Sunday, October 31, 2010

Book Review - The Breaking of Eggs by Jim Powell

I cannot imagine reading a book more pertinent to the moment, in my life, than this one was, now, for me.  It is a memoir of an amazing year in the remarkable life of a little man named Feliks Zhukovski.  You know I don't like to retell the story in my reviews.  This remains true in this case.  Suffice it to say that Feliks left Poland as a boy, just one week before Hitler invaded that land.  He lived in Switzerland during the War and in France the balance of his life.  Most of his adult life is spent traveling extensively in the Eastern Bloc as it was called under the thumb of the USSR and is now experiencing the momentous changes in the political structure of Eastern Europe as the Soviet Union crumbles and the Berlin wall comes crashing down.  That is not the story, that is the backdrop.

I learned so much about life behind the iron curtain during those years we call the Cold War.  The book showed me that life from a number of different perspectives.  I loved the colorful tour through a drab scene Jim Powell provided in a most unique and poignant way.  That, provided the atmosphere.

The story was more about certainty and confusion, about ideals and disaster, about lofty visions shading grimy realities.  It was about ideas versus experiences.  It was about understanding and compassion.  It was about thinking one thing academically, only to discover another truth entirely in the actual experience of life.

I have long held that in the pre-mortal experience we knew all there is to know.  What we lacked was experience.  We came to mortality to make practical application of the things we thought we knew.  It is one thing to know that a hot stove will burn you.  It is entirely another, to actually experience the placing of one's hand on that hot stove.  So, brilliant people cook up brilliant ideals for our lives and storm the political landscape with them; while in the end, they remain our lives, lived and lost, suffered and enjoyed, full of struggles and triumphs, mistakes and successes, lives of experience; the thing mortality is made of.

In the end (thinking about the National Elections day after tomorrow) it is people that matter, not policies and parties and power and posturing.  Like Eastern Europe we've developed a system of government that has concluded that the ends justify the means.  And like the former USSR, we are quickly running out of the means to carry it off.  That seems totally lost on those who seek to guide our future.  Not unlike the Communists, Congress will carry on with an attitude that "you need to break a few eggs to make an omelet."  Which might seem fine, until you realize that the omelet is not for us, but for them.

History, will surely repeat itself.  The egg breakers will continue down their reckless path and eventually the house of cards they imagine themselves to be building will tumble, revealing it for the illusion it has become.  Lives will be shattered, broken, crushed, but experience will be gained and the purpose of mortality fulfilled.  It is time to think more seriously about the people across the dinner table and less so about those across the Potomac.

Five Stars!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

A Brilliant New Way to Study the Scriptures on new.LDS.org!

Have you checked out the newest update of LDS.org?  It is wonderful!  The site is now interactive offering tools and applications that will be useful to not only Latter-day Saints but also our friends of other faiths.

Members of the church may use their church site passwords to access all of the information available to members including New Family Search for preparing family names for Temple Work online.  They may also access their Ward and Stake websites and get meeting information and check out the Calendars for their local units.  New to LDS.org now, is the ability to sync your Ward and Stake Calendar with Outlook or Google Calendar.  What a fantastic way to keep current on local church events in a busy age.

Another great feature allows us to access the Ward directory of our own particular Ward and Stake.  This includes addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and photos.  Best of all is that this is always as current as the membership records in the Clerk's office!  In Wards where membership has a rapid turn over, this will be an especially useful tool.

Also, there is a Maps app that will help you locate addresses.  This isn't too needful in my Utah Ward, but imagine being called as a Home Teacher to a newcomer in a rural Texas ward.  Wouldn't it be nice to be able to check out a map right from the Ward Web Site?

You can also request a copy of your Patriarchal Blessing from the site.  That, and the blessing of any direct line ancestor.  Isn't technology great!

Finally, and my favorite, is the My Study Notebook.  Associated with all the library content on the site, the notebook allows you to personalize your study of the scriptures, conference talks, church magazines, etc.  As you are studying, should you wish to mark that particular verse; you can highlight it, add personal notations, file the scripture in subject folders of your own creation, as well as tag it for later selection on a particular topic or theme.  This feature makes the online scriptures every bit as useful as my old well worn set of leather bound ones.  Over the years I've tried commercial versions of this that never met my needs.  I shudder to think how much money I spent with no real results.  Now, for free, I can make my own archive of personal insight and inspiration, as pertains to every verse I wish to comment on.  Then when I read the scriptures again, I can read them side by side with the notations I've previously made included right there.  There is a feature that allows you to hide your notations, but I look forward to keeping them open for future reference.  I have long studied the scriptures with a red pencil to mark passage that impressed me.  While I have often, also written notes in the margins, there is seldom enough space to meet my needs.  Now there is no limit to the space I can use to note impressions I have as I study.  Now, if a quote or concept from a conference talk impresses my heart I can file it in a folder that is unique to me and find it quickly next year when I need it for a talk or lesson.

The search engine for the scriptures is much improved as well.  And you can search Conference Talks and other library content as too. It looks like there's also an app that will allow my Folders and Scripture marks and notations to be downloaded to a mobile device so I can carry with me, not only the scriptures, but my personal study data as well.

Well did the ancient prophets long for our day.  Can you imagine studying the scriptures back then and while rolling up a scroll, be given a vision of what we're experiencing today?  I'll bet if we could see those old scrolls, we'd find drool stains, from men who were shown what great blessings and resources WE would take so much for granted.  I hope not to take them for granted, but to make full use of such great gifts from our Father in Heaven.  The church is making full and wonderful use of technology today.  Check our Mormon.org New.familysearch.org for more fantastic examples.  See it all at http://new.lds.org .

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Too Much Stuff

Remember George Carlin's bit on stuff?  How about Delbert McClinton's song about Too Much Stuff?  They were funny because they were true.  I'm not laughing any more.  I'm afraid I'm on the verge of being a hoarder and have decided it's time to get rid of some stuff.  You'll notice I said, "some."  I've got to ease into this gradually.  I've spent the past few days considering what stuff to keep and what stuff to divest myself of.  The process has been shocking.  How on earth did we get so much stuff?  The hardest part is discovering stuff we sure thought we had to have; stuff we haven't even seen for years.

I'm pretty practical on the big ticket items.  A camp trailer for example.  Even though I sold them for a year, I never once considered buying one.  $30,000 for a reasonably modest one.  How many night's could I stay in a in a motel for that?  How many nights could I camp in a tent for that?  How much more gas would I spend dragging it around?  How many places would I hesitate to go while towing my house around behind me?  I couldn't see how it would ever pay for itself in either savings or convenience.  Have you noticed that hotels are handy, right off the interstate.  Campgrounds?  That's another question.  Besides, campgrounds aren't free either.  I look around and see lots of jet skis, campers, boats and other stuff like that taking up space, hardly ever used.  We rented a couple of jet skis once.  They cost $100.00 for a full day's enjoyment.  It would take a lot of days to make one worth buying.

The little stuff, however, is another story.  Somewhere, I have the right dohinky stored away to fix my widget if it ever quits.  Trouble is I couldn't find it when the widget quit so I bought another one.  Only, at Lowe's dohinkies are sold only in blister packs of four, so now I have four.  Three are not stored in the same place as the first one though, so if my widget quits again, I have twice as much chance of finding one next time.  Then there are the movies.  Dozens and dozens on video tape.  I only own them until the VCR quits.  Then I just own a pile of plastic.  Have I learned my lesson?  Nope, now there are dozens on DVD.  Actually, I'm catching on in that case.  Netflix can own them and if (actually a pretty big if) I really do ever want to watch one a second time I can rent it for lots less than buying it and I don't have to keep it anywhere.

We're currently preparing for a huge yard sale.  We want to get rid of some stuff.  The carport and a 7X14 foot enclosed trailer are crammed with stuff we hope to find new owners for.  We're going to sell off our stuff for pennies on the dollar.  In that pile are hundreds of books.  Many I actually read.  I can't bring myself to let go of dozens of others.  I'm trying to keep my collection in line with the number of bookshelves I already possess.  It makes me think a Kindle or Nook, might be smarter.  The books are cheaper, and can all be stored in a place smaller than a book!  A book reader is cheaper than a bookshelf too.  Plus, there's no waiting, no shipping charges, what a deal!

Another pile in the yard sale is that of scrapbooking supplies.  Scrapbooking too, has gone digital.  The photos are digital.  The paper and doodads are all digital.  The punches, stickers, pretty paper, scissors, binders, are all strings of ones and zeros!  What a space saver that is!  Hopefully, someone will show up to the sale who is too old fashioned to scrapbook with a computer.  I wonder if Sweetie would consider digital quilting or crocheting?

I doubt it.  In fact right in the middle of preparing for the yard sale of the century, Sweetie's mother passed to the great beyond.  And, as you can't take it with you, left behind all of her stuff.  The good side is that she had seven children and lots of grandchildren to divvy up all her stuff.  Even so, this week we're trundling home with lots more stuff.  Good thing we were preparing for the yard sale or we'd have had no room for the inflow.  I'm still hoping for a net loss in the volume of stuff.  But, I think we might have to sell some more books and a book case or two so we'll have more wall space for the burgeoning volume of artistic stuff we have to display.

My brother has a friend who is a bona fide hoarder.  His house has a path from the front door to the kitchen with a tributary path to the bedroom and bathroom.  Everywhere else is literally stacked with stuff; clear to the ceiling.  He even shares his bed with stuff.  This is in his new house.  The old house next door was abandoned when some stacks tipped over, eliminating the pathway.  He has never thrown away a milk jug or a newspaper!  I'm not that bad, in fact Sweetie and I fill two large garbage cans nearly every week; with stuff we're tossing out on a regular basis.  So now the landfill is running out of space for stuff.

Most of this stuff is coming here in huge container ships from China.  It could be a communist conspiracy to bury us in stuff!  Meanwhile, it looks like we're trying to bury them back - in money!

A few years ago Randy talked me into accompanying him on a six day 60 mile trip into the Grand Canyon.  I've backpacked considerably and ordinarily carry around 50 to 60 pounds on my back.  Randy insisted that on this trip we were going light.  We sawed off the handles of our tooth brushes and trimmed every ounce from every other item as well.  When we dropped in over the rim Randy was carrying 23 pounds and I was carrying 24.  Included in each of those packs was all the food we'd need for the week, all of our camping and cooking supplies and eight pounds of water.  We looked and acted like we were on a day hike; literally skipping along past backpackers lumbering along with their heavy stuff.  You know, it was the best backpacking experience of my life!  And, I never missed a single thing I left behind!  I'm starting to think I might enjoy life a lot better too; if I were to travel a lot lighter.

Last night on Katie Couric's show she reported of a movement to do just that.  There are people who are attempting to limit their number of possessions to 100 items!  Sounds rather emancipating doesn't it?  Think of it.  Smaller house, smaller rooms, smaller closets, smaller kitchens with fewer cupboards, a garage where you can actually park your car.  I've never dared to enclose my carport for fear that I'd have to park the car outside!  I'm really beginning to subscribe to the statement that says, "We don't own our stuff; our stuff owns us."  Now I'm not going to go that radical on the subject; but I am heading in that direction.

There are some things I'd rather not do without.  I like a bit of memorabilia.  I like a bit of art.  I'm a bit sentimental about things my loved ones have created.  I love the feel and smell of an actual book and I love the look of a bookcase full of them.  I like that my workshop is stocked with tools and I love using them to make stuff.  And here we go again, adding to the problem.

I think my all time favorite movie has to be the Gods Must Be Crazy.  Xi, an African bushman spends the entire movie trying to get rid of stuff.  In his case a coke bottle.  Practically the only material possession of his tribe, the bottle is nothing but trouble.  Part of me wants to be that free of stuff.

Another aspect of the problem is that we all seem to want our own stuff.  So, my neighbor across the street, the ones next door on either side of him and those on either side of me and the guy right behind me, my son-in-law, all have our own chainsaws, I have two!  What is up with that?  We all have our own lawn mowers, and myriad other things.  Wouldn't we all benefit if we could come up with a way to share fewer piles of stuff?  When I was in the Navy, the base had a rental place.  As we were quite nomadic as a group, the military thought it to be to their advantage if we had less stuff for them to move around.  Thus we could go to the base and rent everything from sleeping bags and tents to barbecue grills or chain saws.  As a group we collectively carried around far less stuff.  Maybe there's a lesson we civilians could learn from that.

Perhaps I need more drastic intervention.  Perhaps I need an exorcist.  Obviously, I'm possessed by my possessions.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Its Time For A Regulation in the Church


In Alma 62:44 we read, "...it had become expedient that a regulation should be made again in the church."  Call it the Second Law of Thermodynamics, or Satan's influence.  Call it the foibles of mortality or the fallen state of the natural man.  What ever you call it, it seems to be the common lot of life here on earth; things tend to go downhill to a more corrupt and chaotic state.


Such is the case with Funeral Potatoes.  Back in the day, Funeral Potatoes were the cat's meow in my book.  I was often tempted to crash the luncheon following the passing of total strangers.  In those days that blessed concoction of shredded potatoes, sour cream, green onions, Campbell's soup and cheese was the most comforting, delectable, thing ever served in a cultural hall.


Now, please realize that I am one who never fails to step into the kitchen and express my gratitude to those wonderful sisters whose compassionate service has blessed us on such a day.  Far be it from me to criticize their earnest and much appreciated efforts.  They are earnest in their labors and are surely only desirous of doing what is right.  It is likely they, who are the most victimized by the corrupted recipes they've inherited.


It is probable that a mere typographical error or misplaced line of text has led their good intentions into such dreary darkness.  There are frequent stories heard of a child who, upon walking into the kitchen and seeing funeral potatoes emerge from the oven, has asked, "Who died?"  It seems most certain that no one ever tastes them at home.  Additionally, we cannot be influenced by social pressures to accommodate some gentile's distaste for onions.  Onions are not prohibited by the Word of Wisdom despite claims of some detractors who would have us settle for less than perfection.


When funeral potatoes first came on the scene one could count on their yummy deliciousness at every special occasion.  Gradually though, more and more presentations of the gem were declining in their wonderfulness.  My dismay led to a practice that, for a long time, remedied the problem for me.  I would be certain to be near the end of the parallel lines that moved the length of the serving table.  It always began with plates and utensils, then came the ham followed by casseroles of funeral potatoes.  Usually four were presented at a time.  I would take a small sample of each and step aside to taste test the four.  At first I was eliminating the corrupted version but gradually, I found I was seeking the ONE.


I've been to two funerals this month.  To my dismay and utter astonishment none, were even close to the divine standard upheld when the original recipe was revealed.  Some I could barely choke down.  This is when I determined to set upon a quest to regulate this blessed ritual in the Kingdom.


Here is our family's original recipe:
Funeral Potatoes
10-12 potatoes                                            2 bunches green onions
2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup                    1 pint sour cream
2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Boil the potatoes whole and in their skins until just barely tender.  Cool, peel, and shred.  Slice or dice the green onions.  Mix all ingredients together and pour into a 9 X 13" pan.  Bake 30 - 40 minutes at 350 degrees.
I'll allow that frozen shredded potatoes be used in the interest of time and convenience.  It is a very simple recipe, so there is no need to further modify it.  Now, I am not so stubborn that I would not consider some other recipe and would be willing to try any suggestions you might offer.  Still, I cannot imagine anything better than the simple one shown above.


Brothers and Sisters, it is time that we no longer have our mourning exacerbated by this oversight of church standards.  Need we mourn the loss of funeral potatoes at the same time we are bereaved?  Our sainted mothers would  roll over in their graves if they knew of the dwindling of such hallmark tokens of our heritage.


I, therefore, call upon the General Relief Society Presidency, Stake Relief Society Presidencies, Ward Relief Society Presidencies and Relief Society Sisters everywhere to gird up your loins and go forward in faith that Funeral Potatoes might once again be enthroned in their Celestial place.  Terrestrial and sometimes Telestial potatoes will never do.  I for one would not be offended if Section 139 of the Doctrine and Covenants were to make this recipe to be part of the canon of truth.
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