"Once each year the the Primary does the ward sacrament meeting. This week's Thoughtlet is about Primary Program 2006 edition. On Sunday, October 15th, I did not have a Primary lesson to teach because of the first full practice for Primary Program 2006, as was written about in the previous Thoughtlet (0642.html).
Work with any criticality at the office has become very sporadic. The financial goals create a need to go out and sell TILESTM and other products. I have no been able to motivate myself to do this. There are several reasons. I don't think I have ever been a salesman, although most of those I work with consider me a salesman. I think I am much more of a missionary, proselyting those things which I think are important and can make a significant difference. As good as the products are we developed, I do not see them making a big difference, and it is hard to proselyte something that is an also ran. In addition, I think I am not comfortable being around my professional colleagues, probably because of the failures in my personal life. I was so convinced that if I loved Marti, took my kids to church, and sat a good example of hard work and integrity, that we would have an eternal family. It is so hard for me to emotionally reconcile what has transpired, even though I love Andrea and am very happy on a personal level. I don't want to face friends and have the conversation of divorce and how I think my kids are doing come up. So I sit in my office, work on things I think will be of benefit to Geokinetics Processing & Interpretation, walk the stairs at lunch, and come home. I feel trapped. One of the few things helping me get out of this feeling of being trapped is teaching my Primary kids, and events like the Primary Program 2006.
On Wednesday Andrea and I went to the Houston Temple after work. We ended up spending over a half-an-hour in the Nauvoo Bookstore across from the temple, and I bought two books: "The Kolob Theorem - A Mormon's view of God's Starry Universe" by Lynn M. Hilton, PhD., and "Leverage Point" by Gerald N. Lund and Roger Hendrix. I finished the 288 pages of "Leverage Point" before going to the Stake/Epiphany Choir practice Sunday evening at 7:00 PM. Needless to say I enjoyed the novel. Guess it is a lot like "24" or "Numb3rs" or "The Unit" or "Smallville" (the four television shows I seem to watch fairly regularly). Of course, it is about a Mormon, one raised on a farm in Utah that goes to the big city after serving a mission and a stint in the Peace Corps. It is about a young father who lost his wife to a traffic accident and was left to raise 2 young boys. It is about his engagement. And it is mostly about Iran sending bombers to take out the largest Saudi Arabian refinery and shipping port. It is about an arms dealer hiring the Mormon to help with language and culture translation in order to close a deal to sell advanced US bombers to Saudi Arabia. It was about Israeli Mossad operatives working to kill the deal, about an advanced radar system, and about the mob getting involved in the deal. Definitely a quick read, and something I would recommend to anyone over about 18 years old. There are some nice moral dilemmas, worthy of everyone's contemplation.
Friday morning there was an interesting article on the Space Elevator in the Chronicle (0249.html, 0250.html, and 0417.html). Turns out NASA sponsored a competition to build a solar powered elevator that can lift itself 200 feet. The competition was in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where I went to the JESSI program (9732.html, 9808.html, 0305.html, and 0446.html). It included the statement that after lifting itself this first 35 feet, there is only 37,500 more miles to go. The prize is for $150,000. Just maybe NASA will get it built in time for me to ride it into space. Friday there was a nice package from Aunt Sara. It included a card with photo of a little boy on a pony, and the words:
There was also the obituary of Hazel Isom Nelson. Keith Nelson's grandmother. I did not know her, and of course none of you kids knew her. However, I think it is worth my time to type our her obituary, and for you to read it:
In addition there was the obituary, funeral program, and a thank you note for flowers for Fern Leigh's funeral. I have mentioned Fern in several Thoughtlets (including 0048.html and 0139.html), and dedicated one to her husband Dick (0007.html). Her daughter, Marie, nicely summed up the bidirectional relationship in her thank you note when she wrote: "Your family has been so dear to us over the years". The four photos on the funeral program are wonderful and paint a beautiful picture of a life well lived. The obituary rounds out the photos:
Friday night we stayed home, and I read until Andrea wanted to watch "24." We watched 3 episodes of season 3, putting us into hour 9 of 24 hours. Then we watched "Numb3rs." Andrea fell asleep. Getting up at 4:30 every morning to exercise, then teaching Seminary, going for a walk, and teaching Japanese two afternoons a week wears her out by Friday night.
Saturday I slept in. After reading the paper it was time to go to to the church to practice Primary Program 2006. I put on my suit, because the Primary President, Tiffany Feil, requested everyone to wear the Sunday clothes they were wearing the previous Sunday to the Saturday practice. Andrea thought I was crazy, and I was the only person there with a suit on. Guess I am crazy. Oh well.
As the children practiced singing the opening song:
each waving a flag from a different country where the primary is located, from Argentina to Canada, and from Taiwan to Ireland, I couldn't help but cry. They went through it about 4 times, and thankfully, sort of like practicing my song about my Dad at the Nelson Family Reunion (0628), I heard the words and music enough times I was able to make it through the performance on Sunday without crying.
When I got back I ate some salmon, cusco, cole slaw, and humus, then read another Chapter in "Leverage Point." Then Andrea and I went to the Museum of Printing History at 1324 W. Clay Street, just west of Studemont and just south of Allen Parkway to the last day of the show "Ghosts in the Book." It was not what I expected. Most of the exhibit was from John Lienhard's library, with a written and recorded description of people who owned books, had written their names in the books, and conclusions that could be derived about their interaction with these books and the rest of the world. I liked the time we spent at the library. They have original newspapers describing key events in U.S. history, from the Boston Tea Party, to the Emancipation Proclamation, to the first landing on the moon. There are printing presses, and a facsimile of the Guttenburg Bible, as well as a facsimile of the Rosetta Stone which is made from a a casting of the original. There were a group of young people there for a birthday party, who had a private tour, and actually used one of the presses to print some things. It would be a fun place to bring my primary class, or maybe grandkids.
As we were leaving, Andrea said "Now here is a room you would like." So I went in. It was an antique bookstore called Detering Book Gallery, Inc. (DeteringBookGallery.com), and they rent space from the museum. We ended up spending an hour looking at their old books. There was a beautiful 11 volume set by Rudyard Kipling for $650, a book of Poems by Tennyson for $250, an 1890 geology text for $150, and a copy of Candide with drawings from 1930 for $45 ($48.74 with tax). We bought Candide and coveted the others. Oh well!
From here Andrea and I drove to Katy Mills Mall and watched "Marie Antoniette." Against Doctor's orders I ate most of a medium bag of popcorn. After the movie we went out, bought tickets and went to "Man of the Year" in the theater next door to the first movie we saw. It has been a long time since we have gone to two movies like that in a row. It was interesting to me to talk about them later. Andrea pointed out how both movies had a similar theme, namely the corruption of power. Marie Antoniette was only 14 when she was sent from Austria to become the Queen of France. They were expected as children to run a country. And they did not do a very good job of financial management. I understand this. I found it interesting the movie quoted the young queen as saying, "The press has reported me as saying let them eat cake, and I would not say anything as foolish as that. It does not deserve a response." It was also interesting that she insisted on staying at the side of her husband, instead of evacuating when the other royalty was evacuated from the country. Robin Williams portrayal is another story, and yet it is the same story. He played a political comedian who ran for President and won because of a glitch in voting machine software. The heroine was the computer programmer who discovered the bug, and was put in her place by the management of her software company. However, she went to Tom Dobbs, Robin Williams character, to let him know of the error and that he really did not win the election. Tom Dobbs became man of the year on Time's cover because he reported what the heroine said. In many ways the themes of the two movies was a direct parallel. So in this sense it was not another story, just the same story in another time.
Sunday morning I slept in again, since there was no Primary Lesson to prepare for. The first hour of Primary was spent preparing for the Primary Program 2006. It was a dress rehearsal in the Primary Room. Our class sang a solo on the second verse of "Search, Ponder, and Pray," and I messed up in the practice on when we were suppose to go up to the stand. Oh well! We did OK in the actual program. Morgan Bancroft sang the first two lines: "So, prayerfully I'll read the scriptures each day my whole life through," and then the class joined in with "I'll come to understand. I'll heed the Lord's command and live as he would have me do." Then the entire entire Primary joined us for the chorus: "Search, ponder, and pray are the things I must do. The Spirit will guide, and, deep inside, I'll know the scriptures are true." One of the kids in my class has not been very many times, and he did not want to say a part. The others all did a great job on their parts. There were a couple of kids who were not there. There were several nice comments to me from members of the congregation. And the following Sunday there was a nice e-mail read to all of the kids about how loud and good they each sang for the Primary Program 2006."