TAYLOR VS TERROR

Okay, first look at the captions and photos below:

I suppose we are supposed to look at Obama agasp; what, having James Taylor play a song? Instead of jumping in and killing all of those terrorists?!

Now think of this while looking at the photos again.

Bush did, yes, go to war. A long, long war. Based on false information about WMDs. Some 6,000 Americans killed. Estimated cost of $4 to 6 trillion dollars. Wounded and disabled.... well, they stopped reporting it after the number reached one million.

Was terrorism stopped?

No.

I'm okay with James Taylor singing "You've Got A Friend" in Paris as a response to the attack at Charlie Hebdo magazine.

Are you?

THIS IS HOW I WANT TO BE WHEN I AM OLD

LIVING ON MINIMUM WAGE

Yesterday, I stood in line for over two hours to submit my daughter's paperwork for both food stamps and medical assistance.

I looked around the room, and saw a lot of different faces.

Some were really young - flamboyant and gleeful.

Some were old and ashamed.

A lot were indifferent - this was a regular thing with them.

I don't know all their stories.

But I know my daughter.

She's 33.

She is learning disabled; she's not the sharpest tool in the shed, as the expression goes.

She has had surgery on her foot - she walks with a cane.

And she works fast food - at minimum wage.

She normally gets, at the best, twenty hours a week.

It's the best she can do.

So when you talk about cutting food stamps - you're talking about my girl here.

Not everyone on minimum wage is supporting a family.

But two of Joy's co-workers do.

It isn't as easy as looking at someone spending food stamps while talking on a cell phone with a manicure, and think it isn't really needed.

It isn't labeling minimum wage jobs as only "starter" jobs - if you work hard enough, you'll climb the employment ladder.

For some people, this is it.

And for my daughter, this is it.

ACCEPTING REALITY

I was reading in a church teaching manual over the weekend, and came across the following:

"Mary was humble and submissive to the will of the Lord (Luke 1:38, 48). Why is it important for us to submit to the Lord’s will? How can we become more humble and submissive?"

The scriptures they are quoting are as follows:

"And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.... For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed."

So Mary, accepting the fact that she was pregnant, was humble and submissive.

You know something else it is called?

Accepting reality.

And I think this is important.

So much of our ‘reality’ is only in the space between our own ears.

It’s comprised of things we tell ourselves – things other people tell us – things we believe – things we wish we could believe.

And a great deal of our own unhappiness comes because we would rather keep believing untruths instead of accept reality.

This may sound all nuts when you are talking about the virgin birth of our Savior.

But Mary accepted what had happened.

She didn't deny it - if she got upset about it, she did it in private - or kept it quiet - or simply got over it.

The reality was that she was pregnant - not planned, not even possible, in her case.

And she accepted that.

Now I'm not going to get into divine directives and the whole concept of a virgin birth - although I'm certain she was not left completely in the dark about what was happening.

But she dealt with what was happening.

So should we.

WHY DRUG COMPANIES ARE NOT ALWAYS THE BAD GUYS HERE

I know that pharmaceutical companies rake in a lot of money. I know that a lot of CEOs there have huge salaries. I know that pharmaceutical drugs are expensive.

But I also know something about the research that comes before the drug is marketed.

I was lucky enough to work for a research pharmaceutical company that was just starting out in Baltimore about 18 years ago.

We were working out a little crowded office. We used a lot of recycled things, not all new and fresh from the office supply store. Our research facilities were in the back - they weren't fancy. And we could never acknowledge that they were in the back - because the animal rights activists would come and march in front.

And that's what the research takes - someone has an idea, or an area (ours was brain cancer), and then begins working with different chemicals - different ways to attack the cancer/disease/affliction.


And that takes YEARS... and YEARS.... and YEARS. 

With no income coming in.

The research is existing on grants from the government - from private individuals - foundations - charities.

All everyone, EVERYONE, keeping their fingers crossed.

Through all the research - the clinical trials - the years it takes to get it FDA approved.

And the, and ONLY then, does the drug go into production... and begins to get sold.

And some of that money begins to come back.

Yes - people make money with pharmaceutical drugs.

Finally.

And if they didn't, then there would never, NEVER be new drugs out on the market.

Look at some of these websites: 


 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_development
http://www.phrma.org/sites/default/files/pdf/rd_brochure_022307.pdf

OH FOR PETE'S SAKE

I get cced on a lot of right-wing political pieces - I have a lot of friends who are conservative.

And this is what some of the headlines are screaming:

Obama Skipped The Paris Rally, You Won't Believe His Sad Excuse

13 Excuses Why Obama Missed the Rally Against Terrorism in Paris

US officials nowhere to be seen at Paris rally

Greta Van Susteran's Apology To The People Of France For Obama's Behavior Has Gone Viral

And you know what?

If Obama HAD gone to France to the rally, these would be the headlines:

Obama Skipped His Duties As President To Make Appearance At The Paris Rally, You Won't Believe His Sad Excuse

13 Excuses Why Obama Attended the Rally Against Terrorism in Paris

US officials Everywhere In Paris Instead Of At Work In DC

Greta Van Susteran's Apology To The People Of the US For Obama's Behavior Has Gone Viral

You can't win.

LOVE SEES INDIVIDUALS, NOT GROUPS

Chieko Okazaki was a member of the General Relief Society Presidency a few years back, and she has said some great things - here is one I came across in preparation for my lesson today:

Sometimes our love is impatient. We want quick answers and hasty solutions. Sometimes we feel such urgency that we would violate the free agency of others. This is not a mistake that our Heavenly Father and Jesus make. Their love is deep and powerful but it is also a patient love. For every Paul struck down on the road to Damascus, for every Alma the Younger who is rebuked by an angel, there are hundreds who are allowed to go on choosing and choosing and choosing, until a series of choices gradually leads them to make the right choice and the hunger of their spirits for the Holy Spirit makes the gospel sweet to them.

The older I get, the more I come to acknowledge this truth.

ALL RELIGIONS OR JUST YOURS?

I have friends who are rather conservative politically 

And these aren't just Facebook "friends" - although most of the things I am responding to here are from Facebook postings - these are actual people who I know from church, I know from my rural community.

We just don't talk politics. 

But BOTH of them "liked" the following post:


"Right Wing News has no problems taking shots at radical Islam, but we don't normally run anti-Islamic images. Islam may be a false religion and Muhammad may not have been a good guy, but we do believe in showing a modicum of respect to people of different faiths. However tonight, after the Charlie Hebdo killings, we are going to make fun of Islam and Muhammad because we refuse to allow murderous fanatics to determine what we are and are not allowed to say in a free country. We think that everyone who cares about free speech should do the same thing." -- John Hawkins, Right Wing News, ‪#‎Nightofa1000AntiIslamCartoons‬


Sigh.

I don't consider myself a crazy liberal.

But I do consider myself a Christian.

Probably not the best Christian, but a Christian.

And the commandment "Love thy neighbor" must mean something different to me than those people I call friends.

Look, I'm not Muslim.

And I'm not excusing the horrible massacre done in France by people claiming to be Muslim.

But I know how upset I would be to see cartoons that showed Jesus Christ, who I consider my Savior and my Elder Brother, in, let us say, compromising positions with innocent people.

So I can understand how people who accept the Prophet Muhammad  would be upset about rude cartoons.

Not enough to justify murder, no, never.

But please, when Christians are using the behavior of a few loose-canons from Islam to act in the most un-Christ-like way....

Does anyone else have a problem with this?

ANSWER TEN QUESTIONS AND FIND OUT....

I'm amused by some of the Facebook "quizzes" that friends post -

- What kind of old person are you going to be?

- What is your inner nationality?

- What kind of dog is your soul?

- What would your job be at Downton Abbey?

Some of the questions asked form a sort of logic, but a lot are just plain goofy - what is your favorite color, what is your birth month, and that shows that in a previous life you would have been married to Clark Gable.


I love the ones that guess your age (my tastes must be younger than my actual body) - tell you how long you are going to live (I honestly do not want to live to be 143) - which word describes you (you wouldn't believe it - I got HOPE).

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO YOUR 16 YEAR OLD SELF?

There are so many times in life when you wish you could back and "re-do" incidents.

You wish you knew things sooner.

You realize how much easier it could have gone.

And somehow you wonder why the smarts never seem to show up until years after you need them.

And as a parent, you try as hard as you possibly can to pass on the knowledge you've gained to your kids.... and it doesn't work.

Because youth know that adults simply DON'T UNDERSTAND.

Is there any way around this?

WARM HANDS COLD HEART

You know that old expression, "cold hands, warm heart."

I've been quoting it all my life.

I have freezer hands - cold like death - corpse hands.

People who shake hands with me almost always do a double-take - is this woman actually alive?!?

And for quite a few years, I've been wearing fingerless mittens even around the house - that way, I can at least type unencumbered.

 But the other night, I accidentally stumbled upon an old pair of "real" mittens - full, around-the-entire-hand, tightly knitted mittens.,


And I thought I'd wear them to bed to keep them warm.

That was a mistake.

Now I have learned, warm hands, HOT heart - I had palpitations!

MY PERSONAL OBIT

I've written out my own obituary as follows:

Hope Elaine Russell Wiltfong was born in 1956 in Glendale, California, but moved as quickly as possible to rectify the situation. Her obsession with horses began in early adolescence and never wavered, with several other juvenile characteristics. 

She met her husband, Bill “Wilt” Wiltfong while attending Brigham Young University, and after an unexpected proposal on a snowy Idaho freeway, they were married in May 1978 in the Provo Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Bill shortly afterwards joined the US Army, and their three children appeared spontaneously in varying locations from Kansas to Germany, in civilian, military and British hospitals.
Hope and Bill’s children are Harmony Jacobson – Joy Wiltfong – and J. Josiah Wiltfong.

Harmony and Blake (the best possible son-in-law in the world) have also produced the most incredible grandchildren in the world, Colin William and Kate Elizabeth.

Hope’s employment ranged from custodial to upper management, with her favorite job being with the American Heart Association in Hawaii, and least favorite doing admin work for CPAs through tax seasons. 

She was a supportive military wife, or at least up to being stationed for ten years in Maryland.  Wilt was reminded of the ancient adage “Happy wife, happy life” and accepted a job at Ft. Huachuca to Hope’s great satisfaction, where they have lived since 1999.


Hope asks that in lieu of flowers, cards, plants and/or recycled Christmas cards, please make a donation to the American Heart Association. Or go out tonight and get a pizza for your family.