Month: March 2007

Categories
culture life

Anxiously Engaged

I have been weighed down today by all the things that I want to be doing in the near future, and more specifically with how many of those things conflict (time-wise) with each other. As I pondered this little frustration I thought of the doctrine:

For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; (Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-27)

As I look at my life and my schedule I start to wonder at that because it feels sometimes like I am being commanded in all things, or more accurately like I am not given any time to do any things of my own free will. Sundays are scheduled with church, but also the commandment to avoid secular work on that day, Monday through Friday are filled all day with earning a living for my family and the evenings are:

  • Monday – reserved for family night
  • Tuesday – reserved for the scouts (my calling, thus a command)
  • Wednesday – I try to go to the temple monthly so I now have 3 evenings per month to do things of my own free will
  • Thursday – monthly meeting for scouts leaves 3 more evenings per month
  • Friday – I should spend some time cultivating my marriage by taking time alone with my wife but that conflicts with irregular camping trips with the scouts so that adds up to -1 evening per month.

Saturdays would appear to be my golden free time but that is often booked with the morning after a scout camp, or a Saturday church meeting. The end result is that in any given month I have possibly 5 evenings and 3 days per month do do things of my own free will – so long as I take care of my house and family, do my home teaching, and make sure I do not neglect any of my own needs (like the occasional haircut or some Elder’s Quorum project) during those same 3 days and 5 evenings.

I would begin to despair over the situation if I did not suspect that part of my problem is the stage my family is in with four young children which is a naturally time-consuming, and draining situation. Thankfully I also look up the doctrinal reference that I quoted earlier and find that there is another verse to complete the second sentence and add a third, very hopeful, sentence:

For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.(Doctrine and Covenants 58:28)

I’m counting on the “nowise [losing my] reward” because I am sure that I am doing good with the time I have, even if I wish there were more available.

Categories
politics

Community Activism

I have been involved with a citizens group which is initially acting out of concern over some of the proposals for the Mountain View Corridor. We have met with representatives of UDOT to voice our concerns and today we received the report that they are now more seriously investigating/considering the options which we viewed more favorably for the project – namely the northern freeway alignments. We know that our job is not finished, but it is nice to see that we can have an impact when we get together.

I have previously mentioned this group, and I briefly had a poll on this site where the group could choose an official name. That is still ongoing, but I would like to talk a little more about the group as an example of how democracy and activism should work. First of all, it is local. Activism on a national level has its place, but too often issues which should be managed locally are getting shoved onto a larger stage. Second, the purpose of the group is not a single issue – such as the road we are discussing right now. Our purpose is to help create the best community that we can. Having a goal that is too narrow tends to create short-lived groups, or else the groups are prone to make poor choices that forward their view at the cost of a greater benefit that can be achieved. We hope that by actively considering the long-term good of our community and by proactively working with those who make decisions that affect us we will be able to avoid making choices that are good in the short term but which we will have to correct or reverse later.

This initial impact on the road gives us hope that we can be an influence for good now and in the future.

Categories
culture politics

Political Forgiveness

In covering the confession by Newt Gingrich concerning his affair of the late 90’s, CNN speculates that critics will call the religious right hypocrites if they forgive him for the affair when they are/were so critical of the infidelity displayed by Bill Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. I think there would be an element of hypocrisy to that scenario. On the other hand, forgiving him and voting for him are not the same thing. Some may forgive him and still not vote for him. Others may vote for him without forgiving his hypocrisy.

I know he claims that it isn’t hypocritical, but his logic is the same as the logic used to say that the Civil War was not fought over slavery. Certainly states rights was an issue in the war, just as perjury was an issue in the Clinton impeachment. That being said – common sense says that states rights would not have been an issue worthy of war without the slavery issue, just as perjury would not have been a problem for Clinton without the infidelity.

So if this admission is an attempt to clear the way for a presidential run I hope that Gingrich does not try to cast himself as a clean candidate just because he has paraded his skeletons in public already.

Categories
politics

Still Behind

It’s been a month since I noted how far I was from keeping up with the presidential candidates. In that time I have investigated four of the six that were then in my queue. I still have Joe Biden and Duncan Hunter from that list and since then I have to add four more. Virtually all the major candidates are officially in now so I should be able to catch up. I am not sure of the order of those four, but my best guess is Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, Barak Obama, and Mitt Romney – right or wrong that is the order I will cover them.

Categories
politics

Christine Smith

Like all presidential candidates, there are areas where I agree and areas where I disagree with Christine Smith. That said, this was possibly the easiest evaluation I have had so far.

With positions such as “Immediately withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq regardless of the consequences” Chirstine displays the kind of disregard which will make her fully unelectable.

Her position on abortion sounds viable on the surface:

I do not believe the government should either encourage or discourage abortion; it should only protect women’s access to it, not fund it.

Upon consideration however, there is a gaping hole in that position which will leave neither side of that issue satisfied. If a woman on Medicaid wants an abortion, this position would anger the pro-life side if she got an abortion (assuming that Medicaid would have to pay for it) and it would anger the pro-choice side if she did not get one when Medicaid would not pay for it.

These half-baked positions mark this candidacy as flat and unpromising. I do not endorse Christine Smith.

Categories
life

Morning Fog

I woke up this morning and when I looked out the window we had a fog so thick I could not see to the end of my street. I was glad that I was not out running in that fog (today was a rest day) because nobody would have been able to see me running. If it were not for the safety concerns however, I would love to have been out there with low visibility as the sun came up and burned the fog off. Instead I had to be content to watch the fog disappear while I sat feeding my son.

Categories
meta

Moving Details

There are always so many little things to making a move complete. Yesterday I took the time to move all my self-referenced links. When I revisit a topic I have previously covered I try to link to my previous post(s). When I moved from blogger all those links still pointed to the posts on blogger. Once i moved the links they were added to the comments for the posts they pointed to, but the dates were all “March 7th” so I had to go through those new comments and change the timestamp to match the time of the posts they were coming from. With less than a year of posts to cover it was not too long a task, but I’m glad to have that done.

Categories
life

Springtime Jogging

I have noticed this week as I go running that I am now seeing other people out jogging in the mornings. It’s fun to not be alone anymore even though I know that the reason I never saw people before was that it was cold, and before that I was running at hours (when I was between jobs) that other people would not have been available to be out running. There really is something refreshing about starting your day with exercise and with getting to see the sun rise and the city asleep.

Categories
politics

Sam Brownback

Sam Brownback is a candidate who leaves no confusion on where he stands. His positions are clear and basically independent of what is or is not popular. I believe that we need a person with strong convictions to lead our nation and in most cases I find that my convictions are compatible with his. My two concerns wtih his candidacy are:

  1. His positions may be used by his opponents to create another divisive vote, which we do not need. He recognizes this, and I believe he sincerely hopes that it will not be the case.
  2. He may turn out to be another Tom Visack – an excellent candidate who finds it impossible to raise money sufficient to compete in an expensive race against other candidates who are more widely known. I hope to be proven wrong, just as I hoped to be proven wrong with Tom.

Despite these drawbacks, I must endorse Brownback for President because he would be the kind of man who would lead with conviction in the direction of some much needed solutions to many of our current problems.

Categories
meta technology

Plugin Bug Fix

I was so excited by the plugin “Blogger RSS Import” that I failed to notice that it got all the dates wrong on comments (they were all set to midnight of the day I did the import). Thankfully, and very professionally, I got an email from the developer (sent to everyone who commented on the plugin between the applicable dates) that the error existed and had been fixed in the new version. I now have the correct dates on my comments, which is good because all the conversations looked wierd with the comments for each post in random order.