Fahrenheit 451 Remember

I just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 for the third time and every time I read it I always find something new. This time was was no exception. As I neared the end this time I came upon an analogy that caught me and I have been pondering it for the past week.

Let me set the tone for you. Montag, the lead character, has just escaped town after years of being a fireman. Not a fireman as you know them though, a fireman who burns books because books make you think and you don't have fun if you think. There is a war starting and Montag is trying to gain knowledge and it is illegal to own books and he was caught with books. He escapes town and finds many people who have done the same. The following day the war starts and huge bombs destroy the city. As the men are looking at the city this dialogue takes place.

Granger looked into the fire. "Phoenix"

"What?"

"There was a silly bird called a phoenix back before Christ, every few hundred years he built a pyre and burnt himself up. He must have been the first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we're doing the same thing, over and over, but we've got one thing the phoenix never had. We know the silly thing we just did. We know all the silly things we've done for a thousand years and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, someday we'll stop making the funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them. We pick up a few more people that remember every generation."

What a great quote, I have been stuck on it for the past week. The main thing that I have been thinking about is the difference between us and the phoenix. After the fire we know what we have done and we can make changes. I can see in my own life how this works and how awesome it is. As we go through the refiners fire we are shaped but what shapes us is the experience and then remembering the choices we made. The next time that we come in contact with this same choice we can look back and remember what we went through and choose more wisely. How great is it that we can remember and because of that we can grow to make right choices?

This is such a great book and if you haven't read it you should. There is a lot more to it then what I have described but it really gets you thinking. I don't know if there is anything I could get out of reading it a fourth time but I am sure that I will end up reading it again later on down the road. As for now I am on to my next book Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

Everything's Coming Up Milhouse

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Growing up it seemed like my family was always fixing cars. I am not talking about just changing the oil, although we did do that as well. I mean whenever something went wrong my dad would have Marc and I out in the garage fixing whatever it was. From my pickup to the tempo we were always working on some car. I grew to hate working on cars, I hated that I wasn't very good at it and Marc and my dad were. I hated that it didn't make sense to me. I can't do things with my hands like Marc or my dad can and that was frustrating. I dreaded the days that were spent working on cars even though it was always with my dad and my brother.

Over the last few years we have had the money to take our car to a mechanic when it needed to be worked on and I have never been so happy. I have always said that I wasn't going to work on cars and since Becky and I have been married that has work for the most part. For the past week though our brakes have been grinding every time I touched them. It was getting bad and you could see the groves on the rotor getting worse. I called a few places to get them changed and the lowest price I could find was $235.00. We do not have that kind of money right now so I had to think of something else. I called around to some auto parts stores and finally found brake pads for $24.00. I told Becky that I thought that I could change them myself since I had changed brakes with my dad numerous times. We went down and bought the brakes and I would change them the next day. When I got up it was raining but I needed to get them done so I improvised and drove over to the church and under the pavilion where I changed the brakes in under 2 hours. I know that 2 hours is a long time but for me it is really good. I once left my pickup on blocks for two weeks because I couldn't get the old brakes off. When I came home Becky was so excited that I had changed them for so cheap she just kept saying how great it was that I had this kind of knowledge so I could save us some money when we needed it. As she was thanking me I just kept thinking about all the cars that I have fixed with my dad. I would not have any of that knowledge without him. It has come in handy a few times but never to save us money. A small fix here or there that has helped out, but this came when we really needed it. So thank you dad for making me hand you tools or hold the flashlight while you were working on your cars. The lessons that I have learned from working on cars are invaluable. Every time that I end up under a car I think about all the time we spent together.

THANKS DAD!

Rough Teachers Quorum

It was a rough day at church today. I have had some problems with a couple of my boys coming to mutual on Wednesdays. After a couple of months I made them co-captains over the varsity program and asked them to be there every week. Since that time they have come every week without fail, that was until the past two weeks.

I called one of the boys and asked him why he didn't show up and he told me that he didn't feel like it. When I got to the root of the problem I found out that he had a problem with the twins in our quorum and told me that he wasn't going to come if they were going to be there. The bad part about this is that those two don't come due to sports that conflict with Wednesday night activities. I talked to this boy about it throughout the week and he told me that he would be there the following Wednesday and not to worry about him.

Today that young man seemed really mad all through church. I thought that maybe he was mad at me for calling him out about mutual so I just proceeded with my other duties. When we made it to Teachers Quorum I went over some announcements and then the father of the twins (he is my assistant) called the boys out for not being prepared with the sacrament today. He talked about how it was a sin of omission and that included not coming to mutual. This boy who had been so upset all day BLEW UP at him and started calling out him and his boys for not doing their aaronic priesthood duties. Now to bring you up to speed, these twin boys are the first and second counselors in the Teachers Quorum presidency.

The first boy was livid to the point that I had to take him out of class and calm him down. This boy is such a great kid and could be a great leader but he lets his emotions get to him. Unfortunately for him, I see a lot of me in him. He is a great kid but he "isn't going to take any crap from anyone" so he tends to get a little upset.

On the other hand I totally understand where he is coming from. He thinks that we shouldn't be giving a pass to the two boys who are in the presidency and should be doing their duties. I had to apologize to this boy for not holding the twins to the same standard. Afterward we met with my assistant and had a discussion that didn't go so well so I sent the boy to talk with the bishop and I met with my assistant to let him know how I felt about his boys not being to mutual and taking care of their aaronic priesthood duties.

Things turned out well in the end and I learned that our bishop is amazing. He took this young man and told him how much he loved him and that he needed him to exercise patience and faith and the Lord would bless him. I can't convey to you the feeling that was in this bishops office but it was a great experience and I am so happy to be in the young men's program with these great young men. It also gives me the opportunity to work closely with the bishop and that is an awesome experience.

Just so there is no confusion.

I think that this whole thing is a joke. NBC gave Conan the Tonight Show and they should stick with him. I am not a fan of Jay Leno and most of my generation isn't.

Happy New Year! Belated Obviously

Well Happy New Year! I haven't been sure what to write about recently but I think that my blog has become very sad and boring. It seems that since I lost my job all of my post have been not so happy. Becky and I have been trying to look at the bright side of life, so we keep saying "It's 2010 and 2010 is going to better then 2009". So where do we go from here? I am not sure but I am going to try to blog more and be more up beat then before. We'll see how this goes but here is to making 2010 better then 2009!