Neal A. Maxwell

"Within the swirling global events- events from which we are not totally immune- is humanity's real and continuting struggle: whether or not, amid the cares of the world, we really choose, in the words of the Lord, to "care for the life of the soul." Whatever our anxious involvements with outward events, this inner struggle proceeds in both tranquil and turbulent times. Whether understood or recognized, this is the unchanging moral agendum from generation to generation."


Sunday, April 21, 2013

Passport Report


This was the most entertaining fashion show I have ever been to! It was completely different because there was only one featured designer (Rachel Roy) and the rest were RTW (ready-to-wear... opposed to designer or couture) labels being promoted, all of which are carried by Macy's. Sharon Stone emceed and started it off by inviting people to walk onto the stage and pledge $5,000 to aids research. It was impressive how many people did! Then there was $2,500 pledges, $1,000 pledges, and finally $500 pledges. A few gay couples walked onto stage hand in hand. It's funny how the fashion world's "good cause" is almost always directed at supporting the fight against aids. Obviously, this is because of the homosexual presence in the fashion community. It feels like being an aids research advocate is synonymous to supporting gays- and I don't like that. I could really confuse people by wearing a "YES on Prop 8" pin with an AIDS ribbon.
The celebrities Aaron and I saw were:
-Leonard Roberts from Heroes
-Kathy Ireland
-Dame Elizabeth Taylor
-Sharon Stone
-(and sitting directly in front of us) LeToya Jackson
I kind of got all star struck when I saw LeToya Jackson... and Aaron did make fun of me. But she was sitting RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! And, HELLO! She's Michael Jackson's sister. The other celebrities didn't phase me.... so, I'm not ashamed.
There were a lot of great labels that showed and fantastic guest artists that performed. Unfortunately, I was so engrossed I didn't get many pictures and the pictures I did get turned out pretty grainy. But honestly, I have never been so entertained. One minute there was opera, then punk rock, then little kids krumping. My mind was in a whirl.
Oh, and there was an amazing cirque-du-soleil-esque aerial show. I only posted this one picture of the guy, but there was also a girl who did impressive tricks on a hoop high off the ground. The runway show continued around and underneath them.
Aaron and I had been sitting on the fifth row, but it just so happened that we spotted two people on the front row leave so we snatched their seats just in time for the real kicker of the evening: the underwear modeling. The way they costumed up the girls reminded me of the Victoria Secret show's use of angel's wings. The title of this line of underwear was something like Tropical Jungle. Most of the girls had flowery branches on their backs.
And then, the guys came down the runway... walking through a waterfall at the stage entrance. I wonder what male models eat. They were all perfectly cut... but I didn't like watching them one bit at all. I closed my eyes for the whole thing... Yes, all of it.
Yes, this was a real snake.


Final Curtain Call
They're so skinny!
The best thing that came from this experience: Aaron mastering the runway catwalk... and practicing it all the way to the car... the whole way, in fact. By George, I think he's got it!
Posin'

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Mitt, Mitt, Mitt



I love this quite a lot.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Election Season

I'll try to make this short.

If someone asked you to give yourself a grade on how you've done at your job and you answered "I" for incomplete, that would mean you dropped the ball, right?  All the "Incomplete" grades on my college transcript reflect moments when I took on more than I could handle and lost myself before I got going.  In no case does an incomplete grade reflect a job well done.  Yet, this is how Obama feels about his performance the last four years.  But he still wants your trust and your vote.

As I've listened to the voices of conservative media abuzz with arguments against Obama, I've noticed something missing.  Rightfully, conservative voices are fixated on the failing and flailing economy.  The numbers (job growth, unemployment, etc) are so damning to Obama's case for himself.  And while I appreciate the concern about the economy, it isn't my number one complaint against Obama and his party.  My complaint is the turning away from the foundational principles that this country has been built on and the disregard for the constitution and what it advocates.  This turning away underscores a lack of historical understanding- missing the big picture of nations and the patterns of government throughout time all over the world.  I see the democratic party being lulled by a pied piper.  The sound of "affordable education,""health care for all," and compassionate social programs fall softly on there ears of those listening, but in the mean time people are led away from the great vision of America:  Life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness.

I don't appreciate that my government does not trust my compassion.  I don't appreciate that my government does not trust me and my community to love and take care of our own.  Yes, it sounds wonderful to guarantee all certain privileges.  But that isn't freedom.  And if we except that our government can dictate what privileges we will guarantee everyone, we are vulnerable to being forced to support those things that go against our values.  Whomever is in power will be able to force us to exercise compassion how he or she sees fit.  Not how we see fit.  Why should I be forced to pay for my cohorts birth control including abortions?  Why should I be forced to support my cohorts lives as they wallow in addictions and base lifestyles?  Is this the best way I know to change lives for good and to exercise compassion effectively?  No.

I also don't like that the democratic party tries to burden the American people with guilt for who we are and what our past has been.  They would have me carry a burden of guilt for all past and present imperialistic objectives.  Why?  Why would they have me feel shame for being an American?  Whom have we wronged?  They want all nations to sit at the table as equals and would like the United States to step down as the world power.  Why not raise other nations up with us?  How long did China maintain world dominance?  What great principle informs this desire to avoid greatness?  We are good people with good values who help other nations and are glad to do it.  Anxious even.

Okay, I'm done.  To bed.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The Moment of "I know."

Our stake presidency issued our stake a challenge to read The Book of Mormon (in four months) by stake conference.  I'm now reading 6 chapters a day to meet that goal and finish up in the next couple of weeks.  Reading through so quickly has allowed me different perspectives and insights; A few, I want to record on here.

If you are well familiar with the chronology of events in The Book of Mormon, skip down to the bottom.  If not, here's my mildly muddled recap:

I'll begin with Zeniff, a guy who led a bunch of people (Nephite people) to inherit a land he felt was rightfully theirs.  They got permission from the Lamanite king (i.e. the enemy) to peacefully have that land.  But when Zeniff and his people work hard and prosper, the Lamanites are intimidated by their growth and prosperity, thinking that these new folks in the neighborhood could become more successful/stronger than they themselves.  Against their word, the Lamanites drop battle on these hard working Zeniff-ans.  But the Lamanites lose.  In time, after more prospering, Zeniff confers the kingdom on his son, Noah.  Noah was a guy who thought there was really no such thing as wickedness.  (His dad, Zeniff, probably realized conferring the kingdom on his son was a poopshoot, but hope springs eternal for some parents.)  To Noah, morality and honesty were virtues wide open to interpretation.  He surrounded himself with people who thought like him and they: Lived. It. Up.  The people in his kingdom- these Zeniff-ans- followed suit.  They were probably sick of working so hard and being so productive.  (A feeling I can relate to.)  But then a guy called Abinadi comes and rains on everyone's parade telling them that there is such a thing as righteousness and wickedness.  He even told them about Jesus Christ.  This sounded like a fairytale to these Zeniff-ans and was easy dismiss.  They were having fun and enjoying life so there really was no reason to believe in this fairytale.  Abinadi was forced to go into hiding because the people hated him and his stories so much.  But after a couple years, he came back and said the same things.  This really got Noah's goat.  He became worried that if people started listening to Abinadi, it would diminish his own power and ability to do whatever he wanted.  So, Noah had Abinadi put to death.  BUT one of Noah's inner posse, Alma, believed Abinadi's stories.  This made Noah doubly mad and frustrated.  Alma had to hide from him and spread Abinadi's message to the Zeniff-ans in secret.  But a lot of people came to believe it.  They changed their lives and committed themselves to this Jesus Christ Abinadi had testified of.  When Noah found out, he sent an army to take out Alma and the followers.  This message Abinadi brought was like a rodent problem no exterminator could get a handle on!  But Alma's people escaped the army and found a place to throw down roots.  When Noah's army came back, a lot of people were bugged how extreme Noah had become.  They probably missed their friends who went with Alma and were worried about them.  One of these people was Gideon.  Gideon was a big deal among the Zeniff-ans.  He was kind of like a body builder.  He didn't subscribe to what Alma taught, but he hated Noah.  He thought Noah was the worst leader ever and not only incapable of his duties as king but immoral and dishonest.  Maybe it was the fact that Noah sent an army to kill some of his friends that made him snap, but Gideon knew Noah had to go.  So he pursued him, caught him, and just as he was about to push in the sword and end Noah's life, he freed him instead!  ...Only because, ironically, just at that moment they both saw the Lamanites approaching town fit to give battle.  Chaos ensued.  The Zeniff-ans were scattered and many were slaughtered.  Women and children were left to defend themselves as their poor-excuse-for-husbands ran and hid.  (Those men probably forgot what it meant to be a man at about the time they quite believing in such a thing as right and wrong.)  It was a huge mess.  Ultimately, the Lamanites made a deal with the Zeniff-ans to stop killing them for 50% of everything they had, payable once a year.  Since Noah was killed in the skirmish, his son, Limhi, took on leadership of the Zeniff-ans in their new life of half-freedom-half-bondage.  (Limhi was more like his granddad, Zeniff.  Although he loved his dad, he also realized he was a complete dud of a king.)  Things in his kingdom went as well as could be expected when you're in half bondage.  But in time, the Lamanites attacked them.  And things just got worse for the Zeniff-ans.  Their life of half-freedom-half-bondage became mostly just bondage.  The people begged Limhi for permission to go to battle against the Lamanties.  Limhi knew they didn't stand a change but the people wouldn't let up so he finally agreed to it.  As expected, the Zeniff-ans were slaughtered.  They didn't go down easy, returning to battle again and again until almost every woman in town was a widow and every child fatherless.  This is where they gave up and bawled their eyes out.  That's when Ammon found them and helped them escape back to Zarahelma, where the Zeniff-ans originally came from.  What happened to Alma and the Zeniff-ans that followed him?  They settled and farmed and grew but then the Lamanites found them and put them into bondage.  That story is kind of ironic too because Alma's friend from Noah's inner posse had joined the Lamanites and they set this guy, Amulon, to rule over Alma and his band.  Small world.  Alma eventually escapes to Zarahemla with his people.  But that's just one exhausting story, right?  When they are all together in Zarahemla, they confess their miraculous escape.  The Zeniff-ans are all baptized (except the one's that already were by Alma).  Things are great.  A few people create some waves, but generally things are good.  A guy, Nehor, comes at introduces priestcraft to the people.  He kills Gideon because Gideon stood strongly in defensive the gospel of Jesus Christ!'

When we (or I?) look at the stories in The Book of Mormon, we see people who just keep forgetting on the miracles they've seen and all the times they've been delivered.  We sometimes see these people as verifiable dummies who can't recollect miraculous things that have happened to them and who repeatedly deny witnesses they've had of Jesus Christ.  But as I've been reading, I've seen something else.

When I close my eyes and put myself among them, my life is mostly just surviving.  A shallow study of early colonial American life reveals just how much work staying alive is.  If these native people had as good a life as early colonial Americans, life was still extremely tedious.  From the time you woke up and felt the elements and hunger, you spent your day running from them.  In the case of these native Americans, they hated each other and had frequent wars.  So not only was it offensively exhausting, life was a defensive battle as well.

In The Book of Mormon, there are moments when the prophet calls his people together and reprimands them and then inspires them.  They become on fire in their testimony.  But they go home and life happens.  They suffer to make relationships work.  Being honest and kind is a challenge, just like it is for us.  And somewhere, they set aside their spiritual fire and are solely surviving again.  And whose to say that they all experienced the same level of conversion secondary to King Benjamin's address?  I'm sure some were on fire by what he said.  Others were impressed and motivated a bit.  Others may have accepted it but felt no strong fire for it.

I see their challenge to maintain their testimony no different then what a Latter-day Saint experiences.  I may quickly conclude that I, unlike Alma, have never seen an angel.  Or that I've never been passing through a street and been called to repentance with the power of King Benjamin.  I may declare that I've never had a innumerable army of men about to fall on me and then been miraculously spared by the power of God.  I may conclude that my witnesses of Christ have been less than those we read about in The Book of Mormon.  But this would not be true.  I've stood within feet of President Hinckley and felt something so powerful I don't even have words for it.   I've stood in the room when a child was born and felt something tangible completely envelop me that I cannot describe.  I've been miraculously saved from illness.  I've had hands placed on my head and been given blessings so perfectly tuned into my needs that I knew as sure as I knew I was sitting there in that chair that they were inspired of God.  And that's the thing:  We've all had those moments of absolute knowing- knowing more surely than even knowledge through reason has ever yielded for us.  But there is life too.  The offensive drudgery of survival that so often feels like a defensive battle as well.  And somewhere along the way, we start listening to Nehor, or that thing that asks us to contradict what we know.  Or what we knew.  And realizing this, and seeing these people in The Book of Mormon who are so much more entitled to get distracted with survival than me, I feel more anxious to cling desperately to the things that I know.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Celebrate Michele

Can you believe she is 59?  I can't.

Us girls (minus Christina) went up to Park City for the day and pretty much just goofed around.  A good time was had by all.  Happy birthday, Mom!

 The weather was so pleasant.  I was yoga breathing all the way to the top trying to absorb as much mountain air as possible.

Alpine slide. 

This was right before the highlight of her birthday. 

 Window shopping.  Love these.

 This was the best ice cream I have ever had in my whole life.  I don't even like ice cream.

Poser.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

I've become that blogger.  You know.  The one that never blogs.  Infuriating!

I think it will be picking up pretty soon though.  (Summer has kept me busy!)  In pictures, here are some tidbits:

 Introducing the newest member of the family, Violet Betty Lundell.  This is Eric & Whitney's first.  She is a precious little doll... So adorable it's maddening.

 So, you've already seen this picture that exploded over Facebook.  I'm still posting it on here.  (We're pretty much as close as it comes to a celebrity couple without being celebrities ourselves.)  Me and the Dane.  I'm crazy about this guy.

 Our stake was challenged to read The Book of Mormon before stake conference.  Maybe I'm behind a little but I've been reading a whole lot.  I haven't read this much since BYU religion classes.

 Revisions.  Revisions.  Revisions.  *vomit*  Revisions.

Anne kissin' Pippin.  The most haunting performances of the night:  The Highwayman and Mist & Shadow.  I laughed myself into knots.

Hitting up the batting cages with my little brother, Ryan - and dishing out dating advice for the rookie.

My garden.  I planted a garden this year for the first time!  This was the first thing I harvested: a zucchini.

Band of Horses with Michelle, Miriam, Hilda, & Rebecca.  Oh, and we had VIP tickets.  So fun!

The place I call home.  I was coming home from a run on Saturday and was struck by how pretty this little housing unit is.  I though to take a picture.