Musings on Life and Living

Yesterday was Easter Sunday, and our ward had a Sacrament meeting devoted to music and messages about the events leading up to and following the Saviour's death and resurrection. Gretch and I are in the ward choir, so we were a part of the music. And last week I was asked to be one of the speakers. I know that we use the word "talk" in the LDS church to describe sermons, but I like to think of my talk as my Easter sermon. The topic I was given was... actually, no; I'm not going to say what my topic was. It annoys me when people do it in their talks, so it would be silly to do it now. For those who continue reading, I'll let you decide what my message was. I gave no formal title to my sermon. When I am given the opportunity to speak in Sacrament meeting, I spend all of the time between the invitation and the day of the meeting contemplating the topic. I read what the Scriptures have to say about the topic, I read relevant passages from books I have acquired, and ...

As I am pretty certain everyone reading this blog knows, I am an active participant on several different blogs, many of them related to religion, politics, education, and social issues. In a recent blog post at By Common Consent, a Mormon blog, about immigration, a nugget was posted by a (to the best of my knowledge) drive-by commenter, ranting and raving about "illegals" ruining our nation. Here is the verbatim post: Do illegals pay social security? Millions of dollars are sent back to Mexico to their families. And their are jobs besides farm jobs that that citizens haven’t done because wages have been depressed by importing them at a cheaper rate. A condition of higher unemployment means that any race, Irish etal takes opportunities from those who first deserve them. Eventually, the citizen would take any job to survive if they hadn’t already been taken by then. If no citizen needed that job, then I wouldn’t care about that aspect of it. But their is a coverup of statistic...

It is a few days past the middle of April. We had some wonderfully warm and sunny days, then the weather turned north and it got cold, rainy, and grey. Last night we had severe thunderstorms that knocked out power in some communities (although, fortunately, not ours). We are among the many of North America who really wish spring would just get here and stay for a couple of months and then turn into summer before it cools off again and we prepare for another winter that will, inevitably, be cold and miserable. Back when I was in high school (over ten years ago--that's right: this May is the 10th anniversary of my high school graduation), I was actively involved in the school plays and musicals as the Chief Spotlight Operator. I had tried out for a play my freshman year and, upon not making it, was encouraged to sign up to do lights with my friend Jacob. The current spot light operators were both Seniors, so the drama/art/woodworking/who-knows-what-else teacher, Mr. Hershberger, af...