Let it be.

I was at work the other day, writing in my journal, when the song by the Beatles "Let it Be" came on. I like the song a lot. I like the Beatles. But as I was mentally singing along, I got this strongest feeling that we cannot just let it be. We cannot sit around and let the world stay in the state it is in. Now, I don't intend to take simple pleasures like chill Beatles songs to deep intellectual levels, but it spurred great thoughts, leading to one of those journal entries you hope your children will eventually come across.

There are souls without friends. There are people without the truth. There are lonely patients in hospitals. There's the elderly lady down the street who never gets out. There's the awkward boy who feels forgotten. There's the self-conscious girl who wonders if she'll ever go on a date. There's the overwhelmed mom who is perpetually exhausted. Let it be that we help them.

We can be reactive saying, "There is nothing I can do! That's just the way things are!" But what if we were PROACTIVE? What if we said, "Let's look at some alternatives. What is one step I can take?" Proactive people focus their efforts on things they can do something about.

Theodore Roosevelt advised, "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

Let it be that way. Let it be that we do what we can, even when it is just a little. That must have been what the Beatles were saying. Let it be.

We can make a difference.

Faith

My Life's Not Really Mine

I've been thinking lately how one person's actions can affect so much. One person's words can inspire someone to do a good deed, which in turn affects someone else to act differently, who then cheers up another. Conversely, one person's misdeed could inflict a lifetime of pain for someone else, which leads that person to commit a crime, perhaps. Thus, the life of yet another is affected. Although we have all the agency in the world, we cannot choose our consequences. Realizing the powerful chain of influence, I concluded my life is not really mine.

I think it is really important to think about this when making decisions. This is particularly true for politicians and those who have very influential roles. However, contemplating consequences is equally important in the politics of our personal lives, our homes and families where our decisions have an impact great or small, positive or negative on those most close to us.

Take Du Du for instance: In the post-earthquake chaos that is still fatiguing Haiti, Du Du voluntarily spends his days creating order where no one else bothers to intervene. Driving conditions in countries like Haiti were bad enough, but now "in Port-au-Prince after the earthquake, driving is a 10th ring of hell. Picture roads overrun with tents, rubble, pedestrians and peddlers; tap-tap taxis stopping suddenly, dump trucks coughing black exhaust, few stoplights, 99-degree heat, no air-conditioning, dust, beggars and angry drivers blaring horns," (from this NYT article). Among all this stands Du Du with a whistle and purple plastic wand, directing the traffic like a symphony orchestra and helping pedestrians and drivers journey safely.

No one hired him, and he refuses to work for a government that does so little for its people. He has a passion for order that he has unleashed to bless the lives of others. Unlike the looters and robbers who proliferate after disasters in desperation to satisfy themselves, Du Du understands his life is not only his.

We can make a difference.

Faith

A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.

I was in the Physical Science review room the other day (kind of my second home for the next couple weeks of the semester) and talking with a TA. Somehow we went from polar molecules to visiting Africa. We both want to go sometime. We talked about how physical science information isn't necessarily relevant to fulfilling my goals in life, but why it's so worthwhile to learn anyway. The reasons are many, but here is one:

Sometimes education isn't about the facts you learn or even the skills gained from learning, but what you become as you master those facts. It's about changing as a person, so that you can achieve your goals better. Some recent tutorials I've had outside the classroom and textbook have been:

• Learning to choose between good, better, and best (for example giving up a Moab trip this Saturday to take a test!).
• Sometimes you bite off more than you can chew, and you just need to chew it. And chew it well.
• You can do more than you think you can.
• Most of the time you are not as prepared as you thought you were, prepare more.
• Being determined (not brilliant) takes you far (but it sure would be nice to be brilliant).
  
• Running can keep you sane.

I suppose these are just life lessons that I could have learned if I was a high school drop out, but it seems to me that education is an ideal way to put yourself through the rigor that learning these lessons requires.

Perhaps the lesson I've learned many times, and for which I am most grateful, is that education brings you closer to God. If you try your absolute best, and then trust in God, everything works out. Is it a coincidence that those with more education participate more in religious activity?

And from the great brilliant scientist himself,
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.
- Albert Einstein

We can make a difference.

Faith

The Daily Cost

As I sit in a comfortable office chair in air conditioned comfort surrounded by kind people and a tree covered in blossoms outside the window, I can't help but be overwhelmed with gratitude and think about the billions of people who are uncomfortable right now, those without chairs and computers and good views and peanut butter sandwiches for lunch.

In the map above, all the countries shaded dark red are those that have 61-80% of their population living below the international poverty line. Those in bright red have 41-60% of their population living below the international poverty line, and those in the dark blue (like the US) have less than 2% living below the poverty line.

What is the international poverty line? The World Bank and UN have done extensive work to fairly establish this threshold. It is currently about $1.25 in US dollars. To put this in perspective, I calculated about how much it costs me to live each day. In simply food and housing, it costs about $15 a day. This is the some of the cheapest housing on campus and cheapest food. The cost of tuition here at the cheapest private school in the nation averages to about $19 a day (BYU students--it costs about 80 cents an hour to be here).
Education +food+housing =$34 a day.

As long we're dividing by 365, what about the costs of daily living around the world? The costs of poverty, the costs of no education, the costs of famine, of abuse, of corrupt governments, of unequal distribution of wealth. A college student may be spending $34 a day, while 17,000 children die every day out of hunger alone. 1.02 billion people go to bed hungry every night.

Tomorrow as my roommates and I clean up our apartment and leave for the summer, we will clean out the fridge and throw away perfectly good food. The cliche phrase is, "What about all those children in Africa?" And it is hard not to tear up when thinking about them.

We can make a difference.

Faith

F is for Feedback, not Failure

Doesn't it seem that some people do so easily what takes you extreme effort to accomplish? We see people who, because of their natural abilities, can do well without even trying (It seems BYU is especially full of these people). People who ace tests without studying or sit down and play the piano like Liszt without practicing. We think, "I'll never be like them," or, "Why does it take me twice as long to achieve half the results that others get?"

This kind of thinking is called discouragement. It is one of the biggest barriers of our success.

Most often success is not a result of giftedness or natural abilities. Success doesn't come easy. In fact, success almost always comes after failure.

Thankfully, failure is never wasted. It helps you be humble and turn to God for strength. It is the great teacher. If we learn to never give up, to turn to God, to keep trying-- are not these lessons more valuable than any success? If we become a better person--an overcomer--wouldn't our "failure" be a success?

Abraham Lincoln lost eight elections. He had numerous political and business defeats. We could have elected a president with natural political ease and talent. Instead, we benefited from his determination and experience. We needed a proven overcomer. It seems the resistance he faced only developed muscle.

Gifted people may get stuck at the level of their gifting, but people who can persevere have no limit.

It has been said that failure is nature's plan to prepare you for great responsibilities. This is because you learn much more from failure than success. William Saroyan (a writer known for his stories about the joy of living despite of poverty) said,

"Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, ya know."

We can make a difference.

Faith

The Sandra Bullock Trade

"Two things happened to Sandra Bullock this month. First, she won an Academy Award for best actress. Then came the news reports claiming that her husband is an adulterous jerk. So the philosophic question of the day is: Would you take that as a deal? Would you exchange a tremendous professional triumph for a severe personal blow?"

This is from the most popular article in the New York Times right now. David Brooks goes on to say, "Just as the old sages predicted, worldly success has shallow roots while interpersonal bonds permeate through and through."

Most of us pay attention to the wrong things--society emphasizes the wrong things. This sounds lame, but recently a lot of my friends have joined a group on Facebook called, "Money doesn't buy happiness, but I'd rather cry in a Ferrari." Even though everyone says money doesn't buy happiness, my generation in the back of their minds are saying, "Yeah, but money is what I want most anyway." This is because, as the op-ed said,

"Most people vastly overestimate the extent to which more money would improve our lives...Modern societies have an affinity for material concerns and a primordial fear of moral and social ones."

Thankfully, we don't have to conform with modern society. Just because schools prepare students to make good salaries and not good decisions, and the government emphasizes economic status and not moral status doesn't mean we have to be blind to what truly makes us happy. Boyd K. Packer wisely said in his talk "The Decision of Life,"

"Will we ever learn that the choice is not between fame and obscurity, nor is the choice between wealth and poverty. The choice is between good and evil, and that is a very different issue indeed. When we finally understand that, our happiness will not be determined by the material things, either on one hand or on the other. If we can be shown where the deciding pivotal choices are, we can succeed."

We can make a difference. (Click to read a corresponding blog post from last year.)

Faith

Obama Accomplishment For the Day

I must give an applaud: Obama signed an executive order today banning federal funding of abortions! Yea! I'm so very grateful for this.
Something else I learned today is that Obama has not kept his "sunlight before signing" campaign pledge. He said he would not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the public five days to let their voice be heard about it. Quote: "The public will have five days to look at every bill that lands on my desk.” Time after time he has signed bills without waiting the promised five days. Obamacare didn't even make it two.

Now, here is your real faith and hope for the day: CNN FINALLY GETS IT! Please watch this!




We can make a difference.

Faith

Unhealthy Heath Care Bill

Change you can believe in. Loose change that is, which is all you'll have after paying for the consequences of everyone else's choices.
For a while, Obama may get some praise from some, but soon the taxes will be soaring, and the news will be out that it took some corruption to get this bill passed, and Obama won't be the hero anymore. You see, you can't pass bills to increase your popularity. Maybe Obama should have thought less about making history and more about the wallets of his dear citizens. Maybe he shouldn't have gone through loopholes to pass a bill, but perhaps have done what he swore on the Bible to do--uphold the Constitution. Fancy that.

I will agree health care needs to change, and it is a very difficult problem to solve. I'm not sure what the right way is to tackle it. But, in what Mitt Romney aptly called "an unconscionable abuse of power," Obama once more took the Democratic route of denying consequences. Sure, he reformed health care like no other president has before, but is this a commendable feat? What it comes down to is not having consequences. We republicans like to be held accountable for our actions. Now, even if you live a healthy life, you will be paying taxes that will pay for the health consequences of your neighbor's smoking habit, his prescriptions, his spontaneous emergency room visits, and the consequences of other choices. Perhaps the most chilling aspect of the passing of the health care bill is that our tax dollars fund abortions. Can Obama's administration have been more cold towards the unborn than to pass a bill that makes it more affordable and easier to get an abortion? Abortion is NOT health care.

Consequences. Who needs 'em? Make someone else pay for those.

We can make a difference.

Faith

Health/Nut Obama

I'd like to inform you of two recent peices of news. They are not related, but I think you should hear about them at the same time.
Obama announced the Global Health Initiative in May of 2009. The new budget includes $63 billion over the next six to aid global public health. Being a public health major with a strong desire to educate internationally, I think this is a great priority the nation has. Having the great fountain of health knowledge that we do in the U.S., I believe it is our duty to share that valuable knowledge with others.
Second, Obama had his first physical since winning office. During election time, Obama had a reputation of a health nut. Whether or not the president is a health nut or not isn't important to me, but whether he is what he claims to be or not does matter to me. It matters quite a bit. Anyway, a couple days ago a White House Press Secretary explained he's not the healthy guy people think he is. He said, "You guys thought he, like, carried arugula in his pocket to snack on, and now all of a sudden he's ... breaking into my office looking for quarters for the vending machines." Apparently his own personal pastry chef (yes, who is paid by our tax dollars) has created many a temptation for the President. And he still smokes.

I'm just sharing two articles. One announces we need to spend $63 billion on promoting health to the world. The other explains he needs to take a smoking break and buy a hostess cupcake.

We can make a difference.

Faith

"The Greatest Danger of a Republic is Apathy" -Toqueville

At BYU, where I go to school, American Heritage is a required class. It gets a bad rap for being very difficult. Even though it was tough, I am so thankful I had to take the class. Without being aware of what I have, I cannot be grateful for it. I am now aware of what I have, and I am indeed grateful for it.
In other countries, so much is completely beyond the control of the average citizen. There is little the poor woman or minority man can do. Their government is corrupted, and the people have no voice. Do we realize that we live in a country and period unparalled in world history? We have rights and freedoms that give virtually every citizen a voice. Not only do we have political freedoms, but we have freedoms that allow us to cultivate a rich and fulfilling life. We have the freedom for human flourishing, the freedom and opportunity to be uplifted, inspired, to worship, and to pursue our dreams. We have an abundance of physical goods and also an abundance of goods for the soul such as religion, arts, culture, and entertainment. We don't have to live in fear of what the government will do next. We don't have the fear of being abducted while walking to work. We don't buy groceries in the fear that they are harmful. We don't have to walk in fear of what images we might see around the corner. The list could go on and on.

The greatest danger our republic faces is apathy. This liberty is given to us as a resource to help others! We must not be apathetic about what we have, but use it to help others. We could serve those in other countries who do not have these freedoms, or those in our own back yard who do.

These freedoms and a working Constitution are no accident. The rights and privileges we enjoy are the result of much sacrifice and Divine Intervention. May we not be apathetic about these precious freedoms, but use them, and use them to serve.

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Faith