Ode To Thanksgiving

It’s Thanksgiving Weekend. My favorite holiday. I love Thanksgiving because it offers a lengthy break at just the right point in the semester. I love Thanksgiving because it has not yet been commercialized, and perhaps never will be, since it is simply enveloped by Christmas’ commercialization. It is the internet before all the ads: lovely, uncluttered, a place to connect in unhurried, simple fashion, without harassment. Thanksgiving is family, friends and food. It is playing games, hanging out, going on bike rides, reading a good book, or playing some football.

Great Books My English Teachers Overlooked

Last week, I re-evaluated some of the classics I read in High School. They did not fare well, generally. This week, I highlight a few I missed in school that are definitely worth reading. They generally fare better. The themes are adventure and horror, a new genre for me.

Treasure Island: Great, rollicking adventure. Wonderful story for middle schoolers. Nathan liked it only OK despite the non-stop action, probably because the language is dated and the sentences are complex. I think it's the sort of story that can challenge kids his age but still reward them. There is a reason Long John Silver's name is widely known; he is one of the most memorable characters I've ever read about. He slips between good and evil as well as any double agent.

Last of the Mohicans: It's also a great adventure yarn with some military battles and history thrown in. I definitely see its attractiveness and staying power. Some of the scenes it describes are quite violent and often unexpectedly so. With the 19th-century language, one expects more Victorian sensibilities at times. Descriptions of the American wilderness are perhaps unmatched in anything I've read.

Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde: A wonderful short novel, one that also strikes me as a great choice for middle schoolers or a bit older. The character's internal struggle against evil is rightly celebrated. Stevenson seems to capture well the nature of temptation and addiction's ghastly hold. The character's collapse and the inability of anyone to do anything about it are haunting and memorable.

Dracula: Somewhat disappointing. It is overly long and filled with too many Victorian niceties that sound rather ridiculous to the modern ear. I read an unabridged version; I think an abridged version would be just the ticket. In the unabridged version, the action gets bogged down in too much suffocating dialogue about how dear everyone is to everyone else and what large sacrifices they're all making for each other with their pure love. Any momentary stumbles in their perfect manners are quickly remedied by even more perfect kindnesses and soothing words of various sorts. Bluch. And it's not just that I need action; I generally love dialogue. The action, when it happens, is wonderful.

The Turn of the Screw: A brilliant evocation of possible madness, involving unresolved questions about what is real, and children in peril from both those who care too little and those who care too much. It is extremely well written.

Re-evaluating the Classics

I've been reading classics lately, the past year or two, along with other books. I'm reading classics in part because Ellen is studying to be a secondary education English teacher and so she has lots of them around and partly because I'm curious what they're like now that I'm mature enough to understand them better and more deeply. I do wonder if a lot of them are mostly lost on secondary students and if it's even worth it to slog through some of them.

I've read three authors in the past year who I also recall from High School: Dickens, Conrad, and Hemingway.

IN HIGH SCHOOL:

Dickens: I remember mostly disliking Tale of Two Cities in ninth grade as I read a bunch of it, but then really coming round to admire it in the end as I saw the whole plot and scope of the story. The romantic in me loved Sydney Carton and his sacrifice.

Conrad:I remember thinking Heart of Darkness was kind of cool in, what, 11th grade when I read it, especially as classics go.

Hemingway: I don't remember any book in particular of his, and it's quite possible we didn't read any as a class but that I read him on my own just to attain requirements for number of pages read. I remember he was popular to read because it's so easy to chew up pages in Hemingway with his style. I remember liking his simple style and wondering why others couldn't write like that.

NOW:

Dickens: Writes great, but Tale of Two Cities is too sentimental. I still have some romantic in me, but couldn't come to see Carton as a believable character. Alas, the book de-motivated me to try others. The sentimentality in Dickens is a common criticism, and, alas, all too true. It is of course possible to look beyond this, and I'm sure rewarding to do so. Perhaps I'll try another Dickens at some point.

Conrad: Heart of Darkness is fabulous. It works completely on multiple levels and is a clear work of genius. The symbolism is rich and effective and the layers of meaning are fun to think about.

Hemingway: I decided to try his first novel, The Sun Also Rises. It is absolutely wretched. I tried hard, but simply could not finish it. The characters are interchangeable, the writing is bland and dull, and the plot is slighter than in a 1950s musical. I understand the way in which the spare writing style and plot line is modern and the characters represent a world that has lost its way. I certainly agree that modern society has indeed lost its way. I just didn't realize that losing one's way could be so deathly boring. I always figured it was kind of interesting to become bitter and disenchanted with the world. Turns out I was wrong. Perhaps I remember little about Hemingway because, in the end, there is nothing worth remembering.

Capitol Reef Trip

I may have had the best birthday present ever when I did the Cassidy Arch canyoneering adventure on my birthday this year. I went with Brian Hill’s BYU canyoneering class. The canyon is in Capitol Reef National Park. The first rappel at the top is 150 feet straight down over a cliff edge right beneath Cassidy Arch. It was astonishing. The gut-check at the top was pretty intense. You sort of had to ease yourself over the top by laying on your side and kind of rolling off, dropping your right foot to a tiny ledge where you could sort of get both feet out and then start rappelling. The next drop was another 150-footer with a much easier start but still more or less under Cassidy Arch. Then there were 5 more rappels. One was about a 100-footer where you passed by another arch and dropped into a bit of a cathedral—a big open quarter-sphere of rock. People who have done many canyons said that these drops are as beautiful as they come. It was amazing. The day before we hiked Sulpher Creek, which was a fun little adventure with pretty waterfalls and lots of tromping through a nice creek and a couple of downclimbs.

This past Thursday and Friday I went with Wade and Stirling down to a cabin between Torrey and Boulder outside Capitol Reef. We hired a guide and went fly fishing Thursday. He essentially has a private stream in a beautiful canyon on Boulder Creek. It’s forest service land, but you have to cross private property to get there, and only he has permission. It’s a gorgeous piece of stream, but it was cold, running high and had a lot of “color” (dirt, etc.), so the fish weren’t biting much. The guide taught me a lot, but I didn’t catch a fish and neither did he. This embarrassed him somewhat. The next day we hiked Upper Muley Twist, a five-star hike I’ve been eyeing for a while in my hike book. It was spectacular. We saw a total of about 8 arches. We followed the canyon floor on the way up and it got pretty narrow, and then we climbed to the top of the Waterpocket Fold, about 200 feet up, and the view from the top was non-stop. We could practically see all the way to Lake Powell. Also astonishing.

And the weekend before I took a canyoneering class designed to train scout leaders. I learned a ton about how to rig anchors and rappelling devices and tie knots and rescue people in the middle of a rappel and so forth. It was very cool. I really want to go out and practice a lot! But I’m also still learning and so cautious. . . . I need to go out and do a canyon in a small, competent group so I can practice and they can observe me. I also should really take a climbing class so I can get better at climbing. Lots of places require some downclimbing or upclimbing. So much to learn! So fun!

In between, I’ve enjoyed Nathan’s soccer games and loved playing Dominion, the awesome new card game I got for my birthday and everyone is totally addicted to.

Films on British Royalty and Politics

My question for the week is: Why do we have great films about British royalty and politicians, but no great films about their equivalent, American presidents?

Ellen and I saw the edited version of the King's Speech Friday night. It was a wonderful movie and deserved its awards. It's nice to see a great movie about a simple topic with a morally beautiful and sincere heart involving friendship, dedication, and fundamental human decency. What I mean by this last phrase is that the characters involved are certainly not perfect, but they try very hard to be good to others and to overcome their weaknesses and problems. They become entangled in difficult situations and work to resolve them humanely and with good will.

I have noted this quality in other films about the royal family and, more broadly, politics in Britain. Three in particular worth mentioning are The Queen, Mrs. Brown, and one of my all-time favorites, Amazing Grace. I should also mention Henry V with Kenneth Branagh, my favorite Shakespeare play set to film; I've never seen a live theatre version of it. All of them portray royalty and politicians in complex, sophisticated ways that impart a certain sympathy for their difficult positions. They are not power-hungry, manipulative, or exceedingly vain and ambitious, which is the streotype for politicians or royalty. They are human beings with interesting strengths and weaknesses placed in difficult public situations with no clear way forward.

There are others out there that I've heard of but not seen. This website has a nice list: http://enchantedserenityperiodfilms.blogspot.com/2008/02/movies-of-british-royalty.html. Some are undesirable because they're too much about sex, but many seem quite good. I would like to see a few more.

So, why don't we have equivalent films about Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Lincoln, T. Roosevelt, FDR, Truman, etc.? I suppose I have not seen many films about politics in America. Perhaps I'm afraid they will be so badly done that I don't want to. There was a period when I enjoyed The West Wing TV show, at least the first season or so. But then I saw a couple of episodes where it was just pure nasty politics and hatred, which seemed pretty superficial and shallow. Yes, people engage in political strategy designed to hurt opponents, but that is not all they do and it is not the most important thing they do, and it is far from the most interesting thing they do.

Despite all the negativity and hostility that one observes in the media about American politics, almost anyone who works on Capitol Hill or in the White House will tell you that relationships among people in Washington are not nearly as bad as they seem. Lots of important work gets done, compromises are struck, friendships among rivals exist and even flourish, decorum generally prevails, humor exists and even thrives, and flawed people do the best they can under difficult circumstances, with imperfect results. Why can't we show that? Perhaps there are some movies that do so. I would love to be enlightened.

And, if you haven't seen Amazing Grace, go see it. It's the best film about politics I've ever seen, and the best film about a moral cause I've ever seen. The producer of that film, Michael Flaherty, has also produced a number of other excellent films (Narnia films, Nim's Island, Holes). He set out explicitly to do so: to bring good, moral, high-quality family films to Hollywood. He has, astonishingly, succeeded. He doesn't just make Christian films; he makes good Christian films well, in the heart of an industry and culture that, well, struggles morally. He recently gave the forum address at BYU. It is one of the best speeches I've ever heard. You can check out the MP3 version here: http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1944. It is completely worthy of your time and would make a nice FHE for older kids.

Biking and Snowshoeing

I’ve had some pretty amazing adventures the last couple of Saturdays. Yesterday I got up at 5:30 am and we took advantage of all the snow the last couple of days to do a final, blowout, snowshoeing trip. We went up to the Big Spring area and climbed up a ridge that eventually winds its way into Cascade Mountain. We started at 5800 feet and quit at 8800 feet after about 3 miles. It was a steep climb! Theo of course adored it too.

We saw a white bunny rabbit, very pretty. The dogs somehow did not notice it. It was only 10 feet away before scampering off. I guess the white on white made it hard for them to see. Not sure why they didn’t smell it. Anyway, we quit when we got to a place that looked kind of dicey: very steep and open on both sides. It took us 4 hours to get up and back. The views were spectacular. The snow was sparkly and soft and deep. Striding down through deep snow is a sensation like floating in water. So much fun! Theo's long hair accumulates balls of snow; it's hilarious!

Then last Saturday Charlie and I were in St. George with the Bike Shop boys and girls. We went down Friday morning and rode the racetrack and rode most of the way up Zen. First bike ride of the year. It was fantastic. We probably rode a total of a thousand feet and several miles. The

next day we rode Gooseberry Mesa. It is a serious butt-kicking ride. It doesn’t have a lot of up

and down but is just incredibly technical and difficult. Lots of quick ups and downs and blind turns, and powering around corners and over rocks. Last year I did terribly. I fell several times and got really beat up mentally and physically. This year I did a ton better. Last year some things simply looked unclimbable.

This year, only 2 things seemed

unclimbable. I tried everything else. I did not always get up everything, but I tried! And I got up a whole bunch of stuff that I never would have done last year.

It’s good to take up new sports late in life. Because one gets better at them for a while even though one gets physically less able each year. Kind of fun to produce the illusion of getting younger!

Teaching Social Science

If I'm recalling correctly, wasn’t the History teacher in Harry Potter the very worst? While others at Hogwarts do all kinds of active learning with potions and spells, History is taught by a ghost droning on about long-forgotten events. I guess I wonder if there is something all too common about the Harry Potter portrayal of history/social science teachers.

The social sciences are so badly done at Orem High, it makes me cringe. It’s so easy to make kids interested and make it fun and fascinating! And our kids’ teachers just give hideous worksheets and boring lectures.

I'm thinking about this because I just taught a bunch of scouts social science and it was a rewarding, almost thrilling experience.

While I have been in leadership in Scouting/Young Men for most of my adult life, I think, I’ve never before taught a merit badge class at one of these Merit Badge powwows. I did the last two weeks. It was a pretty neat experience. I had two different groups of boys for a total of 3 hours each over the two weeks, which is a pretty reasonable amount of time. I did Citizenship in the World. During the first week, the Egypt crisis was just really breaking. I downloaded the NY Times photo essay to my computer and projected it on the wall using our department projector. And we looked at the photos and talked about what was going on and why. Then yesterday, we talked about it again with a new photo essay.

I’ve rarely been so pleased with teaching in my life. Between the first and second weeks, a bunch of them had turned into Egypt wonks! I mean, that’s a bit of overstatement. But when I timidly asked if they knew what had changed in Egypt during the last week, a bunch of them knew the basics! I was amazed. I had a mini-debate in one class about how cool the news was (somewhere between sometimes cool and always cool) and one kid downloaded the most recent update on Egypt on his phone from the NY Times and read us the first couple of paragraphs of a breaking news story on whether Mubaruk had resigned or not. Everyone was interested to know.

The images of protestors behind scrap metal barricades throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails are of course utterly compelling to boys. They asked interesting questions (why aren’t there any women among the protestors?), discussed some basics of Islam and were impressed by the piety (pausing to pray to Mecca), talked about what might motivate them to go do something like that (most argued lack of shelter/food/job rather than lack of freedom, when I had them try to make a choice), and commented on whether they would be brave enough to be on the front lines or not. We discussed the repercussions for them and they wondered if gas prices had already gone up as a result. I promised them they would. Of course, not everyone was equally conversant or interested, but a few were and it was fun.

And we talked about possible comparisons with the American Revolution. I showed some clips of the Boston Massacre Boston Tea Party, and Lexington and Concord from the History Channel. They looked a lot like some of the images from the Egypt protests.

I got my favorite comment (“Wow, this class was way better than I thought it would be.”) And have maybe decided to retire early from BYU and go teach high school.

But I'm curious: Did others find social science teaching comparatively weak in high school? I guess it wasn't at my own high school. I had very gifted teachers in that area. But I'm wondering now that I see Orem High.

Why Do Mormons and Fantasy Go Together?

And. . . the long-awaited answer to whether kids are reading Lord of the Rings: Some definitely are. I've heard of several who have in fact read the series in junior high or high school. And probably I overestimated those who read it when I was in school because it was almost certainly just my friends and not lots of other people. And, let's face it, I hung out with dorks.

One interesting thing is that opinion seems widespread that LOTR is more for adults than for youth. Even youth who have read them proclaimed to me how difficult they were. I don't recall anyone ever saying that or thinking that when I was a youth. This could be in part, as many have pointed out, because there are so many youth fantasy books these days and they are all really accessible.

On a related topic, the English faculty who play basketball with me were saying that about half of their MFA candidates these days want to write youth fantasy. It's huge.

So, the question: Why Do Mormons and Fantasy (especially youth fantasy) Go Together?

LDS writers have probably been more successful in the youth fantasy market than in any other market. And they've been very successful indeed, wildly successful, actually. Consider:

Brandon Sanderson: Alcatraz Series and many successful fantasy books for adults.

Stephanie Meyer: Yes this is Fantasy and Science Fiction. It counts. The English guys said so.

Brandon Mull: Fablehaven Series.

Shannon Hale: Bayern Series.

Jeffrey Scott Savage: Farworld Series.

Obert Skye: Leven Thumps Series.

James Dashner: Maze Runner Series.

It's an impressive list of people who are selling well and getting noticed well beyond LDS circles, especially the first four on the list.

I've read some of Sanderson, Meyer, Mull and Hale.

I think Sanderson is the real deal and could hit super-stardom. He has already hit pretty high levels and gets lots of love. He was asked to finish one of the premiere fantasy series of all times, Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, which is a very high honor. I've really enjoyed his adult fantasy. His youth series, Alcatraz, is kind of fun and quite different.

Mull's Fablehaven Series is one of the few I've actually finished, in part because Nathan adored it, and in part because it got BETTER with each book. I've never seen that before. It was really excellent by the second book and pretty amazing from the third book until the end. (While I love fantasy, I especially love the part where people create new worlds, leading me to frequently drop a series before I've finished it in favor of the next enticing new world just around the bend.)

Hale is very gifted and enchanting, with memorable characters whose conflicts are more internal than external. But I thought Goose Girl better than the next one in the series, Enna Burning, and am not sure I will finish the trilogy. The books undoubtedly appeal more to girls than to boys, but it's fun to have a strong fantasy female lead for a change.

Meyer has a fine imagination and creates interesting worlds and characters. I made it through Twilight but felt very mixed about it and refused to read more. But I did enjoy her science fiction book, The Host. It's a very cool idea that she executes well, if too long-windedly. I suppose huge fame has the downside of editors not telling you when you need to cut 100 pages.

OK: So why do LDS writers and youth fantasy go together?

1-Orson Scott Card pioneered the way in scifi/fantasy and has been a big mentor, I'm guessing. He remains extremely active in the writing world and is very visible. His Ender's Game, by the way, is a must-read classic.

2-It's clean: no need for sex.

3-Its moral orientation fits with LDS culture (and Christian culture) in multiple ways:

a) There are larger forces of good and evil out there with powerful qualities that humans can draw on

b) Themes of the chosen one (and not just a messiah, but other kinds of chosen ones) are frequent

c) Life is a battle between good and evil, and the two are frequently clearly distinguishable

d) Evil forces have menacing power that threaten to overwhelm the smaller bands of faithful

e) Virtues such as love, patience, hope, sacrifice, wisdom, and loyalty are essential to winning the day and gaining the prize

f) Life is a perilous journey requiring constant vigilance and effort

g) Many have special gifts they share with others along the way to ease their path

I suppose there are others. Fantasy themes just seem a very good fit with Christian values and worldviews, to me, as CS Lewis obviously pointed out.

What other genres or sub-genres might we expect to take off with LDS authors?

Yurting the Uintas

Cozy, cozy, inside our Uinta Yurt!

Nathan and I went Yurting in the Uintas! Look closely at the photo at the top. Nathan and I are both in the photo. This is the terrain behind our yurt. We climbed it to get to the top of the ridge you'll see below.

It was a Glorious Day. Lots of sunshine. Temps probably in the 20s. No wind.

The ridgeline above our yurt, looking down on East Fork of the Bear River and Valley.

Lily Lake right by our Yurt. Most photos of Theo involve him being in the air or in motion somehow. It was doggie nirvana.

Tolkein's Irrelevance?

So, here is the question: Why are kids not reading Lord of the Rings any more? Why are the LOTR movies and other excellent fantasy books not leading leading people to read LOTR? Has all of Tolkein's success in terms of inspiring imitators actually making people forget about his master works?

When I was in 5th grade, my teacher read The Hobbit to our class. Our first assignment was to use the description we heard to draw a Hobbit. I hated drawing and so wasn't sure I liked this whole fantasy thing, but survived the assignment to fall in love with the book and with Fantasy generally.

I subsequently read The Lord of the Rings about 5 times in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades or so. Maybe more. I've forgotten. And since then I've read it a couple times, most recently about five years ago perhaps. I remember in particular being comforted by it during a particularly long commencement/convocation ceremony at BYU. I received a paperback box set of the Hobbit and LOTR at some point around 6th grade. I still own it, the books so wide from wear that only three fit in a box originally intended for four.

I didn't just fall in love with LOTR; I fell in love with Fantasy generally. I've read more Fantasy than any other genre, easily, and I associate it with happiness, comfort, love, and all good things. And Tolkein didn't just invent a world, he invented a whole genre, which is amazing.

So I naturally assumed all my children would follow this passion. I read the Hobbit to each of them the summer after their fourth-grade year. I've now started early with Leah since it seems a nice winter activity. They've all enjoyed the Hobbit quite a bit. But no one has yet fallen in love with LOTR. Not one has even managed to read even Fellowship of the Ring. Well, Adrienne tells me she read the first two books but couldn't make it through the third. Nathan tells me he made it 150 pages but it was too boring. The fellowship had only made it two miles, in his view.

I'm trying to figure out why. It's not that they despise Fantasy at all. They've all gone on to read and love other fantasy books. Sammie with the Harry Potter series most closely resembles my passion for Tolkein. She has been fairly obsessed at times with Harry and has read every book in the series multiple times. Adrienne has read a bunch of different Fantasy books I've foisted on her and enjoyed them quite a bit, but doesn't really read Fantasy any more now that I have no influence on her reading habits, and I don't think ever read any Fantasy more than once. I just asked Nathan his favorite Fantasy series and he wondered if I was asking which fantasy sport was his favorite. Oh dear. But now that we're communicating, he says his favorite is Percy Jackson, and he has read each book multiple times.

And they really like the LOTR movies. Nathan puts the movies in his top 10 all-time movies. Sammie might as well. Probably not Adrienne. Leah is too young. I won't even ask Ellen about Fantasy; she will just talk about being on a desert island with no children, husband or anything but non-Fantasy books, a laptop with which to write, and maybe some PTA people to email. That's her version of Fantasy.

I actually think Harry Potter and Percy Jackson are reasonable contenders for the title of best Fantasy series of all time. They are both probably in my top five. But LOTR is still far ahead. Why? And why don't others see this? And does this a symptom of a deeper problem in education and society? Everyone was so pleased a few years ago that kids were reading Harry Potter. But if we've substituted Potter for Hobbits, is that progress?

Condi

I got my picture taken with Condoleezza Rice today. It was pretty cool. I succeeded in impressing Sammie, which is quite an accomplishment. She thinks it needs to be my profile picture, on Facebook I guess. I'll post it here when I get it from the university. Presuming someone at the university can figure out who that low-level person is who had the temerity to go greet her and get his photo taken with her!

I had all of 30 seconds with her. She shook my hand kind of mechanically and smiled for the photo. I told her I was with the political science department and she looked at me with renewed interest and remarked that she understood it was an excellent department. She seemed to mean it sincerely, like she had had an actual conversation about this and remembered it. That's possible; she is in political science at Stanford and the Graduate School of Business, and we place undergraduates in graduate programs in both departments and then they go out and find jobs, and so the world turns. Maybe she also even reads actual political science articles too and knows someone's article.

Anyway, she gave the University Forum today and was quite charming. She completely won over nearly everyone, I believe. She gave a very inspirational commencement-style address but really managed to make it relevant to current students, in large part by telling stories of her own undergraduate experience. She wound up giving a pretty passionate defense of a liberal education. Because she loved political science, it turned out to be a pretty good advertisement for our major and for international studies programs.

Among her interesting ideas either in the speech or afterward in Q&A:

1. Biggest security threat to the US is deplorable state of K-12 education. (Ellen now adores Condi, as much for this as for anything).

2. Second biggest threat is the northern part of Mexico, which is increasingly looking like a failed state.

3. China is not likely to become the world's economic leader because the modern global economy is so much based on knoweldge and information, and China is too scared of open information flows.

4. Mistakes she made: Not paying enough attention to failed states before 9/11; not investing enough to rebuild Afghanistan and conquer Taliban post-9/11.

5.Favorite secretaries of State were Seward, Jefferson, Marshall and Acheson. The latter two were Truman's two Secretaries. Interestingly, they built global institutions, something the Bush administration in which Condi served was pretty averse to.

6. Work hard to find your passion and pursue it in terms of a major, but don't make it easy on yourself. If you're good at math, take writing classes and vice versa.

7. Educations must be well-rounded and include a good dose of the arts, including at K-12 level.

8. Schools must get better by having higher standards and by getting rid of teachers who aren't interested in improvement.

9. This was funny: She loves reading the newspaper and thinking, "Hmmm, that's interesting." That must be wonderful indeed, but perhaps also deflating if she thinks she can do better.

10. There will one day soon be a woman president. The interesting question is whether there will be a woman commander in chief of the armed forces.

11. If Hilary serves out her term, it will be 16 years since the last white male secretary of state.

12. Political dialogue has always been rough and tumble in this country, but the pace has accelerated, which is a huge problem. LBJ would not get something momentous like civil rights legislation through Congress nowdays because he would not be granted the time to do the coalition building that was necessary. Our institutions were designed to move slow and deliberately; the speed of modern negative political discourse helps prevent them from operating well.

Theo and the Mouse, and Other Tales

Sammie had a super-fun date/dance last night: a masquerade. Adrienne created these amazing masks for her and her date. Check them out! Adrie is off and running on another semester and applying for the special ed program. She is super-excited to do that and is doing so great.

I went snowshoeing with the bike shop gang Thursday evening up American Fork Canyon to a place called Pine Hollow. It's really incredibly beautiful. We had quite a bit of snow. We went up to two meadows and an overlook where you could see some peaks, some valleys, and Heber in the distance. The stars were great because there was a new moon.

Along the way, Theo found a mouse somehow. He chased it down, batted it between his paws, and picked it up in his mouth. Then he spit it out again and let it run, chased it down, and got it again. What fun! The mouse had been on the packed down trail, but Theo took it into the deeper snow. I suppose this wasn't as fun because it was harder probably for both the mouse and Theo to move. I'm not sure what happened. I lost track, but there's probably a dead mouse up there.

One of my favorite Christmas gifts is a book called Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day. It makes really amazing, crusty-on-the-outside, dense and moist on the inside, artisan breads of the kind you might find in good bakeries in, really and truly, about 5 minutes a day plus 15 minutes of prep time every 5 days. It's our new favorite thing. The only downside is that it uses just basic flour so you don't get all the different kinds of flours, but maybe there are recipes later that use other flours. Try it!

I have here in front of me a seed catalog. The first sign of spring. It is time to order seeds! I just pulled the last of the frozen green beans from the freezer. I still have beets and carrots in the garden ready to harvest. Leaving them in the ground to harvest in January and February is a wonderful way to have fresh veggies in winter! I tried Burpee seeds once, and they were terrible. So now I'm trying Johnny's. I ordered spinach from them in the fall so I could get it in and it would over-winter and come up in February. I got them in pretty late, and then Theo discovered how to get over the fence and tear up the garden, so I'm not sure they survived. Plus we've had a layer of snow now for a week that is not going anywhere. So, we'll see if we have spinach in February. Maybe not. But I'm cheering for the spinach. And at least the seeds came on time and sprouted well.

This new year has started so well! I'm very grateful not to be teaching. I've been able to focus on administrative and management issues in the department. I'm going to lead an effort this semester to re-think our curriculum. The face of our department has changed dramatically in the last 15 years and it's a good time to re-think what we are doing. I sense we have the capacity to do more and better.

Leah had her first swim meet yesterday. It was very cute and fun seeing her excited to do well. She dropped 6 seconds within the same meet on the 50 free! Nathan has a good basketball team, but they got beat yesterday by a tremendous team. I took him to the gym last night with sweet new basketball shoes to work on some skills. He met a guy his age doing the same thing and they had a lot of fun.

Tracking in the Snow

We have found a really fun, family-friendly place near our home to snowshoe. It is below the mouth of Dry Canyon in the Wildlife Management Area. The terrain is rolling and not too steep, but there are fun slopes and gullies if you want a bit more adventure.


There is also a deer colony, complete with a deer highway in the snow. In the picture above you can see it looks like a place where deer have slept. The snow is packed down and icy as if it has been melted by body heat and the shapes are about deer-sized.

In this photo, you can see how deer have pawed the ground extensively looking for grasses.

Here is some deer scat and interesting tracks. You can see in the upper left marks that look like skis. Sometimes we saw tracks where these were very pronounced. It looked exactly like skis, except no pole marks off to the side and the ski marks were punctuated by holes in the middle of the "ski" tracks where a hoof or something had been planted. I suppose, after some thought, the sk marks are made by hoofs being dragged along the top of the snow? It's amazing how perfectly straight they are, however, for fairly long distances. Also, you can see deer skat. We saw, but did not photograph some larger scat. It was located in a place where the snow had been dug away much more to get down to the grass for a bed. We wondered if it were elk or moose that made the larger scat and deeper beds. I researched scat on the internet and discovered interesting things, such as replica moose scat available for purchase. I also discovered that it is difficult to tell the difference between elk and moose scat. They are about the same size and (there is some dispute about this) color, but one is more rounded on the end and the other more indented. We'll take a picture next time. Tracking is fun!

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.