Two things

I've been reading a lot of Christian marriage blogs lately. One of my favorites is The Generous Wife because she has great things to say and also great links. :) One of the links hit me today as I was trying to prioritize the many things on my to-do list. It's called "Do Two Things Well." It's really short. Check it out.

Schubert and Bell

Are there any words to describe this?



If you think of any, let me know.

Reading

Looking back at books I've read recently and what I've thought of them, I was tempted earlier to post  that I am just a shallow reader. That thought depressed me because while I've never thought of myself as a deep, literary reader, I did think of myself as having some taste in books. Of course I like a lot of books that I would label "fluff" or "candy for the mind," but I still think of "Les Miserables" as one of my favorite books. So I can't be TOO shallow, right? Still, tonight I was ready to give up reviewing books altogether since I obviously have no taste.

And then I thought of a movie we saw a few years ago: "Music and Lyrics." It's not my favorite movie, but I really, really liked one part. Check it out from minute 2:10 to 2:52.

A: Oh, no, of course not. Pop is just for morons. Forgot that.

S: I didn't mean anything by it.

A: Brain-dead, or taken too many drugs. You know what I'd say to you and Sloan Cates? You can take all the novels in the world and not one of them will make you feel as good as fast as:

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day.
When it's cold outside, I've got the month of May.

That is real poetry. Those are real poets. Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, the Beatles.

****

So then I thought just because I don't agree with a literary body doesn't mean that what I like isn't as effective and powerful in its own way. I can list lots of books that are not "literary" that I learned so much from even if I got nothing out of Hemingway or Woolf.

And who decided who were the "great authors" anyway? Well, that's another discussion; one I have many strong feelings about. :)

Sacrifice

Having just read Dallin H. Oaks' talk from April 2012 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints entitled "Sacrifice," I've been thinking a lot about, well, sacrifice over the last few days. Some people have been baffled at why we "Mormons" do what we do. I thought Elder Oaks summarized it nicely:

I believe that Latter-day Saints who give unselfish service and sacrifice in worshipful imitation of our Savior adhere to eternal values to a greater extent than any other group of people. Latter-day Saints look on their sacrifices of time and means as a part of their schooling and qualifying for eternity. This is a truth revealed in the Lectures on Faith, which teach that “a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation. … It [is] through this sacrifice, and this only, that God has ordained that men should enjoy eternal life.”

(Emphasis my own.) What do we sacrifice? I think what is "sacrificed" is personal; basically we sacrifice our "worldly" desires or our "natural man" cravings for what we want more - becoming more like the Savior. I think this is so often misunderstood as us being blindly obedient. But when we focus on WHY we do these things, it is a beautiful gift from us and to us. The WHY makes all the difference.

Some Milton

Milton wrote a sonnet after he went blind entitled "On His Blindness."

WHEN I consider how my light is spent

  E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,

  And that one Talent which is death to hide,

  Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

  My true account, least he returning chide,

  Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd,

  I fondly ask; But patience to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need

  Either man's work or his own gifts, who best

  Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State 

Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed

  And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:          

  They also serve who only stand and waite.

Philistine that I am, despite the moving content, I STILL am annoyed that the end of the line is not necessarily where a natural pause occurs. I hate reading poetry aloud. In fact, if one were to describe me with a phrase, it would definitely not be something to the effect of "the soul of a poet."

With all my complaining, this does stir my soul. Maybe the cry of patience. Maybe the reference to the easy yoke of the Lord. Maybe the hope.

Still...

May I present one of my favorite poems?

I've got an itch, a wretched itch,
No other itch could match it.
It itches in the one spot which
I cannot reach to scratch it.

Brilliant rhythm. Succinct. Poignant. I love Jack Prelutsky.

Education

Education is the power to think clearly, the power to act well in the world's work, and the power to appreciate life.

Brigham Young

Found in an article by Henry B. Eyring

Self-discovery

"Between the ages of twenty and forty we are engaged in the process of discovering who we are, which involves learning the difference between accidental limitations which it is our duty to outgrow and the necessary limitations of our nature beyond which we cannot trespass with impunity."

W. H. Auden