Hide and Seek

One day, to amuse ourselves at Dad's music store/Margaret's book store we, children, decided to play hide and go seek. It was very long ago, but I still remember it because  of the epiphimatic  moment. My older brother Jonathan decided to hide in what was pretty much plain sight, and yet he was the last one found. I realized a great truth about everything that is. If we suspected that he would be easy to find. He would have been.

Later in life I used the similar technique with course work. I established myself as a good student, and then attempted trying out a hypothesis. I decided to not only do as little work as my peers, but to actually do less. It was causing strife that I always got a's when everyone else struggled to even pass. I turned in what seemed to me to be obviously a failing work, but I still got an A although there were many many red marks, I was given the benefit of the doubt. It was assumed I meant brilliant things, that were not said, etc. It was a true principle established through trial, that others see what they are looking for and are often blind to what is. so, even on this paper, I got the highest grade in the class, putting forth the least effort. I ofcourse, never did this again, but I realized that reputation has more to do with things that what is, it just sort of how the mind works... like My older brother, he had the reputation as being extremely clever and the best hider, so no one thought to "seek" him in plain sight under a table near Margaret's cash register.

War - Civlizations

Ok,I hid this post about the corona virus under a different title, that it might be read and thus considered by others (rather that instantly rejected by well-thinking folk as yet another unwelcome opinion about the whole Covid19 thing).

My thoughts originated in my thoughts about various empires and war tactics. As I considered them all I set one as most horrible above all others. The tactic of simply starving an enemy who could be beaten no other way seems sensible, but cruel. One likes to fight for their beliefs but, simply being deprived would squelch out an enemy's desire as well as death inflicted by another means.

as I was thinking about war tactics and evolution, I thought that I have never yet read the great book "The Art of War". perhaps I was ready to comprehend more than I would have if my thoughts had paused on it's pages previously. Still, constantly in the back of my mind is how cruel it is to starve someone to death...

Instantly my mind flickered to the war being fought right now! We have turned to fight other battle to avoid a war which must be lost. Or need it be? There is a battle that comes to mind between a Celtic tribe of France and Julius Caesar where the Celtic tribe had ceased an advantage, and so Caesar simple blocked off supplies and the battle was no longer fought with weapons but through patience. The Celtic war lord realized that he was going to loose, this is where my metaphor begins. So, he keeps on fighting to the end? No. He offers himself up in hopes of preserving his way of life and in that sense, he never looses although he had to surrender the battle.

I think it is fair to asses that mankind has lost again to a plague. It is in my way of thinking that the best strategy would not be to try to eradicate or escape it's touch, but say, ok, you win. No more unnecessary death especially via metaphoric starvation or being cut off from one another. It sounds cruel, death usually does. There are casualties of war, but that does not mean stop even trying to fight, but accept that your cause is right and achieving it might mean loosing your life. 

My thoughts, echo those I recently read where it was suggested that we stop isolating ourselves and lower our shield , masks, and other weapons. let the virus sweep through and move on. Most will be stronger (What doesn't kill you makes you stronger), though, there will be casualties, but if I could somehow do a poll, I bet  most actually looking at potential death, would prefer it to a life where not all even could survive. It is like asking a more infirm person, if they would prefer to be transplanted into a more youthful body, nd allow that person to die so they can live. Obviously, they would not want that.

I have a lot more to think about, and do today, but I wanted to share that thought as it progresses.

TRUE faith

I must admit that True Faith by New Order is probably my favorite song of all time, but I still haven't realized the great ideas encapsuled in that song, which will likely occur to me one day as I ponder how the song got it's name. Originally, I just liked it cause something about the video struck me as incredible... I digress... 

So I was thinking heartily about faith and what I wanted to teach about it and I realized a huge shift in understanding hinged on the word "true". It is  memorized by most Latter-day Saints that Alma taught that faith is a knowledge of things not seen which are true. Now, let's journey back in time...

Still with me? ok. It was a Stake Conference maybe a few years ago, I was growing upset because typically, every single word spoken is dead on with my notions of w hat is true, but when they proceeded to talk about and establish what faith was, I got a bit upset, because I had always thought that faith was knowing something you cannot prove, so any belief was faith, but every single definition that they gave was a definition of faith in Christ. I accepted that it was most essential of any other faith and of course "faith in Christ" would be the subject at a meeting of faithful members of Christ's church, but I felt like because it did not click when they defined Faith as being Faith in Christ, Someone ought to be made aware of this "injustice". But, just as I was feeling that argumentative feeling start back up I realized that I would be sure not to err in teaching faith in that manner. To my surprise, when I was thinking about how I would present an object lesson for my kids to first understand the concept of faith. 

I set out  to define it precisely. I started with a scripture in Alma (whom I dearly love as a great teacher and purveyor of truth) that stated:

And now as I said concerning faith—^afaith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye ^bhope for things which are ^cnot seen, which are true.

I realized instantly and everything clicked. I knew that the things I had been taught were not biased, but according to this scripture merely believing a thing not seen is not faith. It is only faith if it is true, and the only true thing is Jesus Christ, so believing in Christ IS faith, believe in other things is merely belief. It seems I had been wrong in my definition which is why the two definitions (the one I had vs. the one presented) caused discord, but this evening, my peace of mind has been increased greatly due to a single word that I had over looked -- this is similar to how it is commonly quoted that Money is the root of all evil,when truthfully it is the LOVE of money that is the root of evil.

Weekly worship

If you only worship weekly then you wordship weakly.