Aesop? Never heard of him.

I was teaching Gospel Essentials once, and the lesson was on provident living – preparing now for what is to come. I thought I’d introduce the lesson with The Ant and the Grasshopper. Nobody’d heard of it. I was surprised. I figured everybody knew it, though I couldn’t tell you if I know it because we read it in school or because I saw the 1934 animated short from Disney. (I always did like the happier renditions, where the ants have plenty laid up in store and can help the repentant grasshopper, who is now willing to somehow work for his food.)

So I started telling a quick version of it. “There’s an ant and a grasshopper. The ant is very industrious and hard-working, and all summer long, he works to store food for the winter. But the grasshopper is carefree and lazy, and he spends the summer just hopping around and playing his fiddle.”

The light comes on over one of the women in the class. “Oh! Like in A Bug’s Life!”

I have to admit, I hadn’t thought of that before. Ants… grasshoppers… food… yep, like A Bug’s Life.

Well, not exactly. But close enough to work.

72-hour Kits

Insurance, seat belts, and 72-hour kits. You hope you never need it, but when you need it, you’re glad you have it.

Don’t worry – nothing happened. Nicole just audited her 72-hour kit tonight, which she’s been meaning to do for a while. I was proud of her for not only having one, but for proactively making sure it’s up-to-date. I wondered how long it’s been since I checked mine. Well, it’s been long enough that I wouldn’t even claim to have one. I think I do. Someplace. When I was 14. I think it’s in my parents’ basement. But they’ve moved since then, never mind the fact that I’ve moved a thousand miles away. I think I’ll just start from scratch.

A 72-hour kit shouldn’t be that daunting of an endeavor. It’s not that different from packing for a weekend getaway. First, prepare like you’re staying at the Marriott. Then make it a weekend camping.

We’re going to try to set it up so that perishables – food and toiletries – are rotated through as easily as possible. A four-year-old deodorant stick isn’t in very good shape, though it would probably fulfill the measure of it’s creation if it needed to. Clothing needs checked to make sure it still fits, and – ideally – rotated seasonally. Food will probably be the interesting component here. My parents have (or had) MREs in their 72-hour kit that are (or were) older than I am. I tried one a couple years ago. Other than being kind of salty, it was pretty good. Chicken a la King in a bag. (When was the last time you ate food older than you are?) We picked up some backpacking meals at REI last year; some weekend here, we need to try them out and see how they are. Whatever we end up deciding to go with, we’ll throw something in there while we’re making up our mind.

Equipment will be fun to go shopping for. My camp shovel claimed to have an axe on the side. It doesn’t. I tried. It didn’t work. I’d love to use this as an opportunity to get a Leatherman, but do I really need a torx screwdriver? I mean, when I’m camping? A Buck knife would probably work just fine. Possibly better. Maybe I need both.

We do have a nice little first-aid kit now. We had some extra funds in our flex-spending account at the end of last year. You lose any unspent FSA funds at the end of the year, and first aid kits are a qualified medical expense, so we picked up what we hope is a nice little first-aid kit from REI. Again, it’s something we hope we never need to use, but we’ve got it.

If…

Wonderfully motivational, and I first heard it on The Simpsons. I think.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
’Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

–Rudyard Kipling, Rewards and Fairies, 1910

Strangely Motivational Photos

I've come across these in the last couple weeks. On some level, I find them strangely motivational and inspirational.

Weekend in Monterey

We delayed celebrating our wedding anniversary a little and took a three-day weekend vacation in Monterey. We headed there on Friday evening. The drive was smooth and uneventful. We checked in to the hotel at about 7 o’clock and then went for a walk on Fisherman’s Wharf. We were amazed at the large number of jellyfish floating near the surface of the water—large, red jellyfish. On the way back to the hotel, we bought some pastries to snack on before bedtime.

The next morning, we woke up early so Colter could go skydiving. After such an exhilarating beginning, we lunched at a little place called Wild Thyme Café. Their soup and sandwiches were delicious.

The skydiving process took much of the day; so it was late afternoon before we headed down to the rocky coast of Monterey toward Carmel. We clamored about the rocks for a while, then drove along the 17-mile drive to get to Carmel. We arrived there after the shops had closed; so we did a little window shopping, and searched about for a place to find dinner. Since we had eaten a late lunch, we didn’t feel hungry enough for anything the restaurants had to offer. However, we did run into our friends, the Chiens, who had also escaped to the coast for the weekend.

On our way back to Monterey, we arrived at the coast just in time to see the sun set.

In Monterey, we decided to wander the downtown area. In all my years of visiting Monterey and Carmel, this is one area I had not explored. We found it to be a delightful little downtown. For dinner, we stepped into a café and enjoyed some gyros and Greek salad. Colter said it was one of the best gyros he has had in the United States. We topped everything off with dessert from a crêperie.

On Sunday, we slept in late, with the intension of going to church at the local young single adult ward, which met at noon. However, when we arrived, there was no ward to be found. We had forgotten that on that particular Sunday, all the Bay Area wards were meeting in Oakland for a special conference. There was another ward meeting at 2. So we went over and wandered along the beach for a while, then went to the Barnyard shops until it was time to go back to church. The ward was very friendly and we stayed the full three hours. Afterward we went back to Carmel and had dinner at a lovely French café at the Carmel Plaza. There I got to try my first escargot. They were quite tasty, very buttery and garlicky. Our meals were delicious. And for dessert, we wandered down to a sweet shop and each got a giant dark chocolate peanut butter cup.

Monday, we headed back to Carmel for breakfast. There was a certain restaurant I had wanted to go to because I remembered they had delicious buckwheat pancakes. I thought the name was Kathy’s Place. When I looked online, I had found a restaurant named Katy’s Place. It was in a different spot from the restaurant I had remembered, but I thought perhaps it had just changed locations. Well, we found Katy’s Place and had breakfast there. They had buckwheat pancakes that were delicious. But they were the biggest pancakes I’d ever seen. Each one was the size of a dinner plate. Colter got an Eggs Benedict that was the most scrumptious either of us had tasted. He asked the waitress for hot sauce and she brought out a sauce that was so yummy, we bought a bottle of it as we left.

But Katy’s Place was not the restaurant I had remembered. So we hiked through Carmel looking for the restaurant. We finally found it—still in business—on the other side of the town. The name is Katy’s Cottage. Perhaps next time we’ll have to go there, although now that we know where to find such a good Eggs Benedict breakfast, it may be hard to go anywhere else. My curiosity (and sanity) now satisfied, we went back to some of the shops that had been closed on Saturday. Colter bought a smart golfers cap at one hat shop. It was a fun place, run by a husband and wife team. We also enjoyed wandering through Thinker Toys, a local toy shop with a focus on toys that help children’s minds develop.

Before starting the long drive home, we went to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and picked up some fudge to take to my dad as a special birthday treat. When we got home and were putting everything away, Colter said, “You know, I don’t feel like I need a vacation to recover from the vacation.” I felt the same way. It had been an escape from the pressures of everyday life. But it had been low-key enough that we felt fully renewed upon our return.

Untitled Post on Waste

I saw a TV show tonight, where a woman refused to throw out severely-expired food because she didn't want to waste it. The thing is, it was already wasted. She just hadn't let it go out of her life yet.

It's an interesting thought.

Growth of Temples Worldwide

Today's Sunday School lesson was on the gathering of members in the early days of the Church, first to Ohio, then to Missouri. (I also talked about Nauvoo and Utah for continuity's sake.) Included in the lesson was this quote from Joseph Smith:

“What was the object of gathering … the people of God in any age of the world? … The main object was to build unto the Lord a house whereby He could reveal unto His people the ordinances of His house and the glories of His kingdom, and teach the people the way of salvation. … It is for the same purpose that God gathers together His people in the last days, to build unto the Lord a house to prepare them for the ordinances and endowments, washings and anointings.”

Keep that in mind, and consider Bruce R. McConkie, 1972:

“[The] revealed words speak of … there being congregations of the covenant people of the Lord in every nation, speaking every tongue, and among every people when the Lord comes again. …

“The place of gathering for the Mexican Saints is in Mexico; the place of gathering for the Guatemalan Saints is in Guatemala; the place of gathering for the Brazilian Saints is in Brazil; and so it goes throughout the length and breadth of the whole earth. Japan is for the Japanese; Korea is for the Koreans; Australia is for the Australians; every nation is the gathering place for its own people.”

There must, then, be a clear correlation between the spread of temples around the world, and the spreading of the Church around the world. I grabbed the list of temples and plotted when they opened:

The graph starts with the 5th temple, Laiee, Hawaii, in 1919; Excel doesn't like dates before 1900, and the rest of the graph illustrates the point. The Bern Switzerland temple (#9, 1955) was the first temple built outside of North America. (The first outside the US was #6 – Cardston Alberta, 1923.) It was shortly followed by Hamilton New Zealand (#11, 1958) and London England (#12, 1958).

In the early 80s, the number of temples doubled. This makes sense, given that in 1978, the Church suddenly found itself with a lot more members who could go to the temple.

The number of temples doubled again in the late 90s. (This is where the line goes straight up.) President Hinckley announced the new, smaller temple format and that they'd be doubling the number of temples in operation by the end of the millennium. It took just over three years.

There are currently 129 temples in operation, and another 16 have been announced or are under construction.