Conference Weekend

I'm Mormon & just spent the weekend with friends listening to Conference. I enjoyed many of the talks - but one in particular made me laugh. It was the Young Women's President. She talked about hiking with her presidency. Then a picture of them hiking showed up - I laughed - thinking of them dragging a photographer with them on their "spiritual" hike. I'm bad and probably going to burn. But I don't like pre-staged stuff - it seems so fake to me. I know the message she was giving was good but it hit me funny. Especially the photo of the baby blessing - from above - I can picture the photographer following her around with a ladder to be able to take the best picture.

I'd like things to be less staged and more "real" but oh well. That's life.

It's been a while

Maine in the Fall

I've not posted for a while - I've been back to Maine for a visit - then catching up with work since I've been back. Time passes us by. Both my parents are close to 80 and wondering where the years have gone. I wonder too. Luckily the memories remain and we can enjoy those.



Will write again soon.

Doing What's Right

It seems the vast majority of people fall into two "camps"
about what is right,how to vote, and what to do.
Those that follow the established "politically correct" view
and those who rebel against this view.
However, I've meet a few souls who try to do what's right
regardless of which "camp" endorses it.

I hope to be one of these souls someday.

Transitions

I've been thinking aboaut transitions lately. A couple of people I know have died and are transiting to the next phase in thier existance.

The thing that enters my mind is how the people left behind have to transition into new phase of life. One without the loved one who has moved on. I have no great insights - but am just wondering how we can move from one phase to the next sucessfully.

I think it's important to kept the 'true' image of that person with us. All the good and the bad. We remember the joy and love they brought us, but it's important not to make them into a saint who gains enhanced "sainthood" the longer they are dead. We have to look to others to replace the interaction we had with those who passed or suffer alone. And no one will ever live up to an image of a imagined "saint".

After, an appropriate morning period (different for everyone), we need to bring the love and lessons learned forward with us and not let them hold us back from new wonderful experiences and let's face new horrible experiences also.

Time

I'm listening to Stephan Hawkins book - A Brief History of Time. It's interesting and fun to think about time and space and how it all works together. Could we go back or forward in time if we could travel faster than the speed of light? Who knows?

But right now, we can't go back in time to change our decisions. We can fix some things, change our ways, and make some things better. However there are things that can never be altered. I was sitting in a hospital one time after my Mom had knee replacement. She was in a lot of pain and under pain meds. I was thinking at the time that there was no way to change the decision to have the operation. It can't be undone. If something went wrong now it went wrong. Nothing we could do would change that. As it happens everything went well and she is happy about having the operation. The point is a few decisions in life are irrevocable and those are the ones we have to be careful about. We can't decide and just see how it goes. I can't say what those decisions are for anyone but myself. But, "Let's be careful out there." We have to take chances and go for it sometimes, but I hope we do our best to make the right choices and take responsibility for them. And be willing to accept the consequences. I hope I'm not starting to sound to existential, I believe in a moral code, but many people would benefit by accepting responsibility for their own decisions. I'm planning on working on it anyway. Sorry about the rambling nature of this post. It's the mood I'm in.

Secrets

I work in an organization that seems to revel in secrets. While there are times it’s necessary to keep things private to protect organizations or people safe from harm that nefarious individuals or groups would do them, often secrets are kept for no good reason at all. And I know people have a right to their privacy.

BUT

I’ve often seen people who would tell you that they know something but can’t tell you because it’s ‘confidential’. Their eyes would be glowing and the smile upon their face would remind you of a small child about to dive into a room full of their favorite candy. Why such glee over keeping a secret? Perhaps it’s a sense of power and entitlement, or a feeling they are ‘special’ for being in the “know”. Most often, when I’ve found out the ‘secret’, I’ve wondered why hide information, it’s not a big deal or something that ever needed to be held in ‘confidence’.

What are the real reasons ‘secrets’ are kept?

To protect something or someone from nefarious individuals or groups.
To have power and control over individuals.
To make ourselves look better.
For personal gain.
For selfish pleasure.
To hide our true selves.
To hide our bad decisions.
Plus many others.

What are the dangers of secrets?

People make bad decisions because they don’t have all the information.
Fear of the unknown.
Distrust.
People don’t feel committed to an organization or family or marriage when those you are involved with don’t trust you with information.
Misunderstandings and interpretations of what’s said and what’s going on.
Divorce.
Poor Morale, anger, disillusionment.
Drop in employee productivity because of all of the above.
And I’m sure many, many more.

You’re saying so what? What is the point? The point is we should encourage openness and sharing of information with others. Ban “secrets” where possible and think twice about the secrets you keep from those close to you.

Silence

“Do not speak unless you can improve the silence” - an old proverb

Someone said something like - "I often regret the things I've said, but rarely the things I left unsaid" - I can't find the quote right now. Of course unsaid "I love yous" are sad - but in the heat of the moment of anger or disagreement, silence is often our best friend. It takes silence to be a good listener. It takes silence to be a good observer, a good student, and often it takes silence to be a good friend or partner.

Stop, listen, see, smell, learn, ponder and soak in what's out there to be found.

The Truth

What is the truth? I live in a condo and have a neighbor who's dog is tearing up the back yard - killing a young tree by chewing on it, etc. I think he's a bad neighbor who's bringing down the property values. The association has sited him a couple of times and he feels he's done nothing wrong and is being picked on. After all he doesn't mind the half dead lawn and his ripped up door. Whose right? The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Why, because we both really think we're right. From our perspectives we are. So we're both right and both wrong. ????

We go to the same church and have little if any chance to understand each other. So what chance does the world have? Little it would seem. But somehow we co-exist here in the US in some semblance of peace. It's been better in past years, and I wish it were better now. What's the solution? Who knows? It's a weird weird world.

Getting Started

Someone told me I should start a blog. They thought it would be interesting to read the things I think about sometimes. Well, life's weird. But it's all interesting at the same time. Wonderful and horrible too. So here goes. I'm setting up shop tonight and will try to do some basic layout and work on things as I go. I'll start with a picture of my sister and I when we were little. Guess which one I am. Life just got weirder after this. Someday I'll write some notes about it.