How can I not have found this until now, only to stumble across it by accident?
Thursday, August 30, 2007
And another deep thought
Two days, two deep thought blogposts. Given the LDSVoices podcast I listened to today, I had to write about it. It was Elder Scott's opener for 2007 Education week, about teaching and learning by the spirit. I first heard this talk when I was in the MTC and was absolutely rivited. I heard it later during a BYU devotional, another time in General Conference, and now here again as part of education week. Amazing how important repetition is when learning spiritual things. You'd think with a message as direct as this, and a style as straighforward as Elder Scott employs, you'd only have to hear this once and you'd be set. But this is 4x for me, and I'm still struggling to apply it. Well here we go again. The gist of the talk is this, which Elder Scott refers to as "perhaps the most valuable gift I could ever give you, the most valuable piece of wisdom I could ever impart:
Throughout the remainder of my life, I will seek to learn by what I hear, see, and feel. I will write down the important things I learn and I will do them.
He then goes on to enumerate the blessings and insights that come when you show the spirit you are willing and ready to learn. The last 1/4 of the talk is a whole barrage of insights he's learned that he felt comfortable to share. He said he keeps most insights to himself in his own sacred, password-protected journal. Some he shares in his family journal, and some he feels prompted to share with others.
When it comes to journals, he said he's not concerned so much about keeping track of all the occurrances that happen on a daily basis, but he does everything he can to keep track of the most important and meaningful learnings and experiences he has. I call it the "small plates" method of journal keeping. In a way, that's really the driving purpose of keeping this blog active...to have a place for me to capture those essential thoughts and think a bit as I write them out.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Bravo Boys!
For their first shot at national attention, on the Late Night stage, I'd say Okkervil River did themselves quite proud. You can tell these guys have been playing together for a while and recently came off a 18+ month tour (which was the fodder for their new album The Stage Names - a concept album of sorts about life as a rock'n'roller). It's always a true test of a band to see if they can actually sound good in these 1-set talk show venues. I say these guys pulled it off. And I'd say Conan agrees with me.
So what are we thinking about all these "indie" bands all over the place these days? A topic for another day. For now, I'll just be happy that there's great music out there to compete with the spears's and timberlakes and all the other junk out there.
Some thoughts
The subtitle of the blog says it will contain thoughts and musings. Lately it's contained mostly YouTube posts. Incidentally, I'm going to put up the Okkervil River Conan clip as soon as someone posts it...I was all ready to set the DVR last night then thought, "I'm sure it'll be on YouTube tomorrow"...so far my bet is not proving to be a good one, but I guess I'll wait a little longer before assuming it's a complete loss.
So on to the thoughts. Lately my scripture study has consisted of listening to the LDSVoices podcast on my way to work. Now I know that it's certainly not ideal, we've received admonitions from Pres Benson, Pres Hinckley, and others that there should be no substitute for the scriptures themselves...but until I figure out how to make that work (until I humble myself enough to make it a true priority) I've really been enjoying the podcasts.
Yesterday I listened to a talk by one of my favorite speakers, Truman G Madsen. He's a longtime BYU professor of philosophy, church historian, and my father in law's former mission president. I always enjoy his deeply-thought insights and personal glimpses of the lives of the early leaders of the church.
Here's something he said about prayer, and about Brigham Young:
Now may I take slices from autobiographical accounts? Are we to pray in practical and specific terms? Brother Brigham Young was hung up on a sandbar crossing a river on the plains. His companion, troubled, said, "Let's pray."
Brigham replied, "Pray? I prayed this morning. Let's get out and push." There is a time for total concentration in prayer and a time for answering prayer with your own muscles--helping.
But this is the same man who was specific enough to bring to the Lord concrete and urgent feelings, even hostile ones. His prize saddle was misplaced or did not hang properly, and the horse trampled it into shreds. He sharply rebuked the neglectful man and then made a beeline for the bedroom where he said (someone overheard him), "Down Brigham." Then he knelt and prayed, "Lord, I'm sorry. I was angry. Take my anger away and help me to do better next time."
"When I am angry," he said to a friend, "the first thing I do is pray."
Some of us have been taught that should be the last thing we do, that we should soak our head in a bucket and then pray. "I never am so angry but that I can pray," said Heber C. Kimball (JD 3:231). And as for the related emotions, the same holds true.
Of such a practice Brigham Young once said, "I do not recollect that I have seen five minutes since I was baptized that I have not been ready to preach a funeral sermon, lay hands on the sick, or to pray in private or public." Think of that! And then he added, "I will tell you the secret of this. . . . If you commit an overt act, repent of that immediately, and call upon God to deliver you from evil and give you the light of His spirit" (JD 12:102–3) rather than spend a week rationalizing and defending what you have done amiss or not done aright. He did it.
Now I'm sure I've lost all three of my regular readers by this point due to the length of this post, but I these words really resonated me and made me want to be better. Rather than add my commentary to Bro. Madsen's, suffice it to say that these words struck me and caused me to pause. I love these insights into the inner thinkings of the prophets. They always reveal to me the difference in the level of thinking of theirs and mine, and how I can improve...imperceptibly on the outside but profoundly on the inside.
OK. I think I've filled my thoughts and musings quota. Now time to find the Okkervil River clip...
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Hello I'm Back - Sort Of
Sorry for the hiatus...had some fun in the mountain lands. Here's a little treat for the loyals. Favorite band right now: Okkervil River. You can hear their new album streaming on their site. Good good stuff.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Brilliant!
Take Bart Simpson on guitars, add Jack and Meg White, one of the best songs of 2005, and a little Michael Gondry influence and I give you: BRILLIANCE!
Monday, August 13, 2007
DarkMatter
Do you wonder where the self resides,
is it in your heart or between your sides,
and who would be the one to decide
it's true location?
2 weeks later and I still say Andrew Bird's Armchair Apocrypha is the disc to beat. Though the new(ly found) Camera Obscura is really really good too. But for now, raise the dark matter. You can't listen to that track without picturing the coolest laser light show ever. And he even whistles at the end (of course, but...)
2 weeks later and I still say Andrew Bird's Armchair Apocrypha is the disc to beat. Though the new(ly found) Camera Obscura is really really good too. But for now, raise the dark matter. You can't listen to that track without picturing the coolest laser light show ever. And he even whistles at the end (of course, but...)
Falling Asleep in Sacrament
eryn stayed home from church with a stomach bug yesterday, and when she asked how the meeting went, I said something like, "you didn't miss much. those were the two least-energetic speakers I've ever heard." Now since the two of us just spoke in church 2 weeks ago, you'd think I'd be much more forgiving in my critique...but they were really, really listless.
Then this morning on the way into work I'm listening to Hal Eyring (can you call an apostle by his nickname) and he tells a story of a home teacher that visited his home and took notes during their discussion. Elder Eyring (Pres of Ricks College at the time) was a little proud of himself, saying something interesting enough to warrant note taking. Until 2 weeks later, when he sat behind the same brother in a primary class and noted that he was taking notes, just as intently, while listening to a 9-year old speaking. The message was how it's up to us to listen to the spirit from whoever may be called to teach us. That the onus is just as much on us as listeners as on the speakers/teachers to invite and listen to the still small voice.
Point taken. Thanks, Elder Eyring. I love listening to his talks because he has a way of exposing such simple, human faults and shortcomings and gently and persuasively showing a better way.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Distribution of Wealth
So seeing (hearing) Ryan Adams display his songwriting prowess below got me to thinking: why is it just as easy for Ryan Adams to write a song as it is for me to type out this post? There's a whole conversation to be had about what talent is, and how there are many greats who have been extraordinarily blessed (Tiger Woods, MJ, A-Rod, Andrew Bird (he's my current singer-songwriter hero), etc) and obviously have an overabundance of creativity, intelligence and fast-twitch muscles. It has been said of an athelete like Ichiro Suzuki that not only is he quick as a cat and has an amazing eye for the ball, he is also a mathematical genius who can perform long division of 4-digit numbers in his head. So there's one way of looking at this and saying, "wow they're special, I'm not, I'll just sit back and enjoy." Then there are the times when our heroes are brought down to earth. When they're shown to be just as human as the rest of us. I'll never forget the time when Elder Maxwell, probably my all-time favorite apostle, came to visit our mission. In between his talks he checked his watch, then slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a little prescription bottle of little green pills and took one. It seemed such a normal, vulnerable, human thing for such a giant of a man to do. As I get older and begin to take stock of where I am, I'm realizing more and more how my daily decisions shape my present and future. Maybe MJ is on another plane, but even he spent countless hours taking jump shot after jump shot after jump shot to perfect his stroke. Not saying I could be MJ (by ANY stretch), but if I put that kind of investment in, who knows…maybe I at least could have started for our deacon's team. M Ward does things with a guitar that I cannot even register…but wouldn't 30 mins a day of consistent practicing make me at least a passable guitar player over time? In NY I home taught a great man, and also a very humble man, who started playing guitar in his late 20's, just for fun and originally just for his kids…now the guy plays Bach and Stevie Ray Vaughan. So it seems that of all the talents one can have the talent to persevere and work hard and focus may be the most important one to have. The talent of understanding the value of time and, while continuing to live a balanced life and not getting too crazy, making the most of the moments while you're in them. Ok I'm turning into Anthony Robbins so I should stop before my thoughts get too watered down.
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