I wanted to get a good month between this blog and March Madness to ensure some perspective on the NCAA Tournament and the Final Four, especially Kansas's blow-out of the Heels on Saturday night. Here are a few random observations:
* Since I've been a rabid Carolina basketball fan (starting in 1981 with my acceptance into their Ph.D. program in English), I've had three seasons end happily: 1982, 1993, and 2005. That's just 3 out of 27 seasons. I've seen them upset a number of times, the most painful of which was the opening round loss to Weber State in 1999, which I watched in a Cedar City motel room during a cowboy poetry festival. I've seen them lose in the final four, the most painful of which was the loss to Utah in 1998, which I watched in a hospital room with Lu Ann who was recovering from surgery. (For the record, she was a Utah Ph.D. candidate at the time, so she may have given Utah some extra luck.) All in all, this was a great season: Final Four loss to the eventual national champions, ACC regular season champion, ACC tournament champion. It also makes the Worthy performance and Jordan jumper against Georgetown, the total no-stars team effort against the Fab Five of Michigan, and the all-star egocentric team win against Illinois all the sweeter in my memory.
* I have no idea why they came out so flat against Kansas. Thank goodness General Priesthood Meeting saved me from having to watch the first half. If they hadn't had all those turnovers during their second-half comeback run, they would have tied the score and given themselves a chance to win the game.
* I thought it was classy of Roy Williams to show up at the championship game in a Kansas shirt. He gave them 15 good years as their coach. To see Kansas get the championship he couldn't give them must have been bittersweet for Roy, but he took it well and stayed out of the spotlight. Any Kansas fan who still has negative feelings toward him will now go to hell for sure. (I'm not even going to get into all the Carolina-Kansas connections.)
* I knew Tyler Hansbrough would stay for his senior season. He will go down as one of the greatest college basketball players of all time.
* Neither Ty Lawson nor Wayne Ellington is ready for the NBA. I hope they come to their senses before June 16th. (I'm not even going to get into Trent Plaisted or Lee Cummard. They should spend the summer working out with Hansbrough instead of indulging in their delusions.)
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
April's Message from the Bishop
Lately we’ve been blessed as a ward with some excellent talks from members of the stake high council, who are doing their best to refute Mormon folklore about how terribly boring “dry” council talks can be.
(Have you heard the joke about the high counselor and his wife who are kidnapped by terrorists and given a last request before they’re to be executed? The high counselor asks to give just one more talk before he dies. The poor terrorists, not being LDS and therefore not knowing what they’d be in for, agree to his request. Then, the wife takes a long, hard look at her husband, turns to the terrorists, and calmly says, “All I ask is that you shoot me before he starts his talk.”)
This week, I’ve been pondering one of these recent high council talks in particular, the one given by Alan Mcintier from the 3rd Ward. I’m sure many of you remember this talk, too.
Brother Mcintier used the analogy of a building foundation to discuss the significance of prophets, seers, and revelators to the foundation of Christ’s Church, the Savior himself being the chief cornerstone. As he said at the beginning of his talk. Brother Mcintier usually isn’t very big on analogies because they can sometimes be trite and inadequate, but, in this case, the analogy really works, especially for him, because he’s the stake’s physical facilities representative and also works full-time for the Church in a similar capacity. In short, Brother Mcintier knows Church buildings.
His central example for the necessity of laying a firm foundation involved the Mexico City Temple, the construction of which was complicated by the fact that Mexico City is built on a dry lake bed. As a result, many of the buildings in the city have settled unevenly, compromising their foundations and causing serious damage to their structures. Of course, because the Church architects and engineers attended primary and remembered singing “the wise man built his house upon a rock,” they knew that they had to find some innovative way to lay down a surer foundation for the Mexico City Temple, which, like all latter-day temples, is supposed to last through the millennium.
They came up with a brilliant and successful plan. First, they drove huge pilons deep into the lake bed. Then, they built a structure on top of these pilons onto which they mounted huge jacks, which would support the temple’s foundation and could be adjusted as needed to keep the temple balanced evenly—no matter what kind of shifting occurs within the dry lake bed.
Like the foundation of the Mexico City Temple, the Church’s foundation of prophets, seers, and revelators has the capacity to support the ever-growing Church membership as well as the ability to adjust to whatever shifting occurs throughout the world. We’ve witnessed this foundation working in exactly this way during the recent General Conference of the Church, the first after the death of President Gordon B. Hinckley.
We had the opportunity in a solemn assembly Saturday morning of sustaining a new prophet, Thomas S. Monson, along with a new First Presidency and new member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, D. Todd Christofferson, as well as a number of other new General Authorities and auxiliary leaders. We in the Salem Utah West Stake should feel a particular closeness to Elder Christofferson because it was he, almost four years ago, who reorganized the stake with the release of President Green and the calling of President Silcox and his counselors.
As the conference moved forward, it became clearer and clearer that the mantle of the prophet had settled firmly on President Monson and that the Church would move forward as it always has, from the calling and death of the Prophet Joseph even until today, under the direction of the Savior, whose Church this is.
As a bishopric, we are deeply grateful for our testimonies regarding the sure foundation of this Church. We are also deeply grateful to be able to serve with all the members of the Salem 12th Ward in this great latter-day work and pray always that each one of you will be blessed abundantly in your lives.
Love, Bishop Snyder and the 12th Ward Bishopric
(Have you heard the joke about the high counselor and his wife who are kidnapped by terrorists and given a last request before they’re to be executed? The high counselor asks to give just one more talk before he dies. The poor terrorists, not being LDS and therefore not knowing what they’d be in for, agree to his request. Then, the wife takes a long, hard look at her husband, turns to the terrorists, and calmly says, “All I ask is that you shoot me before he starts his talk.”)
This week, I’ve been pondering one of these recent high council talks in particular, the one given by Alan Mcintier from the 3rd Ward. I’m sure many of you remember this talk, too.
Brother Mcintier used the analogy of a building foundation to discuss the significance of prophets, seers, and revelators to the foundation of Christ’s Church, the Savior himself being the chief cornerstone. As he said at the beginning of his talk. Brother Mcintier usually isn’t very big on analogies because they can sometimes be trite and inadequate, but, in this case, the analogy really works, especially for him, because he’s the stake’s physical facilities representative and also works full-time for the Church in a similar capacity. In short, Brother Mcintier knows Church buildings.
His central example for the necessity of laying a firm foundation involved the Mexico City Temple, the construction of which was complicated by the fact that Mexico City is built on a dry lake bed. As a result, many of the buildings in the city have settled unevenly, compromising their foundations and causing serious damage to their structures. Of course, because the Church architects and engineers attended primary and remembered singing “the wise man built his house upon a rock,” they knew that they had to find some innovative way to lay down a surer foundation for the Mexico City Temple, which, like all latter-day temples, is supposed to last through the millennium.
They came up with a brilliant and successful plan. First, they drove huge pilons deep into the lake bed. Then, they built a structure on top of these pilons onto which they mounted huge jacks, which would support the temple’s foundation and could be adjusted as needed to keep the temple balanced evenly—no matter what kind of shifting occurs within the dry lake bed.
Like the foundation of the Mexico City Temple, the Church’s foundation of prophets, seers, and revelators has the capacity to support the ever-growing Church membership as well as the ability to adjust to whatever shifting occurs throughout the world. We’ve witnessed this foundation working in exactly this way during the recent General Conference of the Church, the first after the death of President Gordon B. Hinckley.
We had the opportunity in a solemn assembly Saturday morning of sustaining a new prophet, Thomas S. Monson, along with a new First Presidency and new member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, D. Todd Christofferson, as well as a number of other new General Authorities and auxiliary leaders. We in the Salem Utah West Stake should feel a particular closeness to Elder Christofferson because it was he, almost four years ago, who reorganized the stake with the release of President Green and the calling of President Silcox and his counselors.
As the conference moved forward, it became clearer and clearer that the mantle of the prophet had settled firmly on President Monson and that the Church would move forward as it always has, from the calling and death of the Prophet Joseph even until today, under the direction of the Savior, whose Church this is.
As a bishopric, we are deeply grateful for our testimonies regarding the sure foundation of this Church. We are also deeply grateful to be able to serve with all the members of the Salem 12th Ward in this great latter-day work and pray always that each one of you will be blessed abundantly in your lives.
Love, Bishop Snyder and the 12th Ward Bishopric
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Reflections on Birth Order
Recently I've read a number of newspaper and magazine articles reporting studies on the importance of birth order. As I could have predicted, these studies show that first-born children are superior to their siblings in IQ, education, earning power, sense of responsibility, good looks, sense of humor,and so forth. Supposedly, first-born children gain their advantage because parents lavish so much more time and attention on them as opposed to the siblings who come later. Being a first-born myself, I felt both vindicated and humbled by my position.
Then I started thinking about the possible effects of birth order in my own family. Big mistake. Now everything's all complicated and confusing.
[Political Aside: Thus, we can see why the Bush Administration considers thinking to be counterproductive to their policies.]
For example, I'm the oldest in my family, with two younger sisters, Tracey and Mary Ann. Tracey, however, is not the middle child. Because Mary Ann was born when I was 17, Tracey spent 14 years as the youngest child, being spoiled by her parents and her older brother. Then, by the time Mary Ann was 2, I had been off to BYU and then off on a mission to France and Belgium, so Tracey had become the oldest child in the family by the time she was 15 or so. Mary Ann, of course, has always been the youngest child, but she shows no negative signs of having been spoiled by everyone. Also, I'm not ashamed to say that my sisters are both smarter than I am. My mom always gets after me when I say this, but it's true: I'm the dumb one in my family.
Kate, the oldest of my children, takes after me quite a bit, but she doesn't think she's superior(just bossier as the "game master" in the sibling hierarchy) to her younger brothers. Travis, the middle child, takes after his mother, another middle child, but he, again like her, has an emotional and empathetic IQ that's off the charts with a drive that won't quit. Jack, the youngest, came along 9 years after Travis, so he got the undivided attention of four people. For example, he crawled and walked late because he could always get someone to carry him around. Now he's the family expert on classical and early British literature.
In short, when it comes to my family, all these birth-order studies get turned on their heads and their privileging of the first born gets undercut.
And don't get me started on scriptural precedents and how many times the oldest son forfeited the birthright to a younger, more deserving brother. In fact, for the past ten years I've been rotating the birthright yearly with my sisters, thinking that it's better to have it every third year than to lose it altogether because of unrighteousness or incompetence.
Now, with Clarkwell on the horizon, I'm starting to worry that he won't get the same attention that Luke received. However, I'm encouraged by two things: 1) Luke's relationship with "Baby Hamilton," as he calls him, is warm and attentive and quiet and gentle, so I assume it'll be the same way with his little brother, even though there may be a little jealousy. 2) Heidi says that Clarkwell is even more active in utero than Luke was, so I'm thinking he'll hold his own once he's born.
Nevertheless, I'm planning on spoiling him not one whit less than I've spoiled Luke, birth order theory be darned. (Sorry, but I didn't want to write "damned" in case Hamilton reads this post).
Then I started thinking about the possible effects of birth order in my own family. Big mistake. Now everything's all complicated and confusing.
[Political Aside: Thus, we can see why the Bush Administration considers thinking to be counterproductive to their policies.]
For example, I'm the oldest in my family, with two younger sisters, Tracey and Mary Ann. Tracey, however, is not the middle child. Because Mary Ann was born when I was 17, Tracey spent 14 years as the youngest child, being spoiled by her parents and her older brother. Then, by the time Mary Ann was 2, I had been off to BYU and then off on a mission to France and Belgium, so Tracey had become the oldest child in the family by the time she was 15 or so. Mary Ann, of course, has always been the youngest child, but she shows no negative signs of having been spoiled by everyone. Also, I'm not ashamed to say that my sisters are both smarter than I am. My mom always gets after me when I say this, but it's true: I'm the dumb one in my family.
Kate, the oldest of my children, takes after me quite a bit, but she doesn't think she's superior(just bossier as the "game master" in the sibling hierarchy) to her younger brothers. Travis, the middle child, takes after his mother, another middle child, but he, again like her, has an emotional and empathetic IQ that's off the charts with a drive that won't quit. Jack, the youngest, came along 9 years after Travis, so he got the undivided attention of four people. For example, he crawled and walked late because he could always get someone to carry him around. Now he's the family expert on classical and early British literature.
In short, when it comes to my family, all these birth-order studies get turned on their heads and their privileging of the first born gets undercut.
And don't get me started on scriptural precedents and how many times the oldest son forfeited the birthright to a younger, more deserving brother. In fact, for the past ten years I've been rotating the birthright yearly with my sisters, thinking that it's better to have it every third year than to lose it altogether because of unrighteousness or incompetence.
Now, with Clarkwell on the horizon, I'm starting to worry that he won't get the same attention that Luke received. However, I'm encouraged by two things: 1) Luke's relationship with "Baby Hamilton," as he calls him, is warm and attentive and quiet and gentle, so I assume it'll be the same way with his little brother, even though there may be a little jealousy. 2) Heidi says that Clarkwell is even more active in utero than Luke was, so I'm thinking he'll hold his own once he's born.
Nevertheless, I'm planning on spoiling him not one whit less than I've spoiled Luke, birth order theory be darned. (Sorry, but I didn't want to write "damned" in case Hamilton reads this post).
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Restitution Is the Second Step in Repentance
It took practically the whole day, but I've gone back and commented on every blog from DaSpjutes, Treidi, Bees Knees, and you don't know jack. Now, I've got to keep on the blog and narrow.
Right now I'm listening to Rufus Wainwright's cover of "Across the Universe." It's not bad, but, again, he's no John Lennon. Jack is educating me on the "I Am Sam" soundtrack. It's not bad, actually. I think my favorite is Eddy Vedder's "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away."
Right now I'm listening to Rufus Wainwright's cover of "Across the Universe." It's not bad, but, again, he's no John Lennon. Jack is educating me on the "I Am Sam" soundtrack. It's not bad, actually. I think my favorite is Eddy Vedder's "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away."
Monday, March 24, 2008
Easter Blog: The Resurrection of "Squared Away"
It seems I've been blogging like some people go to church: every Christmas and Easter.
However, my children have been hard at work reactivating me, and I've promised to repent of my backsliding starting now.
Yesterday we had a traditional Easter dinner: leg of lamb, Easter (aka Funeral, Relief Society) potatoes, green beans, homemade rolls, and strawberry shortcake (thanks to Heidi). We had Tracey, Jack, Kristin, Travis, Heidi, Luke, and Kathryn in addition to Delys, Marissa, and me. Because a number of us are watching our diets (Travis and Kristin leading the way), we didn't have lots of Easter candy (although Travis did smell himself a few truffles, giving new meaning to the phrase "aroma therapy").
Luke ate a good dinner--he seemed to like the lamb especially well--so his mother gave the two of us permission to have an Easter egg hunt. I put little wrapped chocolate eggs inside some plastic eggs and then hid them for Luke to find. On the second round, I put some green beans inside one egg instead of the chocolate just to see what he'd do. We all watched with curiosity as he opened the egg hiding the green beans. He took a look and then exclaimed, "Hmmm . . . green beans," and then just popped them in his mouth and proceeded to eat them. Tip for getting little kids to eat their food: put everything in Easter eggs.
However, my children have been hard at work reactivating me, and I've promised to repent of my backsliding starting now.
Yesterday we had a traditional Easter dinner: leg of lamb, Easter (aka Funeral, Relief Society) potatoes, green beans, homemade rolls, and strawberry shortcake (thanks to Heidi). We had Tracey, Jack, Kristin, Travis, Heidi, Luke, and Kathryn in addition to Delys, Marissa, and me. Because a number of us are watching our diets (Travis and Kristin leading the way), we didn't have lots of Easter candy (although Travis did smell himself a few truffles, giving new meaning to the phrase "aroma therapy").
Luke ate a good dinner--he seemed to like the lamb especially well--so his mother gave the two of us permission to have an Easter egg hunt. I put little wrapped chocolate eggs inside some plastic eggs and then hid them for Luke to find. On the second round, I put some green beans inside one egg instead of the chocolate just to see what he'd do. We all watched with curiosity as he opened the egg hiding the green beans. He took a look and then exclaimed, "Hmmm . . . green beans," and then just popped them in his mouth and proceeded to eat them. Tip for getting little kids to eat their food: put everything in Easter eggs.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Merry Christmas
I can tell that the holidays are here because the number of people on campus has slowly decreased over the past few days. I'm looking out my office window at a nearly full moon rising over the snowy mountains east of campus with the light from the western sunset still reflecting on the mountains. The Y is barely visible under its blanket of snow.
I just posted my grades for Fall Semester, but I still have a half dozen letters of recommendation to write for students (out of the 18 I was asked to write) and my course materials to prepare for next semester. My shopping is pretty much done, and so is tithing settlement. But we don't even have a tree, and I haven't yet gone by to see a Pondtown Christmas.
Nevertheless, I'm about to shut down my scholarship and teaching for the rest of the year and head for home. We've been invited by the Payson Snyders to Heidi's special open house pie night. I love pie. Tomorrow I'll hang around home and probably deliver some goodies and gifts around the ward. We may get a tree; we may not. We're having the missionaries over for dinner. I'm excited to watch BYU beat UCLA in their bowl game.
I'm thinking about canceling bishopric and PEC Sunday morning, so everyone can sleep in a bit and hang around home a bit before sacrament meeting. The bishopric is speaking, and the choir is singing.
Monday is my birthday, so I imagine we'll enjoy the usual festivities and eventually get all snug in our beds to await Santa. We may sleep over at Travis, Heidi's, and Luke's house. I don't want to miss that little boy Christmas morning. We'll have a great day together with our family.
Then, Delys, Jack, and I will be off for California on the 26th for a week. I'm not sure what we'll do, but I'm excited to help welcome little Hamilton to the family and to visit with my sister Mary Ann and her family.
So, God bless us, everyone, and Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.
I just posted my grades for Fall Semester, but I still have a half dozen letters of recommendation to write for students (out of the 18 I was asked to write) and my course materials to prepare for next semester. My shopping is pretty much done, and so is tithing settlement. But we don't even have a tree, and I haven't yet gone by to see a Pondtown Christmas.
Nevertheless, I'm about to shut down my scholarship and teaching for the rest of the year and head for home. We've been invited by the Payson Snyders to Heidi's special open house pie night. I love pie. Tomorrow I'll hang around home and probably deliver some goodies and gifts around the ward. We may get a tree; we may not. We're having the missionaries over for dinner. I'm excited to watch BYU beat UCLA in their bowl game.
I'm thinking about canceling bishopric and PEC Sunday morning, so everyone can sleep in a bit and hang around home a bit before sacrament meeting. The bishopric is speaking, and the choir is singing.
Monday is my birthday, so I imagine we'll enjoy the usual festivities and eventually get all snug in our beds to await Santa. We may sleep over at Travis, Heidi's, and Luke's house. I don't want to miss that little boy Christmas morning. We'll have a great day together with our family.
Then, Delys, Jack, and I will be off for California on the 26th for a week. I'm not sure what we'll do, but I'm excited to help welcome little Hamilton to the family and to visit with my sister Mary Ann and her family.
So, God bless us, everyone, and Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
On the Simple, Everyday Pleasures in Life
Captain Augustus McCrae, my favorite character in Larry McMurtry's only truly great novel, Lonesome Dove, observes the following to Lorena, the "sporting woman" who wants to leave Texas to go to San Francisco: "Life in San Francisco is still just life. If you want one thing too much it's likely to be a disappointment. The healthy way is to learn to like the everyday things, like soft beds and buttermilk--and feisty gentlemen."
I think Gus is right about appreciating the simple, everyday pleasures in life. Just the other day, for example, I was thinking about how much I appreciate my favorite casual long-sleeved shirt. The shirt is actually something of a Godsend because Delys found it one day recently hidden behind the washing machine in the laundry room where some careless person had left it. Truthfully, until I saw it again I had forgotten all about it.
The shirt's all black except for the Asics logo on the left front. It's a size Large, which fits me perfectly, and is made of 90% Micromatique Polyester (widely known for its wicking power) and 10% Lycra (widely known for its stretching capability). All in all, it's a warm, versatile, comfortable shirt that I wear whenever possible. Just last Sunday, for example, it was such a pleasure to get home from church at 5:30 after 11 hours in a suit and tie and then to change into my favorite shirt just before Travis and Heidi and Luke arrived for Sunday dinner.
My advice to everyone is to find some everyday thing, like my black long-sleeved Asics shirt, to take some regular pleasure in. Like Gus says, it'll be a healthy thing to do.
I think Gus is right about appreciating the simple, everyday pleasures in life. Just the other day, for example, I was thinking about how much I appreciate my favorite casual long-sleeved shirt. The shirt is actually something of a Godsend because Delys found it one day recently hidden behind the washing machine in the laundry room where some careless person had left it. Truthfully, until I saw it again I had forgotten all about it.
The shirt's all black except for the Asics logo on the left front. It's a size Large, which fits me perfectly, and is made of 90% Micromatique Polyester (widely known for its wicking power) and 10% Lycra (widely known for its stretching capability). All in all, it's a warm, versatile, comfortable shirt that I wear whenever possible. Just last Sunday, for example, it was such a pleasure to get home from church at 5:30 after 11 hours in a suit and tie and then to change into my favorite shirt just before Travis and Heidi and Luke arrived for Sunday dinner.
My advice to everyone is to find some everyday thing, like my black long-sleeved Asics shirt, to take some regular pleasure in. Like Gus says, it'll be a healthy thing to do.
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