Top Ten Things I’m Grateful for at the End of 2010

These are in addition to the constants, like a loving family, an excellent job, and the gospel.

1. 1. Adrienne’s Healing. A year ago when she went into the hospital, we were scared and did not know what to expect. I blessed her to recover fully. It’s been a difficult year, but she has gotten increasingly better. She is completely healed in so many senses of the word, though of course keeping up one’s health is always an ongoing effort. This is an amazing blessing and an exceedingly beautiful thing. I am grateful for good doctors and excellent medicines.

2. My Mother’s Healing. While mom continues to battle various health issues, she has conquered the most immediately threatening one, her hemolytic anemia. I gave her a priesthood blessing to this effect as well and feel it has also been fulfilled fully. She has been besieged by various health issues, but is too stubborn to let them get the better of her. Well-done, mom! I’m grateful she is feeling well enough to share fondue with us tonight.

3. Mountain Biking. I bought my boss mountain bike September 2009, but didn’t really get serious miles on it until I met Charlie Morgan in May. We mountain biked in amazing terrain an average of three days a week except vacation time from June to November. I whipped myself into probably the best shape of my life, and got pretty darn good at climbing. I climb all kinds of things that I had previously pronounced unclimbable, and that seem pretty unclimbable when you just look at them! I’m not nearly the beast that Charlie is, but I do reasonably well. Highlights of the year included the bugling elk on the hillside 150 yards away in the fall and the wild turkeys we would often scare into flight.

4. Snowshoeing and Cross-Country Skiing. I bought equipment for both at the end of the season in 2009, but only did a little with them until January 2010, when I fell madly in love with both sports. The snow sparkles in both sun and moonlight, the trees stand draped with wreaths of white, and the silence invites harmony with God and self. Theo is delightful as well, running hither and yon tirelessly, tail wagging, as happy as any dog ever was and as happy as God intends us all to be. Ellen now enjoys snowshoeing too, which is lovely!

5. Canyoneering. OK, I know. . . enough of the outdoors sports! But, ladies and gentlemen, life is good. I’ve reached the point in my life where I have the time (thanks to growing children!) and means (thanks to a good job) to finally explore things I always figured I would love. I first experienced canyoneering about 8 years ago with the priests’ quorum. I always hoped to get back to it. Attempting to survive winter semester and attempting to find Adrienne a good class, I stumbled across a canyoneering class at BYU. The good professor allowed me to sit in, and well, I have a new love. I’ve done four amazing canyons and have only scratched the surface. I plan to get Boy Scout climbing-certified as a way to learn more (there’s lots to learn!) and then share this astonishing sport with others.

6. I am more than half-way done with my term as chair. I generally (with notable exceptions!) do not mind the nature of the work. I mind the fact that it takes me away from things I love more, such as teaching and research. That has become more difficult as time has passed. When I teach a class, I resent teaching it because I have so much other work to do, and I hate that feeling. I see so many excellent research projects and wish I could do some. Anyway, I’m grateful that I’m on the downside of my time as chair, and I’m grateful that I still have excellent relationships with everyone in my department. I’m grateful I may have done some good in the process so far.

7. Continued Publishing Success. Despite the time-sink that is chair-hood, I have continued to harvest research projects I started before I entered the Black Hole. It was especially satisfying to just recently get a paper accepted at International Studies Quarterly that I first presented in 2005 and that was first conceived when I went to Copenhagen on a Fulbright Grant in 2001. That’s a long gestation period! It is so wonderful to finally have it see the light of day!

8. Fantasy Sports. Who knew it would be so much fun? Week in and week out. I’m fairly addicted. It’s been fun to re-discover boyhood loves of sports figures (am I correct in thinking I admired Brett Favre as a kid too? Was he playing then? J). And the trash talking is divine.

9. Nathan becoming a young man. I love my daughters to pieces, but they won’t watch sports or action flicks with me, and their hiking/camping limit is quite a bit shorter. Also, see number 8. I’m just about ready to buy Nathan a phone just so I can text him and talk to him about Fantasy Sports when he is with friends. Of course, the boy can’t remember a thing, so a phone is a bad idea. I already have two family members who rarely answer their phones! J

10. My Garden, Fruit Trees, etc. I have become a food snob. If I don’t grow it, I’m unlikely to eat it. Well, that’s a little overstated. But I have at least one thing on my table each day from April through November that I grow. It makes life deliciously wonderful! But it also means I’m pretty veggie-deprived in the winter!

Do Cowboys Really Talk Like That?

I saw True Grit last night. What a spectacular movie! Definitely top 10 potential for my all-time favorite movies. Let me first note I am not particularly a Western movie fan. I'm not really anti-Westerns either. I've never really given them a chance. My main exposure to Westerns is watching bits and pieces with my dad on a Saturday afternoon growing up and hearing him wax rhapsodic about John Wayne. I've seen a couple of others since then and enjoyed them.

What makes True Grit special is the combination of action and dialogue. I don't think any other action flick has nearly this high of quality of dialogue. I can't think of one that comes close anyway. And while all elements of movie-making are important to me, I'm especially partial to excellent dialogue, which seems like a rare quality in movies. True Grit has excellent acting, amazing cinematography, and a great plot. The scenery wasn't super-spectacular, but I definitely wanted to go 'coon hunting and travel through that landscape with them, setting up a nice campfire with a rope around my bed to deter snakes.

But the dialogue. . . . oh my. They speak using the more formal language of the mid-1800s. I'm familiar with it mainly through things like letters and teachings from early church leaders or maybe something like a Civil War book where I've read excerpts of letters or something. Or in movies, maybe something like dialogue from Sense and Sensibility. But I never thought about ordinary people on the Western frontier speaking like that. I suppose many did. After all, Joseph Smith lacked formal education and spoke and wrote like that.

Anyway, the dialogue is sparkling, witty, humorous, and enchanting. The repartee between the various characters is engrossing. It's almost annoying when a gunfight breaks out because the verbal sparring is so delicious! Yet the balance between dialogue and action is perfect, and the chemistry between the various characters is amazing. The ending seems just right as well, neither sticky-sweet nor bitter.

I know the Coen brothers, who directed the film, get praised lavishly and routinely by critics. I didn't think I had ever seen anything by them, but I just looked it up and I've seen and adore Raising Arizona and O Brother Where Art Thou (which I'm also remembering for excellent dialogue). Anyway, I'm a fan. Go see it, even if you swore you would never see a Western!

Theo and the Moose

I went cross-country skiing on Christmas Eve morning with Theo. We went up to Aspen Grove. Sundance was reporting 80 new inches from the huge storm that had parked itself over Utah for the past few days. There was a LOT of snow up there when we got there, as much as I've seen.

Snowmobiles had packed a path going up the Alpine Loop Road to the summit; otherwise, it would have been unskiable. As we went up the road, I noticed deep holes in the snow about a foot apart and wondered what kind of crazy person would attempt the road by foot without snowshoes. The holes went DEEP. It reminded me of when I was postholing (the term for walking in deep snow without snowshoes or anything) up in the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming. It is exhausting work!

Then I noticed a bunch of large animal scat near one hole. I looked up the road a ways. I saw an animal 100 yards ahead. I thought: "Cool, a deer." But it was darker than any deer I've seen. And larger. It was up to its chest in the snow, sort of lunging and struggling forward slowly. It would raise up, move a foot forward, and sink back.

I realized it was a moose! Tough to say how large since it was a ways off and deep in the snow. Theo noticed the moose a little after I did. Theo did not have the breaking-through-snow problem and bounded toward the floundering moose, barking furiously, I screamed at Theo, to no avail. The moose turned around to face Theo, but was pretty hopelessly floundering around in the snow. I was more worried about the poor moose than about Theo. After getting within about a foot of the moose, Theo heeded my calls and came back, reluctantly. He had seen his moose and conquered. I waited with him, letting the moose get farther up the road and hoping he would veer off so we could continue without harassing him.

We began to move again, and I saw where he left the trail and wondered how he could last the winter in this deep snow.

I skied on up to nearly the summit and then turned around and came back. The beauty of the snow on the trees was astonishing. The snow was not too icy and not too powdery, almost perfect for cross-country skiing.

Favorite Presidents

I'm currently reading David McCullogh's biography, Truman. This has made me wonder which president might be my favorite. Despite professing political science, I know dreadfully little about American politics and presidents.

In recent years, however, I've read several biographies of presidents and really enjoyed them. I'm still pretty clueless, and I tend to choose biographies of presidents I think I will like. So, let's start this list with presidents I've actually read about.

As I think about it, character seems the most important quality for me. Certainly not the only thing, but the presidents with the best personal character seem to rise to the top of this list. Of course, character can mean many things. More on that in future blogs.

Moderation is another important quality; political wisdom is a complex, fleeting thing that requires a careful and sophisticated understanding of innumerable factors and viewpoints. Too few politicians seem capable of understanding issues in complex, sophisticated ways.

1. Lincoln. I admire endlessly his moderation in the face of extremism, his careful effort to understand a problem from all sides, his commitment to Christian virtues, above all charity, and his unflagging devotion to right, as God gave him to understand it.

2. Washington. Here is the mark of a truly great person: In the middle of the trials of the Revolutionary War, he sends home letters with careful instructions for caring for agriculture at Mount Vernon. What is great about that? Because he was not plotting his personal rise to power, because he kept life in balance, and because he appreciated the small beauties of life amidst trouble, turmoil and strife. (One of the many geniuses of Lord of the Rings is that it recognizes this form of greatness; Samwise Gamgee possesses this character, and it saves Middle Earth.)

3. Truman. Perhaps it is just because I'm currently reading his biography, but I'm really liking him. His middle class origins and upbringing capture the best of the United States. He was progressive without being ideological, favored minority rights without dogmatism, advanced strong US engagement in the world well before it was fashionable, and took on big business and the defense industry at a time when the country really needed that service and it could seem unpatriotic to do so. He got nominated for vice-president for all the right reasons: because of his character and moderation, and not because he sought the office.

4. T. Roosevelt. I really want to read more and have only read Mornings on Horseback, which ends early in his life. He is not who I thought he was, a macho, in-your-face bully. I've no idea how I ever thought that of him. At least as I understand him so far, he loved life, savored adventure, worked hard, and threw all of himself into everything he did--but without the ideological fervor that accompanies some of this personality type when found in those drawn to politics.

5. Adams. While he made some unfortunate choices as president, he more than redeems himself with his dedication to public service and his wonderful influence on the course of the Revolution and on a generation of American leaders. His political instincts were generally excellent and his character superb.

6. Jefferson. I guess I'm pretty surprised I didn't like him even more. Since I was a senior in high school and visited Williamsburg--and a person in character there said I looked like Tom Jefferson's son--I've been kind of partial to him. I'm anti-system enough to appreciate his revolutionary views. I'm a huge admirer of his Renaissance Man lifestyle and love of learning. The Louisiana Purchase and commissioning Lewis and Clark was genius. Perhaps I expected more and was disappointed to discover he was human. He is still very high on the list and I'm a great admirer. One important weakness for me was his odd commitment to France and to the French Revolution, almost heedless of developments or facts.

7. Jackson. A distant 7th, actually. I dislike his populist tendencies, his desire to strengthen the presidency too much, and of course his Native American policies. I know, he had a difficult situation, but still. His belief in the common man seems a little disingenuous to me because it was based on his high opinion of himself as the interpreter for the common man (as with most populists) rather than on reason and fact and careful investigation. I'm guessing if I read more of more presidents, Jackson would continue to slip. I'm not sure why some, like Truman, adored him so.