Josh's extemporanious "rant"

Writing your own History

2012-01-17T19:13:00.000-08:00

Do you write in a journal or a diary? Why not? If you do, then how often? Why only that often?

I'm not suggesting that you need to video-tape your day and then write a transcript of all that happens...

But, why should you? Isn't it basically a waste of time?

No?

You would be surprised, or maybe will be surprised when you see how much your memory increases, when you see how much more grateful you are (because of all the more things that you remember...), when you see how much more you love (due to your increased memory and gratitude...), and then you see how much more you more you truly appreciate your life (because of the above list...plus all that you have and are...).

And, how much do you love finding a nice blank journal or diary (or, if you must, you can type it all up...nothing wrong with a virtual diary or journal) and start that day or that night! Just think, Family History Work in the process!

Not to mention, how much more clearly you will be able to think about certain topics or arguments or thesis when you write them down or commit them to paper or screen...

Just a thought, for I am not pushing my ideas on anyone.

JPS

Self-Analysis

2011-11-16T17:33:00.000-08:00

"Stop analyzing me and start analyzing yourself," she quipped.

In the first instant I think, "I am in a constant state of self-analyzation..." Is that true though?

All of us think (or most of us anyway) that we are fully introspective in a way that we think that we are always analyzing ourselves--but we're not. I'm not.

Almost all of us live our lives on autopilot and are making decisions only based on what would feel good to us, or sometimes based on what we've already chosen in the past.

Is that right? Shouldn't we take time, at least weekly, to analyze ourselves and see what there is to change? Is there anything to change or are we fine with how we are?

As a counselor, I have learned that in order to counsel with someone we should be in a state of relative congruence. That means that I shouldn't be acting in a way that's contrary to the things that I know to be right and good. Shouldn't all of us be living in such a state? Shouldn't all of us be living according to that which we know and believe to be right and good and true?

Stop analyzing me and start analyzing yourself--start acting according to that which you already know or believe to be just and good and true!

JPS

Expectations...

2011-11-16T16:51:00.000-08:00

Where do they come from and why do they frustrate out lives?

First of all, every one of us has expectations: we expect to be able to sleep tonight; we expect to be able to drive away in our car when we turn-over the ignition; we even expect to have our dreams fulfilled, and sometimes we expect that fulfillment to be speedy or speedy--sometimes we expect those dreams to be fulfilled instantaneously! Sometimes, however, in fact most of the time, those dreams are never fulfilled, sometimes fulfilled in a slower time-frame, or sometimes they are fulfilled speedily or instantaneously.

Why, though, do we get angry when they don't happen as soon or as quickly as we thought they would?

Like I was saying, when we get in that car and turn the key over and the motor doesn't turn over or start, we are frustrated or angry. Why is that? The same thing happens when we aren't able to have a good night's sleep or have a fun-filled weekend... Why is that?

I think that it is mostly because we don't have patience. We don't have a good-enough perspective on life. Unfortunately, there is not a easy-to-fix-button or an easy solution--life experience and wisdom are the only thing that will lead to a greater perspective.

Don't get frustrated though when things don't turn-out the way you thought they would. Things happen, usually, the way that they are supposed to and we need to learn from those lessons in life that hit us the wrong way.

A wise man once said that everything that happens to us in this life is or will be eventually be for our good, and I believe him. Why can't we all believe him?

Stop getting angry and bringing other people down when your own expectations aren't fulfilled!

JPS

Am I using my priesthood to its fullest potential?

2011-11-05T18:10:00.000-07:00

I don't think that you can ever honestly answer that in the affirmative and not know that there is something more you can do...

For example, Soren Kierkegaard writes about our relationship to Jesus Christ in his book, "Practice in Christianity," that the only way you can be right before Christ is to admit that you are wrong.

In a similar way, the only way that you can be correct or right in answering the question, "Am I using my Priesthood to is to its fullest potential," is to admit that that you could be doing more and/or could be exercising more faith while trying to magnify your calling/position/duty/responsibility/etc.

If you want to know more about the priesthood, know what it is, know why God has entrusted His power to man on this earth, or know how you can learn more about any of this, click on the I Believe... link on this page or travel to www.mormon.org

JPS

Character

2011-09-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

Probably the best decider of a person's character or the way to best see what a person's character is is to watch them during and after the act of sacrifice. In other words, you can tell what the character of a person basically is after watching them make choices throughout the day, throughout their life, but if you really want a glimpse into that person's soul; if you really want to see how they are deep-down inside; if you really want to see how their rubber hits the road and what sort of material this person is made of: notice how they act when their character is put to the test as they make a sacrifice or are asked to make a sacrifice.

This goes along nicely, and is more straightforward than just seeing how they act in an ironic situation. See how they act while they are making a sacrifice.

When they are in the act or middle of making a sacrifice, their true colors will shine through. You will be able to see whether or not they truly believe in what they are saying that they believe in. They will show what they truly value and believe in as they continue to make the choice to make the sacrifice.

They also may be showing what they believe in during the rest of their life and from their other many choices, and this doesn't mean that they only believe in the thing that they have sacrificed for, but a sacrifice or a sacrificial act tends to strip away the superfluous or the light-minded choices and leave a more pure character trait. When I was in elementary school, I first learned about "chaff." It is only when the chaff or impurities are melted or burned out of the gold or silver, you have a more pure metal and are able to look into the molten silver or gold and see your reflection more-so after the chaff has been removed.

A sacrifice is a sort of chaff removing process. You are left more pure after those impurities have been removed.

JPS

The Lord's Fierce Anger?

2011-09-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

As I try to understand the character of God, and His son, Jesus Christ (because they are one in character, perfection, attributes, and will), I remember having to explain to a relative once that Jehovah (in the Old Testament) was not fierce and angry and a punishing God--although He could and can be seen that way.

I was reminded by a passage in the Book of Mormonv when Abinadi is preaching to the people under King Noah (or wicked King Noah if you'd like) when he reminds the people that if they do not start remembering the commandments and of God, that He will visit them in His anger; yea, His fierce anger.

So what does that mean? If, you remember what I was explaining to that relative-of-mine, Jehovah is simply the pre-earth name of Jesus Christ's spirit, and you also remember that God has been teaching His Son for a long, long, time and has been teaching, creating worlds with him, teaching other Earths (more than man can number...), that He has been a God for that long, long, time, you will also remember that He has had the same characteristics and attributes as God the Father (since He has always been tutored by Him), God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ are One. Jehovah wasn't a tyrant God. Jehovah did not punish the Israelites. Remember, Jehovah and Jesus Christ are the same person. If you think of Jesus Christ in the New Testament or in the Book of Mormon (or other Latter-Day scriptures...), you cannot reconcile those two actions coming from the same being.

What you're left with, is either a paradoxical conundrum or a lesson to be learned. When Abinadi tells the Nephites that God will visit them in His fierce anger, he is reminding them how much it hurts to fight against the good and the right. Like I have often told my sons, when they hit me or karate chop me, the pain that they feel isn't from me hitting them back (I haven't moved...), but it's the pain they similarly would feel if they were to try and karate chop a stone or a brick wall (not that I am telling you readers that I am built like a brick wall, but it doesn't hurt for my sons to believe that...). Both my sons and the disobedient Nephites are feeling the same pain--all attributable to themselves. They hurt themselves. They are fighting against an immovable object.

Jesus Christ, like His Father, loves us. Neither of them want to see us hurt or in pain. Their perfection, though, comes from not only having perfect attributes but from perfectly living God's life. They are Gods because They live God's lives. Just like I don't want to my sons to be hurt when they punch me, I can't change my body to make it softer and squishier--neither can God change His character, His laws, His attributes, His commandments. It will hurt when we try and fight against His immutable truths.

The trick, I guess, is to try to live in harmony with those perfect characteristics. Accept His love and accept His ways. That is the only way to not feel His wrath (and, it just so happens that, live in harmony long enough, and we will become like Him, just like His Only Begotten Son has done; perfectly, might I add...)

JPS

Work that Fills You with Energy!

2011-08-26T17:53:00.000-07:00

Some people, or maybe even most people talk a bout how much of a drag it is to go to work... I, however, have found a profession that I look forward to going to each and every day and even think about it always when I'm not there. Why is that, that for some people, they just go to work because that it what they have to do while others go to work because they "get to do" what they've chosen to do every day? Why isn't it the same way for everyone? Are there simply not enough of the preferred jobs to go around, or what?

I think that maybe the only way to get an answer to this question is to utilize my job. No, I'm serious... All day, every day (that is the weekdays), I go into schools (really just one school per year and it may be that I go the same school, as that is my job) and help the students there to discover what it is that they love to do. They may already know what they love to do, and that's fine--I will just help them discover more ways to do the thing they already love to do.

So, let me rephrase my first question (or maybe just repeat the same question...): why is it not the case that everyone loves their job? Seeing as how there are school counselors advocating for students in schools and helping them to discover and chase the job of their dreams, why haven't all of the students in the USA discovered their passion and the job that they will love to do?

Why aren't you happy in your job?

What can I do to help you to be happier? Happier in your job and happier in life (for most people, their job is or has become their life...), won't you just let me help you?

It's not too late; it's never too late.

So, what do you say? Want to get happier?

JPS

Desire and Motivation

2011-08-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

We all desire something and almost all of us are motivated to one end or the other...

Where does that desire or where does that motivation come from?

Some desires are completely inexplicable like your desire to choose the red shirt instead of the blue shirt or you desire the green bracelet over the purple one; you can't explain why--in fact, you don't even know why yourself!

Motivations, on the other hand, almost always have some sort of foundation or rationale behind them and you could probably explain why this and why not that... Motivations are easier to explain. You might even be able to trace the reasons back in your life and probably can even explain it back before your birth--"My mom and dad knew this and then they taught it to me, and now I know it too and want to keep doing it" or "This goes back in my family for generations and I won't be the generation that doesn't keep doing it also..."

Maybe, though, it's just deeper than that: "I feel that it's right" or "I've prayed about this and know that it's true." Sometimes it's not just a matter of preference or even of history, but it's a conviction that you have that goes so deep that you know that you couldn't ever not believe it.

Let's look at the flip-side though or the reverse side: Why don't you want to do that?

That's a little harder to explain for most people. You can say the negative of each reason, though, for your negative desire or motivation--I can't explain why I don't, but I just don't--it's inexplicable. I don't want that just like my father and my father's father didn't want that... Or, I just feel that it's wrong or I know that it's wrong.

Let's ask, now, how to get a new desire or how to be motivated? I think that this is a question or a problem that all of us, or almost all of us, struggle with. How can I create a new desire or how can I flip a switch and be motivated when I wasn't before?

I won't presume to be able to answer this for everybody or even anyone--you tell me! How can or do you do it?

JPS

Action or Reaction

2011-08-05T11:40:00.001-07:00

Stuff happens; we all know that.

The question is: Are you going to react to the situation or can you calmly an collectedly act with poise and well-thought-out and logical, maybe even already-thought-out plans (that's really the best way to go--act with a plan that you've already thought of and maybe pondered on before, maybe even for a long time...). That way you won't just be reacting to the situation. That doesn't mean that you have to think of every single possible situation and make a plan for what you'd do in in all the varying and different situations.

This isn't just my thought or my pondering vision of the way things would be--I've gleamed this from many different thinkers and wise men.

Act, don't react!

JPS

Off Facebook... For good!

2010-05-19T06:20:00.000-07:00

I pulled myself off of Facebook last night... and this morning. The site tries to make sure that you'll never leave. And even when you do, it's just as easy as logging-back on to "reactivate" your account. Just try it, you'll see.

Last night I thought of a way to take myself off permanently so that I couldn't ever reactivate my own account, but it turns-out that you have to confirm your own password about 3 times when you deactivate your account. I thought that I could just change my password, just blindly hit the keyboard a few times, then deactivate the account--that way I wouldn't know what my password was. No dice!

Got it figured out now, though. I'm off for good, and if you see me posting anything, then all the police on me for wasting more valuable time (notice, though, that I had to hop on my old blogspot account to "notify" my friends almost immediately that I will no longer be reachable through that devil's playground of wasted time and energy).

I'm trying to convince everyone that there is a better way, though, to keep in contact with your friends. Facebook makes you think that you'll never talk to the people that you care about if you leave. It makes you believe that you'll lose contact with someone that you'll regret not talking to... But, what did you do before Facebook? Weren't you all right? Weren't you able to function just fine? Didn't you have hours more each day to do things that you really ought to have been doing?

Good riddance. Thanks for the fun time, though, and thanks for showing me how pervasive your evil works are Facebook... er, I mean Satan... er, I mean Facebook.

Josh

Calvin Joshua Stott - born 10/4/2009

2009-10-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

Jill&Josh wedding -- 12/31/2008

2009-01-28T17:24:00.000-08:00

Announcement pics: Jill&Josh '08

2008-11-23T09:16:00.000-08:00

Pure Excitement for the Month of December...

2008-11-10T16:57:00.000-08:00

I asked Jill to marry me!

SHHhHhHhhh.........

It's a secret!

She said... now lean in closer here so I can whisper.....

YES!!!

Happy days for me... eternally! Until the brightest day!!!

JPS

Return of "The Spanish Prisoner"...

2008-10-25T14:00:00.000-07:00

Like I have said: I didn't discount inspiration or possibly a burning bush or even a dream or vision, but, I believe that my last love interest basically wrote me that a "Dear Josh" because of The Spanish Prisoner, but it seems that Cami had "hit-the-nail-on-the-head" when she commented that, "Maybe it is a personality test to find out if you are compatible." It seems that watching that movie was my secret-compatibility-test and it most definitely "weeded-out" an incompatible love candidate!

I have since found (re-found? We had actually gone-out a few times in High School...) a completely compatible love interest that actually owns the movie in question!

I am completely, head-over-heels in love with her (she is who I have at other times referred to #105 and the topic of that "potential energy" that I have been referring to...)!

So, thanks Cami--you were right!--and thank you David Mamet for both writing and directing that movie (we'll do lunch sometime; have your people call my people...)!

She had declared a poem by Carl Sandburg, as her poet-of-the-month for October and poated:

"HAPPINESS"

I asked professors who teach the meaning of life to tell
me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of
thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though
I was trying to fool with them.
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along
the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with
their women and children and a keg of beer and an
accordion.

I am happy though I have never consumed malt liquor (or any liquor, for that matter...) nor played an accordian...!!! Thanks Jill...

JPS

How does procrastination erode faith?

2008-10-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

First of all, let's look at what faith is:

In the New Testament (where else should we look to find out the absolute most fundamental characteristic of a disciple of Christ?) we learn that faith is; in Hebrews chapter eleven, verse one -- Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Also, we read in the Book of Mormon, in the book of Ether, chapter twelve much about what faith is, but specifically in verse six, "that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."

We can infer from those two verses that faith is not to have a sure knowledge and is not to be able to "prove" that such a thing is true... We can, though, believe that it is the case and can believe so much, AS to, like Joseph Smith teaches in his Lectures on Faith, have the power of faith and, therefore, the power to finish the faithful steps that we are taking! (We could go on and on and on about the nature of faith and describe and discuss it, but our point now is to talk about how procrastination erodes faith!)

Now, let us turn a discussion of "procrastination..." Procratination is, in essence, proof that you don't actually have faith, or I should say that to procrastinate is to show that you don't believe, wholeheartedly, that the object of your desired faith will come to pass!

Let me step back for a moment and try not to offend those reading this that may be procrastinators... Alma 34:33,35 & Alma 13:27 & Helaman 13:38 all talk about procratination in terms of not waiting too long to repent or waiting til it becomes "everlastingly too late" to repent!

To procratinate is to do the opposite of moving forward in faith; it is, literally, to stand still or move backwards in faithlessness... C. S. Lewis tells us is that faithful action is strengthened by repetition but that not choosing to act towards your faithful goal will make you forget about and lose interest in completing your original desire or desired goal...

In other words, to procratinate or procrastination, does, in fact, erode faith! It can actually erode it to the point that you no longer have that initial faithful intention...

JPS

Energy II (potential energy)...

2008-10-12T15:16:00.000-07:00

Now the energy that I'm feeling... (in fact, the way that I put it today in an email was, "I woke-up at 5:20 AM and my body was tingling from this very energy"...) definitely is a type of "potential energy" but another way to-put-it is the excitement of potential energy!

Saturday night there was some actual kinetic energy happening in my life and maybe just a little bit of nuclear energy!!! I think that I may need to get decontaminated some! I know that there actually no reactor meltdown or leakage of any kind though... And maybe there was some of that cosmic energy; in fact, there was!

No sexual energy, but... there definitely was potential sexual energy! Hence me classifying it as "potential energy"... Right? OK? Now, STOP THINKING ABOUT IT and get-back to you MSN News page!!!

JPS

Was that charitable?

2008-10-03T14:23:00.001-07:00

But, isn't it "only natural"?

2008-10-03T13:46:00.000-07:00

What does that phrase intend to mean exactly?

Let's look at a couple possible scenarios (remembering that we can substitute any sin with the sin listed in the example!) For example: We may not be prone to violence, but in this first example:

"It's only natural that I murdered my wife and left my children motherless... BUT she has been yelling at me for 30 years! ..."

"Sure... sometimes when I daydream at work or even at home, I think of sex with a woman other than my wife or killing my boss... I am a man, though, and can't help but feel those types of urges! right?"

"It's only natural that I cheated on my taxes... After all, the Government already has their fair share, and the government owed me that money and I don't consider it 'stealing'!"

"My son was foolish last summer and had sex with his long-time and steady girlfriend, but I don't blame him because it was just his hormones and it's only natural to have those feelings and then let your body take its natural course: weren't we made to do just that?"

This next scenario might be hard to read...

"My older bother came over, last night, to help me finish painting my garage ceiling and we got to joking and I told him about some of the dumb things that my wife has done to me lately... I mean, I can't believe that she would ever do that to anyone, but to her own husband!?! My brother says that I should seriously consider divorcing her!"

So, where could we place the "it's only natural label" on that scenario? On just the brother? On just the husband? On both? Why?

Just remember one of the most profound verses in scripture that speaks-to just this sort of topic:

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Spirit, and putteth-off the natural man, and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full-of-love, willing-to-submit to all things that the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

JPS

What if I were to stop writing?

2008-10-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

I think that, for me, writing is a way too create the goodness that otherwise I wouldn't be able to make...

I'm pretty sure that if I were to stop writing (either here or in my journal at home...), I would die... inside!

The more I am able to create the more I feel love and feel happiness and feel joy and feel completed!

When I need to write something, anything, then to plug this creative outlet would be to turn off that one avenue for love and happiness and joy, anticipating completion.

If I were to stop writing...

I would simply have to find another avenue of creation! -- for now, though, this is the most comfortable and the easiest way that I can express myself, alone, that is...

I think I'll just continue to write like this for a long time. Don't even think that I will ever stop writing mini-devotionals either1 That is where most of my expression emerges...

JPS

Energy...

2008-09-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

Let's list some different types of energy to see if we can pinpoint which kind I'm experiencing:

Nervous Energy - Could be--I have removed myself from the "groove" that I was in before and also have a new job: my internal clock has been reset to another schedule!

Cosmic Energy - You never know... The universe might have made plans for me to do something that I haven't done before and will shortly be "throwing me into a new situation"!

Solar Energy/Thermal Energy - Could be--I was just waiting for the bus outside and was getting awfully hot!

Carbine Energy - Don't think so... I sit almost all-day-long on a chair, answering questions...

Atomic Energy - I somehow don't think that any atoms are being split inside of me (I'm pretty sure that we all would know immediately about that!)!

Nuclear Energy - See reasoning similar to Atomic Energy for why I do not think I am experiencing Nuclear Energy...

Psychological Energy - Is my brain just producing some biological energy that I'm not aware of? Why can't I just turn it off and turn it on at will?

Coal Energy - I don't think so...

Hydraulic Energy - Are you saying I'm wet-behind-the-ears? That just may be, but I'm NOT producing hydraulic energy...

Kinetic Energy - The only thing that's really moving right now is my heart, my restless legs, and my typing fingers! I am not sure that I could point my finger at kinetic energy for what I'm experiencing...

Sexual Energy - Nope! That includes the lack-of sex that can build-up in a person until they feel like they will explode... Nope!

No! Ok... I think I've narrowed it down to... Potential Energy!!! Potential to experience each and every one of the different types of energy (that is, with the exception of maybe hydraulic and carbine energy...)!

JPS

Testimony

2008-09-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

No, this post is not titled the way it is because I AM going to bear my testimony... I think I do that already in most things that I write!

Instead, I want to talk about others bearing their testimonies (whether they know it or not...).

Every night and every day I pray that Addison will "be able to glean from the words-that-others-use-around-him the TRUTHS that are being expressed and that, even though I'm hundreds of miles away, he will learn all of the things that I would teach him if I were there." I know that he isn't going to be punished for being far-away from the TRUTH a I would teach him but that he will be strengthened in learning those same TRUTHS from others around him and have a stronger foundation for his testimony because of it...

All TRUTH, though, isn't pointed to a man or to a woman, but ALL TRUTH points back to Christ. It is he that is the light and the life of the world and in Doctrine & Covenants 88:6-7 we learn that,

He that ascended up on high, as also he descended below all things, in that he comprehended all things, that he might be in all and through all things, the light of truth; Which truth shineth. This is the light of Christ. As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made.

Testimony is one of the most powerful things that we can have in this world... In verse 66 of that same chapter, we read:

Behold, that which you hear is as the voice of one crying in the wilderness—in the wilderness, because you cannot see him—my voice, because my voice is Spirit; my Spirit is truth; truth abideth and hath no end; and if it be in you it shall abound.

The funny and great part of it all is: We all can bear it. We all can bear our own testimonies and we can "tap into" that power that is being shared with us!!!

JPS

How do all things typify Christ?

2008-09-13T23:57:00.000-07:00

In 2 Nephi 11:4, we read:

"Behold, my soul delighteth in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ; for, for this end hath the law of Moses been given; and all things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the typifying of him."

Let's take a moment to think of the different ways that things "typify" our Lord and Savior:

Astrological-He is the creator of this world and millions of others and is the savior for each one that He has made. All things point to Him as a God!
Universal-Likewise, He is through all things and in all things, He is the originator of all truth and is ever-expanding. His works have no end (worlds without end!)...
Biological-Think of the seasons: the plants die in the fall and then winter, only to be re-born in the spring and then thrive in the summer!
Philosophical-He is the WORD (see The Gospel of John 1:1). All true ideas come from him. Don't think that you just thought-up a new idea that didn't originate in the mind of God!!!
Historical-He is Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end...
Scientific-He not only created this planet but also filled it with all manner of animal life (beasts, fowls of the air [in all their varieties], fishes, insectas, creeping things, etc.). The seasons are under His POWER as well as all things that fall outside of the use of OUR agency!!!
Love-God is love (1 John 4:7-Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God...; 1 John 4:16-... God is LOVE...; 1 John 3:16-... he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren)...
Mathmatical-He is without beginning of days or end of years; is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent; He is, as the Ancient Greek philosophers would have called him, The One...
Spiritual-He is the content of and the end of my religion and everything that it contains...
Faithful-He is my example in all things. Indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—"... We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to gendure all things (see Articles of Faith 1:13)"...

JPS

A Found Poem (box of Mukki italian Panna di Cucina)

2008-09-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

Freschezza per tutti
Sinonimo di qualita'
Dare gusto ad ogni tua ricetta
Pronto per l'uso in cucina!

JPS

Double Irony...

2008-09-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

Not since my days of reading Søren Kierkegaard in college have I thought up another doubly ironic situation as it comes to Jesus Christ (not like I "dreamed it up" as this idea was already there, waiting for someone to point out!)...

I was reading 2 Nephi 25: 12-13, which states-

12- ... when the day cometh that the Only Begotten of the Father, yea, even the Father of heaven and of earth, shall manifest himself unto them in the flesh, behold, they will reject him, because of their iniquities, and the hardness of their hearts, and the stiffness of their necks.

13- Behold, they will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God...

Now, Christ came to this earth to redeem all of those children of our Heavenly Father who would accept his atonement and follow his commandments, plus all who are born here will automatically be resurrected once they've passed-on from this life. Yet, the Jews are so wicked that they have crucified their God. Now, nobody but the Jews were so acquainted with their God, Jehovah, and yet they took offense to Him and His teachings and His example enough to murder him in the most cruel manner ever thought of!

Now, as if that wasn't ironic enough, this was all part of the plan from the beginning. Christ knew very well, perfectly well, what price he would have to pay to fulfill his mission here on earth; he knew that he would have to make a blood atonement for all mankind and he knew that it would be the very same people that he came-to, lived with, ate dinner with, taught, was friends with--think of your neighbor, your bishop, your best friend's dad--and those people were going to be the ones to take offense and be angered enough to murder him! The double irony comes to when you realize that those people were the only people born of our Heavenly Father who would kill their God!

In 2nd Nephi, chapter 10, verse 3, we read:

Wherefore, as I said unto you, it must needs be expedient that Christ—for in the last night the angel spake unto me that this should be his name—should come among the Jews, among those who are the more wicked part of the world; and they shall crucify him—for thus it behooveth our God, and there is none other nation on earth.

And, to add irony to double irony, the reason that we are told they crucified their God was:

Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. (John 5: 18)

JPS

Jack Napier (played by Jack Nicholson) v. The Joker (played by Heath Ledger)

2008-09-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

Which is your favorite Jaker? Which do you think of when you say, "The Joker from the Batman movies"? If there were a "real" Joker, which way would you think that he would act like?

Let's discuss each of them and then we may have a clearer idea of them both when we answer those questions:

Jack Nicholson's Joker--This character actually had another persona that you can also look to: Jack Napier, the-right-arm-man for Carl Grissom, the Mob Boss. You couldn't help but understand that this deformed and scarred and multi-colored being was also the same person as Jack. I suppose this could make you either less scared of him--because you knew that deep-down you had seen him as a "real" person, OR this could also make you more scarred of him because you could understand what sort of damage the vat of toxic sludge had done to this once almost-normal-though-still-frightening man... So, when you see him act completely illogically and unmercifully you are still left wondering if this is old-Jack or is it "the new-and-improved-Joker"...

Heath Ledger's Joker--For this character, you actually have no another persona that you can also look to: he is introduced only as The Joker (in fact, remember that Det. Gordon says about him, "No name, no other alias, clothing is custom..." He is THE JOKER. Heath Ledger's Joker, in opposition to Nicholson's, appears with absolutely no explanation as to how his coloring (his skin and his hair) has been changed. Again, I suppose this could make you either less scared of him--because you could understand that this man (monster?) has no story (except for the unbelievable, yet repeated story of what his ex-wife or mother did to him) that explains why he is this way, OR he may be even MORE frightening for exactly the same reasons...

Personally, I couldn't understand how the Nicholson's Joker could be more scary than Heath Ledger's... After all of the breakdown and analysis, I am left with the one outstanding trait that is disturbing than the rest: unpredictability. Heath Ledger's Joker seems to not follow any pattern of thought or carry out plans, but (and this is how I believe the comic book character was intended to portray) he does wicked and evil things for no apparent reason (other than the fact that HE can...). Nicholson's Joker is at least somewhat calculating and semi-predictable, but Ledger's acts only out of desire to do things (and who CAN predict that?) in his convincingly crazy mind...

My assessment over-all is that Ledger's Joker is much, much, MUCH more terrifying!!!

What all do you think?

JPS

Left-brained vs. Left-handed

2008-09-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

What is the difference?

Funny you should ask...

I am training right now with Jake at my new work, for Apple refunds, and I thought-- that I was positive, in fact--that I would say that I was without-a-doubt correct that he was left-handed... Turns out, though, that he is, in fact, right-handed, but that he was adopted into a family of ALL left-handed people!

Interesting situation, but, was that all it was?

If I were to tell you which person Jake reminds me of and that has the same mannerisms, way of speaking, etc., I would tell you that my brother, Garrett, was almost exactly the same... In almost every single way!

Remember what I had just said/written (if you can't, then you can take a moment to re-read the above paragraph!)--Jake was born and then immediately adopted by a famil; it turns out that this adopting family is composed of left-handed people... They are a entire-left-handed-family!!!

Why does this interest me? I have been "learning things" from knowing whether or not a pesrson is left-handed... My grandfather, Ben, was completely a right-handed man, for example. And I mean MAN!!! He was born in 1920 on a farm and there was nothing for him to have been taught to him to be left-handed (like a left-handed child that goes to school and is basically FORCED, by the teacher/faculty/parents/piers/etc. to be right-handed... Could this have happened to him?). But, the fact and truth is that he was right-handed. From knowing him, from knowing in part, the way he thought, I also would have assumed and thought that I knew that HE was left-handed!

If he were born now, there is no doubt in my mind that he would have been left-handed. Since he was born in an age and cultur where people/teachers/parents only assumed that every male child was right-handed, he became a carpenter (so, not a painter). He could have, though, easily been able to have become whatever he wanted in life (given a larger variety of choices and opportunities!) including a painter or a sculpter or anything that would have used more of the right-brain than what he was trained to use...

What leads me to that conclusion? Years and years of studying the right-brain/left-side-dominant lifestyle and ways of thinking...

I, on the other hand, am all right-handed and right brain thinking!

I will talk more about any and all of this as I arrive at more firm conclusions and as people respond/ask me questions that spark other aspects to talk about... For some reason, I am COMPLETELY FASCINATED with this idea and would love to integrate this into a solid study/philosophy sometime!

JPS

Natural Man

2008-09-06T23:03:00.000-07:00

I can see you clearly
I know what you are
You are but a rebel,
and must lay down your arms
We're not simply creatures,
needing to improve
Surrender yourself to the light,
that he is offering you...

From the garden
I know what you are
From the garden

I can see you clearly
You're fallen from the stars
Some passions are temptations,
and you give in to all
We can't simply falter,
when we begin to urge
You cannot deny the light,
if you are to return...

To the garden
He knows what you are
From the garden

What you give is what you get
And every time that you forget,
you'll deny it
The world has made us all confused
With all the truths that it's abused
Don't deny it

From the garden
You know what you are
From the garden
Don't deny it!

JPS '99, '08

The price we all must pay...

2008-09-06T14:27:00.000-07:00

It would be "easier" to just sit back, relax, and watch the world pass us by... But, we can't just take a back-seat to all that's going on around us!

Let me speak directly to all of the women-folk that are going to read this blog (and then, after you all have read it, force your husbands to read it and then make sure they really understand it!). Eliza R. Snow once once addressed the women of the Relief Society and said that:

Instead of depending entirely on our husbands for salvation and position, we have to work them out ourselves. The responsibility and labor that devolve upon women are becoming more important... God has put the means into your hands to become queens and priestesses in this kingdom, if you only live for it!

Now, unless you may be inclined to misunderstand what she said about "position", let me refer you back to the quote and point-out that it's referring to eternal or church position and not earthly position and that Karl G. Maeser, the first principle of BYU and the co-founder of the education guidelines for the school, also once said:

Eagerness to earn bread and butter has overshadowed many a golden opportunity.

So let's not 1- go after worldly positions ourselves nor 2- encourage our husbands, although I am positive that it would be subtly, to "earn [more] bread and butter"!

Remember, remember that prize is waiting for us both if we, indeed, remain faithful:

... they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fullness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever (Doctrine and Covenants 132:19).

Looking at it this way... Can we even call it a "price"? Because it seems that it's all just given to us (after all that we can do...)!

JPS

Fruitcake that I bury in my backyard each January, Part II

2008-09-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

It grows.
Higher.
Taller.

It reaches.
Red
Green
Even blue.

"What a beautiful tree you have."
Right...
Branches
Flowers
Bloom!

I'll chop it down in the fall.
Good for firewood.
Good for heat.
Not food.

I bought a tracter
To plow my orchard
Of fruit cakes.
I irrigate in spring.
They grow.
higher.
Taller.
They reach.
Red
Green
Blue.

"What a beautiful tree you have."
Right...

JPS '99

Ways to judge whether on not to see a movie (only 5...):

2008-09-01T19:42:00.000-07:00

The way that I see it, there are several reasons why one would choose, difinitively, to see a particular movie:

1) The actor or actress playing the lead (or potentially even a minor/supporting role...), you have fallen in-love with (whether or not you are the same sex as this actor),

2) The theme or plot of the movie is more than just interesting to you,

3) You may be enchanted with whomever has directed or written the movie and you feel as though you can't get enough of his or her movies...

4) The fact that you've been drawn into the oh-so-clever-ploy of watching the prequil or prequils that will make this movie all the more appealing and understandable (and now you feel a moral obligation to finish watching the movies in said series; regardless!),

or 5) The time of the playing of the movie or the location of the movie or possibly even the fact that you are being rushed to quickly choose a rental movie and then get out of the store!

Do you have more reasons? What are they? (I suppose you could include a reason like--Your loved one chose it and you WILL watch it with them [whether you would have chosen this particular movie or not]...)

JPS

How to be more "upbeat"!

2008-08-30T16:05:00.000-07:00

Since I'm not exactly sure how it is that I am supposed to be more upbeat than I already am, I am going to write about "HOW" to become more upbeat and in the process, I hope to be more upbeat!

Just so you know, I don't feel like I am depressed or even gloomy, but as soon as I start writing--I am not the most positive person around! I don't know... Maybe it's just the subject matter or the the things that I choose to talk about. I think by trying to explain how it is that I should be sounding, I will become that type of writer (at least until I write again...).

I am taking this idea of not-knowing-how-to-become-a-certain-way-so-you-just-start-talking-as-if-you-are-already-that-way from a quote from Brigham Young. He once said that, More people have obtained a testimony while standing up trying to bear it, than down on their knees praying for it.

So, my ideas for starting to write and being upbeat are:

1) Let your happiness come through your writing! As in, if you are a naturally happy person, then let that happiness come across to others...

2) Don't choose to write or talk about anything that is or could be construed as potentially sad or even disheartening!

3) Write with someone in mind that makes you happy! Use this idea-of-the-person to "check" yourself and keep yourself from straying from the desired happiness...

4) Think back on what you're writing and make sure that you are actually getting happier/more excited just from putting words about that thing that you're writing about...

and 5) Ask yourself if you could conceivably bring this same topic into an already happy conversation with a loved-one without "bringing them down" or ruining the mood!

I realize that I, myself, haven't followed these rules and have kind-of avoided the whole topic of being happy... These are good guidelines to follow and keep yourself from not being a-happy-writer, even if this post has just been a meta-happiness-blog!

JPS

Haven't I written something about memory before?

2008-08-26T20:15:00.000-07:00

I don't remember what I was going to write about... But it'll come!

JPS

Worms... Roxanne... Worms...

2008-08-23T19:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, guess you have to be a big "Roxanne" movie-lover to appreciate the title...

The reason that I have gathered you all together today is to talk to you about the very importance of "words". In an amazing speech given by the law-school professor and librarian, Constance K. Lundberg called, "Words of Hate; Words of Love".

In the talk/speech to fellow law students, faculty, and professors, she mused:

"Used in the context of our relationship with God, words are real, and their power is real. Repentance can be real and sincere, but our acceptance of the atonement is not sufficient if we only have a change of heart. We must also be baptized. The act, and the words of the prayer, are more than symbols. They effect real change. The acceptance and understanding of that change is part of the act of repentance, and of our preparation for baptism."

Finishing the thought, she relates, "Contemplating those vows enables us to test the reality of our commitment to repentance, to a forsaking of past sins and a covenant to take upon ourselves the Name of Jesus Christ – more words. More words that are the acts we cherish and revere."

Take a look at the speech/talk and see what you think... That is all ... Reconridge!

JPS

The irony of me not accepting god's will...

2008-08-19T21:27:00.000-07:00

I try hard to align my will with God's, so much so that I am almost happy to see bad (or even terrible...) things happen in my life (as long as I am then able to overcome or endure those things). Because, if and when I DO overcome them, then
it's proof to me that I AM following the correct path and forces are fighting against me the whole way!!!

This is a good thing... What I am trying to work out now is that I am finding it hard for me to allow the *good* things in life or even *the blessings* in life happen to me in the same way that the bad happens!

... I was just down in my room having a personal dialogue with myself (would you call that a "auto-monologue"?) about why it is that I will not allow myself to have things "go my way" for a change with a relationship... I just enumerated a whole list of positive things that went my way, in one particular situation, that IS NOT going my way, yet it's hard for me to be charitable to myself or to allow others to be charitable to me!

I feel like the spirits in Lewis' The Great Divorce who are refusing to enter into heaven because they are unwilling to "let go" of the pattern of wrongs that they've "suffered"--they get some sort of satisfaction out of not being blessed! The crave the "BLAME" that they are able to attach to something other than themselves and attribute victimization to that thing or that person!!!

Am I following in that same trap? Why won't I be optimistic about myself and the things that are "going my way"? Am I dooming myself to forever be the false-accusor? Will I always expect a certain amount of "wrongs" that are trying to hold-me-down? Why am I adding even more weight to that burden until I believe it's "heavy enough"?

The truth is: I DO have faith and trust that some things are going to turn-out the way that I plan, but, those things (in which I successfully have faith in) are very, very few! Where I am lacking in faith is the faith that my life will continue to be blessed and that I will find joy in my relationships (among other things)!

I'm afraid that I will not start seeing my life as being blessed until my attitude changes... Maybe that change will start with this post!?! In fact, it has changed from that personal/private monologue down in my room... GOODBYE PESSIMISM and HELLO CHARITY!!!

JPS

What has God done to "purge" you?

2008-08-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

In The Gospel according to JOHN, chapter 15, verse 2, we read that:

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

This question already assumes that YOU are not an evil branch that brings forth evil fruit, but that you are good and bring forth good fruit! So, now that we know that you "beareth fruit", I want to know how have you been "purge[d]... that [you] may bring forth more fruit".

JPS

Unstring your bow my son, unstring your bow!

2008-08-14T06:22:00.000-07:00

Joseph Smith is reported as advising certain brotheren, after other non believers/non mormons would call out that he was a fallen-prophet because he would get down and play with the children whenever he could, that 'If you kept your bow constantly tied and the string taut, that your bow would lose its spring' meaning that you can't go around all day, every day, wound-up to the maximum level. You have to relax and do other things that aren't going to necessitate you be posed to battle every-little-thing, as if you were at war!

Likewise, C. S. Lewis, in his book, The Weight of Glory, reminds us that the Master himself advised his followers that we need to ask for our daily bread and not to let the thought of not having our daily bread tomorrow or the next day or next week, etc. be our concern... You see, even the children of Israel, when they were wandering in the desert for 30 years were commanded to gather only enough sustenance (bread in this case...) for that day, and if they gathered more than that, the manna would spoil and have maggots!

Again, C. S. Lewis writes, "Happy work is best done by the man who takes long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment 'as to the Lord.'"

Some may see this post as terribly ironic and even comically ironic that I write a blog about not being so serious and yet, at the same time, fill the blog with scriptural quotes and theological references... Little steps, little steps... I am working on it and will keep more in mind that I can't keep my bow constantly taut!!!

JPS

I will not be complacent! I will not be complacent!

2008-08-08T18:37:00.000-07:00

One summer Stephanie and I went to an Indigo Girls concert up at Wolf Mountain (or was that before the name change from Park West?) and besides good and fine music, one of the parts that I remember most about the concert was that after singing a song from their new Swamp Ophelia album she kept chanting, "I will not be complacent" again and again...

I'm sure it was spawned by some sort of desire to become even more of an activist or better yet, to inspire those listening to become a some sort of activist in one of their many causes (you know... save the wales, legalize gay and lesbian marriages, what-have-you!).

The reason why I am saying that "I will not be complacent" is because I am going to do what is right, no matter the outcome ("Do it now!" -President Spencer W. Kimball). I am talking about doing what is right on every level of life--my school, my work, my family life, my friendship activities, my personal life, and my church activity--even things that I will say or wright!

The irony of this whole story which was inspired by the Indigo Girls is that the night of the concert was on a Sunday... So was the night that I was taken to a Sundance Film Festival showing of a Stewart Copeland movie about the Police; on a Sunday...

The thing that causes me to write this is: It's nobody's fault that I chose to go to these two events on Sunday... Nobody forced me to and it's not like I didn't have a choice. My own choices and the way I was being and acting was as an enemy to God and to what I knew and know to be right!

I think that I am out of danger of succumbing to the Sabbath-day-breaking desires that hounded me, but, I need to recommit myself to making all of the choices that I feel are going to be the most helpful and beneficial and inspiring-to-others that I can! Regardless of who says differently (even me and my natural man flare-ups), I am going to act, insofar as I am able, in strict accordance with God's will and then allow My Savior's atonement make up for the rest!

JPS

"But we heeded them not..."

2008-08-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

Peer pressure is something that I haven't worried about since I was in high school, but as a father, I can't not be worried about the choices that my son will make in life. I know that he will have the influence of his dad and his mom and the influences of all of his grandparents, but he's going to also have the influence of friends: some good and some-not-so good!

I pray for him each and every day and night and ask that he be able to glean those truths that are spoken all about him and taught directly too him, that he may become wise in his own decision making...

The title of this blog is from the first Book of Nephi chapter 8; it reads in versus 33-34 that, "... and after they did enter into that building they did point the finger of scorn at me and those that were partaking of the fruit also; but we heeded them not. These are the words of my father: For as many as heeded them, had fallen away."

I know that he will have PLNT of chances and opportunities to be laughed at and teased and even ridiculed because of the choices he will make, but I pray that in the end he will have not heeded those words and he will NOT have fallen away. I know that he can be strong and he will glean those life-saving truths that will help him along the path to reach me waiting for him at the Tree of Life with all of his loved ones!!!

JPS

More on memory...

2008-08-03T14:44:00.000-07:00

Memory is something that we almost never think of, but readily use it every single moment of our lives!

I suppose there in the inherent memory of how to keep our body functioning that seems almost completely unconscious (NOT subconscious, mind you, but UNconscious...)--breathing, circulating blood, how to see with our eyes, etc. Then there is the memory that we think of, which is conscious, like memories, mental organizing calendars/priorities/goals/etc.

I had a very, very interesting conversation with a woman that was in my ward when Stephanie and I were married (Aspen 1st ward) about a case of amnesia that a girl that she knows had after an accident, but when the amnesia went away, she had decided during the time when she couldn't remember things, that the Church wasn't true. Essentially, she had a strong testimony-was in an accident and had amnesia-regained her memory but fell completely away from the Church!

My friend was asking me about it and wondered why I did not lose MY testimony after my accident, yet she had...

I took a moment to think about it and then told her that I understood her story suggested was:

1- Our testimony is closely related to the influence(s) of the Holy Ghost (as I've written about in prior blogs),
2- During the time of amnesia she had lost her memories of the Gospel, etc.,
3- When she started recovering her memories, she didn't have the promptings and confirmation of the Holy Ghost confirming what she had previously known as being true actually WAS true, and
4- Because she felt like what she was feeling (the promptings of the truthfulness) or being told was not being confirmed against what little she could remember, she discounted and disbelieved it all...

In short, her physical loss of memory (which would have told her that she already believed what she was having people try and remind her of...) led to her trying to confirm with her mind the thoughts that were being supplied about the truthfulness of the Gospel, but without her memories she was left as a brand-new investigator--having to accept the Gospel with no prior experiences to judge it from, and it was her over-critical brain that decided to discount the hard-to-believe truths that were being presented to her...

My explanation for why I didn't experience the same effects was that I, fortunately, never was without a memory of the Church or of the Truth and, therefore never had to be treated as a brand-new-potential-convert as her friend will have to...

We are all given different trials in our lives which will all lead us back to our God and we will receive the Glory according to how we fare in our life and choices and trials!

I am eternally grateful that I did not have that sort of trial and that I have always known that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was the only true and living church on the face of the earth in these days and that I am glad to be one of its priesthood holders!

JPS

"I am like a rough atone rolling down the hill..."

2008-07-31T06:54:00.000-07:00

Joseph Smith called himself the "rough stone rolling" at different times in his life and occasionally explained what he meant by that... In 1843 he said that "The hammer and chisel never was heard on me nor never will be. I desire the learning of heaven alone." At another time he commented that the fact that he was "rolling down the hill" meant that as he was moving through life or rolling down the hill, the obstacles and challenges and hard things in life that he would come into contact with would knock a little piece off here and a little piece off there, until, he said, he would be a polished shaft in the quiver of Jehovah!

What he was saying was, if you will indulge me to explain what he was saying (I never actually having spoken with him before...), that he was going to live his life according to the will of God and that he would almost necessarily come-up-against different pitfalls or obstacles that would try to stop him, but that nothing was going to come between him and the object he was seeking (to accomplish God's will). Those obstacles and challenges would certainly try to destroy him and would knock a piece of that rough stone from the edges, until eventually he would be made entirely smooth and he would be "a polished shaft" and be able to do all things that the Lord asks him to do!

Now, I believe that all of us are rough stones rolling down the hill, inasmuch as we are moving towards the will of God! We must necessarily be moving (see 2 Nephi 2 about, in verse 16-Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.) as none of us can be holding still (we must act!!!) and we must be either choosing to follow Christ or we are choosing to move away from him...

As we are choosing to move towards the Savior, we will be stopped by the difficulties of life and we will be forced to make moral decisions... Each time we choose to fight against the incitements of the adversary of righteousness, we will have a "little piece off here and a little piece off there" (quoting myself and not Joseph Smith... Maybe?) until we become that polished shaft in the quiver of God!

I consider these "blogs" an opportunity to have some more of my rough edges knocked off and welcome and invite all people (that means YOU!) that may have a contrary position to speak up and tell me about it... The fact that I am rolling down the hill does not mean that I'm necessarily going to be writing correct things or a piece of the "Gospel of Josh" (Maybe?) and that you wouldn't want to say something contrary to what I have written... Think about it! Like I said, all of us a rolling one way or the other (and you can't help that... Thanks to agency, every choice we make either leads us either back to God or away from him... Even, "Should I shower first or eat breakfast?" will be a choice that will lead to other choices that will make up your day--I am NOT saying that itself is a moral choice, but will eventually lead to other choices and some of them moral).

So, continue to live your life as you feel you must and realize that you are determining where it is that you will end up by every single choice you make!!!

JPS

Three women who LOVE their men...

2008-07-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about this subject for a while (years actually...) and just have recently read 3 blogsites where the writer was a woman, and she consistently pays great homage or tribute to their husband or man-in-their-life.

I think that this is such a great thing because:

1- No relationship is going to grow and flourish with only half of the couple doing their utmost to keep the love alive in their relationship... Admittedly, I have always think of the man needing to make sure that this "flame" still burns bright, but it seems that I am wrong and it amazes me to see the woman taking up this role with ease!!!

2- The woman tends to know what things are going on in both of their lives and is a natural coordinator to help their marriage/relationship remain in harmony... Both with both of their hectic schedules and their friends and their families and all that is involved in keeping those-things-that-are-keeping-them-together going!

and 3- Women tend to be more sensitive and know perfectly the likes/dislikes, loves and bothersome things (fastidiousities?) at the forefront of their minds and along with their harmonious qualities, can make sure that love flourishes in that relationship...

HEY MEN!!! Wake-up and pay attention to the love that is burning and kept aflame because of mostly what your significant companion (speaking only about women, mind you! Please refer to The Proclamation to the World to understand more fully!) is doing... Then, put your new resolve to action and "step it up"!!!

As to the three women I mentioned at the beginning of this blog are Kristen Harris, Stephanie Stott, and Jinjer Donaldson... Dave, Tom, and Peter are the lucky men (respectively)!

(I in no-way am saying that YOU do not love your man or that this precludes any men from being that great amarist (lover) in their own relationship, this "blog" was just specifically paying tribute to that great feminine love...)

JPS

Prejudices and the Living Force...

2008-07-27T19:07:00.000-07:00

"True": We all make every decision with all of our baggage and wisdom + knowledge that we've gained from the past, yet I believe that it is very important to make all of our choices afresh and not be "bogged-down" by prejudices or even traditions that we have previously been following...

Remember the words of Qui-Gon Jinn in ""The Phantom Menace" to "listen to the living force".

Isn't it true that we all need to make every decision as if it was the first time we had ever been confronted with that scenario before, even if we may have been in a similar situation many times!

If we don't make our decisions "afresh", then we

Even, though, when we are making decisions based on council given to us from long ago--from the scriptures, from old council from an old prophet, or even from Jesus Christ, we have the confirming promptings from the "ever-living and ever-fresh" Holy Ghost tell you what is God's will!

Is it good for man to be alone?

2008-07-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

Well, is it good for a man to be alone?

Since I've written the couple of blogs about events that could have left me depressed and despondent with nothing good to say about marriage, I have been thinking about this very subject every single day (sometimes most-of-the-day...) and yesterday as I was at the temple, the answer came to me!

Answer: No, it is not good for man to be alone...

I'm not saying that I'm starting a new crusade to find a wife or that I'm actually going to change the way that I've lived my life up until now, but I will tell you one way that I have changed: I know that it is not good for man to be alone!

I, of course, knew that all along and had never though, indeed, that it would be good or even preferred for me to be alone, but now I have a spiritual and a temporal witness that it isn't my place or destiny to go through this life by myself--I will go through this life with a companion and helpmeet. Or maybe I won't. It is all up to the Lord's will, but I know now (or have been reminded) the plan of God for me...

JPS

Taking the GRE!

2008-07-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

Any brilliant suggestions on taking the GRE? What is your best advice on taking the test? Have any little tid-bits that are going to help me take it and get a score that will "promise" acceptance into a worthy grad-school?

JPS

Hard to understand, save you should inquire of God...

2008-07-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

In 1 Nephi chapter 15, we read one one of the dozens of times that Nephi's two elder brothers, Laman and Lemuel, hear a wonderful and spiritually uplifting sermon from their father only to criticize the counsel and the Lord for not being able to understand the teachings...

Nephi hears them out and them asks them, "Have ye inquired of the Lord?"

As I was thinking about these lessons (because there is a very good reason that the first book in the Book of Mormon is so chuck-full of great and easy-to-understand lessons--because every single reader has started-over and read the first 10-or-so chapters an almost infinite amount of times!), I had to stop and ask myself:

Am I willing to ask the Lord for help?

The answer, unfortunately, is a resounding "yes" when it comes to things that I find important or things that I would like to have happen... BUT I think that more often and all-too-often I choose to simply let my own brain figure out the answers instead of asking for help from the Lord!

I'm not saying that "the mind" isn't a wonderful thing, capable of an infinite amount of marvels, but only that I feel that I am guilty of "trusting in the arm of flesh" and having the object of my faith be my own body/brain...

How many more things would you think that I would be able to do if I would just ask and trust that the Lord will shine his light down on His child? Is my "not asking" a form of ingratitude? Am I really faithful or in some ways am I not "holding myself back" by not letting my Heavenly Father shine down his gifts onto me?

Aren't you guilty of the same thing, but maybe in a different way?

Jesus Christ has told us, over and over and over that (in fact, it is the most used phrase in all of scripture, quoting the Lord...):

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." (Matt. 7:7, Luke 11:9, 3 Ne. 14:7, and Doctrine and Covenants 42:62)

Need I be afraid to ask?

JPS

And perhaps thou shalt CAUSE thy nighbor to sin also...

2008-07-19T18:38:00.000-07:00

In the Book of Mormon, book of Mosiah, chapter 4, verse 28 we read of a warning that the prophet and king gives to his people:

And I would that ye should remember, that whosoever among you aborroweth of his neighbor should return the thing that he borroweth, according as he doth agree, or else thou shalt commit sin; and perhaps thou shalt cause thy neighbor to commit sin also.

... One of the many arguments or heated discussions or (let's just say it!), fights that we had was about the this concept. The most prominent discussion was about letting Addison play with his friends on Sunday. The family rule (and this rule is not necessarily binding on any other person, but it was our rule...); there was no going over and asking your friend to play on Sunday.

If we were outside, though, (enjoying the day and the outside... You know!) and another family happened to stroll-by and their kids wanted to play with Addison, then that was just fine and completely following the rules! We just did not want other children to see Addison playing outside (or coming over to their house to play...) and take that as license for them to play!

However, the rule was that our children (in this case: child....) were to Keep the Sabbath-Day holy and NOT seek-out opportunities to play with friends, or to even play out in the front-yard and, thus, become a standing-invitation to play on Sunday, etc.

You see the difference?

It was all done under the same concept that we read in this handy scripture! It is completely and totally up to each individual family as to whether or not you will let your own children "play" with their friends on the Sunday, just like it was any other day of the week... For me and for my house, (Joshua 24:15) we considered such an activity completely not in accordance with our Sabbath reverence!!!

Can't you understand?

JPS

Musing about DIVORCE...

2008-07-16T20:18:00.000-07:00

I was talking to a friend the other day who said that going through a divorce must have been really hard. Then he followed that up with, "It must have been really hard on your testimony!"

Actually, now that I think about it again, I'm not sure that this conversation actually ever took place or if it was all implied conversational words to what we were already talking about... Sorry, if it offends you to talk about a theoretical conversation, then, you'll be quite sad to realize that nearly ALL of my posts a theoretical in nature...

Back to the topic-at-hand though! My answer to him was that, "Divorce, like almost all things in life, can either strengthen one's testimony or it can crush it." And, if you think about it, you will need to concede that it's true!!!

Let's look at the two ways you major ways you could react: lose your testimony or be spurred on and get stronger and stronger in your faith!

There will always be different gradations or levels to one's reaction, but we need to mention only these two...

"I JUST GOT A DIVORCE AND NOW I WILL STOP ALL OF MY FAITHFUL ACTIVITIES"

or

"I JUST GOT A DIVORCE AND NOW I WILL MAKE THE MOST OF THIS NEW LIFE AND BECOME STRONGER IN MY FAITH"

Now, why would you turn away from your testimony?

--Maybe you never really had a testimony, but you only recognized the way you felt towards the church and Christ through the love that you had with your wife...
--Maybe you have become bitter because of your divorce; after all, didn't you do everything that you were supposed to have done, including being married in the temple. Didn't you keep all of your covenants? Didn't God let you down then?
--Maybe you have a testimony still, but you lied to yourself about, "I'll go to church next week" over and over again, but time passed and now you found yourself on the elder's quorum presidency short list of people-to-see-lest-they-fall-entirely-inactive!

Now, how would your testimony burn brighter even though you just went through a divorce?

--Maybe you grew from the trial of being separated and even more now that you are divorced, and turn back to life with your new insights hungry for more life-lessons!
--Maybe you were like a newborn chick ready to burst out of your egg, as you feel free now, in some ways, to express your testimony that you feel like had been being pent-up for all those years!
--Maybe you are a living example of what we learn from Ether 12:27-"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness... for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Now they have been humbled by the divorce experiences, they are ready to show the Lord just how grateful they are for the experience!

We all know that there is no-such-thing as standing still in your testimony; it is either growing larger or it is shrinking down to nothing. You can't pretend that your trial isn't going to effect you...

Just read the words of Joshua of Old and be inspired by them, Joshua 24:15-"Choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

JPS

Eternal companionship?

2008-07-15T20:06:00.000-07:00

I have recently been thinking or admitting to myself that I just very-well may not find and marry that someone-with-whom-I-will-spend-eternity in this life... No, stop it! I am being very serious here and not just posting a blog to get some sort of reaction out of you or so that I would be flooded with "get well soon" emails trying to cheer me up...

That does not mean that I am giving-up or that I won't do all that I can to find that person who will be my perfect companion... My goals and my methodology-to-reach-them have not changed in the slightest (but I won't be so aggressive or as aggressive)!

Just living my life as I know that I should will perform all of the "weeding out" that I have purposefully done in the past and will put me on the right path for encountering that wonderful woman who will love me as much as I love her!

Who knows though? I mean, do YOU know? How do you know then?

I am content not knowing, because in the end, I WILL know it all!!!

JPS

"Lying with his eyes", response!

2008-07-13T15:20:00.000-07:00

As you may remember, I did post a blog asking you to respond and comment on the topic at hand, which was, "Lying with his eyes"... I appreciate the two people that responded, but am a little dissapointed in the less-than astounding number of responses from YOU readers...

Both of the pieces from the original blog were specific to phrase "lying with your eyes" as : In "The Island", where it was said,

"Something is wrong! His eyes are lying..." and then the Beatles song actually says,

"Lying with his eyes", both of which imply that one can actually "lie" with one's eyes...

To which Finn replied that, "The eyes look away for a lie" and quoted an Eagle's lyrics:

You can't hide your lyin' eyes
And your smile is a thin disguise
I thought by now you'd realize
There ain't no way to hide your lyin eyes

and then Cami said that, "I believe eyes can lie." She also refers to movies where the way that the protagonist can tell that the perpetrator is lying is with his eyes...

However, I was looking for some sort of response as to how you can tell that one is lying or how one can lie... Let's turn to the scriptures to see what sort of insight we can glean from their words:

In Deuteronomy 28:56 we read: The tender and delicate woman among you... her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter and then in verse 65: ... but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
(we have the frailty of the eyes and the inconstancy of their gaze...)

But in Proverbs 23: 5-6 we see: Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats...
(we see that where the eye is focused, so the heart's desire lies, but also that as you lie, "[your eyes] fly away as an eagle toward heaven...)

And in Moses 1:11-But now mine own eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld...

In Doctrine & Covenants 121:2--How long shall thy hand be stayed, and thine eye, yea thy pure eye, behold from the eternal heavens the wrongs of thy people and of thy servants, and thine ear be penetrated with their cries?
(the eye is not an evil thing, but is a pure organ, unless we focus on evil things)

And finally we come back to Christ's appearance among the Nephites in the Book of Mormon where we read that in 3 Nephi chapter 11 verses 5, 8, & 15,
5-And again the third time they did hear the voice, and did open their ears to hear it; and their eyes were towards the sound thereof; and they did look steadfastly towards heaven, from whence the sound came.
8-And it came to pass, as they understood they cast their eyes up again towards heaven; and behold, they saw a Man descending out of heaven...
& 15-And it came to pass that the multitude went forth, and thrust their hands into his side, and did feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet; and this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come.
(again, we see that where the eye is focused, there the faith of the person is also focused and is amplified if it is turned to a faithful thing)

So, we are left to conclude that 1) eyes are inconstant and evil but only evil if one chooses to turn toward evil things, otherwise is a pure organ and able to amplify the good or evil that it is focused on, 2) the eye is nothing without the person focusing the vision on the good. Once the eye's focus is on the good, then the whole body is full of light and in Doctrine & Covenants 77: 4, we see that,

Q. What are we to understand by the eyes and wings, which the beasts had?
A. Their eyes are a representation of light and knowledge, that is, they are full of knowledge; and their wings are a representation of power, to move, to act, etc.

Where we see again in 3 Nephi 13:22-23:
The light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. If however, your eye is dark, then if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

You don't want to have dark or lying eyes, for how great is that darkness?

JPS

"Lying with his eyes", feedback!

2008-07-07T18:49:00.000-07:00

So, I finished watching the movie "The Island" with Ewan McGregor, and heard a very interesting phrase: "Something is wrong! His eyes are lying...".

This makes me immediately think of the Beatles song, "Happiness is a Warm Gun" which says, "Lying with his eyes, while his hands are busy working overtime...".

I simply want to hear from you all (Yes! Even YOU... and don't think that I won't notice that YOU don't respond); what you all think about lying with your eyes!!!

Just submit your commentary or thoughts as a response to this post... Some time in the future, I will write an entire blog/post about the idea, as it is one of my favorite things to think about in the entire world!

Write away, please!!! I am most interested to hear what you have to say (Matt and others, please refrain from letting a Beatles commentary be mojority of your reply, as I am well aware that you could write pages and pages about that song/the authors/etc., but FOCUS on the meaning behind the words)!

JPS

Learning of Heavenly Father from Hollywood?

2008-07-06T23:59:00.000-07:00

Watching the movie, The Rainmaker the other night, I had a glimpse of some of the characteristics that are how I think our Heavenly Father operates.

You know how he is often referred to as the Great Eternal Judge Elohim? Well... watching that John Grisham movie last night, a judge played by Danny Glover helped enlighten me as to a way that I can understand the righteous judgment of God.

The first thing that I thought of was how the the judge helped the brand new attorney, Matt Damon plead the case and lead his teams "discovery" words by using the correct verbage and following the correct order. At one point, the judge asks the new attorney if he wouldn't like to begin with a certain pleading, etc. In a very similar way, in order to come before God and in order to be able to receive of his blessings, we have to be shown the correct way and use proper verbage in our pleadings (Romans 8:26-... for we know not what we should pay as we ought..."

God the Father is anxious to help us out in whatever way that he can, if we will but follow his laws, as we read, in Doctrine and Covenants 130:20-21:

(20) There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—
(21) And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

Although He is looking to bless us all, he cannot "look upon sin with the least degree of allowance (D&C 1:31)". In other words, He is looking for any way that He can bless and strenthen and help and guide us, though He must, follow all the regulations and rules and dictates, even He, Himself must follow those same rules (though they are His only) of righteousness, or He would "cease to be God" (Alma 42).

Heavenly Father, in an infinitely superior way than the judge in The Rainmaker, is anxious to help us and give us all the blessings that he can. He is waiting and even "chomping at the bit" to bless each and every one of us (as we are all his children--that means that YES, even YOU! are his son or his daughter) and all we need to do is 1) act righteously and keep his commandments and 2) ask Him for that which we need. The treat part of this all is that even if we're not sure what to ask for, the Spirit will help us to know what to ask for...

JPS

Parting blows...

2008-07-06T09:16:00.000-07:00

The way I see it, there are two reasons why you should use a parting blow...

To explain what I am trying to convey with the term, "parting blow" (because each of us knows what the word means, whether we dish them out or whether we have been on the receiving end of one), let me explain what one is, and in the meantime I will answer the question, "why use one?":

1) The most common way these are used is in being malicious! You use a parting blow so that you can ensure that there will be no time for the other person to have a 'quick comeback'... so that you will have "the last word in the matter"... or so that you can defeat the other person and leave them with no will power or time or possibility to respond to your blow!

2) I've just thought of another way to use a "parting blow" with less than the unfair and hurtful way that you used it in the first scenario: You make your last statement or word on the matter in such a way that you have now put the issue to rest and because there is going to be no comeback or response to your statement...

Is there room for both possibilities in your dialogue? Yes. Should you ever use possibility 1 then? I really don't believe that you should ever do such a thing... Which leaves you with the warning that if you think that you need to use a parting blow in a conversation, then it should be done ONLY keeping in mind that if you do stray off-course and say something in a sarcastic or a belittleing or an outright-snotty way, you are in the wrong and can only opologize and do something or say something to let the other know that you are never going to say such a thing again...

Just repent and by so-doing change your mind!

JPS

LDS singles scene = Greek inspired "eating their own children"...

2008-07-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

What?

What was that?

I remember something from my Greek/philosophy studies where an allusion was made to the 'Sun eating ifs own children', meaning that the sun, although it is really big and really powerful/hot, it was so giant that it consumed it's own offspring... I'm not sure where the story came from nor am I sure that I'm alluding to it correctly; I just know that when I went to a LDS singles activity, the idea of 'the sun eating it's own children' came to mind...

Let me explain:

We need to start with the status quo--Hundreds and thousands and even millions of singles in the LDS church. As of right now, almost 1/3 of the church membership are single adults. Now, if you also take into consideration the percentage that are children/minor youth, and you mathematically are left knowing that the single adult percentage of the church is equal to that of the married adults (and 1/3 is left for the children...). That is HUGE!

Next, we also know that the singles are going to be looking to marry and compute their progression charts and because every (maybe not every, but I can only speak from my own perspective!) person wants to make every logical progression through this mortal life--not to mention fulfill their patriarchal blessings (which all of them speak of being eternally married [if not in this lifetime, then in the world to come]...)!!!

We also know that the church shares in this knowledge of the eternal progression of the individual, and that this progression ends at a certain point and an 'eternal spouse' is needed in order to reach the highest degrees of that celestial order!

Finally, we are left with the church feeling the need to help the singles match-up and move on. Only, they have 2 things going against them:

1) The actual single population is made up of somewhat backwards (at least socially speaking...) and recently wounded adults. None of the recently divorced adults feel like they can simply just jump-right-into the "feeding-frendzies" called the single-adult-life and survive on their own;
and 2) the church has no experience playing "match-maker" or at least helping the singles warm into the dating scene and potential marrying-scene...

What we are left-with is mass dating--we all congregate together and do something wholesome and potentially uplifting! Mind-you, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, but the church is left with an ever-growing 'single adult population' and no end in sight!!!

We, meaning all of the single-adult-LDS-community (the author excluded) need to either learn how to have that drive (isn't it a God-given-drive anyway?) and act on it effectively, or, we need to have the church gain some matchmaking wisdom and teach itself how to help the growing single-acult community learn how to find it's own "marriable" singles (the girls find the boys that they will marry and visa-versa...). Now we have to look at the 2 types of singles: the-never-been-married and the-married-but-now-divorced and see if we can find a single answer for both types of singles...

If not, we are going to only see this population grow and grow (and thank goodness that children are not born into this mindset, but they grow up and naturally find spouses!!!) until we see if end in arranged marriages!?! (would that be that terrible?)

JPS

Being ONE...

2008-06-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

I have written about how God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost are 3 persons, yet one God in Groupings of 3, three, and tri-groupings..., but now I want to discuss what that unity can mean to each of us...

In 3rd Nephi chapter 19, verse 23 we read, "And now Father, I pray unto thee for them, and also for all those who shall believe on their words, that they may believe in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one."

In Hangin' out with 'the Squirt"... my son and I are moving towards "oneness" as we not only share slmost the same genetic makeup, but think alike in most ways, and want to always be with each other! Isn't that the way that "being one" should be like? Shouldn't you not only love that other person, but try to be with them and like them in whatever way that you can?

In To Write... I try to become "one" with the reader as I write! I not only try to write in such a way that we will both understand and be edified as we think about the same subject, but if both he or she and I put into practice those same things that I have just written about, we will be even closer to "being one"!

In Finn's scripture of the day I tried to make (kind of like in "to write") 4 parties one: the reader, myself, the original author, and God himself! All of our thoughts were "at one"... I hope that doesn't sound to full-of-myself, but that's just the way it has turned out!

And in In need of recovery or respite (from beds?), I am waiting for to meet (which in NO way excludes those that I have already met...) the woman who will become one with me!

Those are just some recent posts that share in my "oneness-of-thought/mind" thinking and desire. The best part of it all is... that I know that as long as I keep my thoughts on the same thinking as God's or of Paul's, I will never go wrong in seeking for that final and ultimate ONENESS!!!

JPS

Hangin' out with 'the Squirt"...

2008-06-21T17:11:00.000-07:00

Today, Addison and I woke-up, got ready and went down to have him run in the STRAWBERRY DAY'S kids race! He ran so fast and finished the race!!!

After we went to the race, we went down to the carnival, ate some delicious food (thanks Bajio's!), and then watched "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (in fact, he just corrected me on the name of that movie)...

He has been having so much fun since he's been here and I have been having even more fun with him... The best part, though, is knowing that he will still be here and we will still be able to do things until he leaves to go back home to Cali-fornai-A.

He is such a cool boy and just a cool kid to have around, and to know that he is MY son!!!

JPS

To write...

2008-06-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

Writing is easier if you have something to commplain about or if you just plain-old-have-something that makes you angry!

On the other hand, writing is also easier if you have something that makes you so happy that you feel like you can't get your fingers to type fast enough to get the words out of your head and down onto the paper or onto the screen...

On the flip-side, if you are neither angry/embittered/or furious-about and yet nothing makes you feel like you are on top-of-the-world and couldn't be happer, you can't even find the will to write.

I was talking the other day with a man who aspires to be an author of a good-book, and he reads and reads, and he also practices writing all-of-the-time, yet he is putting off the day when he believes he'll have his inspiration and be able to "knock-out" his first book...

I suggested to him that he needs to take the words of the prophet Brigham Young to heart and apply those words to his writing delema: to write or not to write!? (Is that the question?)

Brother Brigham once said that: If ever you don't feel like praying, to get down on your knees and pray until you feel like praraying!

I told this friend that he should apply that same wisdom to his writing and get on his typewriter and type until he feels like writing.

Testing-out this bit of Josh-made-wisdom to these blog, I have found that it works quite well and has never let me down... Whenever I think that "I'm just not in the 'mood' to write, if I will just sit down at the keyboard and write, I will become inspired to write more!!!

Doesn't that just make sense? Even if you think to yourself, "Nah! That sounds good and all, but it just won't work for me..." ... Try it out and you will find that if you will 'put your heart into the trying', then you will without fail find that it works... Of course, you cannot do the trial just to show or prove to yourself that it DOESN'T WORK or else you aren't actually even fullly doing the trial!

You have to act just as Almulek teaches in Alma 32, where he urges you to try, even if you can do nothing more than desire to have FAITH--try to desire!!!

Those are my words and that is what I have written...

JPS

Finn's Scripture of the Day...

2008-06-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

So, my good friend, Finn Bjarnson, has begun putting up occasional scriptures that just "jump-out and grab him"... Or, at least he's done one scripture of the day (6 June, 2008):

Romans 12:2
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."

The very first thing that came to my mind when I read this was that we are necessarily going to be "in" the world, but, we are commanded to be not "of" the world (like I already mentioned in my comment...).

Also, before I talk about the "transformation" part of the verse, there is found in the Articles of Faith, 13, an entire list of things we are to "see after":

"... being ... honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."

I believe that if you have molded yourself to at least one, possibly ALL of these characteristics, then you are following the council of Paul and not conforming to the pattern of the world!

Now, "be transformed by the renewing of your mind...". This is an active command and not simply a "thou shalt not" command. We are being admonished to do and to be a certain way!

"Renewing of the mind" comes from the Greek word, metaneo, and also the Hebrew rube shube, which are similar in meaning. In English, they are both translated into the word "repent"... "Shube" actually literally means "to turn" and likewise, "metaneo" means to change one's mind/soul/spirit/or idea.

Both words, as well as the English equivalent, "repent", essentially mean to have a new mind, in the broadest and fullest sense.

It is only when we have a new mind or a new heart, are we truly penitent and can therefore be forgiven. It is only when we are forgiven that we have become clean and are able to come into God's presence. Paul was only wanting us to do what Moses had spent years and years teaching the Israelites to do; come into God's presence! It seems that all prophets and also the apostles are only trying to entice us all to come into God's presence...

Is it to much to ask to follow their words?

JPS

In need of recovery or respite (from beds?)!!!

2008-06-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

So, as I go through these (because right NOW is one of those times...) times of trial or possible heartbreak (like when Steph and I were divorced [102], then as Teresa wrote me to ask that I not write her anymore [103], and now as the girl that I met the other weekend at the temple, Lucretia, has asked me to not email her anymore [not in so many words, but basically!][104]), I don't get totally down and depressed but instead I feel that I need to think of 'whomever it was that I was worrying over' whenever I have a break in my activities... The tendency to have your mind turn to thoughts like that are good and even great if they aren't finding no person to refer-to.

Until today I have chosen to "get right back on that horse" and set-out in search for another person to have those thoughts refer-to... I have, as of clicking "PUBLISH POST" at the bottom of this blogsite, not let anything get in my way of finding that person who will both love me entirely and completely but also who I would love both entirely and completely!

I haven't given up hope or closed my sensitivities to such an event happening, but I have either run those girls off that I was interested in dating/seeing where that same path would eventually lead to... With Steph, I kept a way-of-life in her face (the one that I'm pretty sure we had both agreed to at the Salt Lake Temple in 1997) until she was burned-out and couldn't stand the sight or sound of me (she feels the same even today!); Teresa (my rebound-girl, as my mom refers to her) I practically drowned with affection and attention--regardless of the nature or inherit worth of such attention--until she couldn't stand my letters any more; and Lucretia, who I knew was in a fragile state of her life right-then (as evidenced by the fact that she wouldn't even give me here phone number, but only gave me her email address--that way, all she would have to do is click "delete" on that email and would never HAVE to respond to it [unless you admit to yourself that clicking delete is itself a way of responding--"No response" is just another type of way "to respond"]) who I pushed a-little-hard in my emailing her about herself...

Let me tell you what made me think I could continue on in the way that way that has driven them all away:

- Nothing that I was choosing to do (and subsequently was doing) could be seen and pointed to as a "foul" or an inherently offensive thing-to-do...
- Nothing that I knew I was doing was having any negative consequences other-than- the-fact that the girls were leaving...
- Everything that I was having them leave (me) for-having-done was good and admirable and, even, laudable and a trate that would be sought-after in most cases (being completely "true" to my religion and my God and my covenants and writing amd showing "too much" interest when they were not ready to move ahead...).

It's really, really, REALLY hard to know that each choice that you are making is going to help your relationship with that girl or woman... I can tell when I am making a choice that is not what I should choose; because it's a sin or becuase the Spirit will not give me the go-ahead. When there is an entirely separate and distnct person who is making their own choices that may or may not coincide with the choice that I have just made, all I know that is right is how the choice stands on its own merit--not how it will stand alongside and end-up as they make their choice to go with my choice...

Needless to say, I do not know how to be in a relationship unless both she and I are choosing to go towards the same objective!

I skipped that stage in the relationship-evolution-game... I met Steph in 9th grade and knew that I wanted to be with her, married her only a few months after having arrived home from Italy and my mission, and from then on I have made all of my choices with the one goal in sight: EXALTATION.

Is that wrong? That seems like I have been "jumping-the-gun" and "putting the cart before the horse" (I'm not even sure exactly what that means, but jumping the gun works as well, as "getting ahead of yourself"...) when it comes to relationships. It's like the long believed truth, "the end justifies the means" simply doesn't work in some or most or even all situations!

I need to think of dating simply as a process (like in my last post about the steps heading towards a relationship and not think so much as geting to the "final destination" in the shortest amount of steps possible... I need to appreciate that it's the journey gives the whole marriage or experience meaning!!!

I'm afraid that I am leaving good and fine and great and beautiful women by the wayside as I burn past or through them though! Maybe #105 will be my ultimate lucky number... We'll see, because it just started popping-up and standing out today... "What does that mean anyway?", you ask. Maybe nothing at all, but maybe, just maybe, it means the whole world!

JPS

New trial, life trial...

2008-06-11T06:07:00.000-07:00

I think that maybe this is just WAY to early to make any conclusions on the matter, but, as I was thinking of the different trials that I'm going to face in the near future (to make me prepared to endure the final trials that will necessarily pass my way... Like enduring my trial of Abraham [because, YES, we are all going to be tried as Abraham was if we are going to gain the same blessings that he has already...]), I was reading, again, from C.S. Lewis (which I have already posted this quote here among these "extemporaneous rants"...):

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace."

What I never included in my last post was the sentence that he wrote that comes after this quote was that He (meaning Christ) has built this palace so that He can come and live inside and make it his house...

If Christ is going to live inside of this palace that he has now made from our humble-little-cottage-beginning (remember, remember, that this whole idea is metaphorical... Don't even think that Lewis is making a break from christian ideology...)! Do we not want to let Him make the greatest palace that he can and using the least amount of struggles and effort possible? Wouldn't that be our wish?

Joseph Smith said something almost exactly like the Lewis quote when he said,

"You ill have all kinds of trials to pas through. And it is quite necessary for you to be tried as it was for Abraham and other men of God, and God will feel after you, and He will take hold of and wrench your very heart strings, and if you cannot stand it, you will not be fit for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God." (as recorded from John Taylor in the Deseret News, 8/21/1883)

My trials, I believe, have started with my car accident, but that was just a preamble to my Abrahamic trial, as it just made life harder for me (not harder to bear, mind you...) and I'm afraid that the other part of the "test" will be making my way though life with the desire and the aptitude and the choice made to be remarried, but never actually having the struggle culminate in a Celestial Marriage... I don't know, maybe I will eventually be married to another student or maybe professor in Graduate School (you think?).

I will continue to live my life day-to-day and take on each new experience with whatever wisdom and knowledge I have brought with me from the rest of my life... I'm not in a hurry to have 'all of the experiences that I will pass through in this life' be completed or "over"... Now! I do not want anyone to think that I've written this posting in self-doubt or in self-worry or, especially not in self-pity; but I have written this as a self-declaration that I will let things unfold as they may and stop trying to push my will onto anyone else. I have been trying to learn as much about "agency" as I could, but I see now that the best things that I can learn from are the very experiences that I am passing through!!! Like I say, I will just be ready for the next step--and I will do my best to try and not "run up the stairs" but just take them one at a time...

It's move-on to the next step!!!

JPS

Memory-in terms of practicality

2008-06-07T20:48:00.000-07:00

You know... There are so many ways that technology that your phone or your computer or your "Palm Pilot" would help you to remember all of your birthdays or dates-to-remember or what-you-were-going-to-do-tonight, etc. that in most ways, we don't have to do all of the leg-work to remember things...

Now, you just have to be smart when you are using that technology, or else you might as well just leave it to your brain to do all of that leg-work.

How can you be smart about how to best use your memory?

Well, to answer my own question...

You can use your memory to remember the things that you eith need to know know now or will need to remember in the future about the future or will need ot remember your future's past (presumably the things that are going on in your curren present or the things that actually have taken place in your actual past...).

You could just remember everything, but like most (or ALL) of us, we need some criteria as to what we will choose to remember. I would recommend the citeria of what is found in Dallin H. Oaks, October 2007 Sunday afternoon talk in General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Good, Better, Best.

It'll be 100% up to you to decide which things are best and remember those or to remember the things that are merely good or better to remember... I can't lay out a standard and uniform guideline for all of you, so, stop trying to force me to!!!

My own opinion would be that we should focus our mental thought (our memories) on those things that, "... can only be accomplished with Priesthood authority, such as teaching the Gospel and redeeming the dead." (Dallin H. Oaks, BYU Studies November 1992).

JPS

True love postponed...

2008-06-07T07:37:00.000-07:00

Is that even possible?

Let's think about this for a minute... Shall we talk about "true love"? I believe (and I think that the writers of "The Princess Bride" would agree with me...) that in order for you to have "TRUE" love, it does require that both parties are in love with each other. In other words, it cannot be unrequited love; it can't be that you desperately love another person but that they don't share those same feelings!

Now, let's move on to discuss "LOVE" and see what we can discover about that word, in relation to "true"...

A wise man once told me specifically that in order to realize my potential (eternal), that I would need to learn to communicate well with my chosen future-wife and that we I would need to learn to understand and be understood by that wonderful woman.

In order to be true, like Christ is true at all times and in all circumstances and places, you must let the Spirit of God be with you. It will always be with you; if you will let it. One of the ways that you have to let the Spirit know that you want it to always be with you (besides partaking of the sacrament weekly) is to follow a scripture and council found in the Old Testament: Numbers 23:12 - "Must I not take heed to speak the words which the Lord has put in my mouth?"

Let us not forget to consult with the prophets of God, as well, as President Gordon B. Hinkley has reminded us that, "True Love is not so much a matter of romance as it is a matter of anxious concern for the well being of one's companion."

So, to answer my original question, YES, it is possible for "true love", for me, to be postponed. Just another lesson in patience! I will never be tired of learning that lesson, and by so doing, I am learning the lesson of "long-suffering".

For me, my quest to find "true love" will necessarily be accompanied by a quest to be long-suffering... Thus, all things will become one!

JPS

"The Spanish Prisoner"'s secret mission...

2008-06-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

I don't discount inspiration or possibly a burning bush or even a dream or vision, but, I believe that Teresa basically wrote me that "Dear Josh" because of The Spanish Prisoner...

Let me explain... No time, I sum-up.

You see, after all of the possible reasons to have decided to not keep going out with me, I think that the reason must have been because, when I had any movie in the world to choose from to watch with her, and we only ever watched one movie together, I had been aching to watch that movie with her (almost as if it had been total inspiration to choose watch that particular movie), also because when we had watched about 3/4 of the movie, the VCR started to "eat" the VHS tape and I had to perform "mechanical CPR" to rescue the tape (and we did get to watch the last quarter!).

Ok, let me go back and explain now the summation, because this frankly sounds to weenie of an explanation.

Well, I was working on the USPS project at my work under the team-lead Esther Shepard and she had just given us permission and encouragement to use AOL Express (a type of Instant Messeger program). I had gathered login names for about everyone on our team and Esther used it, occasionally to gather the whole team together ("Meeting in the North Training room at 2:30 today!"). One day I had pulled-up and was using the messenger program when I noticed that an unfamiliar name was logged in that morning... I sent the name a message and was almost instantly responded to! Come to find out, it was Teresa...

After work I saw that I could use AOL Express (I am purposely not linking to AOL whenever I mention their name... They are rich enough and don't need any more business!!!) on my cell phone, and when I logged-in, it automatically populated with my work contacts, so I started text messaging Teresa more...

We talked like crazy for weeks and weeks and then one day she asked me if I wouldn't want to go up to Salt Lake and pick-up her uncle and aunt at the airport. I said that I would love to. We went up to the airport (talking, of course, the whole way up and getting to know each other better) and after we had loaded the luggage and her uncle into the car and were waiting for her aunt, I took the opportunity to kiss her right on the lips.

Maybe a little brash and maybe a dangerous choice to try to make a move like that, but, I knew right then and there that I wanted to kiss her, and so I did.

Months later she finally left on her mission and I faithfully wrote her every week while she was in the MTC and then every other week (about) while she was in Switzerland. She, however, apparently did not think that we would remain together after she returned home and wrote me that Dear Josh.

She doesn't come back from her mission til November, but I think that The Spanish Prisoner was the final straw that broke the camels relationship back...

I can't think of any other relationship having so much promise and yet being inwardly-sabotaged by me... I purposefully chose to make all of the little decisions (like the movie that I chose to watch...) in such a way that she would have no choice but to be "scared-off" by those inconsequential a utterly meaningless acts...

When I decided that I would date her (and she obviously agreed to "go along" for the ride until she left...), I was so fantastically and utterly excited to do everything and anything to be with her and have as much fun as she could have before her mission... For example, I was so excited that one night I made a list of ideas for dates that cost no money (or minimal money) and yet were good date ideas for us to have... I know that many-a-young-men's leader or young-women's leader has made such a list, but those lists are made from groups of grown adults with almost a lifetime of experience and that have a wealth of ideas that they've gathered over the years, and I was just one almost-30-year-old boy (young adult) with practically no dating experience sitting alone in a room, with no computer/internet to refer-to and nothing but my own mind to give me ideas... I was so excited about dating her!!!

At the end though, it all came back down-to, "what movie did he choose to watch with me during one of my last days before leaving on my mission?" ... ... ... You know the answer! I chose the movie that I knew I would show to her, if I ever had a chance, The Spanish Prisoner!

JPS

Here is Addison and his friend Jack Graham:

2008-06-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

Check out more of Addison's World at: http://addisonsquirt.blogspot.com!

JPS

Build-a-Bearville Villiage...

2008-06-01T17:47:00.000-07:00

There is a fun new place for my son and I to play together online. The site is: http://www.buildabearville.com/ and it is fun to do things together, since we can't be together as often as we would like. Playing online is still one way of being able to do something he loves with his dad...

His name in the build-a-bear world is danielXXXXXX and mine is SorenStar... Come and find us and we'll be virtual buddies!

JPS

Given to man to be an agent unto themselves...

2008-05-31T05:13:00.000-07:00

God, our Heavenly Father, gave us the greatest gift possible: our agency... That agency is not better known as "free agency" though. You see, agency is absolutely NOT free and we are either blessed for our correct choices or we incur the punishment for those choices that we make that will take us further away from His spirit.

Initially and originally, in the Doctrine and Covenants, section 29, verse 35 we read: "Behold, I gave unto him that he should be an agent unto himself..." He also says, in Abraham 3:25 that "... we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lords their God shall command them."

How is He going to "prove us herewith"? Well, don't worry--it seems that He has thought of EVERYTHING, because we also read in section 29, verse 39: "And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet..."

So AGENCY, as you can see now and well know, is having two choices placed before us and being able to choose the "better" choice or to choose the choice that will bring us becoming closer to God and closer, in attributes, to becoming more like his perfect Son.

We will also read, if he look at the Doctrine and Covenants, section 93 (my absolute favorite section, by the way...), in verse 31: "Behold, here is the agency of man," to have those at least two choices placed before us and being given the power to choose the better half, "and here is the condemnation of man; because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light." In other words, we do not make the same choice that Jesus Christ would have chosen (because he always chose that which was pleasing to His Father...).

Now, what are we supposed to do if there are plainly two good and fine choices before us and God, our Father, is not showing us which choice we should make? Excellent question and the point of writing this blog! Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the founder of the famous University called after his name, gave us guidance on this very question: "If I ask God to give me wisdom concerning any requirement in life... And get no answer from Him, and then do the very best that my judgement will allow me, He is bound to own and honor that transaction, and will do so."

What are we to understand from the words of the prophet? Let's say that the choice comes before us, say, as to which job to accept, and we do all of our homework and we make it a matter of constant prayer and yet, still receive no answer as to which choice the Lord would have us choose-- "and then do the very best that my judgement will allow me, He is bound to own and honor that transaction, and will do so."

God leaves the choice in our hands and the decision is completely ours... Our infinitely wise and kind Heavenly Father wants us to become as wise as He is and hey... This Earth IS His proving ground and we have to prove to both Him and to ourselves that we will "choose wisely". "And those who keep their first estate shall have have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever." (Abraham 3:26)

So, whenever you do have a choice to make, and it seems that you are left to make your own choice with no guidance, accept (gladly) the compliment that your Lord and your God trusts you so well that He knows that you are going to make the wise choice, because you have been long taught and have long been obedient to the other principles of His Gospel. He KNOWS that you will, likewise, make a wise decision, regardless of what you do, in fact, choose to make...

Just be wise!

JPS

Cause when we kiss, you're the perfect stranger?

2008-05-29T06:59:00.001-07:00

Listening to my CD of General Public, this line makes me wonder what he meant...

Is it more appealing to kiss someone that you don't know? When he goes out looking to meet a girl/woman does he intentionally pass right by any girl that he already knows, just so that he will have the chance to kiss someone that he doesn't know at all? More importantly, is he claiming that maybe he wants that girl to forget about him as soon as they kiss (because he is planning to do just the exact same thing...)?

It seems to me that this thinking is completely backwards!

I'm not sure why you would ever kiss a person unless you had some sort of idea that this was going to be a person that you would want to kiss again (possibly over and over...) and that she was not going to be a person that you had absolutely no idea as to whether or not you had so much in common with that person, and more importantly, that you weren't just going to run out a find another kissable stranger...

Now that's my thinking.

That wasn't always my thinking though... because in High School I'm afraid that I was somewhere in the middle of these two pseudo-philosophies: Find a girl that I wanted to kiss (stranger or not) and kiss her with the intent that the kissing would last for a long while!

At the end of the song, though, he says, "Don't ever you go to far away from me girl!" Implying that he has changed his mind (was that before or after the kiss? I personally think that he has just changed his mind because the kiss was very pleasing...), but nevertheless, Mr. Public looks like he might not be as promiscuous as we (or was it just I were/was thinking?).

Don't ever you go!!!

JPS

Irony (vs. Sarcasm)--

2008-05-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

Dark irony is: any ironic comment or statement that is NOT humorous, such as--

Comic irony (true irony...) is: any kind of witty thing said referring to something done or said in the past (even one second ago [= quick irony or cleaver irony]) that is clever and or humorous and has a literal meaning that is not what is trying to be conveyed...

Today in church (LDS) I had to emphasize over and over or point out the difference between Sarcasm and Irony.

You see, and this is a totally common misunderstanding for most of us, Sarcasm is: A mockingly ironic statement! But what most people call sarcasm or "that guy was just being sarcastic", they actually intend to convey an idea of a person being ironic.

What I'm pointing out here is just what the definition of sarcasm says, it can't be sarcastic unless it is is mean-spirited and directed towards somebody. In fact, you can not be sarcastic towards an object or thing; it must be mocking towards someone!

I hope that we've all got that difference down and don't contaminate our children's idea of irony with our using that misnomer in front of them. If you don't understand, try reading C. S. Lewis', The Screwtape Letters to get a better idea of a very good use of "irony". If you still are not sure if you understand, please read it again!!!

JPS

Penance...

2008-05-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

I just read over my own last blog, and I saw the words (in all caps, no less...) "I have no adorable children to blog about!!!", and that simply is not so..

I HAVE ONE VERY BEAUTIFUL CHILD TO BLOG ABOUT!!!

JPS

How can we speak of debts, let's not haggle for darling Cosette...

2008-05-20T06:21:00.000-07:00

When I was a junior and a senior in High School... But it may have started back before then; sophomore, back in Junior High... I can't pinpoint an exact time, but I was hooked on the play, "Les Miserables." I read the book (abridged of course--what are you crazy to read all of that French History mixed in with the story of Jean Valjean in the unabridged!?).

So, anyway... I even got the soundtrack a couple of years ago, just so that I could "pop" it in and partake of the flashback-goodness.

And here I was trying to think of what to write (because sometimes I have a burning idea that I NEED to get down on virtual paper and can't stop writing until it is properly recorded and uploaded... but other times I want to write, but am not quite certain what it is or will be that I am to write about...), and the words of Fantine were rolling through my mind over and over!

What I've been thinking of doing for the past few days and years, is to have a photo-journal like my friends do (it seems to be THE REASON why most people blog at all (as if they all need that little inspiration given to them by their adorable children... Well, I HAVE NO ADORABLE CHILDREN TO BLOG ABOUT!!! At least, not around here to capture with my electronic camera whenever I want...).

So, once again inspired by Les Miserables, I am left with no other option but to kidnap my own child!!!!

Ok, I am just kidding... I'll just have to give it some more time until I can meet and court and propose to and legally and lawfully espouse.

Until that time, I will continue to post these drab and lifeless posts that I enjoy writing so much... Until then, you will be left with several dozens or even hundreds of "blogs" that you can travel to and watch with your semi-voyerish stares!

Until that time that I solidify my desires for familial happiness...

JPS

Harold Crick's almost inhuman speed

2008-05-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

So, ever since I first started watching the movie "Stranger then Fiction" (and some would say that I watch it 'religiously'...), I've wondered (sometimes even out-loud) how the HERO of the show, Harold Crick, dashes out and saves the little boy from being hit by an oncoming-bus as quickly as he does.

The other night I came up with the answer (and this is completely and totally from the stand-point of Harold's life being lived out in my world--I don't even know the guy though, so don't worry!). So, in the movie Harold walks up to his usual-bus-stop, and scootches his way to the curb, and moments later bolts out from the curb and snatches a little 5-or-6-year-old boy on a tricycle, and saves the boy's life from being snuffed-out by a bus.

Seen the movie? I wonder if you've pondered the question as I have... No? Not seen the movie or not pondered this question? Doesn't matter, I'm going to tell you why...

There are two reasons why Harold is able to act so quickly:
1) He is able to move so quickly because he had already made up his mind as to what he was going to do in such a situation. He had gone over the scenario over and over (ever since he read the book-of-his-life) and had seen the situation (at least in his mind's eye...) and knew what he, therefore, needed to do.

2) The second reason is much like the first (in fact, I could have made 1 large paragraph containing the two reasons as 1...). When Harold is talking to the doctor in his hospital room, the doctor says,

"That was a pretty brave thing you did."
"Huh?"
". . . stepping in front of that bus... was pretty brave and pretty stupid."
". . . Yeah . . ."

Later, Harold is talking to his girlfriend and says,

"I didn't have a choice... I had to!"

You see, because he already "knew" what was going to happen (even if, like I said before, all of this had already happened in his mind's eye) he was anxious to make sure that what-he-had-already-watched-happen-in-his-mind happened exactly like he had already thought of... He knew that he could save the boy and wanted to make sure that he wouldn't allow anything else to happen instead!

May we all act so promptly and effectively to make sure that act in such a way to bring about those most important events and actions in life come about!!!

JPS

Self-knowledge...

2008-05-10T14:30:00.000-07:00

I've just gone out on a fabulous fate with a girl--now woman, who I knew while we were both growing-up. After the date she made a remark, something like: "You're still the same old Josh."

My initial feelings when I hear something like that is to think of it in terms of, "Just the same old you..." or something that is tainted with a negative connotation, however, the more that I think about that idea, the happier I am with myself. For example, the happier I am to realize that, 'Yes, I act the same way as I must have when I was 17-or-18-or-so' but I know that I am not a child now and I prefer to think of myself as not being immature, and so I'm left with the idea that, 'I must have been an extraordinarily mature 17-or-18-or-so year-old.'

Not that I am praising myself or even trying to boast as to my level of maturity (because I know that I still could mature in a lot of ways--at least 2 different ways! :), but am just happy to know that I've stayed constant in most ways over the years, AND I know that the accident that I was in and the coma that I was in didn't change me fundamentally...

But... I am still left with the metaphor that C. S. Lewis wrote of in The Weight of Glory:

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace."

I am pretty sure that the accident was one of the first of those "knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably" and I am better prepared now to give myself over to the other floors that need to be put on or the other towers that are run up.

JPS

Verve Earth...

2008-05-07T20:29:00.000-07:00

>

So, this is the link to a site that I was randomly (or was it random?) emailed because, as they claim, they saw that I did have a blog site...

Now sit down if you tend to get dizzy or lightheaded, because I'm going to tell you something that may be a little disturbing:

I've registered with this VEarth (come on... wait for the big news, you haven't read far enough yet...) and they link your spot in this virtual earth (and fairly accurate maps too, I might add) which will list your blog site.

Now you have a blogsite (blogspont) that had a blog (mine...) that refers to VEarth, that in turn has a link back to jstott.blogspot.com (mine...) which, again, links to this VEarth, which we know already has a link to jstott[etc.] and so on, ad infinitum!!!

...

I told you that you may want to sit down and read this. Wait, who ever reads an internet blog while standing up? Not I...

Pick yourself up off of the floor though, because you have undoubtedly fallen to the floor because you though that the world was about to implode upon my logic trap. Don't worry though... It's all in your mind and you can go on living your life!!!

Here's some more news though: My world or at least the small part that is contained in within my blog has just been compounded... That means, multiplied by itself again and again til it will cover the world and the universe... Or at least that's what happens in the meta-world of Josh's logic!

JPS

Birthday lonliness...

2008-05-04T19:13:00.000-07:00

Hey there! Now, I don't want you to feel sorry for me or think that I'm just begging for sympathy. Am I? I guess that's up to you to decide, but I really am not!

So, tonight I went to a friend of the families house and celebrated their son's, birthday: Brandon (who happens to be my sister's age). Two different things caused me to think about marriage, his little sister, Breana, is currently serving a full-time mission to Omaha, Nebraska and there was a girl there about Bree's age that was there to celebrate the birthday.

Now, those two things wouldn't necessarily cause anybody to think about marriage, but it did for me...

Let me tell you what I was thinking:

1) Bree will get home in just over 8 months, and Teresa will get home in just in just less than 7 months, which reminds me that she has asked that I not write her again nor think that she will marry me. That seems a little hard, and maybe a little RIDICULOUS! First of all, like I have written, if she had been reading my letters, then, she wouldn't be asking that of me, but would be asking me to write more... (ok, maybe that's a little-bit conceited of me, but hey...)
2) This girl, Whitney (I'm pretty sure that that was her name), was there and was talking into a mirophone for Bree about the amount of children that she wants to have. Now, honestly, if I am going to have children of me and the woman I am going to marry, she will have to be young (as young as Teresa, for example...).
3) I don't know that I can pinpoint my feelings exactly, but being there, in a room full of people that know me--but none of which are really my good friends, makes me think of being in a party-much-like-this and enjoying myself with my soon-to-be-wife's family enjoying myself. This reminds me of 1-how I can't see that happening in my near future and 2-I don't really have that much of a desire to go out and make it happen...

In all actuality, pieces like this piece are not only fun to write, but are extremely therapeutic and help me to work out my thoghts. As the late and great Arthur Henry King wrote: How do I know what I think, until I say it?

For me, the same question applies, only mine would be: How will I know what I think, til I write it?

That is all,

JPS

New Calling...

2008-05-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

So, I have received a new calling! I was formerly the second then the first counselor in the Elder's Quorum Presidency, but am now 12th Ward Facility "Cleaner" or Superintendant or "Supervisor", what have you...

This will be fun stuff,

JPS

Groupings of 3, three, and tri-groupings...

2008-05-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

I think I may have found an answer or rather, the answer is as plain as the so-called-nose-on-your-face...

Everything should, naturally, fall into groups of three. Let me read you a few versus from the eleventh chapter of third Nephi.

Actually, let me retract that last claim and say that we should see things drop into groups of 3. Just as we know that everything testifies of Christ, let me show you those examples:

In verse 3, it's talking about the voice coming from the heavens and says that, "it was not a HARSH voice", "neither was it a LOUD voice", "nevertheless, and notwithstanding (isn't that just a great phrase? Nevertheless and notwithstanding!)it being a SMALL voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center...

Versus 3, 4, and 5, they hear the voice a total of THREE times, and on the third time, they understand the voice.

Then, later in verse 15 we are told that all of the Nephites felt the marks of the 3 wounds on his body (prints of the nails in his hands, prints of the nails in his feet, and the mark in his side). We are also told that they all gained a testimony of the his literal resurrection in 3 different ways: seeing with their eyes, feeling with their hands, and the understood feeling of the spirit.

Then in verse 32 we read of the actual trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Later in verse 35 it is written of that trinity that the Father beareth record of the Son, the Son beareth record of the Father, and the Holy Ghost bears record of them both.

Then in 37 of the three things that must happen before one can re-enter the presence of the Father. Repent, become as a child, and be baptized.

...
That's just a little taste of why I always leave 3 things... If you think about it; I feel best when thinking and doing things for God, and I do always things that make me feel best and things in three remind me of those times.

Why don't I just "cut-out-the-middle-man" and only do the things of God, you ask? I try. Always...

JPS

Games, Games, Games!!!

2008-04-19T20:29:00.000-07:00

Why does my punctuation follow in groups of 3?

That is a fine question... Maybe someday I'll be able to explain it.

The question at hand, though, is not grammar or writing today (though it may be tomorrow?); the post is about... well, you can read. What is this post about? That is right: games.

Bet you that I will have several (here we go with the groupings of three again...) things that I want to say about games in general:

I- Games necessarily increase parts of your intellect: memory, math/logic-skills, association-skills.

Let's break this down into those categories:
1. Memory- As we all are aware, most if not all games have some component of memory involved or require you to have to either remember the answers to specific questions about the world, remember the rules to the game and/or other life-skills, or remember the answers given in the game.

2. Math and Logic- Like memory, all games require you to either count (that's using math...), calculate dates and times (still using math...), or make logical deductions (most of which will require the use of math--and memory also).

3. Association- Using both memory and math/logic, we are asked (hey... if you DON'T want to, then you can just LOSE and we'll think TWICE before we ask you to play again...) to use the knowledge that we have from those skills to figure out what it is that we are supposed to do or say to win the game. Basically, it all boils down to memory and logic (and we could prove whatever we want to in math from really long logic proofs...). Then, we simply need to apply what we already know to the rules of the game!

II- Who doesn't like a good game?
C.S. Lewis once wrote about how one way that we can use our agency to make righteous choices is to do or play something that we honestly enjoy. We've also been commanded to laugh (just NO loud-laughter...) and be merry. Everyone can and will laugh and be merry playing some game that they are fond of...

III- Therefore, if you becoming more intelligent (you're increasing your intellect) AND you are doing something you straightforwardly enjoy, all you are missing are your saving ordinances, and if those are completed you'd be on the path to godhood and ever-increasing glory!

So, do something right[eous] and play a game! You will be smarter, will be able to remember better, and will move one step in a direction that will save your soul!

JPS

Memory and the Holy Ghost. Connected?

2008-04-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

Ever since I've graduated from BYU, I've thought of returning to Graduate School. There is always one thing looming over your mind though, at the thought of graduating from a Grad School: What in the world will I/should I write a thesis on?

For a while now I've had a suspicion that I would somehow write a thesis on MEMORY. To borrow Soren Kierkegaard's phrasology: The Concept of Memory...

Now, why I started thinking about this tonight (not that a single moment passes, without me thinking about this in some way, shape, or form) is because of something that my dear-old dad just said to me. And, mind you, I have known that the human memory and the Holy Ghost were in some way bound together.

He said that: "Righteousness rewards with memories." Meaning that when you are being righteous, you are rewarded with an increase in your memory; both in capacity to remember more things--both in the future, but also being able to rember more things from the past (and he actually was talking apecifically about being able to "remember things" almost innately; like when you teach someone the Gospel and they say something like, "I've always believed that" and it was probably the first and only time they'd heard it spoken or communicated to them.

I know that it goes beyond that though... Sure, it applies to "Gospel-Truth-memories", such as The Plan of Salvation, but also about memories of pure TRUTH--the way that it's easier to remember a theorum that is based on logic or a fact-that- just-rings-true, than it is remember a lie or even just a idle fact... It's because the HOLY GHOST ALWAYS helps you (and when I say, "you", I mean everyone or a 3rd person singular non-specific "one") to remember that you were once taught or heard that TRUTH before.

That last sentence just made me think of Plato and his "world of ideas" from where the gods teach us all things. THANKS memory! Maybe my ideas aren't original at all, but better, in that: they're timeless!!!

The Holy Ghost ideas bring something more to light though, than silly old "gods" like has been said.

ALSO! Another thing that my dad said was that, the Holy Ghost and the memories that you're given (or that are offered to you...) put you in a whole new frame of reference. From that whole new perspective on things (your whole-new-frame-of-reference) you are NOW in a position to think of everything in a wholly new and different way and, therefore, you are in a new postiion to remember a whole NEW set of things. Those whole-new-sets will simply spawn other things until you combine that with the things you have learned in the past (whether you remember learning those things or not, you now have full-access to them in memories...) and all things will have "become one" (which is another idea from Plato).

I love when I come across an idea that gets me excited!!! It's like, I remember this truth from somewhere else! See, my own writing is just further evidence that this idea is PURE TRUTH!

JPS

O' to pass out of this life...

2008-04-13T18:45:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the ONLY funeral viewing that I've ever been to (besides my grandpa's--when I was 16). In fact, the only place I remember seeing him was in my grandma and grandpa's wardhouse...

I guess I would feel somewhat different if I actually knew the person in life, but it seemed to me that the eternally resting body basically looks like a wax statue.

Also, I guess that I knew this, but it was odd to see her dressed in the robes of the Holy Priesthood. I know that's how people are to be buried, but it still seems unusual to see that out-of-the-temple-itself...

I know that President Monson enjoys the cemetaries of the world, and going there could remind you of loftier things, but I would prefer an evening with those, in life, that I enjoy and love most... I suppose that President Monson would as well!

I suppose that I just do-not-have the fear of death running through me. That IS a good thing (to not have).

In all actuality, I hope to never bury anyone close of in my family, but hope we'll all join each other, united, in the clouds during the "twinkeling" of the resurrection. Is that so wrong?

JPS

Dear Josh...

2008-04-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

Yes, today my mom told me that there was a letter from Italy waiting for me when I got home... When I came home and opened the letter (without being able to tell who it was from [although I knew that it was a girl...] and there being no return address]), I tried to make out which girl or potentially a "mom" had written me from Italy. It never even occurred to me that it might be from a missionary...

Opening up the letter, I was looking at the signature at the end of the letter, but was still trying to "force" it into a name that I would recognize and I couldn't. So, I started reading from the top (a silly thing to do... I know!) and read the words, "Stop writing to me, now and forever".

I kind of didn't think that Teresa would actually break down and send me a letter, but, apparently she felt that it was important enough to finally write my name on an envelope and do the one thing that I have been telling her that she needed to do if she wanted me to stop writing her letters.

She must have just communicated with her Aunt Lynne, who told her that I had "advised" her that the only way that I would continue to write Teresa til she either 1-finished her mission and she and I had spoken or 2-had written me a letter and told me to stop writing her.

Am I sad?

What do I think about having "harassed" her for almost one entire year?

The answer to both of these questions, as I had earlier explained to my Dad]:

I would have been a fool if I had not been prepared for this to have happened and naive if I was shocked by this...

Secondly, the way I figure it: As far as I know (and can only logically and egotistically assume...), she threw every single letter that I ever wrote her in the trash and never read a single one!

There are 2 very important points that I want to make about that:

1-I felt great every single time that I sat down to write her a letter, and even better than that--once I had dropped it into the mailbox. I felt completely uplifted!!!

2-I know that she didn't even read a letter (or maybe only 3[?], or at least none after the MTC) that I sent her, otherwise she wouldn't have told me to STOP writing to her... I, in no way, feel bad about having "harassed" or even bothered Teresa! Shy should I?

If nothing else, it was a great spiritual experience thinking of writing her about the mission work and text-messaging all sorts of quotes onto myself to remember to include in my next letter. And, writing a letter to a missionary is doing nothing but exactly what I was supposed to do on a lazy Sunday Afternoon...

Plus, what Teresa has chosen to do is not my affair as my concern must be only what my choices are--stemming from her choice(s). It's what I choose to do is only a reaction to her choices or given that she has chosen to act in a certain way. She is not, in any way, making choices for me, nor will I be forced to choose any particular way/path simply because of her choice. She has every right to make her own choices, in fact, she can do noting but make her own choices; the same goes for me too...

JPS

Man Wallet

2008-03-02T20:05:00.000-08:00

Hi. My name is Josh and uh...I carry a wallet.

This is in response to Matt Graham's response to the twins "tagging" him from his sister Cami's entry (somewhere on her blog page...), and also from Emily's entry and Melody's entry (somewhere on their pages...).

In 1984 I started carrying a walet (that which would not be described as a man-bag, man-satchel, utility belt, bag, man-purse, hand-bag, murse, mattie-bag etc). It's a move I have not regretted for even one second since then. The main reason was to stop losing credit cards & debit cards, driver's license, school ID cards, insurance benefits card, pictures, and various papers that I want to keep for an unknown futre, etc.

Here is a list of the current contents:

--Expired but awesome looking pre-mission and original Utah Driver License (under 21, class D, expired on 12/25/2005).

--Card size Victorinox (c) SwissCard Lite set: Flat and phillips, larger flat and phillips, suitable for glasses screws, tweezers, needleUsed weekly, large metal rod (to be seen what it will work on...), mini-swiss-blade, many other registered features that I can't think of used weekly if not daily.

--Some current medical insurance cards.

--1 debit card, 1 credit card, 1 Chevron gas card, & one BYU-visotors library card.

--1 'THE TRUTH ABOUT LIFE'S GREAT QUESTIONS IS NOW ANSWERED' mormon.org card.

--1 "Bausch & Lomb" glasses hankerchief.

--Wadd of coupons/old business cards/movie rental cards/cards-that-if-puched-#-of times-you get a free widgit-card.

--Wadd of pictures/photographs

--1 Post-it note with Switzerland, Geneva mission address scribbled on it.

I do not pretend to copy other lists, like Matt Graham's of a "man purse" and any list that seems to be a sheer copy of his, is a meer coincidence...

JPS

Blog post to on my Best Friend's little sister's blog page...

2008-02-14T08:57:00.000-08:00

You've just reminded me (>Cammie Turpin's blog site) of something that I read from Brigham Young and also something that I heard on "Stranger than Fiction":

Brigham Young--"Every trial and experience you have passed throuh is NECESSARY for your salvation."

That's pretty nice to hear and even better to understand... Whether we are living "rosy lives" or "dealing with depression", it's more than comforting to understand that we are simply passing through one more experience that is "NECESSARY for [our] salvation".

Now... The fictious Karen(Kay) Eiffel, who was the writer of Harold Crick's life, said:

"And we must remmeber that all of these things: the nuances, the anomolies, the subtelties; which we only assume ONLY accessorize our days, are, in fact, here for a much larger and nobler cause; they are here to SAVE OUR LIVES."

She may have just as well said, "All things are here to help us to reach salvation". Pretty fun thought eh?

So, Yes, everybody hurts (... sometimes) but all of those "hurts:" will, when loocked back upon, become glorious passages that we have not only passed throlugh, but have helped us to become the Gods that we will have become!

JPS

President Hinkley passed away...

2008-01-27T20:36:00.000-08:00

Just a "blurb": President Gordon Bitner Hinkley passed away tonight, in his home, at 6:30 PM.

JPS

It's a new year, a new start, and a new beginnig!!!

2008-01-16T18:13:00.000-08:00

New years day is a most exciting part of the year. Let's think about how exciting it is (if YOU are not excited, then you better think more about how much you are going to be able to do when you start from scratch and you already know everything that you already learned the year before...) No, seriously... Think about it!!!

New years day is a brand new start (of your life). Think of all of the things that you would like to change in your life or change about yourself and think of new years day as a "do-over" day or year because you are doing things today as if you've never done them before.

New years day is a new beginning in the sense that it's kind of like repenting or like being reborn and having your slate wiped clean. Now you can start, as if you haven't ever done anything before, and not feel weighed down because of all of your baggage--becuase, hey, it's a new year!

JPS

Standardized tests...

2007-12-15T17:38:00.000-08:00

Pros and Cons:

P: The scores can be compared with every other person who is taking that same test, thus giving you an idea as to how you will do in that subject or field.

C: The test can take nothing into account except your raw score and is in no way subjective to your life or capacities or hardships or even your brilliance and studiousness.

Bottom line: You are going to have to take a standardized test if and when you want to further your education. If you are opposed to the whole idea of the testing but are going to be forced to take a test, just learn how to fool the test and how to do well on the test. That'll show'em!

JPS

Tax "do-over" and Agency

2007-12-14T18:59:00.000-08:00

I agree that a person should "react", as doing such-a-thing is not being an agent and definitely not using your agency correctly (Joseph Fielding McConkie would go so far as to say that such an act is NOT even a true act of agency. It would just be a misuse of agency, as agency is choosing to act in accordance with the spirit and the commandments, and I tend to agree with him [though I don't want to offend someone for "being too picky..."]).

So, let me lay out the decision (though it has already been made and this discussion is solely retroactive and for YOUR sake...): I willingly and almost insisted on taking the brunt of the financial load when getting divorced. I just knew that a complete and total separation was needed as soon as possible... In such a decision, I offered to take care of all of the debt in return for keeping all my paycheck. I also allowed her, under-the-table, to take the my disability check (and to tell the truth, it didn't last all that long before they [Hartford Insurance] said I earned too much anyway...) with the understanding that some day I would also get all of that check.

Now, though, I learned that no allowance was made for the paying of taxes with regard to the income and the write-offs.

Come to find out, you can send in a "correction" to your initial tax-return for years and I plan on doing just that.

Hence my question on "revenge"... Is it being vengeful or not? I think not and 2 Nephi 9:17 says "O the greatness and the justice of our God! For he executeth all his words, and they have gone forth out of his mouth, and his law must be fulfilled."

I don't even think of myself as God, but just a god-in-embryo and try to do only those things that God would be pleased with...

JPS

Year-End Review...

2007-12-13T18:51:00.000-08:00

Ok, not really a "review", but that's just a fun way of saying that these thoughts are actually "random" and not following one single thought...

I just got back from Tithing Settlement tonight. You know, it doesn't matter why I get to go and visit with the Bishop, it's always a really nice thing to do and makes you feel good (that includes needing to go to him for "confession" because you always leave feeling 100% better than you did when you first went in...). It just means that you have all sorts of reasons to feel good about yourself when you walk out of a bishop's office...

I still have to take the GRE soon and just saw that I had written it into my phone/planner to start studying again for the test this Saturday (I have myself some "break-time" after the end of the semester). It's time to dive back into studying (I didn't ever really study, now that I think about it, for my latest Psych class...) but this time for something that actually completely interests me--getting into Graduate School.

My little Buddy, Addison, is coming to Utah for his holiday break. He was originally going to be here only for Christmas Eve and Christmas day and the rest of his vacation was going to be in Montana. Luckily Stephanie changed her plans and now my little Squirt is going to be able to spend almost the entire vacation with me. I can't even say how good it'll be to have him "home" with me. I HATE him being in Califor-nIgh-Ay and even talking to him every night isn't good enough for me. I mean, it's better than nothing, BUT... I just miss having him around all of the time!!!

JPS

Happy Moments from Following the Spirit!

2007-12-12T20:08:00.000-08:00

I don't want to start listing all of the times that my day has turned around and become a great day because I chose to follow a different path and follow the Spirit (nor could I come up with such as list...), but Monday was one of those days!

Monday was the day of my Final at UVSC, and so I had most of the morning off and had headed down to school to take the test. I arrived in PLNT of time and went in to take the test with not as much as a worry on my mind. I took the test (and got by with a little help from my friends...) and went up to the main floor.

A girl that I had met at Gold's Gym was there and we talked for a bit. She wanted to tell me something and so we went into an empty room. She confided in me that she was thinking of moving out of her house, because her dad's rules and expectations were "weighing her down". Turns out, as I could tell already from her talking, that she basically had renounced the church, her testimony, and anything that tries to tell her how to act.

I listened to her and then bore my testimony to her and tried to give her a copy of Dr. C. Terry Warner's book ("Bonds that Make Us Free") hoping that maybe that could turn her around...

Finally, I simply gave her a hug, wished her luck, and left.

While walking out of the room and towards the Eating Court", why, who did I "happen to run into" in the hallway? (I'm not saying at all that it was intentional, but just a happy coincidence...) but Teresa's Aunt Lynne (who she has lived with for a year before leaving on her mission...).

We talked for a while and talked about further communications in the future to find out more about Teresa, etc.

When I left I was so excited about the whole encounter and was glad that I had left that room with Bonnie (my foundering Gym-friend) and left the room right then. I had dropped off a XMas present to her the week before, but hadn't seen her as I just left it with her secretary-of-sorts, Kudji. I don't want to bother Teresa's family with my possibly-intrusive wants and desires to be closer to Teresa, and thus, had planned to not try and visit Lynne during the time that I would be at school for finals.

I could cause some serious damage if I let my curiosity/over-aggressive wants to be closer to Teresa, even though she's in need of peace and quiet and the last thing she needs is my ego/almost uncontrolable passion barging into her serene and peaceful spiritual experience. It's hard not to do all I want for her and because of her...

I would say to "Wish me luck" with this too, but I didn't do as well as I would have liked on my final and I don't want your "luck"-wishing to do any actual damage to my life...

JPS

Final Exams

2007-12-09T17:41:00.000-08:00

I have a final exam in the morning. Wish me luck (er... that's kind of meaningless, so hope I do well on the test!)...

JPS

To be a Beauty or not to be a Beauty?

2007-12-06T20:16:00.000-08:00

Today I would like to discuss the common phrase:

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Let's talk about that sentence and what it actually means in real life.

Shall we start by assuming that 'beauty' is in the eye of the beholder or that there is nothing beautiful in and of itself, but "beauty" only exists in the mind of the person because of a person thinking of or looking at a person or an object. Shouldn't we admit that this is true? All we have to do is admit that two different people will look at the same painting or look at the same face and they will have completely opposite judgments about the beauty...

Then again, now that we've assumed the positive is true we must give the negative to the sentence fair assumptions, don't we? I mean, come on... Let's be fair!

So, 'beauty' is not in the eye of the beholder but simply exists, much like truth exists (whether you might agree that it's true or that it's beautiful, doesn't change the fact that it's true or that it's beautiful...). All we have to do is admit that two different people will look at the same painting or look at the same face and they will have completely opposite judgments about the beauty and one is correct and the other is incorrect...

Then again, now that we've assumed that both the positive and the contradiction are true we must give a synthesis of the two statements it's chance to make sense of his...

Can't we all admit that parts of those two "arguments" have some truth to them? Can we, out of hand, side with one of those statements? I can't, can you?

'Beauty' is in some ways in the eye of the beholder and in some ways not in the eye of the beholder (the truth of whether something is beautiful or not exists independent of the opinion of man). Ah... Now I've brought up a very interesting point that I think will help resolve this whole debate!

Is it the opinion of man that ultimately determines whether or not something is true or should we leave that determination to the Judge of All Things? Everyone must admit that God sometimes declares that things are "beautiful". but simply exists, much like truth exists (whether you might agree that it's true or that it's beautiful, doesn't change the fact that it's true or that it's beautiful...). All we have to do is admit that two different people will look at the same painting or look at the same face and they will have completely opposite judgments about the beauty and one is correct and the other is incorrect...

Think about the scriptures: Mosiah 15:15-18, Isaiah. 52:1&7, Acts 3:2&10, and he even declares that people are beautiful: Genesis 29:17, Deuteronomy 21:11. Ok, don't pretend that you can remember what they say... Either look them up or just trust me that thy are talking about God declaring things and people beautiful. Now though, we reach the crux of what I'm getting at and need to read some more scripture... Read 2 Nephi 14:2 -- In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious; the fruit of the earth excellent and comely to them that are escaped of Israel. Also read: D&C 82:14 -- For Zion must increase in beauty, and in holiness; her borders must be enlarged; her stakes must be strengthened; yea, verily I say unto you, Zion must arise and put on her beautiful garments.

In order to be truly "beautiful", it seems, it requires both God's judgment AND man's judgment and involvement. What I would like to propose is that something or someone is truly beautiful when man aligns his will and, therefore, his opinion, with God's.

Just think about it again... In order for true beauty to exist it requires two people, namely God and man to be in complete agreement. That is beautiful, in-and-of-itself, but we'll talk about that a different time... So, neither the positive statement nor that contradiction end up being correct, though both of them form a part of the truth: true beauty exists only when man and God are in complete harmony about their judgment of a thing.

JPS

The Temple!

2007-12-05T18:15:00.000-08:00

How important do you make the temple in your life? How often do you attend? How are you keeping your covenants?

You can answer by speaking directly to the monitor (I probably won't hear you...) or you can simply use those questions to help spur you on to making sure that you are just better with your temple covenants and duties to do your temple work.

Then, kindly report directly to God, the Father! You know... Kneel in prayer...

JPS

The 'Q' back in the hood, or simply put: back in town...

2007-12-03T20:39:00.000-08:00

It was the genius of Quinn Woodward Warnick who brought you the hours-of-fun-filled- (and sometimes thought provoking)-excitement was you waited anxiously for the new pieces to appear on "The Whiteshoe Irregular" (some of those original pieces have made their way to this venue...) and although he's not planning on starting it back up, he does plan on something equally witty and bright and needed to brighten your day, but until he does, he will be in here Utah County for Christmas '07...

Let's hear it for the Q'ster!!!! (okay, I got a little carried away there for a minute...)

So, for dead serious, get hold of me or Matt Graham or one of the Donaldson twins or simply reply to this here post and include your email address or messenger name or phone # and I'll bring you right up to speed on the holiday festivities!

So wattaya say? In the words of the old Qster, "Game on!"

JPS

Stake Conference...

2007-12-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

Although nothing could ever take the place of General Conference, since the council of the Lord given to his disciples is that they should speak only his words (as long as you are meeting with a General Authority, that is...), all meetings can be conducted by any of his disciples and it should be equally uplifting!

JPS

Psychology + Philosophy, or is that VS?

2007-11-30T20:33:00.000-08:00

I graduated from BYU with a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy and walked away with 4 years + worth of learning for a lifetime (of knowledge and learning-skills). One conclusion I had walked away with from the BYU campus with was this: Psychology is an anti-philosophy.

I almost cringed when I heard people trying to expllain to other people about who I was, "Oh yeah, he's studying psychology at school!" My Grandma was the most famous for saying that.

It doesn't bother me so much any more, simply because it opens the door to let me correct a common misconception... They are not the same thing! Almost just as famous of a misconception is that philosophy is evil.

Ironically that idea comes from the truest of all things: the gospel of Jesus Christ and even from the temple ("... philosophies of men, mingled ..."). Nothing could be further from the truth! As an ex-philosophy student you might find yourself thinking that I have just been completely "won-over" or "duped" or that I am so far into the forrest that I can't see the trees. Stop though... No, that's right, just STOP!!! Now realize that all philosophy is a way to find THE TRUTH and isn't a corrupted gospel.

Philosophy is not an anti-truth or teachings from the anti-Christ or Satan. I think, in fact, like I've said already, that there is only one perfect philosophy: the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

My point (yes, I do have a point and am not intending to ramble...) is that Psychology is, in fact, an anti-philosophy or an anti-truth. And what do we learn from the Lord himself? In Doctrine and Covenants section 93, verse 24 and 25, we read that:

24 And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;
25 And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning.

When you are teaching young impressionable minds, please only teach the truth and the means for discovering the truth for yourself...

JPS

Presents and Gifts...

2007-11-28T19:30:00.000-08:00

Today all but (1) book and (1) gift-card arrived at my door (and were promptly whisked down to my room and plopped on my bed, courteous Brenda Joy Stott [a.k.a. MOM]) in plenty of time to hand out for Christmas (no, I didn't forget that I could have written Xmas and it would have carried the same weight...).

You really don't have any reason to be excited for this seemingly large accomplishment, because almost all of my Christmas shopping, so far, has been done online and most of my presents are the same thing...

I've got a whopper of a good present though for my best friend. He could know what it is already, I mean... I wouldn't be surprised if he did know what it is. Both that I got Teresa a Xmas present (that is one of those many-of-the-same-gifts-presents, but it just so happens to be something that I've planned on getting for her since about April of this year).

I guess I'm not so much proud of myself for having my shopping done (and it's not even December yet...) as I am feeling the weight lifted from my neck/head for accomplishing my first Christmas present giving, by myself, since I've been home from my mission (every Xmas shopping I've done since I've been home from my mission was with Stephanie and she did most of the purchasing/buying and we just "both" gave them away...).

So then... What is my point? Well, if you'll read back a few posts you'll be at my post on "giving-instead-of-getting" and you'll see why I'm so happy to be all ready to give away those special gifts that I've hand-selected for each person on my nice list ***that reminds me that I need to watch ELF soon!!!***.

JPS

Credit Cards and Slavery...

2007-11-27T19:38:00.000-08:00

I suppose that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (I'm sure that this would include all of those of you are reading "Josh's random entries"...) have already heard talks and talks and testimonies of the Evils of Debt and of using a credit card...

I would just like to add my personal testimony of the evilness of credit cards. Not just that debt on a credit card can be dangerous, though, I am testifying of the inherit immorality of the companies that own, run, and offer credit cards.

They not only don't care about you and would just as soon sell your bones once you've died (and thus have NO compassion), but they also are crooked in their dealings and out-right lie about what they are doing to you!!!

Just follow the Brethren and don't fall into the snake-pit called credit card debt...

JPS

Xmas or Christmas?

2007-11-25T18:34:00.000-08:00

I used to kind of get offended when someone wrote the word "XMAS" on their Christmas decorations (and I suppose I could still talk about it enough that I get myself are-angrified...), but ever since I took a year-and-a-half of Ancient Greek, I've understood where that practice began.

You see, I used to say, "People [you!] are just blatantly taking Christ OUT of Christmas." The only decent and Christian part about the holiday, I would have argued, has just been "X"-ed out. I understood the "X" in Xmas to be a "wild card" letter or a question mark or a common and everyday variable (much like in math. Where x = 5 in x + 20 = 25).

After I gained a little more knowledge and incite about language, I learned that the "X" was an early christian symbol for Christ. In fact, both the fish (like all of the "Jesus Fish" stickers and symbols on cars) as well as the letter "X" (in Ancient Greek, a word meaning "messiah", which is what Jesus Christ is was written: Χριστός...).

So, in essence, Xmas means, literally: Christ Mas or the celebration of Christ or now that we've englishicized it: Christmas.

I suppose you could still get offended at it because we no longer speak greek or are familiar with the everyday language that Christ spoke (Greek... That is Ancient Greek...) and so be offended because we are not taking the symbol in the context in which it originated (or maybe because the people now using Xmas don't really understand what they're saying, but then again, if we want to push things that far, I'm going to come to your house and be offended at your lifestyle and the way that you are being irreverant and neigh unto blasphemous!).

Just give the X in Xmas a break, or better yet, read a little and find out that it actually is simply a shorthand way of writing Christ-mas. It's up to you...

JPS

Music in my brain...

2007-11-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

Why is it that it seems like my best thinking is done when accompanied by music? Whenever I sit down to write a letter I have music playing in the background. Why is that?

When I was in the hospital doing in-patient therapy after my car accident, my vocational-therapist, Mark, had me take an IQ-ish test twice: once with no distraction and once while I had another job to work on. The end result was that he was testing whether I would achieve the same results, worse results, or better results if I was "slightly distracted" by another task.

His conclusion at the end of the therapy was that I perform better when I have something like music (not anything that would consume my mind or emotions...) going in the background, though I'm quite sure that this was always the case. As much as

I'm not sure if the same thing would have been said before the accident, but it's defiantly true since the brain damage... Since the accident, also, I've become painfully aware of the dangers of constantly filling your head with music (like those that never don't have an earpiece in their ear listening to their iPod...) and thus, make themselves essentially "deaf" to the whisperings of the Spirit and the yells and warnings from their loved ones.

Though, it's true that "listening-to-music" can be abused, it just makes sense to me that everybody would perform better with some music playing in the background. Maybe it's an idea created from watching movies, but every scene in life should have it's own background music! Music, it is well known and proven, increases your capacity to memorize and thus increases your capacity to remember what you learn. Some time later I'll have to write about memory, but it music definitely adds to one's memory or capacity to memorize.

Of course you have to remember the singing of praises to your God or the hymns that we sing in church or the carols that we sing during the holidays. My friend, Matt, says that he would like a radio station that just plays Christmas music year-round. I told him that we have invented something for just such an idea: CD players that will always play your own favorite CD of Christmas music...

Music will brighten the gloomiest day and will infuse your soul with the joy of the moment!!!

JPS

What's in a name?

2007-11-23T17:27:00.000-08:00

I mean, wouldn't a rose by any other name be as sweet? But then again... Would it? I mean, would giving somebody a dozen [something that you detest and possibly causes you to vomit] wouldn't be the same. Not by a long shot!

I'm not saying that calling a rose by any other name wouldn't forever brand that something with the idea of beauty, but in just the same way, calling a rose by the name that you now have-embedded-in-your-head-as-something-awful would forever stain the idea of a "rose."

I'm sure that most names you could get used to switching the word in language and call it something else, because you would eventually come to know that as the item itself. It all goes back to the Philosophy of Language (one of my favorite classes at BYU...) and the saying vs. the said.

For example, I used to call Stephanie "Sweet" as a nickname, and that worked well and didn't have any linguistic or metaphoric conflicts. I was simply calling her by a name that embodied how I felt about her. However, I doubt that calling her a name that you might hear in an elementary or Jr. High school would have meant the same thing (and would have been entirely insulting to hear...).

When you call your wife by some other name, is it her name or what-you-mean-when-you-say-that-name that has the meaning? Again, we're back to the saying vs the said (I learned the fantastic pneumonic device of hyphenating-words-like-I-do in that philosophy class as well. A terribly all-around great class!!!). Like I was just saying, if it is a "new" name (or a nick-name...) then you simply attach or associate that word to the person. However, if it's a name or a word that you have already attached some unpleasant meaning to it, then, by association you have just called that person an unpleasant thing. So, in essence Juliet was wrong because a rose by some names simply wouldn't smell as sweet.

JPS

Fix you...

2007-11-22T20:06:00.000-08:00

I'm listening to "Fix You" by Coldplay, on their X&Y album, and I saw a dumb sitcom on TV today about this brother who ended up in a string of bad relationships because he always was sympathetic to the girl's plight and jumped in to "rescue" the girl. This move always ended up in tragedy, with his heart being broken while in the midst of trying to solve the girl's problems. I feel for this poor guy and can feel myself in his place a lot of the time.

What is it about some guys (or maybe even most guys if not ALL guys) that makes them think that if there is a problem with the girl that they are interested in or seeing/spending time with, they think that they can and need to solve the problems of that girl?

I think that part of the reason is that it all comes back down to the "trying to get the girl syndrome" or they feel like if the take the burdens of the girl on their own back, then the girl will be interested in them--if for no other reason than they are currently carrying that burden. I am often in the same situation: Recently I tried to take on the financial burden of a girl that I was dating before she left on her mission. She kindly declined my help...

Can you see, I was and am trying to get into the fix-you relationships!

The thing is... I figure that getting into a relationship is kind of "signing-up" for a hard life and, therefore, necessarily is volunteering to fix one another. I just can't wait to be in a relationship where we are both trying to fix ourselves and simultaneously do-our-part-to-make-the-other's-life better...

JPS