C.S. Lewis Quote:

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods or goddesses, to remember that the dullest or most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are in some degree, helping each other to one or another of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection due them that we should conduct all our dealing with one another, all friendships, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Native cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life to ours is as the life of a gnat. But is immortals we joke with, marry, snub, and exploit.”
C.S. Lewis

FAITH IN DEMOCRACY

About once year or so I read an arcticle that is a watershed event of understanding for me. This article was one of those. It is certainly written from a specific viewpoint, and intelligent people might disagree on the topic, but I think it is well written.

Is about American liberal views of religion as being hostile toward democracy, how that assumption runs contrary to history, and how how that assumption is an obstacle for Americans in trying to have intelligent discussions about the role of religion in emerging democracies in the middle east.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/006/291jlfnf.asp

Speaker for the Dead

I wrote a review for Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead for Scott Danielson's website, SFFAudio.com.

Here it is

Here is the main page to the site
http://www.sffaudio.com/

Where are they now?
(Glory-Day Ramblings, so if you aren’t on the list and get irritated when people make obscure inside jokes you might not appreciate the post).

(make sure and check out the "comments" at the bottome of this post. I started laughing so loud the people in my office wondered what was going on. Laren mentioned some of his memories, I hope the rest of you do the same.)

I had the best group of friends in grade school/high school/early college that I have ever known anyone to have. I thought I’d review what we are all doing nowadays. If you’re a high school friend of mine and your not on here, it’s probably because I don’t what you are doing. Leave me a comment and let me know.

I’m going to put 1) the nickname, 2) what they are doing now, and 3) a reference to a memory.

If I got your information wrong or you don’t want your name on the internet let me know. If I messed up on a name or occupation let me know too. It would be typical for me to do something like spell someone's name wrong.

Shane Hayes
1) “Mr. Ed” – (don’t ask where that came from, you can’t handle the truth.)
2) finished college and runs a Hunt’n’Biz business; Hunter extraordinaire. Mission: Tennessee.
3) bootleg fireworks entrepreneur (it was “highly” illegal); and no, Shane, I didn’t hold your girlfriend’s hand in the back of your car . . . or did I? And I'm the one who shot the pheasant!

Garth Steed
1) W.E.S., Mango
2) owns his own farm; kills not-so-innocent rabbits and coyotes. Mission: Vacaville California.
3) oh, the blood of so many pumpkins is on our hands! Can’t . . . get . . . them . . . clean. Garth did the over-the-head, behind-the-back pass that let me get a dunk at the end of a tournament basketball game.

Laren Boyce
1) Aircraft – (ask him where he got that name)
2) travels to places like China to find the right kind of packaging material for his company; golf, tans (Shane would call him a metrosexual, and he would be right in the best sense of the word.) Mission: Oakland, California (Cantonese & Mandarin speaking).
3) “funny you should ask,” One, one good friend, ah, ah, ah, ah. "Thank you officer, may I have another?"

Justin Pabst
1) nicknames based on “Pabst” beer, which is odd since none of us drank. Or “Justine,” which wasn’t really funny either. I bet Terran or someone has a better nickname for him.
2) runs his own stucco-kind of business (Stylo Wall Systems) and he is honestly a master at his craft. His work is extremely high-end; plays when his wife thinks he’s working. Mission: Denmark.
3) thank God we didn’t kill anybody with that brilliant toilet-paper-across-the-road-prank! Talked me into leaving my car in an obvious place when we tried to toilet-paper Erica’s house again, which led to the car chase. How we didn’t kill ourselves and everyone around us I’ll never know. “Just a minute, I need to take a shower first” meant “It’ll be a couple of hours yet, so get comfortable” in Justin-speak.

(Those toilet papering incidents deserve their own blog!)

John Radford
1) I don’t remember what we called him, probably something based on his red hair
2) I think he manages a Barnes and Noble in the Tri-Cities area in Washington State. Mission: Michigan.
3) um, remember when I drove your motorcycle in the canal? Sorry about that.

Rhett Lee
2) Owns a framing company (RNL Builders?) in Utah County. Mission: Argentina, Bia Blanca.
3) Rhett was a childhood friend of the quality they make movies about. His parents thought I was a bad influence, and they were probably right. We owned Menan through grade school. Remember when the bus drive pulled over and shook a stick at us? Quote from hunter’s education class: Teacher: “Now guns are . . . “ Rhett: “fun to use, fun to use!”

Layne Taylor
2) I think he teaches Ag somewhere . . . let’s see, last I heard it was in Colorado I think. Mission: can't remember -- someone remind me.
3) I remember having a lot of fun with Layne. I can’t remember anything extra funny or traumatic.

Matt Hancock
2) He is a Social Worker. I think he is a School Social Worker or School Counselor in Eastern Idaho. Mission: Mexico (Mexico City?).
3) I’m sure we did plenty of deviant things in scouts. Repressed memories . . . beginning . . . to surface. Oh yeah, he about killed me racing his old white truck. Well, he just turned off the engine when it kept accelerating. I would have panicked and rolled the truck or something.

Terran Lohman
2) He is a Parmedic?/Fire Fighter in Montana. (Is this you you in the blue hat?) He is the only one who can beat my work stories (like the one where they had to do a jaws-of-life thing to get a 400 lb. man out of his home). Mission: Sao Paulo Brazil.
3) “I’m going back to Idaho, to Idaho, to Idaho, to get some spuds,” or “down, double D, double down, double trouble, double rubble . . .” I failed you, Terran. I should have blocked the shot you put in the wrong basket back in Junior High. Fumes from Fresh Pack made it so I couldn't think straight.

Russ Tibbits
1) Tibbie
2) Just moved to Morgan, Utah to teach Seminary. Mission: Argentina, Mendoza.
3) just how many Chevettes did that guy own? And did any of the seat-backs work?

Mitch Jephson
1) Lightning Boy
2) He is a Chiropractor in Rigby, Idaho. Mission: Phillipines.
3) Mitch is probably the one that came up with most of the nicknames for the rest of us that actually stuck. He and John and I used to be in scout together. When camping once he was holding on to a fallen tree, around the stump that was too big for his arms to reach around, and was about to fall into the Snake River by the Twin Bridges campground. John and I were laughing so hard we couldn’t pull him up. He was laughing too.

Mike Hinds (me)
1) Mike D., after the Beastie Boys guy.
2) I’m a Marriage and Family Therapist in Logan, Utah. Mission: Taiwan, Taichung.
3) There was that one time we went to that one place . . . whew! Good times.

Between us we speak seven languages (Cantonese, Dutch, Spanish, English, Mandarin, Portuguese, and Mitch speaks some Filipino language – maybe Tagolog?). We ended up a pretty diverse bunch. Not bad for a bunch of rural Rigby kids. Again, as I review this list I’m amazed what good people I had as friends. Any one of these people is someone you could trust your life with (um, except Justin – see above).

How Gullible Are We?

(emailed to me by Shane "Mr. Ed" Hayes)

A freshman at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair on January 26.

In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical "dihydrogen monoxide." And for plenty of good reasons, since it can:

1. cause excessive sweating and vomiting
2. it is a major component in acid rain
3. it can cause severe burns in its gaseous state
4. accidental inhalation can kill you
5. it contributes to erosion
6. it decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes
7. it has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients

He asked 150 people if they supported a ban of the chemical.

One hundred forty-three said yes
Six were undecided
Only one knew that the chemical was...

Water!

The title of his prize winning project was,

"How Gullible Are We?"

He was attempting to show how conditioned we have become to the alarmists practicing junk science and spreading fear of everything in our environment.

The conclusion is obvious.

Kristi H.
District Conservationist
USDA/NRCS
Panguitch, Utah

Viktor Frankl Quote:

Pleasure is a by-product, or side effect, of the fulfillment of our strivings, but is destroyed and spoiled to the extent to which it is made a goal or target. . . . Man can only actualize himself to the extent to which he fulfills meaning. . . . Man should not, indeed cannot, struggle for identity in a direct way; he rather finds identity to the extent to which he commits himself to something beyond himself, to a cause greater than himself.

from "Psychotherapy and Existentialism"

The Lives of Those Who Achieve Great Things:
(from a newspaper article)

"One survey of people who have achieved great things showed some common characteristics among them, including:

• A major childhood challenge that had to be overcome.

• Belief in and the ability to follow an "inner voice."

• A belief that achievement for its own sake is more important that material or other rewards.

• A belief that the process they follow to achieving things is as important as the achievement.

• A willingness to persist at something difficult when others give up.

• A willingness to listen and learn from others.

• A quest for constant improvement in the way things are done.

• A strong sense of responsibility for themselves and their actions.

"Children who lack the desire to achieve also show common characteristics, including:

* A willingness to cheat.

* Avoiding things that look challenging.

* Choosing a path that requires the least amount of effort.

* Pleasure-seeking.

* Erratic achievement.

* A fear of emotional intimacy.

* A tendency to push others to make a commitment so they don't have to

"Stress and difficulty can be great teachers if parents can refrain from constantly paving the path for their children, he said. In many instances the best response to childhood complaints is a simple one: 'Work harder'."

The Woodsman
with Kevin Bacon

The Woodsman is an excellent film. It is about a sex offender that is released from prison and is trying to integrate back into society. It is not a warm-fuzzy movie, as the most discerning of you may have already guessed, but it is not as dark as, say, Fargo or 8mm.

Except for the therapist, the movie is extremely accurate. I think the movie has angered some people because it makes the sex offender into a real person that you can care about on some levels. It doesn't, though, excuse or minimize any of his behavior. It is gripping simply because it is true. It shows his thinking errors, how people respond to him, how he struggles with relapse, and so much more. The lady who becomes his partner is exactly a woman with the kind of issues that would keep her with an offender.

When you get to one of the scenes in the park, you will probably feel extremely uncomfortable, but keep watching, it's very powerful. On the DVD you can watch an extended park scene, and I really wish they would have used that one instead, but it is very good as is.

And the therapist? *sigh* I won't go on a rant, but that is NOT what therapy is like at all (I do therapy with sex offenders). Overall, though, it is powerful because the rest is so true to life. I'm going to edit out some of the steamy sex scenes and use it for my sex offender group.

Iranians in the U.S. During the Hostage Crisis

I just went over to the local sandwich shop to grab dinner so I can work into the evening. The guy who owns it is interesting, but he talks my ear off everytime I go there, so I avoid it sometimes. When I stepped in the door he was talking to a couple also buying dinner. I picked up from their conversation that the owner was Iranian. I knew he had been in this area for a few decades, having originally come here for school. He had just taken a citizenship exam and grilled me on a few questions (I passed). He complained that most people he asked didn't know the answers and they were Americans. It reminded me of the Simpsons when they were deporting illegal aliens and Moe said, "They ain't even bothered to learn themselves the language!" and Homer replies, "Those are exactly my sentimonies." Touché

We got talking about Iran. He said that while he was at Utah State chaos broke out in Iran, during the time American hostages were being held there and Carter bravely rescued them (I'm into the whole revisionist history thing). He said that the Iranian students didn't want to return to the chaos.

The problem was that their visas only let them stay if they were students. Solution: stay a student. He said he knew one guy who had seven bacholor's degrees. At the time the plan for most students was to come and get a bachelor's degree, then go back to Iran. They didn't originally have the agenda to get Ph.D.s, but they wanted to stay and apparently a graduate degree was more appealing than multiple bachelor degrees, thus many Iranians at school ended up getting graduate degrees.

Roger opened a sandwich shop (and I strongly recommend trying them if you ever come to Logan -- Logan's Heroes) and married a borderline woman who left him and told the FBI he was a terrorist. This was before terrorism was so "in," but still it was unflattering to the tune of being detained and interrogated until they figured out he in fact did not own a machine gun and run a training camp up Logan Canyon (although I've had my suspicions about that scout camp on Bear Lake, Camp Hunt . . . hmmm). In any case, that is just his side of it, but if he is lying it is such a good story that it deserves to be believed.

Anyway, pending a background check that can take up to five years now, congratuations on passing your citizenship exam Roger, and welcome to the family. (It is largely dysfunctional but the best damn family on the planet.)

But don't take my word for it. If you have an hour stop by and he'll tell you all about it.

The Case For Democracy

I just finished reading "The Case for Democracy." I was way more interesting than I thought. I figured I would agree with its premise before I even started it, and that was true, but this man's history is fascinating (jailed Soviety dissident to Israeli government figure) as is the fact that it is an insider's account of what has been happening behind the scenes of the Israeli-Palestenian conflict over the last couple of decades.