While I was at home I ripped the entire series of M*A*S*H to dvd. (Thanks Mom and Dad!) So I've been watching it a lot recently. One of the topics that seems to come up frequently is the need to accept people for who they are and love them. This is evident through the interactions between Major Frank Burns and Captain Hawkeye Pierce.
Burns is a very intolerant person and often refers to the enemy (Korean War ==> Chinese) as "gooks." He uses this dehumanization of people to justify his doing his duty as a US officer. Because all the officers at M*A*S*H are doctors, they have a higher calling and responsibility than just to their country. Their Hippocratic oath is an oath to all humankind--therefore the lesson Hawkeye often must show by example is one of human decency--putting the enemy on the operating table ahead of American soldiers because they are more mortally wounded.
In one episode, Hawkeye starts quoting Rudyard Kipling's poem Gunga Din--a poem about British occupation in India. The poem is linked here. As I read the poem, I was moved by the speaker's brutal honesty. He speaks of the need to fit in with his comrades, but also the need to treat the regimental bhisti with better respect, because he is a better man than the speaker.
The speaker speaks for all of us as we realize that often we act exactly as he did: we see that others whom we treat poorly are better people than we are, but for social reason--and any others--we may not have the inner fortitude to better our actions. And we essentially say with the speaker,
Tho' I've belted you an' flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you.
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!
14 January 2011
28 December 2010
Unique teaching methods
A new movie burst into my top five tonight. I'm not sure which one it knocked out, so maybe my top five has six, but that's not the point.
I spent the last six hours or so working via a virtual private network (I love being able to do that). Luckily the work is mindless enough that I can watch movies and other things to keep myself entertained as I work. I had watched several episodes of M*A*S*H, but I felt need for a more in-depth, cohesive storyline, not something that changes every 25 minutes. So I plopped myself in front of my parent's DVD cabinet (hence the need for the VPN--working for a Utah-based company while in California can get pretty tricky) and searched for something new to watch.
I chose Charly a movie written by an LDS physics professor that I heard was "sappy" and "a total chick flick." Never having been too put off by such things (although most chick flicks are trash) I decided to watch it.
It is a definite tear-jerker and would have elicited more from me if I had not been partially focused on my work. I'm kinda glad I didn't see it for the first time with a girl because I may have lost all semblance of manliness in her eyes if I had. However, experience shows I may not be much better the second time around.
To move to my actual thoughts: the story is not about the love Sam and Charly have for each other. Their love is the vehicle for the underlying message: when love is founded in true principles, it can be eternal. That is, "happily ever after" is not a fairy tale. It can be reality if both individuals want it and work at it.
Some sort-of spoilers follow, but knowing what happens won't change the powerful emotional effect the movie has one you.
Movies that elicit powerful emotions quickly jump to be among my favourites. The last forty minutes (as I saw it--your experience may differ) is about a man who loves his family so much he will do anything, include acting contrary to God's will (a belief he holds very strongly) to try to ensure that family can live together. Sam takes every step he can think to hold onto Charly and Adam for as long as he can. But Charly's illness proves to be terminal.
Sam is a powerful example to men of how strongly they ought to love their wives. Together he and Charly teach the viewer how a couple must foster a relationship so it can last longer than "as long as you both shall live." Part of this is belief in correct principles, part of it is the continuation of courtship beyond marriage.
One symbol pervades the story: a ferris wheel. When Sam meets Charly, they ride the ferris wheel for hours, mostly annoyed with the other (you gotta watch it to understand why they would torture themselves like that). Here the wheel symbolizes the futility of their conversation and even their relationship to that point. It symbolizes a happy-go-lucky girl stuck in a constant state of college party and a too-old man (only within a certain culture ;) ) constantly stuck in his boring ways.
The first time they return to the ferris wheel (maybe the second?--I was working) they actually are engaged and each has progress toward the other. Now the ferris wheel symbolizes potential. They dream of creating a relationship that will last forever, a relationship that death cannot terminate.
Later they again return to the ferris wheel (the practical person in me wonders how it is still there, given the transient nature of most ferris wheels) and it symbolizes their immediate hope for an eternal relationship together. It is their last time to ride the wheel together. But it symbolizes eternity--the ride has no end. There is no beginning or end to a circle--there cannot be. Thus the ferris wheel symbolizes their hope and faith in an eternal relationship--what they worked so hard to create and what they look forward to when they are reunited after their deaths.
After Charly is buried, Sam takes Adam for a ride on the ferris wheel. The story begins again, but in a slightly different place. This last visit moves the circular story into three dimensions and we realize what was a circle in two dimensions is a helix in three. Throughout the story Sam and Charly have been circling on this ferris wheel, but each time they come back to it, they are on a higher plane--they are closer to both God and each other. This last time introduces Adam to the ferris wheel and begins his symbolic journey to mimic what he parents created.
Thus the author actually uses the relationship of Sam and Charly to teach the principle of eternal marriage. And hey preys on people's emotions to make the story hit home. Realizing how similar I am to the characters and how similar my life could be draws me into the story and makes their emotional roller coaster one I must experience, and one I should prepare for. I pray I never have to leave a young wife, and I pray I am never left by my wife when I am young, but I know I can overcome the trial with faith in God, with faith in His teachings and His gospel. No matter how many nights I end up crying myself to sleep if that happened to me, I know that pain will be replaced with joy, because I will be married for eternity.
What is perhaps my favourite line of the movie came after the credits ended, and summarizes my belief of life on earth and whether this is the totality of existence. I cite it verbatim:
Not The End
I spent the last six hours or so working via a virtual private network (I love being able to do that). Luckily the work is mindless enough that I can watch movies and other things to keep myself entertained as I work. I had watched several episodes of M*A*S*H, but I felt need for a more in-depth, cohesive storyline, not something that changes every 25 minutes. So I plopped myself in front of my parent's DVD cabinet (hence the need for the VPN--working for a Utah-based company while in California can get pretty tricky) and searched for something new to watch.
I chose Charly a movie written by an LDS physics professor that I heard was "sappy" and "a total chick flick." Never having been too put off by such things (although most chick flicks are trash) I decided to watch it.
It is a definite tear-jerker and would have elicited more from me if I had not been partially focused on my work. I'm kinda glad I didn't see it for the first time with a girl because I may have lost all semblance of manliness in her eyes if I had. However, experience shows I may not be much better the second time around.
To move to my actual thoughts: the story is not about the love Sam and Charly have for each other. Their love is the vehicle for the underlying message: when love is founded in true principles, it can be eternal. That is, "happily ever after" is not a fairy tale. It can be reality if both individuals want it and work at it.
Some sort-of spoilers follow, but knowing what happens won't change the powerful emotional effect the movie has one you.
Movies that elicit powerful emotions quickly jump to be among my favourites. The last forty minutes (as I saw it--your experience may differ) is about a man who loves his family so much he will do anything, include acting contrary to God's will (a belief he holds very strongly) to try to ensure that family can live together. Sam takes every step he can think to hold onto Charly and Adam for as long as he can. But Charly's illness proves to be terminal.
Sam is a powerful example to men of how strongly they ought to love their wives. Together he and Charly teach the viewer how a couple must foster a relationship so it can last longer than "as long as you both shall live." Part of this is belief in correct principles, part of it is the continuation of courtship beyond marriage.
One symbol pervades the story: a ferris wheel. When Sam meets Charly, they ride the ferris wheel for hours, mostly annoyed with the other (you gotta watch it to understand why they would torture themselves like that). Here the wheel symbolizes the futility of their conversation and even their relationship to that point. It symbolizes a happy-go-lucky girl stuck in a constant state of college party and a too-old man (only within a certain culture ;) ) constantly stuck in his boring ways.
The first time they return to the ferris wheel (maybe the second?--I was working) they actually are engaged and each has progress toward the other. Now the ferris wheel symbolizes potential. They dream of creating a relationship that will last forever, a relationship that death cannot terminate.
Later they again return to the ferris wheel (the practical person in me wonders how it is still there, given the transient nature of most ferris wheels) and it symbolizes their immediate hope for an eternal relationship together. It is their last time to ride the wheel together. But it symbolizes eternity--the ride has no end. There is no beginning or end to a circle--there cannot be. Thus the ferris wheel symbolizes their hope and faith in an eternal relationship--what they worked so hard to create and what they look forward to when they are reunited after their deaths.
After Charly is buried, Sam takes Adam for a ride on the ferris wheel. The story begins again, but in a slightly different place. This last visit moves the circular story into three dimensions and we realize what was a circle in two dimensions is a helix in three. Throughout the story Sam and Charly have been circling on this ferris wheel, but each time they come back to it, they are on a higher plane--they are closer to both God and each other. This last time introduces Adam to the ferris wheel and begins his symbolic journey to mimic what he parents created.
Thus the author actually uses the relationship of Sam and Charly to teach the principle of eternal marriage. And hey preys on people's emotions to make the story hit home. Realizing how similar I am to the characters and how similar my life could be draws me into the story and makes their emotional roller coaster one I must experience, and one I should prepare for. I pray I never have to leave a young wife, and I pray I am never left by my wife when I am young, but I know I can overcome the trial with faith in God, with faith in His teachings and His gospel. No matter how many nights I end up crying myself to sleep if that happened to me, I know that pain will be replaced with joy, because I will be married for eternity.
What is perhaps my favourite line of the movie came after the credits ended, and summarizes my belief of life on earth and whether this is the totality of existence. I cite it verbatim:
Not The End
25 December 2010
Christmas
Christmas is about potential. We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who grew up to be the Saviour of all men. We collect as families and close friends to celebrate what will be. Maybe I'm not making sense.
Before the world was formed, God had a plan. His spirit children (us) needed a world to come to and experience life in a body and learn how to master bodies. He knew we would make many mistakes and needed a way fo us to be able to return to Him. (He is perfect and imperfect people can't come back to stay.)
Jesus Christ volunteered to come to earth as a mortal, like us, and suffer more than any man had ever suffered. He would experience the entirety of human experience and atone for all pain, lost, sickness, and sin--all imperfections--so we could return to God and live with Him forever.
We had known Jesus for a long time, and knew He was the only spirit sibling we had who could possibly make good on such a promise. We supported this and looked forward with faith to His life.
On Christmas day (or what we celebrate as Christmas day), Jesus was born to a virgin mother. Heaven had such trust in Jesus that angels proclaimed his birth across the world. A new star appeared, telling everyone the Saviour was born.
It is the beginning of His perfect life we celebrate today. We celebrate the potential of a tiny baby child; born in the muddy, flea-ridden stable; lain in an animal's feed trough for a bassinet to become the perfect example to all mankind of how to live and how to return to God's presence.
Christmas reminds us of our potential. Each of us can choose to be like Jesus. We can live following His example, repenting of our mistakes because He atoned for our sins. His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on Calvary's Cross allows us to repent and have our sins, though as scarlet blemishes on our souls become white as driven snow (see Isaiah 1:18).
Jesus allows us to fulfill God's plan, to fulfill our potential as children of the Most High. We can achieve limitless heights because He performed His mission on earth. We each must do the same. We must follow all His commandments and help other do the same. We must find and fulfill our purpose of life.
Then we, too, through Jesus' atonement that rights every wrong, will realize our potential as we stand before God and are ushered into His loving arms once again.
Before the world was formed, God had a plan. His spirit children (us) needed a world to come to and experience life in a body and learn how to master bodies. He knew we would make many mistakes and needed a way fo us to be able to return to Him. (He is perfect and imperfect people can't come back to stay.)
Jesus Christ volunteered to come to earth as a mortal, like us, and suffer more than any man had ever suffered. He would experience the entirety of human experience and atone for all pain, lost, sickness, and sin--all imperfections--so we could return to God and live with Him forever.
We had known Jesus for a long time, and knew He was the only spirit sibling we had who could possibly make good on such a promise. We supported this and looked forward with faith to His life.
On Christmas day (or what we celebrate as Christmas day), Jesus was born to a virgin mother. Heaven had such trust in Jesus that angels proclaimed his birth across the world. A new star appeared, telling everyone the Saviour was born.
It is the beginning of His perfect life we celebrate today. We celebrate the potential of a tiny baby child; born in the muddy, flea-ridden stable; lain in an animal's feed trough for a bassinet to become the perfect example to all mankind of how to live and how to return to God's presence.
Christmas reminds us of our potential. Each of us can choose to be like Jesus. We can live following His example, repenting of our mistakes because He atoned for our sins. His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on Calvary's Cross allows us to repent and have our sins, though as scarlet blemishes on our souls become white as driven snow (see Isaiah 1:18).
Jesus allows us to fulfill God's plan, to fulfill our potential as children of the Most High. We can achieve limitless heights because He performed His mission on earth. We each must do the same. We must follow all His commandments and help other do the same. We must find and fulfill our purpose of life.
Then we, too, through Jesus' atonement that rights every wrong, will realize our potential as we stand before God and are ushered into His loving arms once again.
19 December 2010
Home
The phrase apparently goes "Home is where the heart is." I believe the phrase was meant to be symbolic of where the subject's thoughts and preferences lay. I don't agree with that interpretation.
For the last 6 years I've lived away from home. I spent one year at university, two years in Toronto, and returned to university for the past three years. Although I love visiting my parents (what the symbolic interpretation of the phrase would imply is "home"), I know this isn't where I live. However, it is home. But only so far as I am living here for the next 10 days. Then I will return to the place I normally sleep and where I pay (too much for) rent and live 96% of the year.
But that wasn't always home. I've been in three different complexes at university this year. Each of those places was home for the time I lived there.
So what is my home? It's the place where my physical heart beats. It is wherever I am. Wherever my head hits the pillow at night, that is home. Home is literally where the heart is. And to make the symbolic statement true, I have to work to love where I am.
Maybe there's a lesson in that...
Love where you are; you never know how much longer you will be there.
For the last 6 years I've lived away from home. I spent one year at university, two years in Toronto, and returned to university for the past three years. Although I love visiting my parents (what the symbolic interpretation of the phrase would imply is "home"), I know this isn't where I live. However, it is home. But only so far as I am living here for the next 10 days. Then I will return to the place I normally sleep and where I pay (too much for) rent and live 96% of the year.
But that wasn't always home. I've been in three different complexes at university this year. Each of those places was home for the time I lived there.
So what is my home? It's the place where my physical heart beats. It is wherever I am. Wherever my head hits the pillow at night, that is home. Home is literally where the heart is. And to make the symbolic statement true, I have to work to love where I am.
Maybe there's a lesson in that...
Love where you are; you never know how much longer you will be there.
14 November 2010
Me, the Bari-tenor
So I love to sing. Not that I'm particularly talented, mind you. I just love to do it. For most of my semi-adult life (age 14 on) I've considered myself a bass. I've got good low range (I bottom out around D2/C2--deep C or "the C below 'low C'") and I can push myself to reach E4 (F4 on a really good day--just above middle C (C4)).
And then one day, singing in my car I realizes there aren't many cool songs for basses. Thus I must improve my upper range and become a baritone or 2nd tenor. Boy, that was fun. So I've been experimenting with singing tenor in church choir. Lucky for me, I live in an area where tenors are in plentiful supply (usually good tenors are the hardest to find at church). Thus I have the ability to hear a good tenor in both ear and match where I need to pitch my voice.
Stretching my limits has been very fun. I sang a song over summer that required a G4 (a step and a half above my normal max) that I had to falsetto, but it has been fun to learn to hear the higher range of notes. Bass is easy to pick out because it is the lowest note you hear.
So anyway, I can sing bass better than most, and my tenor is coming along, if a little short on the upper end. Either way I love it.
And then one day, singing in my car I realizes there aren't many cool songs for basses. Thus I must improve my upper range and become a baritone or 2nd tenor. Boy, that was fun. So I've been experimenting with singing tenor in church choir. Lucky for me, I live in an area where tenors are in plentiful supply (usually good tenors are the hardest to find at church). Thus I have the ability to hear a good tenor in both ear and match where I need to pitch my voice.
Stretching my limits has been very fun. I sang a song over summer that required a G4 (a step and a half above my normal max) that I had to falsetto, but it has been fun to learn to hear the higher range of notes. Bass is easy to pick out because it is the lowest note you hear.
So anyway, I can sing bass better than most, and my tenor is coming along, if a little short on the upper end. Either way I love it.
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