Categories
culture

A Holistic Approach to Building Families

Photo by SuziJane

I fully support the idea that the family is the fundamental unit of society and that societies can’t be stronger than the families within them. While agreeing with that sentiment I find it interesting that whether is is expressed by the First Lady of Uganda or published by the World Congress of Families (WCF) nobody seems to give a straightforward definition of what they consider to be the boundaries of the family unit. The closest I can find to a definition is from the Madrid Declaration of WCF:

We affirm the natural family to be the union of a man and a woman through marriage…

While I agree that the foundation of a whole and healthy family must be the union of a man and a woman through marriage I do not believe that fully encompasses the fundamental unit which defines the strength of societies and nations. I also strongly suspect that the WCF does not mean to limit the definition of family to that one statement.

Categories
life technology

HAM – KF7DQE

For the last couple of decades I have wanted to get a HAM radio license. I never got really serious about it, but it was always there in the back of my head waiting for “someday.”

Someday finally arrived. The stars aligned a couple of weeks ago and I decided to just go out and do it soon. I discovered that there was a test scheduled monthly in Salt Lake and I decided to study and take the exam during one of the tests this summer. I started studying from a library book – Now Your Talking – on Monday. I already knew that much of the knowledge was common sense rules about being considerate and so yesterday when I looked to see what dates the test was to be administered I discovered that the first one was that evening. Having taken some practice exams and seeing that I almost always got passing scores with the little study I had done, I decided to take the leap and take my test yesterday rather than agonizing over the material for another month. I took the test at 7:00 last night and passed on the first try (you can have three tries in one sitting). They encouraged me to take the test for the General class and I got closer to passing that than I would have expected.

Today my callsign got assigned and published in the FCC database so I am now KF7DQE – a HAM without a radio. (Of course I’ll be on the lookout for an appropriate rig.)

Categories
life

Elder’s Quorum with President Eyring

I had not known what I would ask an apostle if given the opportunity and today I had the opportunity. I really like the way the President Eyring conducted the class – he invited us to ask questions and suggest topics. He then wrote down our requests so that he could group them as appropriate and answer them in the order than seemed most fitting. One person asked about the apostolic calling and President Eyring said that he would answer that by talking about the Quorum of the Twelve and not about the personal apostolic witness – there I suddenly had my question. I asked if he would please say something about the nature of an apostolic witness (of course I stumbled over my words and phrased it quite clumsily but he understood my question and rephrased it in that way).

President Eyring started by grouping the suggestions of our pre-mortal existence, the celestial kingdom, and the Atonement together as elements of the plan of salvation. He said that we didn’t know very much about any of them. We know a few things about the pre-mortal existence and the celestial kingdom from the scriptures but nobody truly comprehends the magnitude of the Atonement despite all that has been said about it. He described the celestial kingdom as the life that Heavenly Father lives and said that it is a very challenging life. He told us to imagine what it would be like to look down on earth at all your children and see the terrible things that they are doing to each other. On the other hand He also sees the wonderful things that are done and gets great joy out of those. He also told us that regardless of how hard it was it was something that we should all desire. I realized as he was talking about the challenges of a celestial life that it makes sense that there are some people who really do not desire to make the effort necessary to receive or live such a life.

I have, at times, been tempted to ascribe more of short-sightedness than malice to the intentions of Lucifer in proposing his impossible alternative of a plan. President Eyring said forcefully that it was an outright rebellion that was based on a lie. The lie was that people need not walk by faith – that Satan could give them the assurance of salvation by abandoning their agency. The truth is that even in the presence of the Father all the spirits were under the necessity of walking by faith.

Speaking of the calling of the Twelve Apostles, President Eyring said that the apostasy was not the absence of the priesthood on the earth. He cited the presence of John the revelator as well as the Three Nephites as evidence that there have been priesthood holders on the earth throughout that period, even apostles. What was missing from the earth was the foundation upon which a true church organization is built – namely a quorum of apostles.

Speaking of the nature of an apostolic witness he said that an apostolic witness has nothing to do with what you have seen – it is about what you KNOW. In other words, it is about having the knowledge that Christ is our Savior in your heart as a part of your being. He said that last night he learned (again) what it means to have an eye single to God as Christ did. It means that the first thought in all things is “Father, what would you have me do?” And that thought must be coupled with an absolute determination to do whatever the Lord directs regardless of the outcome, the cost, or the perceptions of others.

It was very interesting to hear President Eyring talk about President Hinckley and President Monson. Some people view them very differently and, like any other calling in the church, they recognize that each person holding the calling need not follow the footsteps of the person before them. While that is true in one sense I caught a very different perspective on it today as he spoke. President Hinckley did things based exactly on what the Lord told him as he asked “Father, what would you have me do?” For this very frugal man that included some very grand and expensive undertakings (the Conference Center – which might be viewed as unnecessary considering the technology that we already have; the expansion of temple building; the rebuilding of downtown Salt Lake City) and President Eyring assures us that President Hinckley did all this while knowing that we would face the economic downturn that is now upon us. The Lord was using the particular gifts of President Hinckley to do His work. President Monson does different things than President Hinckley, but he does them based on the very same question, “Father, what would you have me do?”

I have always felt more connection with President Hinckley than I did with President Monson. I believe that is because I am more tuned in to those organizational types of things than I am into the human things that are such a hallmark of President Monson as he is prompted to give a blessing, to make a visit, and to lift up the broken-hearted.

The key for me, in my quest to gain an apostolic witness for myself is to build my knowledge of the Savior until it is at the core of my being and practice asking the question “Father, what would you have me do?” and having the determination that my response will be to follow the answers regardless of the cost or consequence. I do know that Christ is the Savior and I do wish to do as He requires. I am willing to face challenges for His Name’s sake – I simply need to grow more perfect in those things. As I do so the Lord will use me in ways that are uniquely suited to my gifts to accomplish His work.

Categories
life meta technology

Old Goals, New Goals

I have made a goal ever six months for the last couple of years to review every talk from general conference before the next general conference. I have to make the goal anew each conference because each time I fail – until now. Thanks to my introduction to ScriptureCast I reviewed the final talk from the October 2007 conference this morning. ScriptureCast allows you to create custom podcasts from the scriptures (and the last conference or two) where you set the starting point and completion date and it generates a podcast for you. They don’t have the Bible but I hope they are working to add it – though I have no information about whether they are or not. it’s nice to finally meet that goal – just in time to start over again (as soon as this week’s conference gets added).

I have been trying, with pretty good success, to be consistent at writing here. I had hope of ensuring that my blog would be consistent enough to hold the interest of those who read it, and attract responses to continue refining my thinking. At one point I had an average of more than 2 comments for every post on the blog. That may not sound like much to some people, but considering the large number of posts from when I started the blog where there was nobody to respond I felt pretty good about that. Then I went through and added something above 100 posts from my earlier blogging and the comment count was again well below the 2:1 ratio I had achieved – I’m almost back to that ration thanks to much feedback from a half a dozen regular readers.

I have recently recognized that I have been holding back somewhat because of that relatively arbitrary goal (the 2:1 comment ratio). I have avoided writing about things that don’t feel very current or likely to generate some interest. I have decided that being picky is not my strong suit and I would like to make more strides on another goal that I had made – to go through all the founding documents (especially the Federalist Papers). I have decided to push for two posts per day until I achieve that goal – one covering Federalist papers, and another like what I have been posting regularly (that way I won’t put off studying one of the Federalist papers just because I saw something interesting to write. Hopefully that study will make my other writing and thinking deeper and more grounded in principle.

Wish me luck.

Categories
life

Marathon

Today was my marathon. I had hoped to finish in under 4 hours. The race began inauspiciously, with the buses arriving more than 30 minutes late to take us to the top. It continued promisingly as I ran well ahead of my pace for the first half of the race (on pace to finish in about 3:40). It ended with me learning a lesson. I had not done enough hill training and the first 17 miles of the race were all downhill (except for more than a mile of uphill). That accounted for my time being so good for the first half, but it also caused my calves and feet to fatigue early because I was using the muscles differently from when I trained. The result was that I started walking after 17 miles because I could hardly lift my feet, a problem I never had when I ran 22 miles on flat ground. I finished the race at a run after adding more than an hour to my time. I crossed the finish line at 4:57:23.

I know that some of my supporters were worried that I might be disappointed by that time but I recognize the deficiency of my training. While I feel I could have pushed myself to do a little better than I did, I could never break 4 hours on this course without some significant hill training before the race. I am not disappointed in the results – I achieved a long-held goal to run a marathon and, as proven by some of the most seasoned runners I met on the course, that is nothing to feel bad about no matter what time the clock says when you finish.

Categories
life

Prioritizing My Time

I am starting to discover how much effect my marathon training is having on my time. I had been feeling good that I was able to do my training in the early mornings so that it did not interfere with everything else I have to do. Now I realize that the fatigue from long runs on Saturdays has been causing me to put off things like planting my garden.

Looking forward I see that there will be challenges as I try to complete my race preparations while fulfilling duties at work such as helping with the conference that my company sponsors in the last two weeks before my race.

Today I cut my run short slightly so that I would have more energy to devote to getting my garden established before it’s too late in the season. I have spent the day working hard and thinking about this portion of the challenge of a marathon. I knew when I started that it would be demanding, but I am now beginning to appreciate how demanding it is on my time and energy.

Categories
life

20 Miles

I have been looking toward this morning ever since I started training. This was the magic distance where I might hit “the wall” and really know what I was facing with my goal to run a marathon. I woke up at 5:30 full of adrenaline because I was in the middle of a dream about World War II. I got up and dressed and then drank 12 ounces of water before starting off.

I ran at a very consistent pace (25 1/2 to 26 minutes for each 3.1 mile loop) and finished the 20.6 miles in under 3 hours. If the first 20.6 miles of the marathon go like that I can run the last 5.6 miles at 10 minutes a mile and still finish in under 4 hours. Very encouraging.

Categories
culture

Exerting Ourselves

I ran 14 miles this morning. I got past 13.1 (half a marathon) in less than half of my desired marathon time. Three things came out of this run. First, my watch rubbed the skin off a small area of my wrist. Second, my body ached within minutes after I finished running – normally I feel fine until the next day after a long run. Third, I began to think about what it means to physically push ourselves to our limits.

I don’t really think I pushed myself to the limit today, but I certainly came closer than I have for a long time if ever. As I considered this though, two ideas struck me: our limits are personal and subject to change over time and our ancestors pushed themselves much more than we usually do. That second idea seemed more profound to me than the first, perhaps because I think we should be a little more like them. I’m not sure that the security of basic necessities that we generally face in this country makes us better or stronger.

Our ancestors worked so hard because they knew that if they slackened their efforts they ran the very real risk of coming up short on their basic needs. If you plant too late in spring you might not have enough crops to last you through winter. If you stayed in your warm house all winter you would have no ice to use in the summer. Not only did they have to work hard, but they had to work smart and plan ahead.

I will not argue that their life was better than ours overall, but I am confident that there are things we could learn and apply in our lives that they just lived even if they did not consciously know those principles that we have now largely lost.

Categories
life

Real Personal Improvement

Laura and I were talking while we were driving today and it got me thinking about a truth that I had recognized a couple of years ago. As I reflected on my own personal growth in a variety of areas, and in consequence of a recent change that I had made at the time, I realized that real personal improvement – the kind that lasts – is not a result of sheer willpower. Real, lasting improvement is a matter of some inner change that is not entirely within our control. We certainly have some influence because we are not going to make a change to improve ourselves if we do not have any desire to improve, but desire alone is not enough. My recognition of this was solidified two years ago when I actually recognized my brain making that quantum shift as it occurred.

I was driving between Columbia Missouri and St. Louis nearly 2 years ago and the thought passed through my brain, “Why are you driving so fast, you have nothing to prove to anyone. In fact, you are strong enough to drive the speed limit even if other people are passing you.” I slowed down and have driven the speed limit ever since – even on the roads where the speed limit seems slower than it should be. (The exception was when I was going to the hospital for the birth of my fourth child – Laura told me to speed. The hospital is a 20 minute drive from our house. Isaac was born less than an hour after we arrived at the hospital.)

This change was not the result of a goal, or persistence on my part. I have a basic desire to obey the law. I was conscious that I had held the speed limit in low esteem (except school zones). But I was not actively working to quit speeding. I admit that normally I find that this change of self occurs in relation to something that I am actively working to change, but the change is something that I cannot control.

I have heard it said that if you can keep a habit for a given period of time or a given number of repetitions then it will be established. I think that repetition makes things easier, but real change (the religious term would be conversion) is where your very nature is changed such that the old habit no longer applies. It is the reverse of therapy by which you become changed through the changing of your habits. This is where your habits change because you have changed. That type of change is not strictly a matter of willpower and repetition.

Categories
life politics

Yes, I’m Still Alive

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here and I am going to work harder to change that. Things have been very busy at home and at work lately. Right now I would like to give a few projections of what is happening and will be happening with me and the blog.

The candidates have been filing in and I have not kept up. Here is the current list of candidates and the order in which I will be making my endorsements (this is based on the order they filed to the best of my knowledge): John Edwards, Christopher Dodd, Sam Brownback, Christine Smith, Joe Biden, and Duncan Hunter.

I am personally taking a more active interest in local and state politics right now. I am actually going to meetings on current issues, such as the Mountain View Corridor highway that UDOT is looking to build. I believe that politics should be more local and less national so I am trying to make my own actions (and commentary) reflect that belief. I will be posting more on those issues, although I will still be covering national issues and races as well. The limit is that I will not cover races that I can’t vote in – so no coverage of a controversial race for governor in another state even if it is making headlines around the nation.

I have also felt the need to move from blogger again. It’s time to revive my personal site so I will be moving to WordPress again and have it hosted at davidjmiller.org. I already own the domain, but it has been dormant for a while. I’m not going to rush the move, I want to import my posts from blogger, but I may move forward without that.

I am actually considering the possibilities of participating with parties and/or candidates at some level and I may finally be ready to donate somewhere. That’s a huge change for me. While I love talking/writing on the subject I am ready to do more than just pontificate.

So, life is great right now despite my silence here. I am hoping to export the energy that I am finding from that to help make a difference in the things that I have always talked about.