Enough is Enough!

There probably isn't a person in the United States who hasn't heard about the upcoming election next week.

There also probably isn't a person in the United States who hasn't been exposed to the vitriol coming from those who oppose California's Proposition 8, which will be decided by California's voters next week.

Enough is Enough!

I hope and pray that the majority of voters in California vote in favor of protecting traditional marriage, and thus vote Yes on Prop 8. But, I'm not going to be surprised if the very vocal, very intolerant, and very selfish minority of activists and supporters of so-called same sex marriage and lifestyles may win this battle. They have been working for a couple decades to force their lifestyle onto the rest of us as "normal" and "equal". They have resorted this time to outright lies, outright hostility, and outright wresting of law by influencing (perhaps even with riches) elected officials, lawyers and appointed judges to redefine law passed by the voice of the people.

Enough is Enough!

They claim that anyone who opposes their viewpoint is intolerant, un-Christian, bigoted, and a whole list of other labels, thus branding people as nothing less than Nazis for standing in the way of their "rights". Perhaps they should read some history and see how they are really the ones who are behaving like Nazis, full of hate, "charismatic" dogma, and trampling the law of the land and usurping the rights of all they disagree with.

Enough is Enough!

We are not foolish enough to believe that the war ends if they win the battle of Proposition 8 in California. They will find every possible means to fight the established law of the land in every other state where the voice of the people has been given to define and recognize the institution of marriage as being solely between a man and a woman. The point of the matter is that no one is discriminated against under the law. No one who meets the established criterion is prevented from entering into a civil marriage with a member of the opposite sex, regardless of one's personal views on morality or one's claimed preference for wanting intimate relations with a member of the same gender. The rights of those who label themselves as gay, lesbian, homosexual, transgender, bisexual, etc. are not infringed upon simply because they want to have a "seperate but more equal and legally sanctioned" status for their lifestyle. The tolerance of their tyrrany towards anything and anyone that opposes their views is already beginning.

Enough is Enough!

All the sophistry of argument, false justification, short-sighted rationale, logical debate, and mincing of semantics or legalise in the world can not change the fact that long term, promoting same sex relations and same sex relationships as normal AND acceptable leads to the disintegration of society by attacking and perverting the most basic of societal units -- the family. I have noticed in the past weeks that regardless of the venue, wherever individuals in support of Prop 8 are coming together in the virtual world of the internet, opponents are co-opting the venue, particularly in the forum arena. "Shout and shoot them down!" seems to be the mantra and modus operandi of these pawns. What do they really think to win ultimately? Lasting happiness? It isn't going to happen, no matter how much you force your views, agenda, and lifestyle down everyone else's throats.

Enough is Enough!

Happiness comes only through living the commandments of God, even if you don't believe there is a God. One can still be happy by living in accordance with the laws He set before the foundation of this world. No manner of legislation or judicial action by man will ever change that. God established the family unit, with father and mother, before the foundation of this world. Societies and nations that have ignored this and sought to replace it in times past have perished. One doesn't need to look back to the ancient world to find examples, though examples are to be found there as well. Look at any nation in the last century that has sought to replace the basic family organization with the state. Are any of them still in existence? No. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (and satellites) were prime examples of this. Each of these nations either were destroyed through warfare or social implosion, and new nations (often with the same names) were started in their place.

Enough is Enough!

In the cases of contemporary examples, we have not seen utter destruction. Utter destruction is what happens when everything and everyone is destroyed. Completely gone. Kind of like in the wake of a tsunami. There are only two ways that this continual attack on the family by the pawns of the enemy of all mankind -- the adversary, he who was cast out of God's presence for open rebellion and for wishing to take away our freedom to act and not be acted upon, the devil, Satan -- will end. The first is for those who are calling evil good and good evil to cease doing so and repent and bend their will to God's will and use some common sense to stop being so selfish. The other is that the more wicked part of the people will end up being destroyed, and they will likely take a fair portion of the righteous people with them in that destruction.

Enough is Enough!

Like I said earlier, you don't have to believe in God. That is your right. And the whole thing about seperation of State and Church is nothing more than the State can't force you to believe or not believe in a god or a religion.  It does not and never has meant that laws could not or should not be based on morals taught in and adhered to by people who subscribe to any variety of flavor of religious faiths.  The point is that the voice of the people is to be heard in making law, not the government, not judges.  Regardless of where you stand personally on secularism or moralism in government, mankind can not legislate away the consequences of actions that go against law that is outside the pervue of any mortal judge or lawmaker. And, like it or not, He has and does allow the "Enough is Enough!" consequences to happen when people do not change their attitudes and desires and actions and live in such a way as to be in minimal compliance with His laws. Just be aware, you will and do bring yourself and those around you suffering and misery through your selfishness. Telling (and forcing) people they have to accept your desire to have intimate relations with someone of the same sex as equal to the law of God concerning intimate relations and the family will never bring you happiness.

Enough is Enough!

And to the people who are members of The Lord's true and living church who can't believe His Prophet and Apostles have counciled members to stand in Holy Places and support passage of laws to protect the traditional definition of marriage, I have but one thing to say. You have failed to understand. We are not following blindly. We perhaps have a clearer vision than you do, because we put our trust in Him. It is you who are sifting yourself away as chaff in the winds of the philosophies of man. It is you who have created a god after your own image, rather than learning of God and re-creating yourself after His image. It is you who have failed to liken the scriptures and prophecies contained therein to yourself. It is you who are doing the modern day version of casting stones at the prophets, or shooting arrows at the prophet on the city wall calling and pleading to the inhabitants thereof to repent before it is too late.

Enough is Enough!

You may not see a correlation, as supporting traditional marriage definition and the sanctity thereof and of families may seem simplistic in preserving the integrity of a nation. But, by small and simple things, God brings to pass many great and marvelous things. There were many in ancient Israel who didn't see the correlation between casting their eyes on the bronze serpent on the staff Moses had prepared and being cured of snake poison. And the scriptural account indicates that all those who failed to cast their eyes on it died, while all those who did were cured.

It's a test. Get it? When it is all said and done, which side of eternal law will you be on?

"...as for me and my house, we will serve The Lord" (Joshua 24:15)

And, if after all this, you need a more pragmatic reason to support passage of Proposition 8 and vote Yes on any other legislation or law that defends marriage as solely between a man and a woman, then view this.

The Song of The Heart

I was asked following my last entry how music affects us having a passion in life. That is a fair observation and question, and I’ll try and answer as best I can. Just as there are countless others are more gifted singers or musicians than I, there are many more individuals who could give the topic a more cohesive, thorough, and accurate response.

The dictionary has multiple definitions for passion, often quite divergent of each other, everything from love, emotion, lust, to passivity, suffering of a martyr, suffering of Christ. So, maybe defining passion in context will help. Only part of one definition is true passion in the sense of life: “irresistible motive for a belief or action.”

So, if we are having passion in life, we are acting based on an irresistible motive. How does music equate to and create that motive for action?

The song of the heart is the key. What is the song of the heart? I believe it is what the soul truly desires, the inner heart of hearts that The Lord sees, even if we are blinded to it personally. Many people close off the yearnings of that song by running away from it. They find substitutes for it in a myriad of sins and other behaviors that are not healthy for the soul.

What does the heart of heart in each of us long for? Peace, love, harmony, true happiness. Most people long for that which was left behind when we were born into mortality. The song of the heart not only engenders many of those emotions, memories and attributes, rather it also acts as a catalyst to action in my opinion. Hence, music imbues passion in life.

There are gifted singers and musicians, and then there is the Song of The Heart. The two are not necessarily the same thing. Just because one isn’t gifted in the singing or playing department doesn’t mean he or she can’t take part in the experience.

Handel’s Messiah is perhaps one of the grandest pieces of chorale music ever written in my opinion. It is one of the few pieces that I think come close to the experience many of us were probably part of in the heavenly host who sang to the shepherds at the birth of The Savior. His coming was for all of us, and hence, I doubt that heavenly host consisted solely of foreordained members of The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Have you ever been part of a singing the Messiah? If not, you really should take part, even if it is just the Hallelujah Chorus (the most famous portion of it). Even if you don’t sing well, you should take part. Make the effort to learn how to sing better even. And if that doesn’t work, don’t worry. Why? Because of the effect the singing has on those singing. It is greater than the effect on those hearing. Trust me, even if compared to Luciano Pavarotti your voice could remove several layers of paint.

Like other pieces of great chorale music, it is hard to describe the energizing feeling one has by pouring their soul into the performance of the piece. One may put a lot into it, but the net result is more energy and exultation coming out than was invested. One wants to extend that exultation by doing more.

Okay you skeptics who still don’t believe me about music being a force of life’s passion… Have you never listened to a song on the radio and felt the pains of a breakup or longing for the love of that guy or gal who was not to be? Has there never been a song you listened to that didn’t get you so down or that was so beautiful you wanted to cry? Have there never been any songs that you couldn’t stand still and went “ahead and jump” in with an impromptu air guitar concert to? Have you never listened to music that got your blood pumping to dance, or to exercise, or to stay awake while driving long distances? Did you never put your left foot in, shake it all about, and do the Hokey Pokey as a child? Or did you never run away screaming in fright at the thought of having to square dance to some music in elementary school? Okay, you got me the last one… the thought of having to hold hands and get cooties from a girl or a boy during gym class was probably more a factor in the flight decision there…

Music is tied very closely to our individual songs of the heart. The song of the heart is our innermost righteous desires. Our innermost righteous desires are what fuels our passion in life. If our innermost desires have been allowed to become unrighteous, or defeatist, or clouded by negativity, it is likely our passion in and for life is also following those trends. And, in a downward spiral of cause and effect, we are probably listening to music that further darkens the pages of our individual song of the heart. And we know from the Gospel of Christ that our actions and deeds are based on our thoughts, and that our thoughts are based on our desires, and that when we come before Him we will be judged on all the above.

Music, carefully selected and applied, helps maintain the core of our soul, just as a good vitamin supplement helps maintain a healthy body. Music fuels passion in life, and in turn one’s passion in life reflects the song of the heart.

Passion, Music, and Life

I know... you don't need to remind me.  It has been a goodly while since I've posted anything.

I have been lacking anything meaningful to say.  As we would say at times (and were more often than not told by those we tried to teach) on my mission in Germany over two decades ago, 'habe kein Lust'.  Translated conceptually, that essentially means "have no desire."

Why have I been this way?  Well, I was laid off from my job back in April.  Many other people have experienced this.  But that doesn't change the acute impact it has on one individually.  In the long run, I know my being laid off is going to be a blessing, because I was stagnant with my previous employer.  I had a job, but that was essentially it.  There was no career progression going on.  I was not happy.  There was a lack of passion for what I did.

The past four months have been a period of introspection for me.  Particularly in August.  I determined that before I find another job, I need to find what I'm passionate about.  A friend of mine who is an executive with a division of a Fortune 500 took some precious time out of his schedule one day and talked with me.  His advise included showing what it is you're passionate about.

In other words, what is it I ' habe gerne Lust' (conceptual translation "have much desire") for.  It needs to be more than just the desire to have a job -- that goes without saying.

And it is hard to determine what that is.  My whole adult life has been simply having a job because it is a job and will reasonably pay most of the bills and put food on the table.  And going to school (both times, undergrad and grad school) was essentially simply for the privilege of being able to apply for a job in the market place.

What would I really like to do?  Well, if money were not a consideration, I can think of a couple vocations and pasttimes that I feel would meet the qualification of having a passion about something.  And, they wouldn't be self-indulgent either.  One of those might be as the prophet Alma desired, to be as an angel proclaiming the Gospel to all the ends of the earth.  I don't think I sin in that, because I know I am far from being anywhere near a situation where that would even come close to aspiring to anything beyond a grass grows greener on the other side of the fence thought.

This past Sunday during Sacrament meeting, I was truely trying to multi-task.  As Sunday School President, I was trying to finish preparing a Gospel Doctrine lesson I forgot to get a substitute for the teacher for until 3 a.m. that morning.  Yes, I awoke from my sleep remembering I had not done it.  Talk about revelation specific to a stewardship!  Also, I was trying (not very successfully I may add) to keep the 3 1/2 year old beserker warrior daughter from disrupting the whole congregation with her constant up and out of the chapel routine.  Somewhere in there, I was trying also to listen to the speakers -- don't ask me what they were talking about, I couldn't tell you, because the other two tasks were taking priority.

Then somewhere amidst all this, came the congregational rest hymn.  Really, a rest hymn?  Why do we call it a rest hymn if we stand to sing and the net result is to wake up the bulk of the congregation for the first couple minutes of the concluding speakers address?  Sorry, I am digressing again.  If I took nothing more to heart from that Sacrament Meeting beyond the hope I will merit the promises made in the Sacramental Prayers, the message of that hymn was like a light shining in the darkness... a darkness that had been so profound as to the point I had almost forgotten what the light was like.

I first started thinking how once in a student ward at BYU, I bore my testimony in kind of a proud manner about how "I felt I had communed with The Lord privately" through some music earlier in the day and how wonderful it was.  This was one of those pearl type things that one should keep to him or her self, but I was too young and spiritually immature to understand it.  When I saw that others did not appreciate or relate to what I was saying, I knew right away it had been improper to say anything.  But it was too late.  I couldn't go back and change the previous second.

So, this past Sunday as I was starting to wonder if this was going to be a similar thing, I thought absolutely not.  I will not allow this to turn into a cheesefest of emotional dribble.  If there is anything here that is beneficial, it will come unconstrained.

And it did.  I was reminded of the first time I was moved by the simple beauty of the message in the hymn.  It was at a ward party when I was a teen and the YM's President sang it as a duet with his primary age son.  That YM's President went on to eventually be called as an Area Authority and member of one of the Quorums of Seventy.  That is not why I remember it, but I am reminded of it everytime I ever see him again or hear about him.

Secret Prayer

1.  There is an hour of peace and rest,

Unmarred by earthly care;

'Tis when before the Lord I go

And kneel in secret prayer.

[Chorus]

May my heart be turned to pray,

Pray in secret day by day,

That this boon to mortals giv'n

May unite my soul with heav'n

2.  The straight and narrow way to heav'n,

Where angels bright and fair

Are singing to God's praise, is found

Thru constant secret prayer.

[Chorus]

3.  When sailing on life's stormy sea,

'Mid billows of despair,

'Tis solace to my soul to know

God hears my secret prayer.

[Chorus]

4.  When thorns are strewn along my path,

And foes my feet ensnare,

My Savior to my aid will come,

If sought in secret prayer.

[Chorus]

Text and music:  Hans Henry Petersen, 1835-1909

That this boon to mortals given...

What is a "boon?"  The dictionary defines it as a couple things, namely "A benefit bestowed, especially bestowed in response to a request" and "A timely blessing or benefit."

Prayer is a boon then, and not just an exercise in obedience.  And the unspoken part of this hymn is "For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart, yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads." (Doctrine and Covenants 25:12)

Music has the inherent power to enlighten us, to invigorate us, to activate the passion within us.  When the tool is abused, it can be used to confound us, to depress us, and to steal righteous desire from us.  There have been lots of addresses talking about this by modern day prophets and apostles, so it isn't like it is a brand new concept.  But it is always neat when one has one of those subtle "Aha!" moments and the spiritual pearl is shared again, fresh once again for the umpteenth time.

I definitely think that as I continue working on finding a new source of gainful employment, careful utilization of music as one of the support structures for me will be a great boon, much as being more mindful of attending to secret prayer.

Passion, music, and life.  They are all related.  Do you have anything you would like to share on the subject?

Change 3.0

This past Sunday, I attended part of Gospel Doctrine in my ward.  Yes, even we Sunday School Presidents have to show up once in a while to Sunday School.  One of my counselors was teaching a youth class, and the other sat in on the english speaking Gospel Essentials class.  Gospel Doctrine was being taught by a substitute teacher, and I couldn't determine what lesson he was on.  I think he was one or two too far in advance of where he should have been because of the scriptures we were talking about.

Notwithstanding, what he was presenting in the discussion was quite pertinent to the whole concept of change and repentance.

When we make the changes in our lives, turn around from that which draws away from God, repent and receive forgiveness, how much do we really endeaver to turn from that for which He has forgiven us?

It had not really occured to me how the following particular scripture passage really does liken unto us in our day:

Alma 24:15-17

15 Oh, how merciful is our God! And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords are made bright, let us hide them away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us and has made us clean thereby.

16 And now, my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us, behold, we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us, behold, we shall go to our God and shall be saved.

17 And now it came to pass that when the king had made an end of these sayings, and all the people were assembled together, they took their swords, and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man’s blood, and they did bury them up deep in the earth.

If you are not entirely familiar with the scriptural context and story this painting is based on, please refer here for more information.

God is indeed merciful to us!  And do we all not go through great effort to have the stains of our sins taken away from us when we repent?  So, do we -- as this group of people who converted to living the Gospel over two millenia ago did -- actively work at removing from our life the sins and temptations that we have repented of?  Or do we risk falling back into those sins by keeping some sort of physical or emotional or mental vesting of them?

I doubt any of us (those who are reading this and are members of His Church) are guilty of murdering others.  But the actions and habits which we have repented of or are in the process of repenting of have indeed been the source of spiritual wounds to others, let alone causing the flow of blood from The Savior.  Don't you agree?  Those things that we work at casting aside that are unholy and ungodly, impure and unrighteous in any aspect, how much are we really casting them off?

You know, it can be hard to let go.  It can be hard to let go of music or TV shows or other things that are not appropriate.  After all, maybe we paid hard currency for them.  It can be hard to let go of the verbal sparring and feelings of empowerment that come putting someone else in their place.  After all, maybe we had classes in debate and think it is all just in fun.  It can be hard to give up thinking bad thoughts about others.  After all, maybe that is where we feel comfortable and secure about ourselves.

And after all, shouldn't there be some sort of contingency allowance in case this gospel living thing just doesn't work out, right?

It is a lot easier to consider that these ancient people could easily give up their physical swords and weapons of war... probably because it isn't us and I doubt any of us own firearms or knives or the such for the purpose of fighting.

But they did so, even at peril of their mortal life.  And a fair number of them willingly let their enemies slay them rather than take up their arms again as the way to defend themselves against those who sought to do them harm.

We are not so different from those people who lived in the times of Alma the Younger and the sons of  Mosiah.  We need to see that those who wish to do us harm do not necessarily do so with weapons, but with pop culture and attitudes and other "things of the world" that are all geared to move us ever so slightly one or two degrees off course.

In the long and short of it, there is no room for contingency in repenting of our sins.  Let us repent, seek forgiveness, and be done with that thing which takes us from God and the great reward and bounty He wishes to bless us with.

I encourage you, dear reader, look at what your personal modern day equivalent of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis swords and weapons of war are.  Look hard and deep at what you can cast into the depths of the earth and covenant with God not to take back up again as a sign of your gratitude for His forgiveness and to keep yourself clean.  Will you take courage and rely on His strength to do this, even in the face of open (and perhaps even hostile or worse, subtle) ridicule and scorn from those who are of the world and in the Great and Spacious Building?

Change 2.0

The Blunt Edge now not only counts number of visitors to this little universe, it also maps the geographic proximity of your IP address...  the pair 0'noids just love that!

  

Yesterday, our discussion in Priesthood meeting kind of centered on the topic of change, specifically where I left off in my previous posting -- that of changing ourself.

There is a scripture that illustrates a certain juxtaposition of mortal change and eternal perspective.  Mormon 9:18-21

18 And who shall say that Jesus Christ did not do many mighty miracles? And there were many mighty miracles wrought by the hands of the apostles.
19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.
20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.
21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.

What I take from this passage is God is unchangeable, but if we as mortal beings are unchanged from one condition to another, then that which is classified as miracles cease.  Miracles are events that we acknowledge as having source in a higher plane of existence or power.

Verse 20 is the key here.  The question I want you to consider, dear reader, is what is the greatest miracle?  Is it the parting of the Red Sea by the prophet Moses?  Is it the prophet Elijah calling down fire from heaven to consume the alter of and priests of Baal?  Is it the Lord's healing of the blind man from birth?  Is it the knowledge mankind has been given to harness some of the natural world in technology that benefits our life?

I submit to you that ultimately, the greatest miracle of all is the gift of The Atonement.  The miracle is in the fact that for nearly every sin an individual can commit, he or she has the opportunity to merit forgiveness from God, the Unchangeable One, upon conditions of repentance... or in other words by changing one's self.

In a recent General Conference address, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, a living Apostle of the living Jesus Christ, stated "Small errors and minor drifts from the doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ can bring sorrowful consequences into our lives.  It is therefore of critical importance that we become self-disciplined enough to make early and decisive corrections to get back on the right track and not wait or hope that errors will somehow correct themselves."

Now, lets liken verse 21 to ourselves.  Do we really believe Christ, doubting nothing (of what He has promised and taught)?  I think it is essential one really look at this seriously.  If you do not believe with full trust, how will you ever be able to really make the changes in yourself necessary for the miracle of being forgiven to happen?  The answer is you probably won't.  One who chooses not to believe also chooses to give up hope.  And where there is no hope, there is no desire.  And where there is no desire, there is no active faith.  And where there is no active faith, there is no change.

And where there is no change, there is no miracle.

But, there are miracles.  One can develop and exercise active faith from just the desire.  One can have a sure hope that it is possible and not just a nice thought.

There are countless souls who can testify of being forgiven, which is evidence that they have changed.  I am one who has felt that sweet miracle on more than one occasion.  In German, the concept used for repentance is "umkehren", or to turn around.  That is even more descriptive than "change".

I used to think that being worthy of "heaven" meant never being marred by sin, transgression, or imperfection.  I have since learned, as President Uchtdorf reminds, "The heavens will not be filled with those who never made mistakes, but with those who recognized that they were off course and who corrected their ways to get back in the light of gospel truth."  There is no cause to hope that any of us who are accountable have not caused The Savior some degree of anguish and pain when He was paying the price for our individual sins and transgressions of Gods laws.  Wouldn't it therefore be better to be amongst those who turn around and have the miracle of the full effect of the Atonement change your soul?

The promise of forgiveness is universal to all who will turn around and change.  Don't assume you can not turn around though.  Quoting President Uchtdorf "...there are those who have neglected to make appropriate course corrections and now believe that they are too far from the Lord's way to ever make it back... No matter how terribly off course you are, no matter how far you have strayed, the way back is certain and clear.  Come, learn of the Father; offer up a sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit.  Have faith, and believe in the cleansing power of the infinite Atonement of Jesus the Christ.  If we confess and repent of our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness... It may not be an easy path... You are not doomed to a tragic end... your greatest friend is the all-powerful Creator of the universe... He understands your sorrow.  He knows your grief.  He and our Father in Heaven will bless, comfort, and strengthen you."

Change

You may have noticed some changes recently.

Here at the Blunt Edge, a few widgets have been added.  I've seen them elsewhere and thought they were kind of neat.  Each has a certain utility, like the clock thingee (so you don't have to look at your watch or time piece on your computer), the visitor counter thingee (so I can tell how many times people are looking at the blog), the bookshelf thingee (so I can influence you to read some of the same books I have read), and the music playlist thingee (so that you can properly enjoy your time here with a selection of specially selected music).

I also added a couple of widgets that are pretty meaningless (the myminicity and myminilife thingees).  These last two have absolutely no purpose.  They get boring after about five minutes.  They may go away eventually...

I've gone a couple times in the past without posting anything for months at a time.  This time, it is because the firm I was employed with back in April informed me my position was being eliminated and my services to the firm were no longer needed.  In the minds of those who were tasked to show improvement in expense, I was an unnecessary widget in the structure of the company.

Hell, I could have told them that a couple years ago... it doesn't take a moron to see that the model the company was following said so... just an underpaid, underutilized moron with an MBA who is in a dead end situation.  But bless the hearts of my managers, they ostensibly defended my position for several years until there was no more lower fruit to shed.  I suppose I should be grateful for that, and I am since I had a job.  But, what they didn't do me any service in was keeping me as isolated as they did... stagnating my professional growth and development and training in the process.  It has made it that much harder to:  a). find a new job with a new firm; b). feel confident in my own abilities and transferable skill sets; and c). have the salary track record to negotiate a more equitable salary and compensation package than what I was receiving.  It is said one should not say anything negative about a previous employer to anyone, and I try not to.  

And this is the only thing I will say about the firm that ticks me off.  They claim loyalty to their employees, but do a very poor job at building their confidence.  I think most people who work for this firm for a long time, despite how competent they are, are ill equiped for the change of the finding out you are dispensable.

So, onward and upward in the topic of change.

We are in times of accelerated change.  The economy is being hurt badly by a variety of factors, and for the bulk of the population, things are getting tough and tougher.  I find it interesting that Ralph Waldo Emerson stated "Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?"  Maybe not, but it is certainly easy to remember when times were not as hard and money not as scarce.  Those that are well to do, those that are in power in corporations and in government, those who do not or have forgotten what it is to struggle -- they don't have a real clue what the rest of the population worry about, so things don't seem that bad.  And yet, those same people politic for elected office under the banner of "change."

Let's talk a bit about politics.  It is an election year here in the United States of America.  We will have elected a new Chief Executive of the nation by the end of November.  We will have "change" indeed there.  And each side is afraid of the "change" that the other side is promising to bring to the office to "fix" the problems.  And yet, in all the political rhetoric that has been going on for the past year between candidates and those that live and breathe to talk politics, there is not much "change".  In my mind, Winston Churchill kind of sums it up the situation well: "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."  We are turning into a nation of fanatics following fanatic ideology... left, right, liberal, conservative, libertarian, reactionary, anarchist...  It is downright scarey.  Compare our political situation to pre-WWII Germany.  Compare our social and cultural situation to pre-WWII Germany.  Change for just the sake of change -- or ill-advised change -- is not a good thing when it comes to running the country...

Personal change is not necessarily a bad thing, though.  Indeed, we're commanded, admonished, encouraged, and pled with to change in the scriptures by The Lord and His prophets.  Just a little thing called repentance.  Not an easy thing to do though, despite the fact we seem to live in a world of constant change.  Ironic, isn't it?  That which we can control the best is typically the thing we find hardest to accomplish successfully.

Sometimes, it takes an epiphany of sorts to help us start looking through the proper part of the glasses that have slid down to the bottom of our nose.  That ancient Chinese philosophizer Confucious (you know, the old guy with the long fu-manchu... not the Sew-crates dude Bill and Ted brought back from ancient Greece to help with their history report) is credited with saying "They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom."

I have a lot more I want to say about the topic of change, but I've really been fighting the feeling that doing anything creative in nature is wasting time when I need to be securing a new job ASAP.  It has been nearly two months now, and well, some days are more promising than others.  It is amazing how much desire to accomplish anything can be drained by the smallest of rejections or perceived rejection or lack of fit.  That is a condition of the change I have been forced into I will not miss when I am gainfully employed again.

Anyway, I'll pick up again here soon and continue with some of my thoughts on change.  Let's leave the topic for now with the following thought from Euripides "There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change."

Since spring is in the air...

Finally, after the long winter of 2007 - 2008 with the ample snow fall that experts say is going to help raise the lake levels in most of the Great Lakes a few inches over what they were last year, spring is starting to show up.

It is quite evident in the fact my tulip and daffodil bulbs are putting out leaves already.  Cursed Ninja Deer already nibbled off all the shoots in one flower bed (no Bambi-san, don't even try to blame it on the mutant squirrels or other non-human creatures in the area... you left your hoof prints in the dirt).  So I retaliated by spraying everything with Patented Anti Ninja Deer Tonic, and for good measure, sprinkled the beds with Anti Mutant Squirrel Seasoning.  By the time I was finished, the beds almost looked like a steak liberally seasoned with McCormick's Montreal steak seasoning.  I'm still watching you... You toucha my flowers, I make-a them taste and smell nasty to ya Bambi-san!  And I'll be doing it again every couple weeks to keep you from feasting on my tulips when they bloom...

It is also quite evident spring is soon to be here in full force because some of my giant hyacinths and a few crocuses are blooming already.  I've never figured out how I can plant dozens of crocus corms in the fall and end up with only a dozen or so that actually fulfill the measure of their creation in spring.  In the pictures in Ideals magazines, it is so beautiful to see the tiny crocuses blooming in snow.  In real life, though, looking out on a Sunday morning in the middle of April to see a dusting of snow and snow falling is far from a beautiful thing.  I don't care who you are.  Even native bred Michiganders get sick of winter after a while.  There is a reason we Buckeyes call this "that state up north", and it is not only because of college football...

And here is one of the final evidences that spring is soon to be here... the ingredients for Michigan Roadkill stew are becoming more plentiful and in greater diversity.  During the winter, it is pretty much limited to Ninja Deer washouts with the occasional ring tailed, masked nocturnal bandito.  Now, we are getting some fowls of the air like robins and starlings, maybe a mallard or two... yes, soon, we'll even get some of them Canadian Geese, eh?  And then there are those crazy critters... the one that 1608 explorer John Smith describing as "hath an head like a Swine, and a taile like a Rat, and is of the bignes of a Cat" in Map of Virginia, with a Description of the Countrey, the Commodities, People, Government and Religion... the opossum.  Thems as knows are sure to tell ya it tastes like chicken, but just a smidge gamier, maybe like jack rabbit.

Yes, I know that spring is soon to be here.  See, the other night, I was reminded that God indeed has a sense of humor.  And some of that sense of humor has to be similar to that of a pre-adolescent boy... 

For you scientific sorts, here are the formulas for the worst possible stink bomb imagineable...

I thought God's stinkbombs were gone after the last neighborhood culprit became an ingredient for road kill stew last summer...  But I was wrong.  I smelled the tell tale scent of burning tires wafting in through cracks in the house the other night.  Wanting to make sure it wasn't something in the dryer downstairs, I opened the front door.  And there it was... I was completely choked up with emotion, realizing that Winter was indeed over.  So moved, I closed the door abruptly so no one would see that the wafting scent of Spring in southeastern Michigan had brought tears to my eyes...

Of Fugue Serenades in the Wee Hours

On the not so blunt edge of the universe, I get the singular privilege that I don’t think anyone else in our ward has. Since I drive our daughter to early morning Seminary every day, I nap in the meetinghouse’s lobby while waiting for Seminary to end. This year, the father of one of the freshmen in Seminary has decided to sometimes stay around and practice the organ in the chapel. Saves him gas, as he put it.

This man does not just play the organ. He makes music with the organ. He is a very accomplished organist.

I even caught him fiddling with and playing an antique organ in the chapel at Deerfield Village one Saturday! We had entered the building as he was first starting, and the organ wasn’t sounding right. I thought “My goodness! That sound track recording playing on the intercom sure is garbled and warped! They should shut it off.” Member of the Museum or not, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to be behind the ropes in that historic building, and pretty sure he wasn’t really supposed to be fiddlin’ with the workings of that organ. But, he adjusted it in a couple minutes, and it was funny to hear “Come, Come Ye Saints” booming on an antique pipe organ in an old Protestant chapel now in a museum setting. Some other museum patrons entered the building and were probably thinking this was normal to have an organ concert as part of the exhibit. Of course, they had no clue what the music was that was being played. For fun, I snapped a photo of him up in the organ loft. Me, use it for a mock case of blackmail? Shame on you for even thinking that… even if I giggled at the thought when I snapped it!

Anyway, it is almost as if organ music is a part of his soul. I think the man could probably take apart an organ and put it back together!

So, while I nap in the mornings while waiting on my teenaged Seminary student, I am not listening to mere rehearsal of hymns. No sir! This is music that will most likely never be heard in a Sacrament Meeting setting. I am hearing him practice parts of a classical piece he says many in the organist world classify as perhaps the most challenging and difficult of pieces ever composed for the organ.

Some of the sections sound almost like show tunes or what you would have heard by the theatre organ in those grand old theatres. It is hard to sleep when that is wafting through the air getting adrenaline pumping. Some of it sounds like funeral dirge. That is as equally hard to sleep through, because with me laying down in the dark -- all bundled up in my down coat to stay warm -- the mind has to work to remind my subconscious semi-asleep self that I’m not a corpse in a casket in a funeral home. And some of it is sudden starting and stopping, as this virtuoso of the organ writes his own arrangement of certain parts of it.

But, on days I am so tired it is a miracle I’ve driven to the ward meetinghouse with my eyes open, it doesn’t really matter. I’ve learned snoozing through a fugue under construction is much easier and more restful than trying to ignore the occasional teenaged boy squeals echoing down the hall from the Seminary class.

Of the Blunt Edge World

A kind of singular event happened three weeks ago. And it has been swirling near the tops of the rose colored mists in the center this universe. So, maybe I can talk about it in conjunction with some of the other random swirling mists down here on The Blunt Edge.

A couple families in my ward have blogs as well. You may have seen them by checking my Recommended Reading section. They are a lot more prolific than I, and they utilize their blogs in a much different way. Their blogs are much like a sliding glass back door into their virtual family room. Nice feeling of where friends are welcome to come by and visit. The authors (the wives in the respective families) of these blogs made a couple posts that were just too… um… um… Oh what is that word I’m thinking of…?

Sweet? Precious? Funny? … Nah that makes it sound too sissy. Okay, so how does a guy describe the impression of something just oozing with all that good old maternal love and familial discovery and pleasantry without making it sound like he is inferring there is something Molly-ish about it? I don’t know that a guy can effectively. One of those natural man type things I think. It is kind of like trying to indicate you appreciate the beauty of the loving touch and art form represented in scrap-booking even if one does not find a lot of personal utility in it as a personal hobby.

Swirling mists of rose-colored bluntness indeed! I just derailed myself! Okay, getting back on topic, how about the word “Endearing?” Yeah, that works for me to describe the posts of these dear, kind-hearted friends. Anyway, in the typical grand Mr. Sensitive fashion Yours Truly is legend for; I post a comment to their respective blogs under my incognito persona sharing in the humor, forgetting they don’t know who it is. One of them informs me at church she temporarily freaked out they were being blog-stalked until her husband reassured her who it was. I had made mention to the other friend of her post and my comment next time I saw her at Church so that she could put it all together without freaking out, but had forgotten to mention it to the first.

It is strange in an ironic sort of way. The level of privacy I have erected to protect myself and those close to me – from those in the virtual world who may be anywhere as innocuous as vultures and scavengers to the truly vindictive or of evil intent – comes back to bite me in the bum like a deerfly! Write it on a post-it note and staple it to my forehead… Remember direct, discrete AND timely personal communication in the real world is always a good idea.

Perhaps a virtual deerfly bite is worse than a papercut from a blunt edge!

Of Fitting In

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about social networks and the need we all have to feel included as part of a group. We all seek to be part of what is inclusive of us, and feel let down if we don’t seem to feel like a part of this group or that group. We wonder why in our rose colored view, the group and its members are so exclusive. Why don’t we fit into the pecking order, or better yet, why is there a pecking order to begin with?

We are social beings. It is in our nature. It is not just our mortal physical and emotional need to be connected to others of our species. Hopefully without this sounding too Zen like, our social nature is a part of our spiritual essence.

This is just my opinion. I think we all were quite socially active in the pre-existence. No, we weren’t all the social butterfly, center of attention type, but we were most likely like innocent young children are here with other children. They are not strangers to one another. They are fresh from a higher plane, fresh from our Father’s presence, so you got to know they are reflecting a lot of how we socialized there.

Something happens to each of us here, though, in our mortal development. It changes this sort of innocence and us. We are conditioned to be distrustful of others we don’t know. The concept of “A stranger is just a friend I haven’t met yet” becomes foreign to us. The conditioning has a profound, yet often unrecognized impact, on each of us. And, the impact is as individual as each of us are, because it gets filtered through our own rose-colored glasses of perception and experience and plastered back out on the world without our taking notice.

To tell the truth, there are many times where I come away from some activity or meeting at Church feeling like I am still somehow on the outside of the “in” group. Even if it is just for not having any one to regularly and socially talk with in the hall. And, if I let it, it could get me down. Sometimes I let it. But, most of the time, I choose not to. The Lord is no respecter of individuals. He looks on the heart of the individual. So, I try to adjust my outlook to match.

Sadly, there are people who really do let this facet of feeling “out” of the group interfere with their ability to grow spiritually, impact their testimony of and relationship to The Lord, and in being part of Zion.

And this all begs the question, why do some people feel the need to establish a pecking order in the first place or to maintain it? Maybe they have been or allowed themselves to be conditioned to the point that they are a stranger to themselves and their only sense of self or self-esteem is in creating an artificial construct that prevents the erosion of the sandy foundation they are on.

Perhaps part of our learning curve is to get over the tendency we have to isolate and let ourselves be isolated from others. To learn true charity and to become more like a Zion people, maybe our learning to look at the hearts of individuals (as well as ourselves) instead of respecting individuals (or groups thereof and our apparent lack of being part of them) is part of the way to truly appreciate others in our lives and the cornucopia they represent. The next few articles I post to the Blunt Edge are going to share a little of the cornucopia I am blessed with. Maybe it will help you to recognize some of the richness you may be missing or downright ignoring from your own universe.

Of Foisting Foolish Foibles...

The Prophet Joseph Smith said: "The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done." (History of the Church, 4:540)

The man who said this was a Prophet of God. A man, who chosen by The Lord, was schooled and trained by Him and heavenly messengers from a young age. A man who despite all the greatness of impact he had on others, was always humble and cognizant of his position and that ultimately, he was not indispensable in The Lord's work.

In fact, the catalyst that initiated the beginning of the Restoration of Christ's full Gospel, authority, and kingdom upon the earth, came about because this man, while but a boy, first asked a question of God in full humility. A couple years later, having as he himself described, been involved in activities that would be categorized as youthful foibles, he asked God what his standing was before him. Joseph made it clear he was not guilty of anything bad, just that "I was guilty of levity, and sometimes associated with jovial company, etc., not consistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one who was called of God as I had been." (Joseph Smith History 1:28) This was a 17 year old boy who was feeling this!

Oh the integrity of that young man! While scores of individuals and groups seek to discredit Joseph as being a charlatan and worse, I will maintain my position of knowing Joseph was called of God, and that despite his imperfections, he was indeed a true prophet. His life and attributes are worthy of emulation, and I hope to someday be worthy of dwelling in the same realm of glory he and all other true and faithful servants of The Lord have inherited by the Grace of God and by being cleansed in the blood of The Lamb.

In today's world, there is a great famine for integrity. The doctrines of relativism abound, and Satan is having a hey-day with people of all religious persuasions. It is not just those who do not consider themselves religious anymore. Certainly not just those who consider themselves athiests.

In the last couple of days, the latest bad press story aimed at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been the discovery that sometime in 2006, a trio of full-time missionaries allegedly physically damaged a shrine owned by a Catholic parish in Colorado. There are photos that were posted somewhere on the internet that also appear to show the trio being disrespectful of the parish's chapel and altar. The parish has voted to press charges. I do not know if it is simply against the three men, who clearly behaved foolishly and without integrity, or if it is towards The Church in general.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter to you or me who the charges are leveled at. We, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are a peculiar people. As such, we as a people are subject to greater scrutiny and scorn when one or some amongst us do something that is stupid, wrong, or worse -- criminal. So what that the anti's and disgruntled apostates take this and use it to hammer the members, missionaries, and Church at large... it won't stop the work from going forward though. It will not ultimately hinder the work or progress of the Church in building up The Lord's kingdom.

Unfortunately, there are some among us who unconsciously infer the above cited statement by The Prophet Joseph Smith means they can act and behave without thought of the consequence. It has likely been that way from the beginning of this dispensation. Well, sure it has. Weren't the early Saints driven from Missouri as a result of their pride, sins and transgressions? (see Doctrine & Covenants 101 and 105)

We as individuals and His servants are not to go forth with brashness, scorn for others, or pride. We are commanded to do our duties with humility and charity... as The Master whom we serve did during His earthly ministry.

What went wrong with these three men (behaving as spiritually immature children)? Where was the integrity and common sense that should have been there for three men who were called by Him and set apart from the things of this world to be an example unto the world as they acted in the role they were supposed to act in? All kinds of excuses can be made for and about what they did, but the fact remains, they acted poorly.

Parents, leaders, advisors, and anyone else who influences youth...

... you do those you mentor no service by not teaching and expecting responsible behavior from them, and heaven help us if you have taught the wrong concept of responsible behavior!
... you do those you mentor no service by rubber stamping them through programs and cutting corners on requirements for awards, thinking that spirit of the law always supercedes the letter.
... you do those you mentor no service by indulging them by providing Pavlovian rewards for good behavior, like have some candy for bringing your scriptures.
... you do those you mentor no service by not making consequences stick for bad behavior, or worse if the consequences you do apply have no teeth.
... you do those you mentor no service by ignoring the ease with which teens who are bored and have led fairly comfortable lives fall into attitudes and habits of disrespect, because afterall they aren't really being prideful, right?

And yes...

... you do not stand morally blameless when stuff like what these three did happens if you did not labor dilligently within your stewardship.

Of a Penny for Your Thoughts

I just came across a news story this afternoon. A piece done by that paragon of journalism and reporting news that is newsworthy and helping the little guy understand... Sixty Minutes.

The story is a topic that irritates the stew out of me. And, as typical of most media these days, the story reported it from essentially only one angle. What is interesting, is that this story seems to be rehashed every couple years.

Seems there are those in our great nation who feel the need to remove the penny from our monetary system. Yes, there really are those who advocate getting rid of the 1 cent denomination from our currency.

Their arguments seem so eloquent and educafied. The penny is economically unviable. The penny costs twice as much to make as its face value. The penny is valueless. The penny is inefficient. It has outlived its usefulness in our economy. No one uses them.

I'm not going to address each of these in depth, but I'll respond to each one.

Economically unviable? If the U.S. Mint were only creating pennies, then yes. But they don't. First, the Mint is not in the business to turn a profit. Second, even as acknowledged in the story, the cost for producing anything larger than a nickel in currency is merely a fraction of the face value. Hence, in the cumulative effect of creating coins and paper money, the Mint is not losing money.

The penny costs more to make than the face value on the coin? If there really is a problem with the raw materials going up in price (which raw materials by the way are not a fixed cost but are market based pricing), then let's make the coin out of a less expensive metal. I hear that the environmental crowd is always supporting the use of recycled plastic and tires in eco-friendly ways. I'm sure the technology could be used to create new pennies out of old pop bottles and the used tires that don't get shipped to 3rd world countries for resale where the tread wear minimum isn't as stringent as the U.S. Anyway, since we aren't on a gold standard (or even a silver, bronze, or copper standard), there is really no intrinsic value in the actual material of the coins used anyway, so it isn't like saying this here penny is 1 cent worth of gold / copper / nickel / whatever.

The penny is valueless? Value is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? Stephen Dubner, co-author of that hit best seller book on apparently everything people need to know about, Freakonomics (Oh, by the way, I haven't read the book mentioned, so for you educafied sorts, that probably means all my comments here are automatically nullified... you need not read any further), thinks that because of inflation, it is not worth anything... and you can't buy anything with a single penny anyway. Oh puuulllleeeezz!

If there is no value in a penny, which is the base denomination of our currency, then how can there be any value in any multiple thereof? A penny is the measure for 1 in our monetary system. A dollar, is not a 1, but a 100. I admit, I don't know the word for it, but in math, I think it is conceptually something like decimals or base 10 or something like that. Even if a dollar is the 1, then unless we want to radically change our economic system to where everything can only be greater than or equal to 1, there will be the need for a penny. As long as there is the chance there will be a fractional dollar, the penny is necessary and has value as a measure of 1/100th of a dollar.

Of course, Mr. Dubner, the net cash from royalties you receive on sales of your books could increase if the publisher now has to figure it based off the nickel instead of the penny, don't ya think? Say you're contracted to get 4% royalty of the $15 wholesale cost of each book sold to retailers... you're making $.60 / book. That is easy. But say you get 4.2% royalty off $15 / book... instead of the $.63 / book, you can now expect to receive $.65 / book since they have to round up to the nearest nickel. That is an extra $2.00 per 100 books sold profit in your pocket. to put that in value terms, that is a couple extra bean burritos at Taco Bell... Of course, the publisher could change the way they figure your royalty and say it is on total volume sold or total dollar value sold, in which case you still only get $63 for the 100 books sold. Major bummer, dude! The penny is not valueless in the sense they can be cumulatively redeemed for something of value in goods or services...

The penny is inefficient? Okay, that is just stupid. Anything that involves the transfer of goods and services is inefficient if you want to use that argument. Jeff Gore, a young bio-physicist at MIT, really has too much time on his hands if he can come up with a formula to show how much money people lose each year thanks to the penny. Funny... the pragmatic part of life seems to indicate that no one is really losing any money or time on a daily basis because we have pennies.

The penny has outlived it's usefulness? Okay, let's look back at the argument about a penny's value. Just because we had a 1/2 cent coin for a few decades early in the nation's history doesn't mean the penny no longer has utility. Remember, the penny is the 1 in our monetary system. If their is no penny, or 1, then everyone is going to be hurt. It does not make things easier for anyone except those who don't like to carry the coin. Gasoline retailers still sell their core goods on 1/10th of a penny. And every single government entity that taxes operates on the mill basis (also the 1/10th of a penny).

No one uses them? Everyone uses pennies when they have to, just like everyone uses cash when they have to. The only ones who don't use pennies are those who don't need to worry about pinching pennies or relying on a budget.

Here are the reasons I think pennies should stay:

1. Prices go up to whatever the new bottom denomination is determined to be... say a nickel. Those who are selling are not going to absorb any loss by lowering to the nearest nickel... that is not the "capitalist" way, they will raise to the next nickel, or maybe dime.
2. Tax rates and actual taxes go up, because now everything has to be on the basis of 5 cents instead of 1. Where will it be most noticed? In sales tax, which is a use and consumption tax. Everyone will feel it, particularly those who have the least amount of cumulative pennies in their piggybank.
   
3. Inflation increases exponentially as everything increases in price and the buying power of the dollar is lessened. In other words, get rid of the base 1 denomination, and every higher denomination gets devalued as well. Oh yeah Mr. Freakonomics... that is real smart!
4. Those who control money (e.g. banks, big business, etc.) are not going to suddenly start recipricating the raise up to the nearest nickel / dime in what they have to pay to their customers. Do you really think that a bank is going to start paying you interest in nickel amounts? No, they aren't going to want to round up and give you 2 or 3 cents more, and they certainly won't get away rounding down a 1 or 2 cents worth of interest your money earns. But, on the other hand, they will love raising their "fees" to the consumer to help cover their increased costs... You know, along these same lines, those banks and credit cards that are doing things like rounding up the amount of the transactions made on a card to the next dollar and "depositing" those fractional dollars into a "savings" account for you are already operating on this model. They have created more work for themselves (what was one transaction now has suddenly become three), and you as the consumer are paying for it for the token promise that they are supposedly helping you be thrifty in saving some money and earning a few shekels worth of interest over the long run. Ummm... yeah...
   

Anyway, I think it is foolish to go down the path of getting rid of the penny and thereby changing our monetary system without really changing how the economy interacts with and uses the monetary system. You are free to disagree, but ultimately, the penny is a measure of value, and is the base of measurement for our monetary system.

Less precision in any system is not a good thing, except to those who will benefit from the coarser granularity.

If it makes sense to get rid of this measure, we may as well get rid of some other measures... say the gram from metric system of measuring mass... the inch from the English system of measuring length... the second from the measure of time... the cubit from the Biblical system of measuring arks... or number of curses uttered under one's breath as a measure of the severity of a paper cut...

Of Justification...

Are we justified in any way for lowering a standard simply because we don't make the honest effort to meet it?

Here are some scenarios of things one can often come across in the work and education world as people seek to cut corners.

• If I don't want to follow directions, is it okay to create an alternative plan?
  
• If I am too lazy to complete a task, is it okay to do the job half-way or not at all?
  
• If I am full of hubris, is it okay to treat others disdainfully?

Probably not...

So, here are some scenarios, probably more important in the eternal scheme of things.

• If I chose to cast stones, is it okay for God to extend mercy and forgiveness to me?
• If I chose to hold hatred and pettiness in my soul, is it okay to hack at another's breastplate of faith?
  
• If I ignore the commandment to love others, is it okay to expect others to treat me kindly?
  

Probably not...