Tuesday, January 29, 2008

President Hinckley's passing

It truly is remarkable how influential a man President Hinckely was. He truly made a huge impact on the Church and the impression others have of 'Mormons.' Not all prophets/Presidents of the Church have as great an impact.

As I reflect on his passing I have come to realize that --like many others -- I have a relationship with President Hinckley which is personal (even though I never actual met him face-to-face) which makes his passing a reality. I believe the bond which was formed over the past 12 years is due in large part because President Hinckley truly epitomized the Savior's teachings and lived his life fully in keeping with the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Likewise, the faith and belief I have placed in him as God's chosen prophet adds to the feelings of love which I have for this remarkable man. He truly was a prophet.

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I've been impressed by a number of the articles, remembrances, and clips I have found scattered across the web. I have put together a few of the links below as I have found them.







Here's a few links to various news sources about President Hinckley's passing:

Saturday, January 26, 2008

One month old [but who's counting]

The more you have going on in your life, the faster time flies. It is hard to believe that Erica is already one month old! The harder part is that its hard to believe that we've been on this no-sleep schedule for a month. Erica has still not seen the light that sleeping should take place at night. I don't know that there is an exact pattern other than I am falling to sleep many nights next to Shawnie nursing on the couch then moving to bed around midnight. I am usually awakened by Shawnie coming into bed around 3:30 or 4am when Erica is finally ready to sleep. Paul wakes up between 5:30 and 6:30am so I get up with him. The girls are up by 6:45 and school and work come quickly after that. Before we leave, Shawnie wakes up to fix the girl's hair (something they don't like dad doing for them). She stays awake until (and if) Erica and Paul take a nap around noon. On the days I work from home, if the boys take care of themselves I can usually let Shawnie go back to sleep. But that has not always worked out and one of the requirements work places on my working from home is that I am not the primary care giver for the children. So I don't want to push it.

None-the-less, it seems like we're settling in to the new norm. I have learned new parenting techniques which help me push past frustrations I've had in the past. I am also needing to work harder at pushing past the struggles which come from sleeplessness. I guess you could say these will be some of the lessons [re]learned with this child. Also, I have had to take a much greater role filling Shawnie's shoes than with any of the other children's births.

While its not that what I'm doing is new -- I know how to go grocery shopping and clean the house, take care of the kids in ways that Shawnie used to be the go-to parent -- it's more that the responsibility balance has shifted.

The old pioneer analogy of a marriage being like a pair of yolked oxen fits well. When a new burden is placed in the wagon, both must share the load. The part of the analogy which has been
new to me this time around is that when I am one of the oxen, it is not just that I am pulling a new dead weight. Instead, as a new burden is added to the wagon and a re-balance occurs, the responsibilities which are new include the different perspectives of the added load. I guess it is in this way that we continue to learn and grow in the family. I also wonder if the perspectives I am gaining are unique because we have so many children, or if they are more gained over time no matter how many children you have. Its not like this is the first time I've recognized the load shift in this way.

Anyway, I'm not trying to write a novel with each post. So I'll salt-and-pepper a few photos taken earlier tonight and call it good. These photos are all un-edited. So they are huge if you click on them.

The only "toy" Paul really plays with from
Christmas are his sunglasses

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The temple

Not-withstanding all that has been written lately about Latter-day Saints, I want to write a bit about a topic which is hard to put into words for public consumption. The fact is, what takes place in an LDS temple is not understandable unless you have the right perspective.

What is largely discussed by the media, online or in print are the limited conjecture about the limited outward appearances related to the temple and the weird and falsehoods. (The weird are only weird if you don't have the right perspective and the false statements because too many people like to act as if they know something they have no idea about).

[A for instance regarding the weird...the first time I was introduced to the concept that at Wal-Mart, the store employees gather for a meeting each morning and sing the company song and chant various company chants. The rituals for being an employee of Wal-Mart seemed very weird to me. But as I studied the business reasoning behind it and started looking at what the benefits, and reasons behind the rituals were, it made much more sense. I'm sure if I were to become a Wal-Mart employee, I would gain a greater understanding of the benefits of the rituals.]

For me the temple is a symbol of someplace holy, where I have spiritual experiences, and where I go to seek for direction, and personal understanding. I also find going to the temple allows me to draw closer to my wife and step back from the mundane and set a proper perspective on what is going on in my life. The rituals which take place become almost unimportant the longer you attend. Not because they are unimportant, but the contrary. Because the ritual of attending the temple is so similar visit-to-visit, the experience of temple attendance becomes a microcosm of what a Buddhist monk's life must be like. A few hours of pondering and meditating on things holy. Time to reflect on what is happening in your life and what should be happening.

Beyond the pondering, the doctrines of performing ordinances (baptisms, marriage, etc) for those who have died is also important. The greater principle being that we as humans are one big family. We lived together before being born and we're going back after we've learned a few things in this life. However to get back to Our Father's presence, we must be saved both personally by having a relationship with Christ (as most Christians believe) and by receiving a physical ordinance performed by someone who Jesus Christ authorizes to work on his behalf. In both cases, the reality is that you must better know who Christ is to receive either the physical or spiritual ordinance. The fact is, that for someone who really understands what the temple is about, your relationship with Jesus Christ is strengthened and you are drawn closer to heaven by your preparation to attend or your actual attendance at the temple.

Some of the most spiritual work I have accomplished to date involved gathering names and doing family history/genealogy. At the time, the purpose was not to perform ordinances for the deceased. Instead, the simple spiritual nature of doing family history was released upon me as I did the work to understand one family in my mother's line. I cannot yet share what attending the temple to perform the saving ordinances for my family members is like. But if the work preparing the family names is anything like performing the ordinances, I need to get to work.

Like I said at the beginning of this post. There has been much written and said about Mormons and their temples. I have touched on a few personal feelings and thoughts regarding the temple and why it is important to me. The reality of going to the temple for me is that it isn't about all the weird stuff that the media likes to point out. Instead, it is about a place where my personal relationship with my God can be deepened.


BTW, thanks to LDS.org for providing the pictures of the temples. Salt Lake City Utah and Dallas Texas temples.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

The 'green' Walmart vs. The 'blue' Walmart

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In our family, we have to name things. For instance, Shawnie has become quite the adventurous cook. Many nights she'll whip up something with nothing more than a prompting from a couple different recipes. However, once the casserole hits the table, the reaction is always the same, "Mom, what's this called?" Generally to get Megan to like it, the name must include the word casserole. Brittany wants a name which is properly descriptive of the dinner. Josh will go for anything, but the name can't be disliked by the others. Paul doesn't really understand, but he likes to raise his hand to show his support.

In the same naming vein, the stores we frequent often have some descriptive name or attribute which is used to describe the location. Living in a large suburb, there are a large number of grocery stores within a couple miles of home. We have a Kroger, Tom Thumb, Super Target, and a couple Walmart stores. Up the road a little ways there is also an Albertsons and Cosco.

Each store markets to a different clientelle and this is not lost on the children. For instance, Tom Thumb caters to those in our midst whose homes are likely worth something close to seven figures (a feat not easily achieved in our housing market). The children like the store because they have tiny, kid-sized shopping carts. We generally only go there because our bank has its closest branch in the store (and they sell a brand of Bleu Cheese dressing I like). As for the other stores, Kroger is the store which has shopping carts that look like cars. Target has the SUV sized shopping carts in which all of the children can ride. But Walmart has something different.

Walmart has two stores within a mile of our home. To the east of us is a Marketplace Walmart and to the west is a Super Walmart. The Super Walmart is what most people recognize as a Walmart store. A mega-store with everything you'd ever think of needing under one roof. The store is generally designed using the Walmart blue color pallette and lives up to every expectation anyone has ever attributed to Walmart. When we want the full Walmart experience, this is where we shop -- the 'blue' Walmart.

On the other end of the Walmart shopping experience is the Marketplace Walmart (the 'green' Walmart). Don't let the name and description fool you. The shopping experience is all Walmart, just the color and size don't meet expectations. The Marketplace Walmart is a store maybe twice the size of a CVS or other pharmacy/drug store. The store only stocks groceries and some drug store items. It allows those loyal to Walmart a store in closer proximity with all of the staples, sans the 10 miles of walking from one end of the store to the other.

As for the names, I think Josh was the first to point out the differences in colors to me. I knew that there were two Walmarts but it took a three-year-old to point out the color differences.

Of special note here, the first descriptive names for the stores was not blue and green. In fact, at first we unsuccessfully tried using big and small as descriptors. After trying to refer to the Marketplace Walmart as the "small Walmart" and the Super Walmart as the "big Walmart" the descriptions didn't seem to fit well. How can you compare this "big Walmart" to another "big Walmart?" Sometimes the "big Walmarts" weren't the same size. For instance another Super Walmart on the way to the mall is much larger than the Super Walmart in Mansfield.

With that recognition, a new naming discussion meeting was held. The committee bounced around numerous ideas, but finally settled on the color distinctions. This allowed for size differences, but provided sufficient lattitude for minor discrepencies among the Walmart stores frequented by the children. (for instance the Super Walmart near Grandma's in Houston, or the Walmart we stopped at in the Texas Panhandle to get gas. Or the one in Colorado which provided a bathroom break, etc.) Rigorous testing was used to determine the naming scheme.

So going to Walmart will never be the same for me. Now I ahve to ask, which Walmart should we go to, the 'blue' Walmart or the 'green' one?

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Barack Hussein Obama

As the Presidential campaign has heated up, I have followed with interest the political candidacy of Mitt Romney. My first feelings were mixed about an LDS candidate. While impressed by his work with the Winter Olympics, I really didn’t know that much about Mr. Romney. While I still don’t know that I fully embrace him as a candidate, I don’t know that there is anyone on the Republican side of the fence which really speaks to the needs of our nation today. McCain seems too old to me and working to take an old-school approach to the future. In my mind, Huckabee is in the race as an anti-Mormon candidate and his response to international events seems to indicate a lack of ability on the foreign policy matters. The rest of the Republican field don’t stand out either.

Looking at the Democrats I don’t want Hillary, she’s too far left and had her day when Bill was in the White House. John Edwards has generally impressed me, but his boyish image doesn’t fit being the stately image I see as a president. As I read the news tonight, I think the reality is that Barack Obama has put forth the right strategy to win over the minds of the swing voters and thus propel him to the top of the pack. At this point I don’t see anyone else who has the presidential image, the 'real' optimistic strategy of hope and a chance at making it all the way. I guess we'll see where things end up.

Enough about Mr. Obama et al. The reality is that if I had a chance to vote in Iowa or NH right now, I’d much rather put my vote behind Romney, mostly to support him for a reason I think is totally wrong--his religion. In the wake of the good, bad and totally off the wall press which has followed his campaign related to his religious preference, I think the public are being short changed an opportunity to see who he really is as a candidate.

I have read a number of posts and articles of late which say things like, religion shouldn’t matter, and it’s the Mormon’s time to have a president. The fact is that there are so many people who don’t have a clue about what the LDS people believe who are posting information about who Mormons are, how Mormons think, and so forth--it is a little frustrating. There are also a good number of people who are working hard to provide accurate information about the Latter-Day Saints.

I think the reality is that like anything, there are truly a number of perspectives about what Mormonism is. The frustrating part is that it seems the loudest voices in the blogs and online comments seem to be mostly the ardent anti-Mormons. As someone who sees himself as a fully-active member of the Mormon faith, I wish to lend my voice to the mix.

I was impressed by the following blog posting. The author, a BYU professor, rates various news articles about Mormons. I found his view accurately filters the articles noted through an LDS lens which provides insight into what we really think.

Here’s the link to the article: “Mormon Media Monitor: Time to grade LDS coverage,” Joel Campbell, LDS Newsline blogger, Published: December 31, 2007, Online: http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695240109,00.html

Another starting point for basic facts is the LDS church web sites. The NewsRoom page on www.lds.org provides good general news information about Latter-Day Saints. This video was produced for the Olympics to try and help overcome some of the misconceptions about Mormons. While informative, I think it fair to say that it is difficult to really get a good understanding of LDS beliefs and practices in a 10min video and further discussions with a member of the Church would more fully provide perspective into current LDS thinking. http://www.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/media/mediaplayer.swf?media=http://broadcast.lds.org/newsroom/video/flv/12-10-2007_13_Million_Newsroom.flv&type=FLV

Finally, there are sites such as www.Mormon.org.

Monday, January 7, 2008

The birth of another blogger


Not that there aren't enough bloggers out there...but I thought it time I took a step into the world of blogging to share a few of my own thoughts about things which interest me. In addition I thought adding a blog might be a good way to celebrate the birth of our fifth (yes that is 5th) child and ensure she isn't left out of the family history and photos.