coming! The Mormons are coming!" warned ads placed on newspaper Web sites in three Eastern states last month. The ad was rejected by sites in three other states, including Maine, where the Kennebec Journal informed Californians Against Hate that the copy "borders on insulting and denigrating a whole set of people based on their religion."
"I'm not intending to harm the religion. I think they do wonderful things. Nicest people," said Fred Karger, a former Republican campaign consultant who establised Californians Against Hate. "My single goal is to get them out of the same-sex marriage business and back to helping hurricane victims."

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the astonishing misunderstanding and inconsistency of Fred Karger and his group, Californians Against Hate. What century are we living in? The Web ads placed in the Eastern newspapers don't border on "insulting and denigrating" a whole set of people; this is because they do insult and denigrate a whole set of people. Imagine if an anti-Semite group wanted to run ads that said, "The Jews are coming! The Jews are coming!" or if the KKK had run ads during the last presidential election that said, "The blacks are coming! The blacks are coming!" That the LDS Church does not choose to be offended like every other minority group in America does not mean that they do not possess the same right to be free from persecution for their beliefs. This, however, is the contradiction on which Fred Karger and his associates thrive. They use the concept of "tolerance" as a means to destroy the concept of "tolerance." In the mind of Mr. Karger and others, there are two concepts in play here: tolerance (for us) and tolerance (for you). Tolerance (for us) has primacy over tolerance (for you), because if they were on equal standing, the tactics of the crusade for tolerance (for us) would have no foundation. However, tolerance is not two concepts; it is only one. It has the same application for everyone. Unfortunately, this singular nature of tolerance makes the concept difficult to accept when one wants to be tolerated but not to tolerate, so it's much easier to slash it up into two and pretend that one is more important than the other. A concept cannot be divided in this manner. It cannot be used to obliterate itself.

What about Mr. Karger's goal--to "get them [the LDS Church] out of the same-sex marriage business and back to helping hurricane victims"? Here again we see an example of misunderstanding concepts, which leads to inappropriate conceptual divisions. The LDS Church's stand on same-sex marriage is based on principles--the same principles that give rise to their service to hurrican victims. These activities have the same root and must be carried out simultaneously or not at all. To Mr. Karger, the LDS Church is nothing more than a social organization that makes people feel good and brings them food when their houses have been destroyed. The degree of his ignorance of principled religion is only matched by the conceptual disintegration that has taken place in his mind, allowing for a crusade led by a group that is based on the very idea that their success demands they deny to others.

Anberlin Concert

Tonight is the Anberlin and Taking Back Sunday concert.  it's going on at the Venue in Salt Lake City.  i'm not so excited to see taking back sunday but anberlin is going to be amazing!  bryce and ollie are also coming tonight which takes the concert total to 2, only one more to see before the summer is over (the Fray/ Jack's Mannequin).  what makes me most excited about hearing anberlin live in concert is the chance that they might play the song "Breathe"  which was recently released just a couple of months ago on their newest CD named New Surrender.   For those of you who may not be familiar with Anberlin or the song Breathe here is a link to youtube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhfTAZVlVI4 Now, understand that this is not the music video, but it plays the song and gives you the lyrics.  other song that i hope they play are, Dismantle. Repair, Adelaide, Time and Confusion, and Young life.  luckily Anberlin has yet to come out with a song that sucks so even if they dont play any of these songs, the concert is still going to be incredible. Stay tuned for the post-concert review... 

party hearty

tonight is the real mocktail party.  as reported earlier in this blog the party was suppose to happen last week but because of procrastination and scheduling problems we postponed it until today.  we've purchased mixers, tonic water, ice, olives, cherries, lemons, limes, margarita salt, chips, crackers, lights...the whole 9 yards.  the party tonight is going to be a great one that i think a lot of people are looking forward to because lots of people have heard of mocktail parties but have never been to one.  i have specially organized a playlist that i'm listening to in right now and it rocks.  the only things that we have left to do is clean the house and wait until 9 o'clock for people to start showing up.  also, Katelyn Dot Scott is going to be attending this "rhythmic ceremonial ritual" and i'm very excited about that.  i'm excited to see her again and spend a little bit of time with her, even if it is in a crowded atmosphere.  it will be interesting to see how many people show up and come to the party.  it might be a good estimate at to our social status in amongst our friends.  just kidding, i'm really not that concerned with how we stand in the popularity contest.  so in short... tonight is going to be awesome and the first of several parties that hometheatre.org will be hosting, both in liberty square and at carriage cove.    This picture pretty much explains how i feel about the whole thing.

NBA playoffs

as the NBA playoffs are starting to show forth the teams that really want to win as well as those who simply think they could waltz in and beat everyone (Boston) i would like to make some predictions as to what's really going to happen.  first off, allow me to say that if you log on to inthenameofthebestwithinus.blogspot.com you will also see some playoff predictions.  unfortunately, being the expert that i am, i happen to know that those predictions, while correctly stating that the Cleveland Cavaliers would win the NBA playoffs, is terribly mistaken as to who will win the Western Conference Finals.  in the western conference, the Lakers are getting ready to face the Denver Nuggets.  "inthenameofthebestwithinus" has Denver beating the LA Lakers in six games, whereas my predictions are that the Lakers are going to beat down Denver and the Bird Man in six games.  the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals are going to beat orlando in 6 games as well. making the NBA finals between the LA Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers.  i think the match will be an intense one but i see LeBron James showing up Kobe Bryant as they take the Lakers in 6 games.  with Cleveland beating up on the Lakers, i think we will safely be able to place King James as #1 in the NBA with the arrogant Kobe Bryant in 2nd.   mark my words ladies and gentleman, because what i have written, i have written and i excuse not myself.  yes, write it in the history books because no matter what any ESPN announcer thinks, or what any polls may believe, lakers vs cavaliers and LeBron in 6.

Mocktail

Concord 4 (Hometheater.org) is having a mocktail party this friday.  this is going to be the first of it's kind.  i say the first, because it definitely  wont be the last.  drinks, cute girls from arch house, friends, and everything else that comes with a mocktail party.  Here's what the invitation looks like. 

parallel tracks

as the short break between winter semester and  spring term continues, i have pushed myself to read more and more. right now i'm still reading C.S Lewis' Mere Christianity which has been quite the adventure.  it's somewhat strange reading a book on theology written by a non-LDS author (although his books have practically been quoted enough in general conference to be added to canonized scripture).  today i read a paragraph that was very interesting, and although i've heard it quoted before by LDS authorities i would like to quote it here again because it makes a great point as to what living the gospel is really all about. 

     "Christ says, 'Give me all.  i don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much or your work: I want you.  I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it.  no half-measures are any good.  i don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, i want to have the whole tree down.  i don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked- the whole outfit.  i will give you a new self instead. in fact i will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.'"

C.S. Lewis, although he belonged to the church of england, was a pretty smart guy.  and though he didn't have the fullness of the gospel, he understood it very well.  reading this book has been great and i highly recommend it to anyone.  only one disclaimer to those who might venture the effort.  make sure that you understand the LDS gospel well before because his book will make more sense and there are parts of his book that, although good analogies or interesting doctrines, run parallel to the true revealed gospel.  i use the word "parallel" because it is close to the truth and it's going in the right direction but slightly off, like train tracks running close to each other are not the same, but lead ultimately to the same destination.  try it for yourself, i recommend it.

a day with C.S. Lewis

today is the first day in months that really, i've had nothing to do.  no papers, no assignments, no reading or physiology labs to make up....nothing!  in celebration of this awesome yet somewhat awkward day, i've decided to dedicate it to reading the books that i've wanted to read for sometime now but hadn't gotten the chance to.  today's book is Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.  the goal is to finish it before tuesday class gives me a headache with organic chemistry. 

did we skip spring?

yesterday, Bryce and I drove up to Salt Lake City to buy our season tickets and watch the Bee's play baseball (the great american sport) only to be disappointed with rain.  the weather report gave us a 30% chance of rainfall, but soon after driving up, not only was it raining, but it was pouring cats an dogs.  we were still able to buy the season tickets, but the game was rescheduled for the next day (today).   to my wonderful surprise it continued to rain through the night, into the next morning and then wonderfully it began to snow.  it's now mid april and it's not only snowing, but it's really coming down hard.  i think i remember there being a scripture in Isaiah that says something about the weather in the last days would be so weird that you would only be able to tell the seasons by the leaves on the trees.  perhaps i'm mistaken about the scripture, or perhaps someone more knowledgeable than i can correct me or give me the reference, but one thing that i'm not mistaken about is that the weather sucks, baseball has been delayed, golf season hasn't started yet and summer term is about to start despite the snow falling all around. where is spring?

dating: the new extreme sport

Today i walked home from Cori Hoffman from crown 4.  we talked about why dating at BYU is an extreme sport.  people, after going on a first date with a girl or boy (although more girls tend to do this than boys) start praying about whether "it" is right.  why cant people just date in a really relaxed way? have all the mormons lost their minds?  just get to know each other, settle down, and quit worrying if this person is "the one." some people have a very mistaken view as to whether we have "soul mates"  (or from an LDS perspective, a "foreordained" companion).  when it gets serious and you're deciding if you should get married to the person, than bring your decision to the lord through prayer.  why people want to jump the gun and make dating such an intense process approaching that of an extreme sport is why dating at BYU sucks. 

education...i'm confused

in trying to decide what i need to be taking, as far as future classes go, i have to say that the decisions are confusing.  i know all the classes that i'm suppose to take but how i want to organize them, how many each semester, and which ones first is getting hard to decide.  i wish i could just be a genius and have this all over with.

are you like me?

have you ever been frustrated with yourself for not putting your best foot forward, or for giving a half-assed effort in something?  perhaps some of you are thinking about your hometeaching record (i know my ward is), or perhaps your looking at your grades for this semester and can answer in the affirmative.  i know that one of my roommates will probably feel that way when he gets his report card (do we even get report cards???).  well, regardless, i know that in my biology 120 class, which by the way is not a hard class, i didn't put forth the effort needed to get an A when it probably would have been easy.  instead i'm going to walk away with a B.  now i know that a B isn't horrible, but it's not the B that i'm frustrated with-  it's the effort i put towards the class.  i didn't learn a thing in the class and it's because i didn't want to and i didn't realize that it was so important until now.  so for all of you that read this.....(consisting of bryce and ollie, which means that i'm preaching to the choir), DON'T SELL YOURSELF SHORT IN ANYTHING! i'm now going to have to work even harder if i want to get into a medical school because a B isn't going to cut it when it comes to my science GPA.  

Daily Universe Editorials

So BYU has this newspaper, much like other universities, called the daily universe.  it includes everything from world news, local utah news, to what's going on at BYU. every once in a while i like to pick up a free copy of the newspaper and look through it to see if there are any interesting articles and also to read the police beat which is my absolute favorite. i just die laughing at what the police have to respond to here at BYU. sometimes  i wish BYU had some more police action to write about because they only put it in the newspaper about once a week and it's hilarious.  today as i was reading through the editorials, which i have started reading more frequently lately, i realized that only really stupid people write into the editorial column.  the only thing you can find in there are complains of  people who are either writing about how the honor code is really stupid, how skateboarders are retarded, why the bathrooms are full of sh**, or really self-righteous people making an argument in return to a previous article.  i suppose my blog is somewhat hypocritical because i'm now complaining about the complainers.  does BYU not assign enough homework that some people are so bored that they have to write in about how the urinal pissed back at them and got urine all over their pants, or how girls are wearing shorts that are too short for their all too sensitive eyes.  give me a break.  if that's the best that BYU students have to write about, there is obviously not enough going on around here. 

i can finally breathe, suddenly alive

right now i'm sitting the front living room of my apartment listening to a song that keeps saying "i can finally breathe, suddenly alive"  and i'm loving ever bit of the song.  it's from a new anberlin album that i bought this week.  Bryce, Mitch and i have all decided to get tickets to the anberlin concert that's coming up in about a month or two.  i'm supper exited because they are my favorite band of all time.  

yesterday, which was friday night, i didn't have anything going on here in provo and it had been about 6 weeks since i had made it home last time so i decided to pay my family a visit.  when i got there my dad started putting me to work as he seems to have a difficult time getting anyone else in the family to work.  but after washing cars and going to home depo and some other stuff we ate dinner and we got a chance to goof off.  we played "imagine if" and then my mom started playing the piano.  luckily in my family, all of us are musically talented and we just started singing different parts to the songs that she was playing. we were singing to songs from musicals, disney movies, and special arrangement of hymns. having a little family time this weekend made me realize how much i really love them and miss spending as much time with them as i used to.  i'm not homesick at all, i'm just realizing how cool my family is.

also tonight, being saturday, we decided to have a guys only night here at the apartment.  it ended up not being guys only as a certain girl named jenny invited herself over to hang out with us.  now normally i dont care if she comes and hangs out, and i wouldn't have even cared if she came tonight.  what i didn't like is the fact that she asked if it was a guys night out and i told her "yes!" and also that our apartment wanted to just hang out together.  even after telling her that she stuck around.  now, i dont want this to sound like i dont like her, as i said before, i typically don't care if she's here.  either way, we decided to play risk and she took over allen's spot in the game.  i think she wanted to leave so she committed suicide pretty quickly.  during the game i thought that Bryce was going to kill us all, and several times i thought that i was going to be eliminated but i ended up surviving until it was just Wally and me but that ended very quickly.  Wally beat us all up pretty good at the end.  well tomorrow morning i'm getting up early (6 am) like i do every sunday for BYU EMS, so i'm headed to bed. 

Dinner for 4

last night bryce and i made dinner for Sam Strong and Alicia John, two girls in our ward.  bryce, my roommate, has been watching this totally 90's show called "my so-called life" for the last two months. every once in a while i'll watch an episode with him and whoever else is watching it with him, typically Sam.  surprisingly it's a really good show and unlike anything that's on tv now.  lately Alicia, Sam's roommate has been coming over to watch the show with us, which has only been an addition to the pleasantness that already saturates the room.  well, as the shows began to wind down in the only season, bryce came up with the idea inviting them over to watch the last episode and make them dinner.  when they came over bryce and i instantly began interrogating Alicia about the date she had with Jon Write the night before.  after making the dinner together we ate and talked about TRT 2009.  Bryce and i invited Alicia and Sam to come with us to California and take a cruise with us.  we haven't figured out all the details for he vacation but we're thinking about hanging out in southern cali for a few days and taking a short cruise to mexico.  we'll see what actually happens... last year we had planned on going to New York City but because of gas prices, we changed plans and went to portland and then down the coast to san diego.  i think it's going to be even better than the trip we had last year, and the trip last year was amazing.  after inviting them to go on the trip with us, and eating dinner, we showed them the movie from TRT 2008 (which is a great movie and my first ever), in order to entice them to go on the trip with us.  it was a great night.

ok, so i guess i'm starting a blog... in all honesty, i'm not really sure why i'm doing it, but i guess if i had to put a reason to it, i would say that i guess it's a good way to write things outside a journal, but less public than facebook (which i'm beginning to dislike more and more). i imagine that anyone who reads this blog will already know me but hell, this is my blog and i can write about myself all i want cause it's mine. do i really want to start with all the boring stuff? the "get to know you stuff." the kind of things where i say that i go to BYU and that i'm a premed a student, and that my dogs name is this and that....? no. i've titles this blog "Undivided Honesty" because that's exactly how i want to write things, in brutal honesty. so here we go. seeing as though this is my first entry, i'm going to make this very short and to the point. right now in my life i suppose i'm in a a phase of limbo. doesn't it always seem that life is always in a changing phase or that it always needs to be? well, that's how i feel and what my life is like right now. just within the last two or three weeks i've decided not to go to paramedic school as i had originally planned. so after deciding not to go to paramedic school as i had been planning for months, i thought to myself, "well that's ok, i'll just continue to go to school at BYU and finish up on my bachelors degree on my way to PA (physician assistant) school. then, about 3-4 days ago, i was walking home from class, listing to some good music on my ipod touch when it hit me. i've only decided to go to medical school because i want to be a slacker through college and get ok grades when i could be getting great grades and go to medical school where my real passion lies. i thought about it and realized that my plan to go to PA school, while still a good goal and perhaps a great backup plan, was selling myself short of what my full potential is. i know that a lot of people want to go to PA school, and i'm not saying that PAs are inferior to doctors, it's just not using the gifts that God has given me to their full strength. now that i've realized what i want and i feel like for the first time i have the self-discipline and determination to reach the goal, i'm looking back on two classes that i took that i should have gotten better grades in. one being chem 105 which i got a C+ in. wow, blake, a C+ is horrible and i didn't try in that class, i never read and i never studied to the extent that i should have. the other class is one that i'm in right now, PDBio 120. this is only a 2 credit class and i've just blown it off like it's nothing. i'm an idiot. i dont know what i'm going to get in this class but i dont think i'm going to be happy with it. i still have some time to make up for being an idiot, but i dont know how much i can really fix in the month that we have before the semester ends. i hope that i can pull something else off. ok, now that i'm being completely honest in my blog let me throw out a few disclaimers. first off, i am a horrible speller and i almost never read through my work after i've written it to catch my spelling or grammatical errors, so if you find some, keep it to yourself. another thing is that although i'm writing about myself and posting it on the internet where everyone can read it, i'm not so sure that i want anyone to. i mean, lets be honest here... everyone wants others to understand them and have empathy towards their situations, but no one wants to ask for that because it makes them sound vulnerable and egotistical, but guess what, everyone who is reading this knows exactly what i'm referring to. um.... if i think of any other disclaimers, i'll post them up. i'm sure i'll have to embarrass myself a couple of times before i get it all figured out. ok, i'm really tired so i'm calling it quits. i'll finish my blog some other day.