Category: General

Well, this is one of the MANY reasons...

Yesterday, my son sponsored a blood drive for the American Red Cross.  My cousin, Glen, was one of the non-donors because he served a mission in Great Britain, and there's a little problem over there--a brain-wasting disease known as Mad Cow Disease.

Glen's sister, Rachel, DID come and donate, and I asked her to give Glen a hard time--call him an angry bovine or something to that effect.  What follows is the text message "conversation" that ensued:

Glen:  Mmmoooo......

Me:  Hmm... Not convincing.  Moo at me again, but this time, with more sagacious afflundency.  Aaaaaand... ACTION!!

Glen:  MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOO................. Wait...

Glen:  What's my motivation?

Me:  You're mad because they selected the lamb and the pig to go into Donner Kebab instead of the cow.  Thus the whole 'Mad Cow' thing.

Aaaaaaaand... Action!!

Glen:  One second while I get into character.

Glen:  The nostrils flare, steam emitting from them, the nose ring glistens from the setting sun, the eyes barely open held closed by fits of rage......

Glen:  With a guttral sound that would scare a Harley Davidson rider ...  m...m..m.mmmMMrMmmMMMROOOROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAHHHHHHH

Me: I'm SO going to blog this.

See?  My family is hilarious.

* Glen would like to thank the British Farmer for the disease, the British Government for allowing the conditions for the disease, the Red Cross for rejecting him, and James for having an Eagle Project.

I'm telling you right now... if you're a proponent of some sort of alternative medicine, stop reading now, because if you don't, you're probably going to hate me.

Disclaimer:  I'm sure that there are alternate medicines and therapies that, when used wisely and in conjunction with traditional medicine, actually work.  That's not what I'm talking about here.  I'm talking about quackery that is used in place of traditional medicine or that can actually cause damage or harm.  Don't know the difference?  Try Quack Watch.

And away we go...

Last evening, I was at an activity where a group of people were discussing First Aid for various situations.  The person leading the discussion would ask the group, "What would you do for _________," filling in the blank with something like "a first degree burn" or "a bad cut."  One of the people present would counter nearly every single answer given by someone else with an alternative therapy of some sort.

Apparently, burns can be treated with lavender oil, though oils have to be rubbed in.  THAT'S gonna feel good on a burn.  Peppermint oil can cure heat exhaustion.  Ok, sure... if administered with enough water and the person is brought out of the heat, why not.  (Though I doubt that it's the peppermint oil that is the cure.)  But the thing that drove me crazy was when they were talking about first aid for a cut.  This person said to sprinkle cayenne on the cut.

WHAT???  Cayenne?  Yes.  You see, cayenne is a "blood balancer" which can treat both high blood pressure and low blood pressure, and can even break up clots that cause heart attacks or strokes when given in "tea form."

Um.... NO.

First aid for a heart attack or a stroke is to CALL FREAKING 9-1-1 and get the person to an emergency room as soon as possible, not to make a cayenne pepper tea.  First aid for a gaping wound is to apply direct pressure and to get further medical assistance, not to sprinkle on something that contains CAPSICUM, which is going to be a painful irritant that will have to be painfully flushed from the gaping wound if it's applied there.

I'm sick of hearing about the healing properties of magnets or essential oils or copper bracelets or foot massage.  It's a load of hooey.  I'm going to take my health problems to people that have therapies that are proven to work, not therapies that have anecdotal "evidence" from your mom's cousin's friend's third grade teacher who tried it out and was cured.  Give me a reason, other than some nice story, to believe.  Nobody has provided that to me yet.

And don't tell me that modern medicine is using their money to cover up the truth.  Don't tell me that your therapy is being suppressed by orthodox medicine because it's controversial.  Don't show me your "credential" that is not recognized by responsible accreditation agencies.  Don't back up your claims with testimonials.  Don't tell me that science has gotten it wrong and just like science once thought the world was flat and then came around, that your therapy will someday gain full acceptance when people realize its effectiveness.  Because if you talk to me about stuff like this, I may just call you on the issue and it's not going to be pretty.

Go ahead and wear your bracelet or use your colloidal suspension or get your feet massaged or test your muscles or dump pepper on your gaping wound.  Go ahead and take herbal remedies for your cancer or drink tea for your heart attack or stroke.  You can even bury a potato in the back yard and dance around it half naked shaking a rubber chicken under a full moon if you think that it will help.  But don't evangelize your method to me.  Frankly, I'm sick of it, and your essential oils won't help for THAT sickness either.

I could go into the science of a lot of things here, but that's not the point.

The point is, I'm not buying your snake oil.  I'm not wearing your magnet, sleeping under your blanket, taking your herbs, and I'm NOT, I repeat, NOT letting you touch my feet.  Because... Well... Ewwwwwww.

Please, let it be when I'm around, and you won't be offended when I rail against your particular brand of alternative therapy.  Find other topics to talk about, and don't bend every single topic of conversation back to how you were helped out by this week's brand of quackery.  That got old a long time ago.  Really REALLY old.

*flame off

As of this morning, I'm an employee of Ancestry.com.

"Wait, WHAT??" I can hear you say?  "I thought you LOVED working for the LDS Church!"

Yes.  That's true.  I did love working for the LDS Church.  And now, I'm sure you're wondering what caused me to leave a job that I loved.

I was a "contingent" employee for the LDS Church.  I was actually working for Employer Solutions Group (ESG) as a contractor.  My contract was for one year.  The year's contract ended back in April.  I was working with my manager trying to get my contract renewed, and it was taking a while.  So a good friend mentioned that they were hiring where he worked.  Just in case something didn't work out right, I gave him my resume.

My contract ended up being renewed--about an hour or so before I went home on the last day of my contract.  It didn't really make me feel very secure.  So I went through with the interview with Ancestry.  That turned into a very good offer of employment.  It was just too good to refuse.

I'm excited about this new opportunity.  It's a little better pay, but more importantly, it's MUCH closer to home and it's full-time employment.

I'm still eating well.  I'm not counting calories any more, and for the last four weeks, I haven't lost a pound.

Yet I'm not worried.  My clothes are fitting more loosely than they did 4 weeks ago.  I have to tighten my belt one more notch to keep my pants up.  That's good.

I think it's probably due to the cycling I've been doing.  Today, I rode my bike from home to the Riverwoods area in Provo and back.

[iframe http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/85572256 548 500]

That's almost 21 miles with an average moving speed of a little more than 17 miles per hour!

So I believe that the plateau I've hit is not due to "falling off the wagon" but due to building muscle mass in my legs.

I've really missed riding over the past couple of years and I'm so happy that I'm enjoying it again.  I'm riding stronger than I ever have in the month of May and I'm improving with each ride.

So far this year, I've spent 9 1/2 hours on my bike, riding a total of 140.64 miles.  I've climbed more than a mile vertically.  Yesterday was the longest ride of the year so far at 22.35 miles.

[iframe http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/85373390 548 500]

I was riding with a friend who is in a bit better shape than I am.  It was good to ride with someone who pushed me.

I think that the important thing here is that physically, I'm feeling really good for the first time in a couple of years, and that's a great thing.

I'm still here--really I am.

I have started about 5 blog entries in the last couple of weeks, only to just delete them.

I just don't really have anything interesting to blog about right now.

So move along citizens.  There's nothing to see here...

...at least for now.

Read this article: http://www.danoah.com/2010/10/memoirs-of-bullied-kid.html

Take the time to read the whole thing.  It's worth reading.

I was bullied mercilessly starting in sixth grade.  My first day of sixth grade in a new school, one of the sixth grade teachers made fun of my name.  Loudly.  In front of both sixth grade classes.

My bullying didn't end until High School when, like the author, I learned to love myself again.  Mercifully, most of the worst bullies ended up going to a different High School than I attended.  I was able to (mostly) make a fresh start in High School and I was blessed to find a lot of good friends.

I wasn't only bullied at school, but also at church by a completely different group of bullies.  For a while, it was hard for me to want to continue living among a race that was so hateful and hurtful.  There were several times during Junior High that if I would have had easier access to the means, I would have ended my association with the human race and I would have been happier for it.  I'm grateful that I never was pushed to the point where easy access was no longer a hindrance to me.

Although I was dangerously close to that point more often than I like to admit, even to myself.

Imagine that you've been dealing with minor-to-moderate joint pain for quite some time.  Imagine that you have been having pain in your chest as well from time to time, especially at night or when breathing deeply.  Imagine that you have had some other troubling symptoms that don't seem to be getting better.

After trying for some time, you finally get in to see a Rheumatologist, thinking that you might have some sort of autoimmune disorder like Rheumatoid arthritis or Lupus.  The Rheumatologist gives you a medication to try.

And then everything goes downhill fast.

During the night, you have trouble urinating.  The next day, a doctor prescribes antibiotics for an infection.  Later that same day, you're admitted to the hospital with a high fever.  By the next morning, you lose all sensation and mobility below your belly button, and the paralysis seems to be rising steadily higher.

And nobody knows why.

This happened to my brother-in-law last week.  Subsequent tests revealed that he has Transverse Myelitis, likely brought on by Systemic Lupus Erythematosis (SLE).

It's amazing how quickly life can change.

My brother-in-law spent a couple of days in the ICU, followed by a couple more days in an intermediate care ward, and now has been moved to a therapy ward.

At this point, there are still more questions than answers.  They are hoping and praying for the best (a significant recovery) and preparing for the worst.  The numbers are on his side.  He is young and active, so that's good as well.

However, as with all things dealing with the nervous system, only time will tell.

I love this web page that helps explain the role of Forgiveness in Heavenly Father's plan and how the Atonement of Jesus Christ can help in the process of forgiveness.

On Saturday, I spent more than a half hour on the phone with a couple that used to be close to me.  I spent a great part of that time listening to the reasons and ways that I had hurt them over the previous years.  It was an eye opening experience for me.

A couple of years ago, this couple was in my home.  There was a heated discussion, and angry words were exchanged.  I felt disrespected, and I'm sure that this couple felt the same degree of disrespect.  Within the next couple of days, I called them and attempted to explain the depth of my feelings in the matter, hoping that this would help us all to resolve the matter and move forward.

Thinking that the matter had been resolved, I did exactly that--I moved on.  I didn't harbor any bad feelings towards this couple.  I had forgiven them for their part of what had happened and hoped that they had forgiven me.  When we subsequently saw this couple in various social situations, things seemed to be okay between us.  I had pretty much forgotten the incident.

Until Saturday.

On Saturday, as I listened to this couple express the hurt and heartache and anger that I had caused them--often expressed through tears, my own heart ached.  It's never easy to hear the things that you had done wrong, and I had made mistakes in my interactions with them.  That was painful to hear.  However, my heart ached more for this couple--for the anger and resentment that they had been harboring towards me.  I was completely unaware that these feelings had continued.

They told me on Saturday that they wanted to bring these things to my attention because they were tired of being "fake" with me.  They couldn't go on acting like everything was fine between us when it wasn't.

None of the situations that they brought up were new to me.  I remembered the situations.  I remembered what had occurred.  What surprised me completely was that they remembered so clearly the hurt that I had caused.  Through their tears, I learned that they were clearly still hurting despite the years that had passed since some the offending events had occurred.  They hadn't been able to move past these feelings.

I offered my sincere apologies for my part in the hurt that I caused--something that I should have done before and certainly would have if I had known of the feelings that had persisted.  I assured them that I love both of them and was sorry for the pain that I caused through my actions.  Yet there remains a rift between us--a chasm that I can do nothing more to bridge.

I can't do anything else to change how this couple feels towards me.  I have no power over anger and resentment that remains in someone else's heart.  I can only pray that they can find forgiveness in their hearts, because until that happens, the anger and resentment will remain in place and they won't be able to move past these feelings that they are having.

I know this because I have harbored such feelings, completely outside the knowledge of those that offended me.  I have confronted the so-called offenders in the same way that I was confronted on Saturday, and I'm sure that the "offenders" were as surprised as I was on Saturday.  It wasn't until I found forgiveness in my own heart that the anger and hurt was resolved and I was able to find peace in the matter.

I pray that this happens for this couple that I have offended.  I pray that it happens before more even more years pass.

Disclaimer – The views expressed here are the opinions of DeShawn Smith and do not necessarily reflect the views of Employer Solutions Group or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I'm back on my bike again!  It's ABOUT time.  Last night after dinner, I finished cleaning up my road bike and took it out for a spin.  I recently got a new cycling computer, heart rate monitor, and speed/cadence sensor, and I was really excited to give it a try.  I now have a staggering amount of information about last evening's ride.

[iframe http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/76077201 548 500]

Not bad for not having been on a bike for a really REALLY long time.

Bonus: This morning I was down 2 1/2 more pounds, though I'm not counting it as real weight loss yet because I'm pretty sure I'm pretty dehydrated.

Orson Scott Card wrote an article several weeks ago that describes what we went through yesterday.  Go ahead.  Click the link.  Read it.  I'll be here when you come back.

Last week, my Stake Presidency announced that there would be a meeting held the following Sunday (thus, yesterday) in which the stake boundaries would be re-drawn.  Of course, the rumor mill started churning away.  No rumors or speculations came close to what actually happened last night.

Some of the wards in my stake were too large and others too small.  Some had too many children and others too few.  With a completely lay ministry, this becomes an issue, purely from a "staffing" standpoint.  So under the direction of LDS general authorities, and with their approval, last night, my church life was picked up, shaken around a bit, and put back down for me to figure out what to do next.

My stake consists of eight wards now instead of seven, and I'm in the newly-created eighth ward.  I have a new bishop, who chose to continue serving with the same counselors that the previous bishop had.  A fourth (approximately) of my previous ward stayed in the fifth ward with my previous bishop.

This is normal in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Completely normal.  That doesn't mean that it's easy for those that go through the experience.

I'm looking at everything from the perspective of my calling in what is now my previous ward.  I love working with the young men in the ward.  I am second counselor in the Young Mens Presidency and Scoutmaster.  But on 10 April, I will be released from that calling.  And that puts me smack dab in the middle of the unknown.

My new bishop will certainly meet with me before 10 April and will extend a new calling to me in this new ward.  Hopefully, it will be second counselor in the Young Mens Presidency and Scoutmaster.  That is likely to be the case.  Yet there are still a lot of uncertainties.

The troop over which I was Scoutmaster, Troop 770, stays with its chartered organization.  The new eighth ward will get its own troop and unit number.  I'll have to pick the numbers off of my sleeve (yet again) and sew new numbers on.  The troop flag?  Not my troop's flag any more. What about summer camp?  I registered the existing troop for summer camp.  What will the new troop do?  That's still up in the air.  What happens to the troop equipment trailer?  If it doesn't end up with me, then I'm REALLY starting over--even more than I had imagined.

My own sons were looking forward to a youth conference--a trip to serve people in the Navajo Nation followed by a couple of days of boating at Lake Powell.  That's not going to happen now.  It was spearheaded by the bishop of what is now the "other" ward.

*heavy sigh*

Yet I know that before too long, all of these questions will be answered.  I'll pick up the pieces that are left--whatever they may be, dust them off, and move forward.  Best of all, I'm not really starting from scratch, because the experiences I had in my previous ward come with me.  I'll be able to use that as a launching point to reach new heights.

If the Lord wants me to serve somewhere else, I'll help the new Scoutmaster in any way I can and I'll jump into my new calling with both feet.

I think that may be why Brother Card called this reorganization a "terrible, wonderful thing" that we do to ourselves in the LDS Church.

Disclaimer – The views expressed here are the opinions of DeShawn Smith and do not necessarily reflect the views of Employer Solutions Group or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.