Brigham Young University—my alma mater

I graduated from three colleges before attending and graduating from Brigham Young University.  BYU is the school that I, by far, most closely associate myself.  Because of its mission statement and goals—what it stood for—I  selected my course of study, graduate major and minors, and ultimately focused my dissertation on an aspect of its lofty purpose.  

Brigham Young University is a school that has as the basis of its educational goals scholastic success for its students, and their spiritual/religious/moral development, which objective applies also to all who are connected with the school in any way, in any assignment or relationship. For this it was founded, organized, funded, staffed, nurtured, and built into a great growing university. Of course, there is nothing in this objective that vitiates in any way or compromises the university’s high scholastic aim and the effort to achieve it; rather, it serves to define and expand those particular objectives. This school was then, and is now, meant to be a bastion of decency in a coarsening world where there is continual corrosion of moral and spiritual sensibilities. 

A leisurely stroll anywhere on the campus bears this out.  The dress, language and deportment of its students, faculty, and staff is an instantly apparent counterpoint to that of any other college I've ever visited.

BYU retains a commitment to the principle of “in loco parentis,” in the place of a parent. This is today unheard of and would be considered an anachronism in virtually any other university in this land. In an educational climate in which that principle is largely abandoned now, BYU cares, as a true parent should, about the whole lives of those who come to study there—their educational preparation, the nature and quality of their life-style, and the enhancement of their sensitivity and the quality of spirit that relates to the inner world of each individual. BYU cares what kind of people they are and works to help them develop what they can become. And that, after all, is what matters—not slogans, not even high and holy objectives. BYU stands in the place of a parent. 

 I observed that those who serve at BYU  in any capacity—administration, faculty, staff, all others—represent the school in their various positions, and for this reason undertake a solemn trust. The pipe fitter and professor as well as the policeman represent authority, the attendant as well as the administrator, the carpenter and the controller, the gardener and the geologist. Each is under obligation to honestly support in their service and their lives the purpose, the policies, and the standards that are the reason for this university’s existence. 

And then the students: Those who attend BYU are expected to live up to the highest standards of honesty, morality, and decency while in attendance and then, most importantly, for ‘the world is our campus,’ ‘Go Forth to Serve.’  And that means not just to serve oneself, but whomsoever comes within the pale of one’s influence. Because we have been given much we too must give. 

My association with every professor and every staff member whether in administrative offices, library services, gymnasium or campus stores and services as well as every student with whom I had interaction was congruent with the expectations mentioned above.  I was never disappointed.

What a privilege it was to attend this great institution of higher learning.      

Distracted and Deadly

As far as my observation of modern life goes, the ubiquity of smartphone and tablet device usage has gone beyond rudeness and has become downright deadly for the user.  People have become so absorbed in what their devices provide for them that they become oblivious to their immediate surroundings.  The recent deaths of several people in the San Francisco bay area bears this out.

A couple of weeks ago a man got on a muni bus, silently brandished a .45 caliber handgun, put it back into his pocket and took it out several more times (this was caught on a video surveillance camera on the bus) and then with over a dozen fellow passengers within just a few feet of him, who did not notice what was going on, pulled the trigger and shot a man in the back, killing him. 

As bad as this was, the collective inattention to what was going on that might have prevented this, is, for me, at least as troubling. 

A year or so before this incident a 23-year old woman in San Francisco was killed when she stepped into a crosswalk, totally engrossed in her cellphone and was struck by a bus.  She didn’t even look up or see the bus coming and gave the driver no chance to try to avoid hitting her.  This is not an isolated incident. 

Less lethal than these examples, but representative of the problem,  is the increase in crime that involves these devices.  Smartphone and other personal electronic devices have become the number one target for thefts in public places.  San Francisco police chief Greg Suhr says that 2 out of 3 robberies in the city now involve smartphones.  “[These things] make people incredibly vulnerable to crime.  And the inattention, which creates this tremendous vulnerability to people, is just something that’s so easily corrected.” Pickpockets in Europe are having a heyday. 

Even in public places everyone is somewhere else. But it affects those who are nearby who are not, at the time, ‘digitally connected.’ And this is the larger point that I am making today. 

As calloused as it may seem as I write this, I feel more concern for the others nearby—those who have to clean up the mess, those who will not forget what they have witnessed, those whose lives are impacted by the ripple effect of the heedless or careless or inconsiderate people who precipitated the incident(s) in the first place.  

Whether street drag racers of fifty years ago, public place smokers of thirty or forty years ago, gang-bangers, or driving texters or cell phone users today, the result is the same: someone else will probably have to share in paying the price of thoughtless behavior.   And how about the super obese or drug addicts or alcoholics who subject health-services personnel and providers , and families, and the general  public untold problems for the costs of caring for these people?  

  

Well, I think my views on the subject are pretty transparent.  As I used to tell may children when they were young:  ‘Lets not be part of the problem.’

An Approach to the Problems in Washington

It is obvious that the status-quo at our nation’s capital doesn’t seem to be working very well.  Although I do not delude myself into thinking that the ‘radical’ idea that follows would be considered panacea to our government’s ills by very many of our current political leaders, I am persuaded that this approach—a different paradigm—might well be considered.  I submit the reinstatement of this idea as a necessary and fundamental cornerstone to the rebuilding of an effective government edifice—but it would only be considered by a different type of man or woman.

I am fully aware of the pride and self-serving and patron-serving nature of many or most of the people who hold public office.  Have you ever really thought about how only those who have bought their office or the moneyed interests that has bought its candidate holds power?  How do we find the man or woman whose motive really is the good of the country and the perpetuation of the ideals upon which it was founded?  Until the mentality, allegiance and character of our typical office holder is reformed, or those people are supplanted by a group of people with a higher vision, we have little hope. 

Great change (for good or ill) has always been catalyzed by “a voice crying in the wilderness.”  Let me suggest a very good “voice” as counterpoint for a starting point.  Foundational would be consideration of a scripture that many have heard but probably forgotten or dismissed: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: let him return unto the Lord….  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord…my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9) The next four verses of that prophetic chapter then give God’s promise to those who align their thoughts with the Lords thoughts and ways. 

The ‘Ways and Means’ committee in the House of Representatives and the 'Senate Committee on Finance' and general leadership of the major political parties might well consider getting the influence of deity back into the equation that our founding fathers relied upon in the very founding of our nation.  
  

A colorful way of expressing the approach I suggest was made over eighty years ago (during the Great Depression) by one of my heroes, Orson F. Whitney:

            “What do you suppose is the matter with this sick world at the present time?  The matter is that it has turned away from God and exalted the material over the spiritual.  Like the dog in the fable, crossing the brook with a piece of meat in its mouth, and losing it in an attempt to possess what looked like another piece of meat in the mouth of another dog, but which was only a vain reflection of himself in the water—even so this selfish, greedy, money-loving world has grasped at the shadow and lost the substance.  As a result [to change the metaphor] the Ship of Human Progress is lopsided and in danger of going on the rocks.  The cargo, unevenly bestowed, has unbalanced the vessel, and the pilot has been thrown overboard. 

         “Right the ship, ye would-be arbiters of human destiny!  Right the ship!  Put the temporal under hatches, and place the spiritual at the helm, where it belongs; and the danger will disappear.  That is the panacea, and there will be no relief—no permanent relief from the evils that afflict and threaten this world  until that sovereign remedy is applied; until proud, self-sufficient man, acknowledging his own weakness and his own folly, turns to the Source of all power and all wisdom….”  

Now there’s an idea that probably hasn’t been considered by either the left or the right.  Maybe because it isn’t left or right—but ‘up!’ 

I am glad I belong to a church of millions of people who have this foundational influence cited by the prophet Isaiah not only in its foundation but in every part of the structure of its organization. The result is a church that has no campaigning for office, no infighting, no debt, and no scandal.  And it is thriving. There is a model for good government.

Wouldn’t that be something in a secular government?  On the other hand, maybe it wouldn’t be so extraordinary if our government truly represented “one nation (and political leadership), under God….”  But then it wouldn’t be a totally secular government, would it?  And isn’t this where we started?

(My 07 July 2013 posting addressed this fundamental topic in greater detail but not many of my readers read it; it is obvious that no one in Washington read it.)

Words of Varying Degrees of Wisdom

I have been collecting and formulating words of varying degrees of wisdom over the years.  Some have been scattered over a number of my postings and one entry, my Maxims, has been presented to stand on its own.  Today I present a list of aphorisms (most of which have been gathered from others) of greater or lesser value that may bring a smile, a thought or a maybe even a resolution to you.

·        No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.

·        Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.

·        Experience comes before understanding.

·        Don’t look for someone else to blame. 

·        The time to think of the end is at the beginning.

·        What you do speaks so loud that I can’t hear what you say.

·        You make your own sunshine.

·        Attitude is everything.

·        The music may change, but the beat goes on.

·        No pain, no gain.

·        I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone.

·        By the time I finish whatever it is I’m trying to do, I finally know enough to start doing it.

·        Together is a beautiful word:

Coming together is the beginning.

Staying together is progress.

Thinking together is unity.

Working together is success.

·        You can eat an elephant if you do it one bite at a time.

·        Never say ‘can’t.’  Success comes in ‘cans.’

·        Education is cheap.  Ignorance is expensive.

·        Well done is better than well said.

·        You only have one chance at a first impression.

·        You are judged by the company you keep.

·        No job is too hard if you have the right tools.

·        A good preparation is 90% of the job.

·        Do what you have to do first, so that you can then do what you want to do.

·        Don’t put yourself down; there’s always someone else to do it for you.

·        When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

·        No man dies before his time.

·        When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. 

·        There is no such thing as a free lunch.

·        Little can happen today that wasn’t planned for by someone yesterday.

·        Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak up and remove all doubt. 

·        Only a fool argues with one. 

·        Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

·        Only in the dictionary does success come before work.

·        He who screams the loudest usually has the most to hide.

·        You never stop a war by taking part in one.

·        A goal is a dream with a date attached.

·        He who knows, and knows that he knows—

He is a wise man; follow him.

            He who knows, and knows not that he knows—

                        He is asleep; awaken him.

            He who knows not and knows he knows not—

                        He is a child; teach him

            He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not—

                        He is a fool; shun him.  

·        One problem with thinking you are self-made is that you can’t (won’t) go anywhere for help. 

·        If you only have one thing going for you, don’t worry.  One thing usually leads to another. 

·        If you use a pencil, you can be wrong and still write.

·        A song isn’t a song until you sing it.

      A bell isn’t a bell until you ring it.

      The love that is in you wasn’t put there to stay.

      Love isn’t love until you give it away.

·        The best mirror is often a good friend.

·        An excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.

·        Happiness is not having the things you want;  it’s wanting the things you have.

·        Inch by inch, life’s a cinch; yard by yard it’s really hard.

·        FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real

·        To shine is better than to reflect.

·        The will to win is worthless without the will to prepare.

·        A school is four walls with tomorrow inside.

·        If you’re not fired with enthusiasm, you’ll be fired with enthusiasm.

·        Competency is the concept, not the content.

·        Character is how you behave when nobody is looking.

·        Peace is not gained by talking in defense.

·        If you have tried to do something and failed, you are better off than if you tried to do nothing and succeeded.

·        If you don’t have time to do it right the first time, how will you find time to do it again?

·        A show-off is usually shown up in a show down.

·        If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.

·        You’ll never be loved if you don’t risk be rejected.

·        When you’re good, no one seems to remember.  When you’re bad, no one seems to forget.

·        If the road you follow has no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.

·        We are what we repeatedly do.  Striving for excellence should be a habit, not just an occasional act.

·        Plan ahead.  It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark.

·        The time is always right to do what is right.

·        Love is a cure, both for the one who gives and the one who receives.

·        You can only go half way into your sadness before you start coming out.

·        Normally we do not so much look at things as overlook them.

·        He who is not busy being born is busy dying.

·        A child who cannot learn is like a person who, upon throwing a stone to the ground, misses.

·        Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

·        Words are the most potent drug that mankind uses.

·        The cigarette does the smoking and you’re the sucker.

     The fire’s at one end; the fool’s at the other.

·        The difference between a champ and a chump is ‘U.’

·        No one ever drowned in sweat.

·        Temperamental is 98% temper and 2 % mental.

·        When we feel without thinking, life is painful.

     When we act without thinking, life is chaos.

     When we think, but don’t act, life stands still.

·        If at first you don’t succeed, you’re doing about average.