Oklahoma City, 9/11, & the Blitz

Still watching the London Olympics and thinking of other things . . . .

St. Paul's Cathedral, August 13, 2010

When we came out of the new Globe Theatre and walked across the "Harry Potter" Millennium Bridge to catch the Tube, there were clouds all around St. Paul's and the glow of the city in the sky reminded me of the pictures I had seen of the London Blitz. It was a little historically spooky.

The Good & Bad of Politics

Dick Cheney good, Joe Biden bad.

Guns bad, gun laws good.

Stimulus bad, debt good.

Obama good, Romney bad.

See any problem with this?

Cwm Rhondda - Bread of Heaven

We've now watched pieces of the Olympics Opening Ceremonies a few times on our DVR with a those of our children who missed it or don't have TV access.  My wife asked me if I could find what that music was with the whistling. So there I was applying my expert googling skills trying to find it and seeing a lot of reviews of that Opening Ceremony. The best was that some Americans were confused about why Kenneth Branagh was dressed as Abraham Lincoln. My kids thought he looked like Brigham Young. And you have to admit all those guys kind of looked like Mormon missionaries of the 1830s.

Anyway, I avoided the forehead-slap when I realized, at the exact moment my boy said, "They just announced that song. It's 'Caliban's Dream.,'" that it would likely be advertised on the iTunes store. Sure enough, there it was front and center. I bought it for $1.29 along with the children's choirs singing their English, Irish (Northern), Scottish, and Welsh anthems. I've already blogged on the moving Jerusalem themes in English culture. Now, it's time again for the Welsh.

Obedience Talk: A Seatbelt Story

In an effort to redeem myself a bit from my last posting which some consider to be a little irreverent, I am pleased to share a guest post from a good friend of mine just returned from an LDS mission in Italy. My friend, we'll call him Friend-B, gave one of the best homecoming talks I've heard. Without further ado, I present Friend-B's talk on Obedience:

Several years ago, as a young deacon, I would often get a ride to church from RL for Deacon’s Quorum Presidency meeting. I was always the last stop on the very short trip to church and, as RL will certainly recall, I would almost always find at least one person who hadn’t put on their seatbelt. And I would call them to repentance. It quickly became our weekly joke. And that is all it was—a joke. At that point in my life, wearing a seatbelt was just an uncomfortable rule imposed on me by my parents, backed up with words—meaningless to me—about safety. I would guess all of us, at times, have felt like it was a nuisance to dig up the lost seatbelt in the back seat, fumble around to put it on, and then be rooted in place for a seemingly risk-free drive. As a missionary I learned why my parents taught me such an obnoxious rule. *Mom, you might want to buckle your emotional seatbelt—you’ve never heard this story before.*

Just over a year ago, it was my first Sunday in Battipaglia and my first time with a mission car. A member in Policastro—about 2 ½ hours south of Battipaglia—had called us and requested a blessing. So we jumped in the car after church and set off. Thick clouds threatened rain, but all we got was thick humidity as we set off down the narrow and winding roads of Italy. I knew nothing of Italian traffic laws, so I left the driving to my companion and enjoyed the beautiful landscapes. Then, after over 2 hours, nearly at our destination, my companion took a curve just a little too fast. In an instant that seemed to last hours the car sped head-on into a concrete wall and was thrown violently into the air. It landed on its side—my window—sending tiny shards of shattered glass past my eyes as the car slid a good thirty feet down the road while spinning on its side. The car stopped. And then, hanging by my seatbelt just inches off the ground, completely unharmed, I knew why wearing a seatbelt was important. Suddenly a joke and annoying rule became a literal life-saver. To my parents and those of you who are devout seatbelt wearers, I say thank you for setting the good example. To the rest of you (and especially you, RL), wear your seatbelts.

My Least Favorite Hymn

My family has my specific request not to play a certain hymn at my funeral. They probably will just to annoy me, but maybe I can find a spare lightning bolt or something to hit the organ mid-stanza. My preference is for something more like Siegfried's Todesmarsch from Götterdammerung. I almost have enough musical kids to fill the orchestra.

The hymn I don't like has become quite popular in Mormon circles. The Tabernacle Choir has their version. And when it comes up as it does fairly regularly at church, I just sit silently and wait it out. It's a very long wait. That is one of my principal complaints about the song. It seems to be musically dishonest, if there even is such a thing. It is definitely too long. And it usually drags. At least the Mo-Tab version keeps up the pace a bit.

Glastonbury Tor

As the British people placed the Tor front and center in their opening ceremonies for the Olympics last night, I thought I would share our experience. I am certainly glad that my wife and I made it there on our trip to Britain two years ago. It's always good to find places the local people go for holiday, and Glastonbury is one of those. Climbing up the Tor was right in line with the British custom of walking the hills of that "green and pleasant land." I'll start with this excerpt from my "Journal of the Trip" picking up on the top of Cadbury Hillfort which some consider to be the original Camelot.

Glastonbury Tor from Cadbury Hillfort, Somerset

Delayed Live-Blogging London Olympics Opening Ceremony

So one of my fans (my oldest boy) just texted me that I should be live-blogging the show. Of course it's on delay for NBC to clean up on its exclusive rights, but it is probably a better use of my blogging than picking on poor Mitt and his international sports diplomacy gaffes.