Teammates

For six years until "retiring" at age 60, I was a runner.  During those years I ran in seven long-distance relays on teams of twelve, in addition to many non-team races.  Those were some of the most exciting and transforming years of my life.  I had never before really participated in sports nor experienced being on a team.  Until then, I didn't even like athletics.  But that all changed the day I began to run. 

Recently, I was chatting with a young man who had been one of my teammates in my first relay, six years ago.  We both shared how much we loved the experience and in spite of the vast difference between our ages, I will always feel a bond with him and everyone else with whom I had ever been teamed together.  

In a relay, as runners would start one of their "legs" -- the term for the sections of the race each person runs -- their teammates would drive by and honk and cheer them on, as they'd head to the next "exchange" where their next runner would wait to take the "baton".  When the first runner dragged in gasping and sweating, there'd be more clapping and cheers, both for him/her and for the new runner starting out.  I remember feeling such a love for them all.  We were in this together, each doing our part. 

Some of the legs included long grueling hills, and we'd stop the van at the top to cheer our runner up and over. 

We'd sometimes write messages in chalk on the road.  "GO ______, YOU ARE AWESOME!!"  We'd be there to offer water if needed, or mist from a spray bottle to cool them off. 

Many times, teams helped other teams.  I remember waiting for one of our runners to come in from a long, hot leg and a van carrying another team pulled up and said they'd given her water a few miles back and she was doing well.  I have been offered water and encouragement by other teams, as I struggled up hills.  One time a brightly-costumed team of strangers saluted me with an arch as I finished my leg.  

   

I may not always remember the names of all my former teammates, but the bond will live on.  We experienced something hard and wonderful together and forevermore, whenever our future paths may cross, we may hug, high-five, or just smile and laugh while we reminisce.  Several times I've seen strangers out running wearing the T-shirt from a relay in which I had also run, and I wanted to wave and let them know we had been there together!

Mortality is a tiny snapshot of our eternal existence.  We lived long before we came to this earth and we will live long into eternity after we leave it.  The number of souls who came here before us, and the souls who will occupy this planet after us, is countless.  But the number who were here, when you and I were here, is finite.  And that group, is our team.  

Eons from now, I imagine many encounters with others who lived on earth during the different eras of history ... some during the days of Moses, some during the Renaissance, some after my lifetime.  What stories we'll share!  And when I meet up with someone who was here when I was here ..... who lived through the same world events that I did ..... there will be a commonality .... a bond.  Maybe we will hug or high-five, laugh or cry over our shared memories.  Because we were here together, breathing the same air, working through our mortality in tandem, sharing the earth for a few overlapping years.  Our struggles, pain, and fears coincided with our victories and triumphs in the same generation.  

Of all the billions of souls placed here briefly by our Heavenly Father -- those who lived their mortality when I lived my mortality, are part of my team.....  

So we'll pull each other up the hills and give each other water in the heat .... and cheer each other across the finish line .... bonded forever as teammates.  

Planned Parenthood

Typically this blog sits quietly for weeks or months without a new post.  But sometimes posts write themselves and the timing is not always mine.   So here goes .....

I am incredulous about the recent Planned Parenthood scandal in which fetuses ..... unborn human babies .... are killed and their organs and tissue are sold to bio-research companies.  

In spite of polls showing that a significant portion of the population believes abortion is morally wrong, particularly in the second and third trimesters, those people are called "right wing extremists".  Really??   But here's a question ...... 

If PP insists that the majority of the services they provide are for women's health, such as cancer screenings, then WHY call themselves PLANNED PARENTHOOD?  The title alone, denotes the conception of a child -- either to assist in it, prevent it, or curtail it.  If they wish to downplay their involvement in the abortion business and promote their role in other health issues, why not start with a different name like .... for lack of a more creative idea ..... WOMEN'S HEALTH SERVICES?  And another question .....

When the cries go out from all those nasty "extremists", about stopping government funding (AKA tax dollars) for abortions, WHY does PP immediately claim that ALL their services are about to be thrown under the proverbial bus?  Case in point, see Sen. Elizabeth Warren's deceptive speech defending PP.  

And a little honesty from PP's vice president, Dawn Laguens, in a recent CNN interview would help as well.  She insists PP only receives reimbursement for expenses for extracting and storing "fetal tissue".  There is no profit, she says, and the doctors who are seen in the videos wouldn't be involved in determining the cost.  That, she said, would happen in the accounting or administrative departments.  Then WHY are those doctors discussing the exchange of money?  And not one word from Ms. Laguens about the illegality of altering the abortion procedure to salvage the in-demand and marketable body parts, as is clearly happening, according to one video.   We are left to only wonder what she has to say about that.  

And let's talk about the justification of "harvesting fetal tissue".  It's used in medical research and may eventually help to save lives.  It may lead to the cure for cancer or other health crises.  Maybe.  But to what level have we sunk?  Consider the cost.   Is extending my life worth the cost of someone else's life?  Is my health more valuable, more precious than that of someone who has no voice ..... who is completely helpless ..... and the most innocent of all humanity?  It's one thing to valiantly and heroically sacrifice your life to save another .... it's quite another thing to forcefully take a life without the consent of the one giving it.

Finally, why is one 17 week old fetus valued as priceless and another 17 week old fetus deemed disposable, as determined solely by the woman who carries it?      

Heaven help us .....what have we become?  

Happy or good?

Which would you rather your children be?  

Until recently I thought I wanted my kids to be happy, regardless of what they achieve or experience in life.  As long as they are happy, what else matters ..... right?  

But I've come to realize that happiness can, in our muddled mortal brains, be subjective.  What an individual perceives as happiness, may be something less than its potential.  

Among the tenets of my religion are that our ultimate goal is happiness.  "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."   (2 Nephi 2:25, Book of Mormon)   And yet we are also warned ..... "Wickedness never was happiness."  (Alma 41:10, Book of Mormon)  

Many people live in a state of wickedness, (meaning a life contrary to God's plan) intentionally or otherwise, and claim to be happy.    

But are they really happy?  And will they still be happy .... tomorrow?

Again, what do you wish for your kids ..... to be happy or to be good?  Sometimes, in this life, it seems like we can't always have both.

Although I, like all parents, yearn deeply for my children to be happy today, tomorrow, next week, next month and each minute thereafter ...... I must side with goodness when it's an either/or situation.  Goodness trumps happiness.  And sometimes goodness doesn't result in happiness right away.  Sometimes goodness brings pain, struggle, disruption, and a truck load of sacrifice.  Sometimes goodness brings sadness .... for a while.  

That's where faith enters in.  Faith is believing in the unseen ..... and happiness may be that which we don't yet see.  Faith assures us that it will come ..... genuine, eternal, God-like happiness.  The Real Deal that lasts forever, recognizable because of its eternal companion -- Peacefulness.  Not the fleeting counterfeit with which Satan baits his hook.    

So that's what I hope for my kids.  The Real Deal.  And the God we believe in, mercifully encircles us with glimmers and snippets of the joy to come ..... as we determine in all our mortal clumsiness, to trust Him.  Because He knows the Real Deal.   And He, as the Father He truly is, yearns deeply for us, His children, to have it too.  And considering how wonderful those glimmers and snippets are ..... it's going to be incredibly worth it.