Quotes I lLike

"A necessary component of true love must be the possibility of permanence"

Jeffrey R. Holland

Travels with Lar

September 12-18, 2010

 Sacramento – Rancho Cordova, CA

This was a work trip to teach two classes.

I left on Sunday sp I missed part of church.

The classes went very well. In fact, they were better than any classes I have taught in quite a while.

On Monday evening, I took a quick drive up to Placerville. It was just to say that I did. It is a quaint little town that still has some charm from the gold rush days.

On Tuesday evening I went to the Sacramento Temple – a new temple on my list. I am happy that I have been blessed to be able to go to so many temples. I am happier that I can find something worthwhile to do when I am on the road.

Friday, after class, I went down to Old Town Sacramento – a preserved "touristy" area of old downtown located on the bank of the Sacramento River. It was a nice place to take a walk.

Then Saturday morning I woke up early and came home.

Movie List

September 12, 2010
That Evening Sun

I gave it a 2.5. Mar gave it a 2.
This is Hal Holbrook playing what he really is – old. He is an old guy who was put in a rest home and decided he didn't like it there so he left and went to his old farm. The problem was that his old farm was rented – with an option to buy – to a man who the old guy couldn't stand. Well, technically he still owned the farm so he stayed in the share cropper's cabin and annoyed the renter and then spent the next two hours doing 30 minutes of stuff, interspersed with what was undoubtedly considered art – some of it was quite beautiful.
Don't watch it when you are sleepy – or you won't see the end – or the middle – except in your dreams.
Some adult language. That was the only spice it had.

Movie List

September 10, 2010
The Ghost Writer

 I gave it a two. Mar gave it a two.
A man is hired to replace a ghost writer who was working on the memoirs of a British Prime Minister. The first ghost writer died. The second one thinks he has found a conspiracy. The clues are vague and not very convincing. In the end . . . gee, I shouldn't tell you the end just in case you want to waste two hours watching it.
Some adult language and situations. Boring. Distinctly anti-American. Slow. Isn't anything ever going to happen.
Don't bother.

Reading List

September 17, 2010
The Boxmaker's Son by Donald S. Smurthwaite

There is a growing concern that families, and fatherhood in particular, are under such strong attack in the modern world. Television and movies portray families in negative light and fathers as simpleton buffoons, generally saved from their own ineptness by their wives or others. It sells advertisements, and at the same time degrades the role of the traditional leader of the family. Here at last is the counter voice. The Boxmaker's Son is about a noble father who teaches and leads in righteousness. It makes one ponder the relationship to one's own father. It makes one ponder what kind of success one has had as a father or mother in life. It talks about what the role is of parenting, with examples and a few choice statements of profound philosophy.

"Maybe that's the way it is with those you care for. You heap upon them all you can, all that you hope will protect them. And when the time comes when the world tears away a who you are and how you want to be, maybe you hope that you have heaped enough layers, layers of care and layers of love, to keep those you love insulated from the craziness that goes on in the world. That's what you hope for. That's how you protect those close to you. Or at least that's how you try."

So now I consider how I remember my own father and my own mother. They were valiant members of "the greatest generation". My view point is changed by this book. My view point was also changed by my oldest brother, Mike. One day while my siblings and I were sitting around doing the "broadcast" view of my parents, laughing about them and seeing who could be the most witty and cynical, Mike stopped and said, "You know, Mom did a pretty good job raising us on the little she had." That is all it took for me to stop and consider how right he was.

My father and mother did not leave us as children with wealth or power. We did not get advanced degrees and travel the world. However, there are seven of us and we are all hard workers. We are all respected by other people. We are all loved by our whole family. And I like to think, no, I know from my experiences this year that we will all stand by each other in good or bad, though joy or crises. That is a legacy that my parents have left – have passed on to a small group of the "not greatest, generation".

And I wonder how my children will look at me and the way I have raised them. Am I just the buffoon father of TV. Or will someday, something touch them and they will say, wait, my parents sacrificed and worked and loved and tried – hard. Will they say we did a pretty good job raising them on the little we had. I hope so.



"This is the part of the picture where God lets you put your experience and what you know and what you feel to work for you, and He steps back and thinks with lovingkindness, 'All right. Show me. Prove to me. This is where I have given you the outline and now you fill it all in with the colors you select. It is your picture. It is your painting. You can choose the colors.'"

So often now days we hear that it is all right for us to "color outside of the lines". That expand creativity and in kindergarten, but in life, there are lines we need to stay in. We can still be creative in the way we stay in those lines, but so often, crossing over those lines make look like creativity, especially from close up, but as me move back and get a broader, bigger view – a more eternal view – outside the lines, outside the Lord''s boundaries just messes it all up.

Oh there are a lot of quotable parts of the book. I liked it. I think it inspired me.

This is the second book I have read by Donald S. Smurthwaite this year. The first wasn't as good an experience as this one was. He writes in a voice that seem autobiographical, and probably some of the experiences in both of these books have episodes reflecting his life. Yet I am sure some are purely fictional, used to reflect a point he is emphasizing. Nicely, he doesn't generally chose a point to make and them beat you over the head with it. He softly persuades. The style of writing is easy to read. However, be aware that in each chapter, there are two storylines progressing at the same time – easily demarked which storyline you are in – but still, you have to keep them straight. He is kind enough to examine what the two story lines in each chapter have to do with each other. It is a nice mechanism of writing.

Yep, read it if you like. You won't be disappointed. (Caution – it is LDS literature with a lot of LDS specific imagery and metaphors.)

Reading List

August 23, 2010
At the Mountain of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft is supposed to be the link between the world of Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King, a great writer of terror stories. Hmmmm – I found this book tedious and, to tell the truth, boring and unbelievable, even when trying to suspend disbelief. Not that I can't suspend disbelief on the basis of monsters and undiscovered civilizations and anti-world history. I can. But there must be some reasonable probability on at least such details such as ,say, a time line. In this story, the main character deduces from looking at pictographs on ancient walls, the entire history of a fabulous ancient history of non-humanoids living on earth. In and of itself, that is not a basis for skeptism. But he does it in the space of a couple of hours. The complete history – of thousands of years – of an alien race – from pictures – in a couple of hours. Sorry, even though the story line has merit, and there is an interesting twist at the end, that one inconceivable part lost the story for me.
Ack! Too bad. No recommendation here. Better luck next time.

Quotes I Like

Jeffrey R. Holland
"An High Priest of Good Things to Come"
Ensign, Nov. 1999

"Even if you cannot always see that silver lining on your clouds, God can, for He is the very source of the light you seek.  He does love you, and he knows your fears.  He hears your prayers.  He is your Heavenly Father and surely He matches with His own the tears His children shed. . . .
Christ knows better than all others that the trials of life can be very deep and we are not shallow people if we struggle with them.  But even as the Lords avoids sugary rhetoric, He rebukes faithlessness and he deplores pessimism.  He expects us to believe!"

Travels with Lar

August 2 – 6, 2010 – Kansas City

This was a business trip. I went to teach a class at a company where I had been before – in a room I had taught in before – to people, most of whom, I had taught before. The class went very well. It was a classified location, so I couldn't take in my own lap top or even my cell phone. During the day, I was isolated.

Kansas City in August is not a great place to be. It was hot. It was humid. It was really pretty boring. That just about describes it.

Coming home was an adventure. I went to the airport on Friday morning. I turned in my rental car and then found out that my flight was cancelled and I had to wait 6 hours for another flight. Imagine if you will, 6 hours in the Kansas City airport. Not the best day of my life - but not the worst.

Reading List

August 5, 2010
The Scorpion Fish by Nicolas Bouvier

I looked through my book of 501 Must Read Books, and this one intrigued me in the list of "travel" books. I went to Amazon to see if I could get it. Yikes – the lowest price for a used copy was $87.00. A new copy was going to set me back over $150.00. Therefore, it came off of my list. Then one day, I found myself in a strange place called the library. Just on a whim, I looked for the book and low and behold, it was there, so I checked it out.

This is a travel book in the very loosest sense of the word. The author, a young man from Switzerland was "touring" the sub-continent of India when he reached the lower end and decided to have a go at Ceylon (Sri Lanka), "The Pearl" island at the end of the continent so he could see some newlywed friends of his. In fact, he did not have a good time. He got sick. He was poor and lived in poverty. His newlywed friends left the week before he got there and he had few acquaintances. His story is one of living in a hot, bug infested land that is ruled by tradition, poor officials and black magic. I did not get the actual tone of the book until about a third through it, thinking that he must be writing tongue-in-cheek. When I decided he was writing what he really though, I had to read the first part again.

What did I think of it. Some is well written. Some is a little crude. I imagine that if I was given time, I could find symbolism, but maybe not. It is almost a series of mere journal entries with no continuing theme, some of them written better than others. I could say I struggled to keep reading, but when it was all done, I still went back and read the beginning again. I think I would not have put it on the list of 501 Must Read Books – except that some of his language is really astonishingly beautiful – and some is astonishingly crude.

My recommendation – don't run right out and buy this one (Unless you have $100.00 or so you don't know what to do with – and then you could just donate that to me and it would be better used.) In fact, if I saw it in the library, I might also resist the urge to check it out.