July 22 - Snippet 2

It’s 9 pm MST of July 22nd. Mary Alma and I have had a quiet, reflective day. I had breakfast at 7:30 – and I was the late bird! I made myself oatmeal with frozen blueberries, plus a green jello square. We left for Church about 8, with Grandpa driving Grandma’s car. I helped Grandma straighten her seat. (Inside, she has a plastic cutting board to sit on: she has to sit on something hard or lie down for her back.) Mary Alma had trouble getting carsick yesterday, so she got the front seat.

I enjoyed the joy of Julia McGirt, who provided the organ (and piano) accompaniment for the service. I rejoice in good music and she was brimming with good music, to overflowing. We spoke our parts, and shook hands with others, and enjoyed it. The sermon by visiting pastor Keith Geitner urged us not to become obsessed with getting everything perfect, since it is God’s grace, not our efforts, that perfect us. He urged us to free ourselves to try things (e.g., be like people with a digital camera vs a 24-shot film camera).

We ate a little and talked a little in the overflow following the meeting. A community garden where members could take food (and make donations) or donate their own garden produce occupied a large table. Grandpa told me that Duke Ellis (a Stephen minister) ran that program. Grandpa’s class was a lecture from the Great Teachers series by a woman archaeologist who recounted the basics and the debate over Josephus’ account of the mass suicide at Massada. Apparently Josephus’ audience (Romans) were not particular about historical accuracy. Josephus employed the mass suicide motif more than once, a motif which would have shown the Jews to be a noble, worthy foe for the proud Romans to have defeated.

After the Sunday school class (all of the regulars contributed money: apparently, they are their own “corporation?”), Aunt Shelly drove Mary Alma and me over to the Franklin 2nd ward building, by the Nashville temple. We were greeted by numerous people, and profited from the lessons. Sacrament meeting focused on answers to prayer, and I felt that I would receive important answers and guidance for my life in the next few days. I’m on the lookout now. Sunday school was taught by M.D. Dan Follenger (?), a BYU grad with a scholarly spin. He spent a lot of time on Anti-Nephi-Lehies. Kent Jackson’s theory is that it should be Anti-Nephi Lehies (not from Nephi, descendants of Lehi). Plausible. He also encouraged us to see what doctrines had most impressed the recent convert, King Anti-Nephi-Lehi, judging from his speech to his people. In elders quorum, we had a thoughtful lesson on applying Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s talk: The Merciful Shall Obtain Mercy. One way to avoid getting mad is to note when we usually get mad and arrange our lives to avoid these situations (e.g., leaving early for work so we won’t be impatient).

At 2:06, Aunt Shelly picked us up, but we had to go to Sam’s for Uncle Billy (who was buying watermelon), so we didn’t get home till quarter to 3. We had a light lunch of sourdough bread, toasted cheese and Fleischman’s margarine, pepper and tomatoes + Gatorade (for me: Grandpa had bought me some at a gas station during our trip to New Johnsonville Saturday). We did Sudoku and I did show and tell with our photos from the first half of the vacation with Unc. At 5:45, we had dinner (soup, bread, crackers, tomatoes, and more of the frozen vanilla yoghurt + gluten-free peach/cherry cobbler – I was surprised to find cherry even better than the peach!).

Just like Christmas, I don’t want today to end. Do you know the feeling?

After dinner, Grandma showed me photos on their digital slide show that Andy had set up. I’m a little sad we haven’t seen more of Aunt Shelly and Uncle Billy, but they are understandably stressed with school and work, respectively, and I don’t want to be a drag on their time. Plus, I have a feeling my real happiness will not depend on making others do a single activity. I wonder if I am a vanishing breed, as I do not find as much pleasure in pursuing things that make me “busy” as I do in having people that I can become busy with doing things we all find worthwhile. I would rather give up what makes me busy to be busy with people I want to be my friends (and who want to be my friends, if there are any – I have hope).

To all my readers, what else should I tell about our vacation? Let me know in the comments or on Facebook or email, or when you see me in person. :) I'm going to do (at least) one or two top ten's in my next post: feel free to suggest what they should be about.