cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Claude and Katherine Warner, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Diane Cluff, Maxine Shirts via mail.
"This morning was Stake Priesthood Meeting, and then we had Ward Conference. Stake Priesthood Meeting happens once a quarter, and is an opportunity for the Stake Presidency to give guidance to the priesthood holders. Ward Conference occurs annually, and is an opportunity for the Stake Leaders to attend Ward Meetings and see how the Ward is doing, give instruction, and identify areas where they can help their Ward counterparts. I don't seem to be all here this week, and I think it was in the early morning meeting that President Jones quoted from D&C 88 and got me thinking about what is expedient:
I ask for much that is not expedient. It strikes me how these prayers have turned to my condemnation. I regularly pray for those I love, and as a specific example that hurts deeply, when I go down to talk to adminstrators at Briarwood, at their request, I find out the annual school play will probably be canceled because Rob left Briarwood. Also, he had committed to do a service project as part of his graduation requirements, and he just didn't bother to show up. The impression is he is punishing Briarwood because they are somehow responsible for his not passing the drug test. Yet, at the same time, it is obvious to me that I have seen how the requests from my most private moments have been answered in a most public way, and completely outside of anything I was thinking was a reasonable request. Again, a specific example is I asked for someone to hold my hand, to let me open the door for her, and to be my helpmeet and companion, and Andrea dropped out of heaven and into my life.
It is hard, from the limited future perspective viewable from our knees, to know what is expedient. So how do we know what to ask for? Hopefully we get better as we get older, becoming better and more perfectly instructed in theory, in principle, in doctrine, and in that which is expedient to bring us joy and happiness. Family has not always brought me joy and happiness, and so I have buried myself in professional and church work, and have seen some of my efforts turn to my condemnation. After a week like this last week, it is easy to sit back and wonder if I am any closer to having my priorities right than when I wrote the words to this song:
I spent most of the week putting together material to encourage Joe Watson (0108.html) to invest in Dynamic Resources (see http://www.walden3d.com/dynamic/AMI013). I went to the GSH luncheon talk on Exxon's recent work in Sequence Stratigraphy and to a talk on large scale visualization of extremely large scientific simulations at Los Alamos, which was given at Rice University, on Tuesday. There were conversations with Swede Nelson and Ed Story about possible investment (www.walden3d.com/dynamic/news/200102.html), a High Adventure Planning Meeting for the Venturing Scouts, and the 2nd Dynamic Technology Meeting with talks by Dave Agarwal, Roger Anderson, Neal Brossard, Dick Coons, Sam LeRoy, Swede Nelson, Christian Singfield, Riley Skeen, and myself. Other attendees were Les Denham, Bob Horner, Heloise Lynn, Andrea, and Rocky Roden. I didn't have the words to describe the week and the meeting as Riley drove me back out to Katy from downtown on Friday night after the meeting. Maybe this is why I picked up on the word expedient as it was read from the scriptures this morning.
Riley and I spent Friday evening talking through what needs to happen to make Dynamic into a viable business. I called Harold Burnham and told him I needed some help, and he came over and helped us brainstorm. We came up with a list of needs, which can hopefully drive funding and implementation of the ideas we have been talking about at Dynamic:
We even came up with a plan for Dynamic, which appears expedient:
Saturday morning started with Choir Practice (we were practicing to sing at Ward Conference). Then I caught up the news. Matt and I finally found Emily Moore and brought her home from ballet dance lesson for her parents. Colleen (and Andrea) were at the Stake Relief Society annual meeting). Matt cut the tops off of the Crepe Myrtle trees by the basketball hoop, and I cut the ones in front of the house. I spent the rest of the evening preparing my talk for the Corpus Christi SIPES meeting this next Tuesday (0110.html) while Andrea and I watched a couple of movies. Maybe I am tired from the work outside, and maybe it is just one of those days to feel lethargic. After church Matt and I finished up our Home Teaching, there were 4 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies delivered, and I found it hard to get motivated to write the Thoughtlet this week. I havn't taken time to read the e-mail's Andrea sent Roice and Ben, I havn't responded to e-mails from several of you, I'm tired, and I hope you will each do better than I have about identifying what is and what is not expedient. Have a great week!"