Happenings 9/15 - 9/21

We ended up lucky last week after Hurricane Ike came through -- we did lose two trees in our front yard, but we still had power. Everyone outside the city area didn't have power Sunday, Monday and part of Tuesday. Monday evening our friends, the Eubanks, who live outside of town, came to our house to shower because they have an electric well. Chris and I went to one of my home teaching families to give the father a blessing, and then went to help move a sister into her apartment. We were late to help, so the rest of the ward members that helped were already finished. So we helped hook up the washer and dryer and then went home.

I had several committee meetings this week, which kept me busy in addition to the teaching and the writing that I am trying to finish up. I also attended the Study Abroad fair on Thursday for a couple of hours to try to garner interest in my London course. I will know around mid-October if I have enough students enrolled. One student from Murray State has signed up, which is good. A couple more who I have spoken to are also possibilities. The program draws from 20 other universities, so a lot is reliant on other places.

Friday evening I was involved with a conference that is an annual event for the region's Writing Project, which is attended by elementary and secondary school teachers. The keynote speaker for the conference was Avi, who writes young adult novels. Along with the directors of writing projects around the state, I attended dinner with him on Friday night, and then listened to him speak and read from some of his books. He is a really interesting and engaging person, and he goes by his childhood nickname.

On the home front, Claire got sick on Monday night, was over it by Wednesday, then got it again on Saturday. J.J. picked it up during the week, and Rachel got it on Friday. I have been spared so far. (Oh, Paul has been spared, so he doesn't realize the extent of the fun we have had. Claire woke up about 4am on Tuesday throwing up, so after cleaning her and the bed up, I put her in bed with us only to wake up at 6am to her coughing and throwing up again. So I got her all cleaned up again and she slept for a bit longer. The rest of the day, she just laid around all day, but didn't throw up anymore. On Wednesday, she seemed fine. No puking, etc. then on Thursday morning, she and I woke up with tummy aches and she began puking and while trying to help her, I started puking. So after cleaning both of us up, we just rested. Luckily Rachel was asleep at the time. Then Claire started with the diarrhea. That evening, Claire seemed to be doing better but I got to throwing up again and the other end hit me too and I was up all night. Friday morning was better for both of us. Then Rachel woke up on Friday morning with dried puke on her. I don't know when she threw up during the night, but she threw up all morning. There is nothing more pathetic than a toddler throwing up not knowing what is happening to her. Claire seemed to be fine Friday. No puke or diarrhea, so she went to dance and even stayed the night at Katey's. Everbody seemed to be improved Saturday. Saturday night as Rachel seemed to be a bit better, Claire got the diarrhea again, and was in tears most of the evening. By Sunday morning, she was feeling good again. We should have kept her home from church probably, but she begged to go and seemed to be fine - and still is and since all Rachel and I wanted to do was sleep, I let her go with Paul. So does that sound like a fun week or what? In between throwing up, I have been cleaning up poop and puke. Thank goodness these weeks are few and far between.) Today, we kept Rachel home from church, and since J.J. was still not feeling great, I took Claire with me. We were late because we weren't sure if we should take Claire, so she wasn't ready when J.J. came back from ward council.

Claire slept at Katy's house on Friday night, which makes for a quiet Saturday morning. I got up early and ran 10 miles, and then J.J. went out shopping at the city-wide garage sale event. (I was feeling much better that morning, so my friend Shara and I made an early morning of yard sales. I love looking at all the things people try to sell. I did get some pretty cool things. We got a Barbie princess carriage, a Madagascar Zebra rug, some shoes and other things and best of all was a Clare sized Raggedy Anne and Andy - only $7 for the pair!! It was fun to have Shara to giggle at things with) I stayed with Rachel and did some reading while she napped. I was hoping that a student who works in our department would come and cut our trees up and haul them away, but he didn't show up (for the second time - I vote it is time for another plan) and then it started to rain pretty hard around 4:00. He was supposed to come on Wednesday morning, but he was confused when his alarm went off early and forgot why he had set it, and I don't know what happened on Saturday. I still want him to do it, but if he can't tomorrow, I'm going to have to borrow a chain saw and take care of it myself, although I don't know what I will do with all of the wood.

(I am going to sign off here, because the rest is Paul's Editorial of the news for the week - interesting, but I don't have much to add) The week was interesting because of financial news, but it is nice to be removed from some of the hectic behavior that happens in large cities. As I was reading the Nashville newspaper today, I discovered that on Friday, most of the gas stations there ran out of gas, and if stations had gas, there was a two-hour wait to fill up. This despite assurance that there is actually plenty of fuel distribution. A similar thing happened before Ike hit Texas, and I think it is interesting how rumors and sheep-like behavior will actually create the problems that the rumors are about. If everyone decides that they need gas, of course there will be shortages when they all go at the same time. One thing this week shows to me is how many people are on the edge of catastrophe. Ready credit and the idea that debt and spending boost jobs and the economy overall -- trickle-down economics -- leave many people one hefty gas increase away from not being able to afford food. And because of this, the government is forced to spend $700 billion dollars plus to take over private companies that faltered because of the unfettered greed and bad decision making of its leaders -- that sounds a little like Iraq as well. Meanwhile, there's never any money that can be spared for education. Save the banks from the disaster that the government itself created, while underpaying and getting rid of teachers who see education as more than the government's goal of regurgitation of test material.

This week in my composition class, we are reading foundational "economic" theories, like Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes. Right now we are living in a time when our economy exhibits the worst of capitalism and the worst of communism at the same time. One of these days people will realize that government's main purpose is to maintain a salient society and stop voting for leaders who give lip service to morality while supporting an economic system that has thrived on dishonesty and no concern for those who lack capital. The key element of a free market system is that everyone acting in their own self-interest will mean consistent economic growth. But when the Republicans decided that legislating morality was more important than ensuring individuals' ability to live by their own self-interests without a whole bunch of government intervention, they created an atmosphere that we have now where many people who would most benefit from alternative economic and defense policies are voting instead on an irrelevant, but divisive issue: abortion.

Today our high council speaker opened his talk with a retelling of a conversation that he had with someone who was wondering if Mormons could be Democrats. This brother replied that of course there are Mormon Democrats, but he wasn't sure if they could get a temple recommend. It was a joke, but the bishop had to get up after his talk and clarify again -- he had already read the letter from the First Presidency about Church neutrality and the need to vote -- to our ward, many of whom are recent converts, that political party does not have anything to do with temple recommends. He then read the letter from the First Presidency again. I believe that Mormon culture, like Protestant culture, allows beliefs to get mixed up in politics. The "values" of the Republican "moral majority" wing resonate with many of our moral beliefs, even though they are founded on different principles. Rather than being a partial means to meaningful ends -- eternal salvation later and companionship of the Holy Ghost now -- morality commandments for Protestants are ways of showing that one is already saved. Thus, they become a galvanizing force that divides people rather than an exemplary way of living that encourages unity. Perhaps Mitt Romney can wake up from whatever "brainwashing" spell he is under and start a third party that is founded on sound free-market economic principles and integrity. But until then, I think we have one choice, and his name does not rhyme with pain.

Just thought I would put those thoughts out there. It went a little farther than I planned. Feel free to disagree. We love you all and hope that things will get better no matter who wins this election. Have a good week!