Those "10 Things" lists that get passed around online are usually pretty cheesy and not very useful. But I think this one is quite good. It's from a guy named Justin Freeman, whose bio description is "Great at stuff nobody pays for"

What are the top 10 things that we should be informed about, in life?

1. Realize that nobody cares, and if they do, you shouldn't care that they care. Got a new car? Nobody cares. You'll get some gawkers for a couple of weeks—they don't care. They're curious. Three weeks in it'll be just another shiny blob among all the thousands of others crawling down the freeway and sitting in garages and driveways up and down your street. People will care about your car just as much as you care about all of those. Got a new gewgaw? New wardrobe? Went to a swanky restaurant? Exotic vacation? Nobody cares. Don't base your happiness on people caring, because they won't. And if they do, they either want your stuff or hate you for it.

2. Some rulebreakers will break rule number one. Occasionally, people in your life will defy the odds and actually care about you. Still not your stuff, sorry. But if they value you, they'll value that you value it, and they'll listen. When you talk about all of those things that nobody else cares about, they will look into your eyes and consume your words, and in that moment you will know that every part of them is there with you.

3. Spend your life with rulebreakers. Marry them. Befriend them. Work with them. Spend weekends with them. No matter how much power you become possessed of, you'll never be able to make someone care—so gather close the caring.

4. Money is cheap. I mean, there's a lot of it—trillions upon trillions of dollars floating around the world, largely made up of cash whose value is made up and ascribed to it, anyway. Don't engineer your life around getting a slightly less tiny portion of this pile, and make your spirit of generosity reflect this principle. I knew a man who became driven by the desire to amass six figures in savings, so he worked and scrimped and sacrificed to get there. And he did... right before he died of cancer. I'm sure his wife's new husband appreciated his diligence.

5. Money is expensive. I mean, it's difficult to get your hands on sometimes—and you never know when someone's going to pull the floorboards out from under you—so don't be stupid with it. Avoid debt on depreciating assets, and never incur debt in order to assuage your vanity (see rule number one). Debt has become normative, but don't blithely accept it as a rite of passage into adulthood—debt represents imbalance and, in some sense, often a resignation of control. Student loan debt isn't always avoidable, but it isn't a given—my wife and I completed a combined ten years of college with zero debt between us. If you can't avoid it, though, make sure that your degree is an investment rather than a liability—I mourn a bit for all of the people going tens of thousands of dollars in debt in pursuit of vague liberal arts degrees with no idea of what they want out of life. If you're just dropping tuition dollars for lack of a better idea at the moment, just withdraw and go wander around Europe for a few weeks—I guarantee you'll spend less and learn more in the process.

6. Learn the ancient art of rhetoric. The elements of rhetoric, in all of their forms, are what make the world go around—because they are what prompt the decisions people make. If you develop an understanding of how they work, while everyone else is frightened by flames and booming voices, you will be able to see behind veils of communication and see what levers little men are pulling. Not only will you develop immunity from all manner of commercials, marketing, hucksters and salesmen, to the beautiful speeches of liars and thieves, you'll also find yourself able to craft your speech in ways that influence people. When you know how to speak in order to change someone's mind, to instill confidence in someone, to quiet the fears of a child, then you will know this power firsthand. However, bear in mind as you use it that your opponent in any debate is not the other person, but ignorance.

7. You are responsible to everyone, but you're responsible for yourself. I believe we're responsible to everyone for something, even if it's something as basic as an affirmation of their humanity. However, it should most often go far beyond that and manifest itself in service to others, to being a voice for the voiceless. If you're reading this, there are those around you who toil under burdens larger than yours, who stand in need of touch and respect and chances. Conversely, though, you're responsible for yourself. Nobody else is going to find success for you, and nobody else is going to instill happiness into you from the outside. That's on you.

8. Learn to see reality in terms of systems. When you understand the world around you as a massive web of interconnected, largely interdependent systems, things get much less mystifying—and the less we either ascribe to magic or allow to exist behind a fog, the less susceptible we'll be to all manner of being taken advantage of. However:

9. Account for the threat of black swan events. Sometimes chaos consumes the most meticulous of plans, and if you live life with no margins in a financial, emotional, or any other sense, you will be subject to its whims. Take risks, but backstop them with something—I strongly suspect these people who say having a Plan B is a sign of weak commitment aren't living hand to mouth. Do what you need to in order to keep your footing.

10. You both need and don't need other people. You need others in a sense that you need to be part of a community—there's a reason we reflexively pity hermits. Regardless of your theory of anthropogenesis, it's hard to deny that we are built for community, and that 'we' is always more than 'me.' However, you don't need another person in order for your life to have meaning—this idea that Disney has shoved through our eyeballs, that there's someone out there for all of us if we'll just believe hard enough and never stop searching, is hokum... because of arithmetic, if nothing else. Establish your own life—then, if there's a particular person that you can't help but integrate, believe me, you'll know.

11. Always give more than is required of you.

Dude, I'm just sayin'.

I heard a story this week about someone who lost a relative to cancer and got this little gem of wisdom and comfort from someone who heard about his loss: "Well, I'll bet you're glad he's out of his misery." This sort of awkward lack of etiquette was described in an essay I recently read from from Michael J. Lewis, Professor of Art, Williams College. He said

"...the conviction that became widespread in the 1960s, that we do not need formal conventions, but rather authenticity and sincerity--that we do not need etiquette, but rather honesty" has had some negative impact on our social interactions today. He went on to say "the mantra of that era, 'Tell it like it is,' encouraged us to speak from the heart, to improvise. And if this improvisation faltered, as improvisations often do, then stumbling inarticulateness could be taken as a badge of sincerity. The problem, as Emily Post knows, is that there are situations too serious to trust to improvisation. There are moments when a convention is required and cannot be improved upon: the polite inquiry "How are you?", the statement of congratulation, "I wish you the best," the statement of condolence, "I am sorry for your loss." These are not trite platitudes, but social obligations that are ritual actions. Social interaction requires social conventions. People who do not use conventional sayings, such as "I am sorry for your loss," run the danger of saying something inappropriate: "Well, at least he's out of his misery," or "My uncle had the same form of tumor," or "Bummer." If you can trust to your own originality, all you can be sure of is that whatever inappropriate notion is bobbing along at the surface of your unconscious will be blurted out."

I'm glad that we don't have the sort of stuffy social etiquette of Victorian England, but there are times when a little formal convention is much better than making something up as we go along. I'm just sayin' dude.

Understanding the Priesthood Covenant

I like the following, which comes from Larry Barkdull, one of my favorite authors, with a quote from Chauncey Riddle:

To me, the concepts above that describe the development of power to come unto Christ, and power to help others come unto Christ, are particularly profound. I have served as an ordinance worker at the Mt. Timpanogos temple for the last four and a half years. Whenever I have been paying attention, I have almost always received a spiritual witness at some point during my assignment each week, which has deepened my appreciation for the work of the temple. I have often felt a connection with the persons on whose behalf I have officiated, particularly in administering the initiatory ordinances, to the point where I have had to pause for several seconds before I could continue. Every once in a while, during endowment sessions, I have gotten a tiny glimpse of the grandeur of the great plan of salvation. I've found that there is much, much more to the endowment ceremony than meets the eye when we pay attention and are receptive to instruction from the Spirit of the Lord. There and in other situations in our lives, it seems that we are most likely to receive help from heaven when we are going about serving others, like the Savior, doing for them what they are powerless to do for themselves. There are many scenarios where this applies, but perhaps none so much as in the temple.

The Case Against the Fed - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Daily

The Case Against the Fed - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Daily

Curiousity

I've wondered why, in my experience, there appears to be such a remarkable lack of genuine curiosity in so many people about the religious faith of others? When it comes to understanding the religious beliefs of others, many of us apparently have a sound bite understanding -- we settle for a simplified, often sensationalized view of others, much like how we get so much of our views about news from sound bites on network television, because we're too busy or distracted or uninterested, or whatever, to delve deeper.
But when it comes to the religion of others, this has been proven to be a very dangerous thing. When large segments of a population have accepted sound bites and distorted caricatures as reality regarding a particular religious or ethnic group in their society, it has led to persecution, genocide, and extermination on varying scales throughout history, from hundreds to millions. Mormons and Native Americans in the 19th century, Jews in WWII (and throughout their history),

Why do so many Christians, people how profess to believe in Jesus Christ, refuse to evaluate the Book of Mormon on its merits? There seems to be a tremendous lack of curiosity in a book that claims to be a faithful testament of Jesus Christ, that validates the Bible as the word of God, and that testifies of His divinity and mission as the Son of God?
Is it because they think they already know? Perhaps they're simply prejudiced from what they've heard from pastors or others.
Over dinner, I recently asked two cousins of mine-- Linda, a Southern Baptist, and Bill, an Evangelical-- why so few Christians are willing to evaluate the Book of Mormon on it's own merits, rather than listening to what others think of it. My evangelical cousin responded "Because of ignorance I suppose. I myself have not read the source documents." We had a lengthy conversation about our belief in Jesus Christ as the savior and redeemer, and the absolute need for the atonement and repentance, the restoration of the gospel after long centuries of apostasy etc. He admitted that he had been mistaken about our beliefs. I later handed him a copy of the Book of Mormon, and said "here's the source document. I invite you to read it."

My sweet baptist cousin Linda said her husband Kevin had a Book of Mormon and enjoyed talking to the missionaries. I asked her what she knew herself about the Mormons. She said, as closely as I can recall "well, I know that we have Jesus, and you all have Joseph Smith." Uhhh, that's not quite right, my dear.

You see, they're both a bit of a poet, and you did not know it! Right?

As some of you have already heard me proudly crow about, last month, Hannah and Brooklyn were selected as winners in a state-wide poetry competition sponsored by the Utah Arts Council. Out of about 1500 entries, our very own bracitas were chosen as two of sixty winners among 1st through 12th graders throughout Utah. I thought I should post their entries so you can see them for yourselves.




Hannah received a Special Recognition award for the 11-12th grade category. She was one of only twelve 11-12th graders to win. Here is her poem:

A Prayer for Fall


I want to go at the exact moment I have nothing
to leave, no plan about to hatch, no passport
unstamped, no fist of bills crouched in some coat pocket

I want to leave no book beside my bed
half-read, no conversation cut short, no letters in limbo
no kiss to still be savored

I can't abandon the three unfinished journals
and one fresh-hatched; I cannot leave a relationship
unresolved, or one just resolved

I cannot go in the spring with months of flowers
and frost-free windshields ahead
nor when pools lie undisturbed and cartoon blue

May be, Grace of God, I can go
when browned leaves kneel cloistered round the roots
of trees
their heads bowed in surrender.

We also recently learned that Hannah won 4th place in a creative essay competition held by the English department at BYU. Is she awesome or what?





Here's Brooklyn's entry. She won first place among all 9-10th graders in Utah. We think she's pretty dang awesome too.

Deer Creek Reservoir: August 14, 2009

Fishing is not a sport,
unless patience is a sport,
unless long-suffering is a sport,
unless bearing the wrath of a tempestuous god is a sport.

Pulling soggy seaweed from a propeller is not a test
of physical prowess. Sitting in a splintering boat
slowly filling with rainwater, balancing an umbrella
and a pole, these are not competitive skills;
they are tests of moral rectitude.

Perhaps fishing is a religion.

Certainly, inveterate anglers
can bear all things,
believe all things,
hope all things,
endure all things.

Which leads them to drag their daughters
into drippy dinghies, undo the snags,
untangle knots, hook worms, and suffer
in silence when their girls twitch
and drive the hook into their thumb.

Because they have fished long enough
to master the virtues of fishing,
Faith and Hope will make them stay
to evening's last light.
What they're learning now
is Charity.

Well, that's the latest from Hannah and Brooklyn. Feel free to send them kudos and scholarships.

On Tithes and Offerings

If Father Abraham had written a book called How to Become Rich, he might have recommended that we have faith in the Covenant that we have made and give our surplus to the bishop, "the keeper of the storehouse," who shoulders the responsibility to care for the poor. It is by means of consecrating who we are and what we have to the Lord that abundance flows. Abraham might have reminded us that whereas tithing is a defined sum, offerings are not. The faith required to pay generous offerings is greater than the faith required to pay tithing, and the greater the faith and sacrifice, the greater the blessings. Therefore, our opportunity for growth and blessings lies in our paying offerings."

Larry Barkdull, The Three Pillars of Zion, p.37