29 years ago

Thirty years ago in June, I had a disagreement with mother, probably about not doing enough around the house or something that I cannot remember. I moved into some apartments just north of the football stadium on Canyon Road. At the time it was Marshall Arms Apartments - now its Stadium terrace or something like that. The next afternoon I met Kayleen, as she came to invite my roomates to Sunday dinner. We talked for a long time, and over the summer became very good friends. We ended up getting married 29 years ago TODAY! We drove to Idaho Falls on the 22nd, with Kayleen's sister as our chaparone. We stayed in a motel that night, Kayleen with her parents and I in a seperate room. The night before our marriage we walked around, down by the river and around the motel. The next morning, we went through another session for in the temple, and then got married. Kayleen remembers our sealer's name - I don't. I do remember that he thanked us for our sacrifice to get to the temple. I wondered about that. It didn't ever seem like a sacrifice to get to be married to Kayleen FOR ETERNITY.

We then went to Uncle Hon and Aunt June's house in Rigby for a "Wedding Breakfast", after which Kayleen and I drove back to my trailer in Boise. We had a reception in Nampa the next evening and another in Springville two weeks later. We have had the privledge of having 4 wonderful children in our home. But the greatest privledge is that I get to continue to be with Kayleen for the next {INFINITY and BEYOND} years.

And yes, that is me in the white tux. Hard to believe. I'm not sure what I was saying to Wally.

Any Guesses?

I love my Grandsons !!

My grand sons are fun. I can't really talk about grand daughters yet. Our children have produced boys - very rough and tumble boys. They always seem to have something in mind.

They have huge smiles, calculator brains, and a feeling of love for their parents. They have that look in their eye that says, "Hey, I see something that looks like it could be fun !! Luckily, many of those times they are looking at their Grandpa (Me).

Perhaps the most comforting value I see is that they know that they are loved by their parents and grandparents. They know they belong to a family. Their parents have instilled in each of them that they are important people.

Personal Life

I was reading recently about a trip to the Mesa Temple in 2002. We were doing sealings and some people from Tucson were there. If fact their daughter knew some of our sons. I was thinking about a couple that was married in Nottingham, England in 1620. Here we were almost 400 years later in the temple specifically for them. I recorded the following about that time"

"The thing that struck home and impressed me is the very personal nature of our relationship with Father and with His Son. Everything is done for us as individuals. Everyone in the temple receives the knowledge and the tokens individually. We are instructed individually. We are tested individually. And we are admitted into the presence of God individually. We receive covenants of baptism as individuals, whether in life or though vicarious ordinances. When Moses says that he comprehended the earth, every bit of the earth, all the sands of the seas, so it is with God and us. We stand before Him, with all the potental that He has. He has blessed us with agency, individual talents and gifts, with individual testimony and witnesses. He sees us as his individual children. And so we need to seek out His children, whether living or dead, as individuals. We help individuals come unto Christ, and to be perfected in Him. We don’t bring programs or even congregations."

I think about the personal nature of the ways I have been instructed. I was given a very personal testimony of the Book of Mormon, one that I cannot deny. When I read that Book for the first time, I felt that time was standing still, and that I was enclosed in a pillar of spiritual instruction. I absolutley knew, nothing doubting, that the Book was from God. I knew that Joseph did, in reality, see the Father and the Son, and that they called him to be the Prophet of the Restoration. That instruction then gave me a responsibility to live my life in accordance with that instruction.

Over the years I have been taught. I have learned through experience, and Father has helped me to see the principles He was teaching through those experiences. A few months ago some of the leaders in the ward wanted me to rebuke some of the women for the way they were acting and dressing. I thought and pondered the responsibilty of the Bishop and of the Leaders relating to making decisions for members. Rather than rebuking the members, we need to teach correct principles, and let the members govern themselves, according to those principles. That is what Father does with us. He teaches, He loves, He corrects, gently at first and then not so gently when we won't listen. But He teaches me personnally and holds me responsibly for what He has taught ME, not necessarily what He as taught others. I just need to do better at learning what He is teaching.

Patterns of Life

And so passes on, life into life.
A daughter today, tomorrow a wife.
The fatherly sage once learned as a boy -
The trials and sorrows have turned into joy.
The example my father once gave to me
Of patience, of work and responsibility.
Passed on from his life into my own.
I hope that to my sons, the same I have shown.

Parents give life and love to their child.
They nurture and teach, then each passing mile.
The children assume a little bit more
Of care for themselves, while learning the lore.
Of how they should act when they are grown.
The pattern is set, and then they have flown.
To act for themselves. To live their own life.
A son or a daughter, soon husband or wife.
And so passes on, circling ‘round
Life into life, the pattern lives on.

And so passes on, forward we trod.
A man or a woman, tomorrow with God.
Children we are, mistakes to be made;
Our Father is teaching, the pathway is laid.
From son to a Father, from seedling to oak –
Guiding with patience while bearing the yoke.
Eternal the pattern, from life into life.
From trials and sorrows into glory rife.
Mother and daughter, Father and son.
Eternal the pathway though long e’re were done.
Into exaltation without toil or strife.
And so passes on, from life into life.

By Gerald Bishop Copyright 1993

The tangled words we weave

When I was in high school, I had no real appreciation for poetry. I would hear my mother recite a Robert Frost poem titled "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" or something like that. I remember wondering how someone could feel that passionate about a few rhyming words. One day Dr. Craig came to our AP English class to talk about poetry. We read and discussed a Robert Frost poem called "Out, Out" It was about how a young boy was helping his father cut wood for the winter and was distracted by his mother calling them in for dinner. The buzz saw thought that the dinner call was for it, and "ate" the boy's arm.

That discussion changed my view of much of poetry. The rhyme and pattern of the words give life, emotion and meaning to the words that would otherwise be ... just prose. I don't read a lot of poetry, but I do appreciate poems that express thoughts and emotions that I have felt. Frost wrote another poem (I think its) called "The Star Splitter" about a farmer who burned down his house for the insurance money so that he could buy a telescope to look at the stars. The first few lines are what I enjoy though.

"You know Orion always comes up sideways.
Throwing a leg up over our fence of mountains,
And rising on his hands, he looks in on me
Busy outdoors by lantern-light with something
I should have done by daylight, and indeed,
After the ground is frozen, I should have done
Before it froze, and a gust flings a handful
Of waste leaves at my smoky lantern chimney
To make fun of my way of doing things,
Or else fun of Orion's having caught me. "

Since then I have tried to use poetry effectively when I would give speeches for Pima College or other public functions. A few months ago my sister posted a poem on our family blog that I have pondered much on lately. In my calling as Bishop, I see all kinds of people, both young and old, who work hard at pretending to be sorry for something that they enjoy doing and will continue to enjoy because the consequences, as they perceive, are not really severe. They are practiced at saying to the Bishop, "Gee, I am really sorry and I won't do it again. Can I please have my temple recommend back?" The one that I see a lot of lately is "Are you a Bishop? I just moved into town - Can I have a food order (Or money for rent?)"

On Flunking A Nice Boy Out of School by John Ciardi
I wish I could teach you how ugly
decency and humility can be when they are not
the election of a contained mind but only
the defenses of an incompetent. Were you taught
meekness as a weapon? Or did you discover,
by chance maybe, that it worked on mother
and was a good thing–at least when all else failed–
to get you over the worst of what was coming.
Is that why you bring these sheepfaces on Tuesday?
They won’t do.
It’s three months work I want, and I’d sooner have it
from the brassiest lumpkin in pimpledom, but have it,
than all these martyred repentances from you.

Tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow ...

Musings, is that a word? I turned 54on Saturday, having been born in 1954. That is an interesting relationship, so I will allow my nerdiness to surface. When this event happens for Tim, he will be 82, Michael will be 84 and Lecia will be 87. Phillip will only be 80, but Peter will be 5 and Gabreiel was three, or will be 103.

• I share my birthday with Garth Brooks, Farah Fawcett and James Joyce. Sid Vicious (of the Sex Pistels) committed suicide on this day in 1979 - he was 21 years old.

Some interesting, or strange things about 1954 are:

• In February 1954, the Salk polio vaccine was first given to children in Pittsburgh, PA.
• Earnest Hemmingway was awarded the Nobel prize for Literature.
• The Supreme Court rules in Brown vs. Board of Education to end segregation in public schools.
• President Eisenhower proposed the interstate highway system.
• The New York Giants (now the San Franciso Giants) won the World Series; Cleveland Browns was the champian of professional football; Alan Ameche from Wisconsin won the Heisman trophy; and Sports Illistrated published its first issue.
• The Pledge of Allegiance was modified to include the phrase "under God," as in "One nation, under God, indivisible."
• Tuition to Harvard was about $800 per year, postage was 3 cents, a new car was about $1,700. and gasoline was $.22 per gallon.
• Some of the best known movies from 1954 are "On the Waterfront", "Dial M for Murder", "Rear Window", "White Christmas", and "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."

Of course, I was pretty much unaware of these events, as I was a new baby. My first recollection is running to the diaper drawer, getting a diaper and laying it out in the hallway, and yelling for someone to come and change my diaper. (Yes, I really do remember this.) I also vividly remember Wally's first Christmas, where we rolled the old pink crib into the living room so that he too could enjoy the holiday. I remember going to Grandpa / Grandma's Golden anniversary party, but I did not remember that Wally was born on that day. (August 28, 1957)
I remember not being old enough to go to a movie with my siblings, and waking up in the white crib when they came home. I remember Mom going to California to a funeral and our cousin dying while Clark was there.
So here I am in 2008, 54 years old. Where will the world be in another 54 years?

Please, send me a bell!

Last year I don't think I was sick at all. This year I have had two man-colds. My voice never did fully recover from the first. As I was feeling better from the first, it was still fun to sing hymns becuase my voice would crack. My councilors laughed and said I was starting puberty. Friday night I felt the sore throat coming on. (Thanks Clark, for the link. http://www.youtube.com/user/lulita1234 ) On my Birthday, I pretty much stayed on the couch with the bottle of Zycam close. We watched the funeral proceedings and documentaries of President Hinckley's life. Each of our children called to wish a happy birthday. Started off today feeling better and went to my interviews and meetings feeling okay. Halfway through Sacrament meeting that began to change again. The headache came, feeling like someone had inserted a length of re-bar through my ears. Since I had left the bell at home, I took care of a few necessities (I always go into the nursary to shake the hands of my friends there. I call each one by name and take their hands. They usually give me their left hand, because the right hand is clutching a doll or a truck.) and then came home to the couch again.
I did go to the hospital Saturday night, but becuase a good friend and a member of the Ward had been taken into ICU. She is growing older and weary of mortal trials and pains. She was a great comfort to Kayleen and I when we first moved to Tucson. Now she is struggling for breath. She has a great capacity for love and service but it is now our turn to love her and to serve her in her needs.