O:9:"MagpieRSS":23:{s:6:"parser";i:0;s:12:"current_item";a:0:{}s:5:"items";a:25:{i:0;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-2090321999954099331";s:9:"published";s:29:"2019-01-09T15:31:00.000-07:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2019-01-10T09:40:14.028-07:00";s:5:"title";s:40:"Why are Americans more lonely than ever?";s:12:"atom_content";s:6574:"Is our current divisive political climate really just a symptom of widespread loneliness? <i>(My son says that whenever an author poses a question like this the answer is always yes.)</i> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah_Goldberg">Jonah Goldberg</a> thinks so.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Years ago I used to read Goldberg's musings with some regularity. But that stopped when I broke up with my former political self. The nation's political climate has become increasingly noxious since that time. Myself? I've never been happier.</div><div><br /></div><div>In a <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/01/dogs-have-their-day-in-our-politicized-society/">recent National Review article</a> Goldberg essentially classes himself and people like him as part of the problem. He says that "it is an occupational hazard in [his] line of work to be constantly drenched in the muck of politics." But that's not what I'm talking about. Political commentators have been around since the dawn of humans.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm talking about Goldberg's acknowledgement that he and his wife are among the increasing number of Americans who opt for dogs over children. He calls dogs a political safe harbor. "They don’t care about political correctness. They don’t want to Make America Great Again or join the “Resistance.” They just want to pursue doggie goodness as they see it."</div><div><br /></div><div>Now don't get me wrong. I too love dogs and I am in favor of people having the right to keep and bear dogs—as long as they are responsible pet owners. But Goldberg cites psychologist&nbsp;Clay Routledge as describing increasing dog ownership as "a symptom of America’s very real loneliness crisis." Routledge says that "pets may be appealing to some because they lack the agency of humans and thus require less compromise and sacrifice." It has long been known that it's easier to raise a dog than a human, but increasing numbers of humans are forgoing the latter in favor of the former.</div><div><br /></div><div>Goldberg goes on to cite Senator <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Sasse">Ben Sasse</a>'s contention in his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Them-Hate-Each-Other-Heal/dp/1250193680">Them</a> that "America’s loneliness crisis" is evident in the dramatic decline in Americans' real life social contacts over the past generation. This crisis is only made worse "in the era of the smartphone," where "young people report much more anxiety and isolation."</div><div><br /></div><div>Putting the dots together, Goldberg opines, "The increasing nastiness of our politics is a byproduct of our social isolation. We look to politics to provide the sense of meaning and belonging once found in community and religion, which is why everything is becoming politicized. The problem is that politics, particularly at the national level, is necessarily about disagreement, which is why it cannot provide the sense of unity people crave from it."</div><div><br /></div><div>This also helps explain the politics of constant outrage. Americans who are disconnected from God and from each other try to fill the void where transcendence once resided with passion for causes. In their quest for purpose and meaning they burn with rage over mountains and molehills alike, while still finding emptiness within when the furor subsides.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's no secret that some of the loneliest people on earth have the largest list of social media contacts. But people can even be lonely and feel isolated in crowds and at gatherings with friends. I believe that this is often due to the lack of a working relationship with Deity which is fostered by the seeming increasing irrelevance of religion to many moderns.<br /><br />The Apostle John taught in <a href="https://www.lds.org/study/scriptures/nt/1-jn/4.20,21,20,21?lang=eng">1 John 4:20-21</a> that love of God requires love of our fellow beings. He asserts that those who profess a love of God while failing to love their neighbors are fooling themselves. Those who delude themselves into thinking that government and/or business can satisfactorily take the place of religion ought to consider the problems the decline in religious observance is causing for disaster recovery efforts (see <a href="https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900048898/religious-practice-is-declining-heres-why-thats-bad-news-for-disaster-recovery.html">1/4/19 DNews article</a>).<br /><br />It seems that love of God and love of neighbor are intertwined. Selflessness is best fostered in an environment that imbues daily living with eternally ennobling purpose. It's easier to raise a dog than to raise a child. But raising a dog is all about the owner, while raising a child involves heavy focus on the needs of another person over whom the parent has steadily decreasing control.<br /><br />Interestingly, control was the main issue behind <a href="https://www.lds.org/study/scriptures/bd/war-in-heaven?lang=eng">the premortal war in heaven</a>. Lucifer wanted to force people to be 'good.' Of course, the elimination of agency would thwart the ability of God's children to progress and develop divine attributes that can only be fostered through free choice.<br /><br />Some choose pet ownership over child rearing because it's easier to force their will on a pet than it would be to force their will on a child. In a recent meeting I attended, a church leader quipped that as his children get older and make choices with which he disagrees, he sometimes thinks Lucifer's plan would be a great idea.<br /><br />In a similar vein, a great deal of politics is about control and coercion; forcing people to do what various political actors think is right. Each political faction is certain that it knows how best to manage the lives of others. As Goldberg notes, this is hardly a recipe for unity.<br /><br />We know that humans tend to exercise unrighteous dominion (<a href="https://www.lds.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/121.39?lang=eng">D&amp;C 121:39</a>). But it seems that loneliness and isolation increase the tendency to seek to control others and force them to 'be good.' The less we personally interact with others, the more 'other' they seem and the more we want to force them into a mold that looks strikingly similar to ourselves.<br /><br />We can expect increasing alienation and contention among Americans as we substitute politics for divine worship. Swapping this counterfeit for the real thing seems like a surefire way to decrease unity, happiness, and peace.</div>";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/2090321999954099331/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=2090321999954099331";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/2090321999954099331";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/2090321999954099331";s:4:"link";s:84:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2019/01/why-are-americans-more-lonely-than-ever.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:1;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:58:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-299322320735628959";s:9:"published";s:29:"2018-12-21T15:03:00.000-07:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2018-12-21T15:03:07.252-07:00";s:5:"title";s:24:"Hot Scones for Christmas";s:12:"atom_content";s:3277:"<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Note: In Utah scones are deep fried bread. Other regions might refer to this dish as fry bread, elephant ears, sopapillas, etc. This isn't health food, but it is certainly delicious.</span></i><br /><br />My siblings and I bounded out of bed at exactly 6 am, the earliest my parents would allow us to arise on Christmas morning. It took interminably long, maybe even 90 seconds, for the whole family to gather.<br /><br />Our semi-chaotic tradition of opening the beautifully wrapped gifts that had appeared under the Christmas tree overnight began as soon as my parents gave the official nod. We were all spooked just a few minutes later when the front doorbell rang in the midst of our revelry. Who could be at the door at that time on Christmas morning?<br /><br />It must have been quite a sight for our visitors to see my normally refined mom standing bleary-eyed at the door in her robe with several sparkly-eyed pajama-clad youngsters peering from behind.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aKojsWgOQJI/XB1jAEke3wI/AAAAAAAABik/Sm7VP4LZPtgdI1N2Yyw_anFjvoT0qqqbgCLcBGAs/s1600/German-Scones-Recipe-Cinnamon-Honey-Butter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="715" data-original-width="598" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aKojsWgOQJI/XB1jAEke3wI/AAAAAAAABik/Sm7VP4LZPtgdI1N2Yyw_anFjvoT0qqqbgCLcBGAs/s200/German-Scones-Recipe-Cinnamon-Honey-Butter.jpg" width="166" /></a></div>There stood Clark and Peg Rasmussen, a retired couple who lived around the corner. They presented a plate of hot scones with honey butter, bid us a merry Christmas, and quickly disappeared into the darkness. We couldn’t help taking a brief break from ripping wrapping paper to enjoy freshly fried bread slathered in deliciously sweet gooeyness.<br /><br />When Mom asked us the next year what we wanted for breakfast on Christmas morning, several of us chimed “Hot scones!” in unison. We tried deep frying scones on Christmas morning for several years, but somehow our concoctions never approached the yumminess of the Rasmussens’ scones that one Christmas. We seemed to be missing some secret ingredient.<br /><br />Years later I found out from another neighbor that the Rasmussens had no family nearby that Christmas. When they realized that all of their close family members would be out of town visiting other relatives, they decided that they needed to do more than just sit around alone on Christmas.<br /><br />So that Christmas morning the Rasmussens arose at 2 am to make a large batch of dough and form it into bite sized balls. Then they kept watch on the neighborhood. As soon as they saw lights turn on at a house, they would fry enough scones for that family and deliver the piping hot treats to their surprised neighbors.<br /><br />Each time I think about the Rasmussens I remember that plate of hot scones that they delivered to us that Christmas morning and I get a little better understanding of their special ingredient: the true spirit of Christmas. Generosity, selflessness, and love don’t appear on a recipe card, but I swear you can taste them.";s:12:"link_replies";s:147:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/299322320735628959/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=299322320735628959";s:9:"link_edit";s:70:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/299322320735628959";s:9:"link_self";s:70:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/299322320735628959";s:4:"link";s:72:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2018/12/hot-scones-for-christmas_21.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:2;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-8684464005593582636";s:9:"published";s:29:"2018-12-14T15:26:00.001-07:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2018-12-15T14:42:12.625-07:00";s:5:"title";s:41:"Forcing everyone to attend teacher school";s:12:"atom_content";s:9756:"As the mixed group of high school educators and parents of students seated themselves around the large table, a parent leaned toward one of the teachers and said, "My daughter loves you as an English teacher." "I'm flattered," the teacher responded. "Your daughter is a diligent student. She's a joy to teach."<br /><div><br /></div><div>I was stunned a few minutes later when the school's principal announced that 14 percent of the grades given during the first quarter of the year were F grades. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. A population of more than 2,000 students might be expected to approach a somewhat normal distribution of grades, so that we could expect about as many A grades as F grades, with the remaining grades clustering closer to average.</div><div><br /></div><div>But that's not how high school grades work nowadays. Most parents and educators consider a C grade to be pretty awful. A study released in 2017 found that due to grade inflation 47 percent of high school students graduate "with A averages (including A-minus and A-plus)" (see <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2017/07/17/study-finds-notable-increase-grades-high-schools-nationally">7/17/2017 Inside Higher Ed article</a>), although SAT scores have declined. One critic quipped that A now stands for 'average.'</div><div><br /></div><div>A recent <a href="https://blog.prepscholar.com/grade-inflation-high-school">PrepScholar blog post</a>&nbsp;treats the issue of grade inflation quite thoroughly, even noting that there are both pros and cons to the issue. But grade inflation is not the focus of this post. The reality is that most of today's C– grades would have been F grades in the 1970s. So a C grade today <i>is</i>&nbsp;pretty awful. Thus, it's all the more shocking to hear that 14 percent of the grades given at this high school last quarter were F grades.</div><div><br /></div><div>The principal and the teachers at the conference discussed the approaches they have been taking to try to remedy the problem. At least some of these efforts have been heroic. Part of the issue can be chalked up to attendance. Administration members try to visit with persistently truant students and their parents in their homes to structure some kind of program that might work for them.</div><div><br /></div><div>I say that they <i>try </i>to visit because they are sometimes turned away, by the parents, no less. Some of these youth come from families with serious problems. Educators can't do much about that. Other students struggle with mental health issues that make school attendance impossible or nearly so.</div><div><br /></div><div>Other efforts include opportunities during each week for students to visit with teachers in their classrooms for help. As we discussed the number and nature of students who are actually using these opportunities effectively, the aforementioned English teacher lamented, "I get many more of my A– students coming in than I do my D– students."</div><div><br /></div><div>In a moment of sudden clarity I understood some of those D– and F students. For many of these youth, high school is too late to help them. Since their earliest days they have been classed as problematic and unworthy by a system in which they ill fit.</div><div><br /></div><div>The entire system has communicated to these children in countless overt and subvert ways that they are bad. It's not that the system poorly fits their individual needs; it's that they are defective and bad for failing to fit well into a system that focuses heavily on a narrow band of factors that are easily measured.</div><div><br /></div><div>By the time these youth arrive in high school they have already given up. Why bother to go talk to the teacher? I know this because I have have a son who gave up along in about fifth grade when his needs ill matched what the school was offering. He discovered that when he really tried to do the work, he simply failed with a higher score. So why put in any effort at all?</div><div><br /></div><div>The A– students coming to the English teacher for help fit reasonably well in the academic system. High grades are their lingua franca. They have hope that by working with the teacher they can raise their grade from an A– to an A. The D– students have no such hope, nor do they value grades because they feel rejected by a system which seems to esteem grades above everything else (with the possible exception of competitive sports programs that draw crowds).</div><div><br /></div><div>If you step back and look at our public education system, it is part child care and part teacher school. Isaac Morehouse <a href="https://fee.org/articles/what-if-auto-garages-worked-like-public-schools/?fbclid=IwAR3S1xmYKVS46GOY6YsfBgjP0_2n7yXpr5835z3oi1G9QayrPggC-TkM9J8">writes</a>, "The entire system, top to bottom, is designed by and for teachers. All the things learned and methods of learning are valuable nowhere in any part of the real world except in the academic professions." Some of Morehouse's wording seems hyperbolic here, but his main point is valid.</div><div><br /></div><div>Morehouse goes on to explain, "The most effective learning happens just from being around things and being in an incentive structure that rewards certain behaviors. School means you spend all your time around educators (and none of it around any other real-world professions) and in an incentive system that rewards things they like. So that’s exactly what you learn; how to live like an academic."</div><div><br /></div><div>To demonstrate the absurdity of our current academic-centric public school system, Morehouse likens it to "a world in which all kids were sent to auto mechanic school for the first few decades of life," despite the fact that the approaches used for most students would "bear no resemblance to what they’ll do for a career."</div><div><br /></div><div>During the aforementioned meeting, I noticed that most educators and some parents present simply could not fathom why students would let academic opportunities slip by. Morehouse explained this phenomenon thus:</div><blockquote class="tr_bq">"It’s no surprise then that teachers and professors are baffled by people who complain about the fluorescently-lit hell of classroom-cramming and credential-chasing. They loved the whole experience, and it taught them all the stuff they needed to succeed in their careers as academics and educators. It’s also no surprise that it’s such an epic, colossal waste for most people who want to enter other parts of the vast job market."</blockquote><div>Morehouse's criticisms of our public education system dovetail nicely with the work of <a href="http://sirkenrobinson.com/">Sir Ken Robinson</a>. You might have seen Robinson's presentation in <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?referrer=playlist-the_most_popular_talks_of_all">the most watched TED talk of all time</a>&nbsp;or in <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms">his later TED talk about changing education paradigms</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>As I looked around the table at the conference, I realized that everyone involved was stuck in a system that each of them is—and even all of them together are—pretty much powerless to change. The educators, while perhaps not blind to some deficiencies in the system, maintain their careers by wearing blinders that prevent them from seriously engaging Morehouse's criticisms. They must think inside of a box that protects the integrity of the system.</div><div><br /></div><div>And while the number of students' parents dramatically dwarfs the number of workers in the system, their power against an institution that has successfully ingrained itself into the culture as a moral authority and a necessary part of life is so diffuse as to render them impotent to effect any real change.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was frankly quite depressing. The educators are doing their best to respond to pressures from the vast education bureaucracy, politicians, and parents to produce superior outcomes, while oblivious to the fact that the product they offer is largely irrelevant to many students. The parents are augmenting the system, convinced that if their children don't excel in the system, they—both the students and the parents—will fail socially.</div><div><br /></div><div>Not all teachers are oblivious. A friend who teaches early childhood grades recently fumed to me that the system focuses heavily on the limited developmental factors that can easily be measured, while increasingly ignoring difficult to measure characteristics that are equally or more important to balanced and happy living. She remains in her profession because she feels like it's her calling in life and she knows from experience that she can make a positive difference in many lives.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not trying to bash educators. They have a tough job. But our public education system is dysfunctional. It ill fits the needs of students, except for those going into academic fields. Yet it's such a monstrously expansive and formidable entity that it withstands serious reform efforts and successfully thwarts potential alternatives.</div><div><br /></div><div>I believe that meaningful change in the system can only really come about when enough parents realize that their children are in the academic equivalent of two decades of auto mechanic training, that they vote with their feet, withstand the social backlash, and find worthwhile ways for their children to learn skills pertinent to their individual needs. Only when enough people opt out will the system be forced to change.</div>";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/8684464005593582636/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=8684464005593582636";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/8684464005593582636";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/8684464005593582636";s:4:"link";s:79:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2018/12/forcing-everyone-to-attend-teacher.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:3;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-5914799699647048710";s:9:"published";s:29:"2018-10-22T15:11:00.001-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2018-10-23T10:33:16.071-06:00";s:5:"title";s:40:"Lessons from my 10-day social media fast";s:12:"atom_content";s:6291:"A few weeks ago I sat on a pew at our local <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stake_(Latter_Day_Saints)">stake</a> center watching the general women's session of the <a href="https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng">general conference</a> of <a href="https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints</a> with about 150 women and a handful of men. Being the stake technology specialist, I get to attend every meeting that involves broadcasts at any of our stake's church buildings.<br /><br />In years past our stake's women's organizations would host a meal prior to the general women's session, but the decision was made to forego this social aspect this time around. Attendance at the meeting when dinner was served tended to run about triple the attendance at this recent meeting. Many, including my own wife and daughter, chose to watch the meeting at home. I don't really have a problem with that.<br /><br />Although <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_A._Bednar">Elder David A. Bednar</a> <a href="https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/10/gather-together-in-one-all-things-in-christ?lang=eng">spoke earlier in the day</a>&nbsp;against turning the gospel into "checklists of individual topics to study and tasks to accomplish," I couldn't avoid noticing that&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_M._Nelson">Church President Russell M. Nelson</a> <a href="https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/10/sisters-participation-in-the-gathering-of-israel?lang=eng">extended</a>&nbsp;"four invitations" to the sisters that look a lot like a checklist:<br /><ol><li>"Participate in a 10-day fast from social media and from any other media that bring negative and impure thoughts to your mind."</li><li>"Read the Book of Mormon between now and the end of the year. ...mark each verse that speaks of or refers to the Savior."</li><li>"Establish a pattern of regular temple attendance."</li><li>"Participate fully in Relief Society."</li></ol>I figured that what's good for the goose is good for the gander. What better way to support my wife and daughter in these invitations than to join them? Even if I couldn't do #4, I could readily do the other three. And I could sort of do #4 by supporting my female family members in their Relief Society participation.<br /><br />The first and simplest thing to do was to participate in a 10-day fast from social media and negative media. I started the next day. This adjustment wasn't nearly as difficult as I anticipated it might be. This is likely because I made the shift away from negative media and social media years ago when I found myself not liking how I felt about myself when I was more involved in media content.<br /><br />At the conclusion of my 10-day fast I wanted to document my observations, as recommended by President Nelson, when he said, "What do you notice after taking a break from perspectives of the world that have been wounding your spirit? Is there a change in where you <i>now</i> want to spend your time and energy? Have any of your priorities shifted—even just a little? I urge you to record and follow through with each impression."<br /><br />What do I notice or did I notice during my 10-day fast. First off, it wasn't incredibly different than normal. As noted, I had already changed my media habits years earlier. As far as social media goes, I rarely post and I find most posts on my feed fairly inane. I also find occasional useful and uplifting posts. But I will note three factors:<br /><ul><li>Instead of going to media sources for a break from the daily grind, I found myself going to family history apps. Some of this was due to timing, given that I was notified of several DNA matches and new links to several ancestor records during this time frame.</li><li>I was mildly annoyed at the inability to get updates about events and family matters through the normal means.</li><li>Highly partisan posts and food porn posts were not missed.</li></ul>Really, I am tired of food videos that amount to fantasies of how recipes work in real life. They follow the same patterns as sex porn and hit similar pleasure centers in the brain, so I call them food porn. I block those sites whenever possible and I have unfollowed some connections due to their penchant for such posts. These posts still pop up with annoying frequency.<br /><br />I have a variety of social media connections who put out highly partisan or deeply slanted ideological posts. I long ago tired of people painting complex issues in simplistic monochrome ways and freaking out about tactics by ideological opponents while excusing the same tactics by ideological allies. Many of these people seem to have a stunning lack of self awareness.<br /><br />Why don't I just unfollow them? Sometimes I do. But I actually care about many of these people, although, I may think them to be somewhat misguided. I'm also not so secure in my own political ideology as to think that I have nothing to learn from others who think differently. If we screen out all thought differences we end up in an echo chamber where we think we have all the answers. Too many of us do this already. Besides, these folks occasionally post about things I actually do care about. I guess I am willing to wade through some of their garbage to pick up the occasional gem.<br /><br />Occasionally I have unfollowed someone for posting raunchy material. I find no redeeming value in exposing myself to that stuff. But the main reason I have unfollowed people has been overload on the volume of posts. Where in the world do people find the time to share 30 posts on a given day? Too many posts in one day violates the basic tenets of social media etiquette.<br /><br />Is there a change in where I&nbsp;<i>now</i>&nbsp;want to spend my time and energy? Have any of my priorities shifted—even just a little? Yes. I want to spend more time doing family history work. I have gone through many waxing and waning family history periods during my lifetime. I found that I had waned on that front more than I really wanted to. So I want to do more of that.<br /><br />And I may actually unfollow some people whose posts, on balance, tend to bring more negative thoughts than introspective or uplifting thoughts.";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/5914799699647048710/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=5914799699647048710";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/5914799699647048710";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/5914799699647048710";s:4:"link";s:85:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2018/10/lessons-from-my-10-day-social-media-fast.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"1";}}i:4;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-9066779768631132789";s:9:"published";s:29:"2018-08-30T15:54:00.000-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2018-09-04T13:36:38.714-06:00";s:5:"title";s:38:"Our autistic son graduates high school";s:12:"atom_content";s:13973:"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="https://www.lizs-early-learning-spot.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Autistic-adolescents-are-the-ultimate-square-pegs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="671" data-original-width="800" height="268" src="https://www.lizs-early-learning-spot.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Autistic-adolescents-are-the-ultimate-square-pegs.jpg" width="320" /></a>The school system was awful for our autistic son. Some of the people in the system were fantastic. Some were extremely caring. But the system itself poorly matched our son's needs and was terrible at providing workable adaptations.<br /><br />We were very happy to welcome son #4 to our family. His blond hair, blue eyes, cherubic face, and gravely voice were part of his endearing package. Other than the fact that he was louder than all of&nbsp;his brothers, he seemed pretty typical. He had a bit of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotacism_(speech_impediment)">rhotacism</a>, for which he received speech therapy at ages three and four. But otherwise he was pretty normal.<br /><br />The first signs of mental health issues became noticeable when our son was in fourth grade, although, it didn't seem serious. When our son expressed suicidal thoughts in fifth grade, however, we sought professional help. Despite interventions, things went downhill toward the end of his fifth grade year, and sixth grade was a continual struggle.<br /><br />Our son now tells us that he hated school by this time because he couldn't keep up. Oh, he's very bright, but we later learned that he was running up against biological limitations. Those constraints had always been there, but they had rarely been an issue before hitting the abstract and critical thinking developmental stages.<br /><br />After months of falling further and further behind, our son simply gave up hope that he could ever succeed. He reasoned that he would fail regardless of whether he did the work or not and that avoiding the work was far less stressful, so that's the approach he took. All-or-nothing thinking is common for autistic people. Since our son couldn't do it all, the logical choice in his mind was to do nothing.<br /><br />We hoped that the jump to the junior high school would help our son as it had helped his older brother, but it didn't work out that way. He ended up spending three months in an intensive outpatient behavioral healthcare program that mixed schooling with mental health treatment. Managing this was quite challenging for our family, but it was also the most helpful thing for our son's condition that we had encountered.<br /><br />During this period our son was evaluated by the staff at <a href="http://samgoldstein.com/">Dr. Sam Goldstein</a>'s office, which is among the best programs of its type in our region. After an extensive review, our son was diagnosed with <a href="http://www.autism-society.org/what-is/aspergers-syndrome/">Asperger's Syndrome</a>&nbsp;(AS), which people have often referred to as high functioning <a href="http://www.autism-society.org/what-is/">Autism</a>. Some professionals today refer to this condition simply as an <a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-asd/index.shtml">Autism Spectrum Disorder</a>&nbsp;(ASD), although, others find ASD to be an overly broad term.<br /><br />Every case of autism is different. People think they know what to expect of someone with AS because they know somebody else with AS. But every case is unique. Our son has biological limits with processing and executive function, while his memory is very keen. One psychologist told us that it's like having the world's best solid state drive on a Windows 98 machine. You can put a lot of data on the drive and access it, but it takes a long time to process the data onto the drive and the processor can easily get overwhelmed.<br /><br />"If it were only the autism we were dealing with," one professional told us, "we'd have no problem treating it. But every case of autism comes with at least one, and usually several collateral mental health issues that make each case unique and that present interesting (as in baffling) challenges to successful treatment." In our son's case that means, among other things, clinical depression and extreme anxiety, especially social anxiety.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZ_qJp4IEAEDYip.jpg:large" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="770" data-original-width="700" height="400" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZ_qJp4IEAEDYip.jpg:large" width="361" /></a></div><br />Upon completing the behavioral healthcare program we felt that our son had the tools necessary for success ... until we came up against the intransigence of the public education system. While some people in the system are miracle workers, we also had many opportunities to work with those who were quite the opposite.<br /><br />The representatives from the school district's special education department and many of the representatives from the junior high school's administration and faculty stonewalled serious efforts to get adaptations that could have actually helped our son. They especially prevented him from getting an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/special-services/ieps/understanding-individualized-education-programs">Individualized Education Program</a> (IEP). It eventually became clear that they didn't want the inconvenience an IEP would cause them.<br /><br />It's not lost on me that these people are in a challenging situation. They have limited resources and every IEP further strains those resources. They were grappling with the realities of what they were demanded to do by law in the face of what they had capacity to do. But the result was particularly cruel and inhumane for our son.<br /><br />I now realize that we should have retained professional legal help for this matter. A few years later one psychologist was beside herself that our son had still been denied an IEP. "The child is autistic!" she cried out in exasperation, "That qualifies for an IEP on its face." We finally succeeded in getting an IEP four years after our son was diagnosed. But with roughly a year and a half left in our son's public school career, the help it provided was extremely limited.<br /><br /><i>Hint: If your child has special needs, do everything in your power to get an IEP as early as possible. Being nice and cooperative in the face of bureaucratic barriers is a luxury your child can't afford. You might have to go into mama bear snarl mode in your child's best interest.</i><br /><br />In the interim between being diagnosed with autism and receiving an IEP, our son encountered a few educators who were extremely helpful, many who were not, and yet others who were quite detrimental.<br /><br />I still have a bad taste in my mouth about one of our son's junior high math teachers who is a darling of the administration, as well as many students (the ones who think math the way she does) and their parents. Although these people love this teacher, she regularly uses demeaning bullying tactics in class to deal with students who don't comprehend her narrow approach to math as quickly as she wants. <i>Remember kids: bullying is bad unless the teacher does it.</i><br /><br />While one math study hall teacher at the junior high was amazingly caring, her counterpart at the high school informed us in a snippy tone that she had 35 students for an 80-minute period. "That means that I have only about two minutes per period for each student!" she exclaimed. Translation: "I am nothing more than a glorified monitor who is trying to keep the kids from getting too noisy. Don't expect any real help from me. After all, I have fewer than five years left until retirement."<br /><br />On the other hand, there was the high school drama teacher who went far beyond the call of duty to provide accommodations so that our son could play a role in the school play. There was the blunt spoken special education teacher who was tender on the inside but who wouldn't let our son get away with stuff he could reasonably handle.<br /><br />There were also many teachers who let our son fail or nearly fail because they just didn't know what to do with him. He was always very respectful and well spoken, and he never caused problems in class, so they put no extra effort into his case.<br /><br />It's astonishing how many teachers at parent conferences equated classroom behavior with academic capability. This fundamental misconception meant that the only reason many teachers could see for our son's under-performance was laziness. This isn't really the fault of the teachers, since few educators receive much in the way of mental health training (see <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/10/the-failing-first-line-of-defense/504485/">Atlantic article</a>). It is yet another deficiency of the system that caused particular problems for our son.<br /><br /><a href="https://s-i.huffpost.com/gen/2270912/thumbs/o-HELPFUL-ADVICE-570.jpg?8" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="535" height="640" src="https://s-i.huffpost.com/gen/2270912/thumbs/o-HELPFUL-ADVICE-570.jpg?8" width="427" /></a>Many well meaning teachers and administrators treated our son's biological limitations primarily as a motivation problem. We sometimes did too. No one would ever do that to someone with an obvious physical impairment. Consider the comic panels to the left showing what it would be like if we treated physical health issues the way we tend to treat mental health issues.<br /><br />Unfortunately, by the time our son got an IEP, his pattern of failure was bumping up against his off-the-chart level of social anxiety. He was actually not that far from completing all of his requirements for graduation. But by the middle of his senior year of high school he shut down. He just couldn't deal with the social aspects of school anymore. He had successfully completed work packets at home to satisfy some course requirements, but he could no longer bring himself to do the packets either.<br /><br />During all of these years, our son has been working with qualified psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists. We believe that drug therapy has been helpful. Frankly, it's hard to say. It makes a noticeable difference when he forgets to take his meds but part of that could be withdrawal symptoms, I suppose. None of the experts really know. They readily admit that they're just guessing, based on how patients tend to respond.<br /><br />Many of the therapists our son has worked with have been great people, but I can't really say that any one of them has been particularly helpful. We believe, however, that our son's comprehensive treatment&nbsp;package has been helpful overall, despite his ongoing challenges.<br /><br />After our son's high school class graduated without him, we discovered that this event allowed him to take advantage of a program offered by the school district to close the gap for people in our son's situation; high school seniors with certain conditions who didn't graduate with their class but who are close to completing their graduation requirements. We learned about the existence of this program purely by fluke.<br /><br />Our son ended up with a handful of packets to complete. The nature of the packets made it obvious that the effort amounted to checking off a few boxes to satisfy some bureaucrats. The packets were not academically challenging for our son but quite literally amounted to psychological torture for him.<br /><br />Thankfully, the packet effort has recently finished, thanks in no small part to my wife, who provided immense support. The office in charge of this kind of thing at the school district has now certified our son's accomplishment and has granted him a full fledged high school diploma that isn't some kind of equivalency certificate.<br /><br /><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JmC6fAAJL._SY355_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="355" height="200" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JmC6fAAJL._SY355_.jpg" width="200" /></a>Some might look at this diploma as a consolation prize, but I am immensely proud of our son. Few high school graduates have endured the level of challenges our son has endured to earn their diploma. He spent years struggling under a system that continually beat him down and sent nonstop messages through countless subvert and overt channels, telling him that he is stupid, deficient, and unworthy.<br /><br />I have deep gratitude in my heart to all who have truly helped our son along the way. Thanks to a few good people and a few obscure programs, our son finally found a path to high school graduation, despite the system's best efforts at rendering this impossible. I am especially grateful for peers who have stuck by our son, even when that kind of friendship has been very hard to maintain. I believe that heaven reserves rare blessings for such individuals.<br /><br />For now our son is moving forward with a program to learn web development. We have no idea where that path will lead. I imagine that our son's journey in life will continue to be more like hiking through a trackless wilderness area than like hiking an established trail. But at least he can now move on from the inhospitable compulsory public education scrambles to the more varied climes of young adulthood.";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/9066779768631132789/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=9066779768631132789";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/9066779768631132789";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/9066779768631132789";s:4:"link";s:83:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2018/08/our-autistic-son-graduates-high-school.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:5;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-6484169102335933498";s:9:"published";s:29:"2018-07-18T22:01:00.000-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2018-07-19T14:00:32.503-06:00";s:5:"title";s:74:"Why I stepped back onto the theater stage after three decades: my daughter";s:12:"atom_content";s:14530:""What? She gets turned into a tree?!" the young man exclaimed one evening at rehearsal. We were about three weeks into preparing for a community theatrical production and this youth was among the cast members who were just discovering the plot of the play.<br /><br />A few weeks earlier I was sitting beside my daughter awaiting my turn to audition, telling myself that I wasn't nervous. Although my number was well prepared and I knew the judges personally, it had been more than three decades since I had tried out for a play. If I didn't at least land a position in the ensemble, I could live with not sharing a theatrical experience with my daughter. But somehow there were still a few butterflies in my stomach.<br /><br />My fears were unfounded. The audition went well, but pretty much everyone who tried out got some kind of position in the cast. Some later quit for various reasons. We ended up with about 70 regular cast members and an equal number of children's chorus members. Most of the regular cast members were in their mid-teens to mid-20s. A handful of us were more seasoned. Despite the cast being comprised of anyone who wanted to be in the play, the level of talent among cast members was astounding, especially for community theater.<br /><br />Being the oldest person in the cast (in the entire production, actually), I began to suspect that acting in live theater is a young person's avocation. Especially after some 3½-hour rehearsals where we practiced high energy islander dance moves over and over. I am literally old enough to be my daughter's grandfather. I have contemporaries who have grandchildren that are older than my daughter. Despite my personal rigorous daily exercise routine, I experienced my share of sore muscles and aching joints.<br /><br />The funny thing about this is that I have been telling my wife ever since we met decades ago that I can't dance. She grew up dancing and cajoled me into taking ballroom dance lessons after we got married. I can sort of lead, if she will tell me what to do next. But dancing doesn't come naturally to me. It's frankly kind of nerve wracking.<br /><br />Dancing in our theatrical production was different because I was told exactly what to do. We had a very talented choreographer/dance director, and he had a very talented assistant. Amazing people. Quite honestly, I had no idea how I could do some of the moves the first time they were introduced. But weeks of doing them over and over produced a sort of muscle memory that eventually allowed me to whip out relatively complex dance moves without even thinking about it.<br /><br />Singing came much more naturally to me. I have been singing for a long time. And while I may not have a great solo voice, I can get by. I had previously worked with our phenomenal music director. She has the rare ability to consistently get people of all ages to perform at levels they didn't think possible.<br /><br />We would usually work through our vocal parts in one rehearsal and then introduce the related dance routines in another rehearsal. Yet later we would put the singing and dancing together. That turned out to be quite challenging for me. But after weeks of repetition it seemed odd to sing a number without doing the related dance moves. Adding acting to the mix provided another layer of challenge, but even that became routine after awhile.<br /><br />Many community theater productions are approached with a certain laxness. That is not the case with our director, whom I have known ever since he was one of my <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Arrow">Order of the Arrow</a> Scouts years ago. I think he is the hardest working person I have ever known in theater. He harbors a somewhat unique blend of talent, expertise, vision, leadership, and dedication. His productions are fun but very demanding.<br /><br />Months earlier the community had decided to produce the play <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_on_This_Island">Once On This Island</a>. This is a great play for community theater because, like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_and_the_Amazing_Technicolor_Dreamcoat">Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat</a>, it is mostly music with very little dialogue and you can put a lot of people on stage. Our script was closer to the original 1990-91 Broadway version rather than the revival version that is currently playing on Broadway to rave reviews.<br /><br />The protagonist in OOTI is a young peasant woman named Ti Moune. When my wonderfully supportive wife understood the plot, she drolly said, "So let me get this straight. You are doing a play about a group of villagers comforting a scared little girl by telling her a story about a stalker girl who commits suicide after her dreams for love are dashed, and who then gets turned into a tree." I replied, "Yeah, pretty much."<br /><br />But this isn't the message of the play. Witchcraft and wizardry in Harry Potter present many fun and interesting elements, but they're not the message of the series. They simply supply a framework for the real messages that revolve around choosing the right, loyalty to good people and causes, and coming to terms with our own mortality.<br /><br />In a similar fashion, the story, music, dancing, and costumes in OOTI provide a framework for commentary on love, race and class. As permitted by the script, our community implementation dropped the racial focus to center on class. While racial issues are important, our community's population is 0.6% black (see <a href="http://www.city-data.com/city/North-Ogden-Utah.html">North Ogden stats</a>). We couldn't field a cast that would work with the script's racial requirements. Our community's racial mix is a salient issue itself, but that's not going to be resolved by a theatrical production.<br /><br />That's not to say that our production has been free of controversy. The conundrum hasn't been about race, but about the city's new amphitheater, which has essentially been christened by our production. For years the city had a tiny concrete slab for a stage in an outdoor amphitheater set in a beautiful park near my home. Over the years there have been a few shows there. The annual July 4 fireworks celebration, however, has put a lot of pressure on the surrounding residents, as well as the residential infrastructure that was never designed to handle large events.<br /><br />The park came about when a local farmer couple (friends of ours) sold the property to the city at a cut rate two decades ago with several stipulations about its future use, hoping to maintain green space. Three years ago the city formed a committee to develop a vision for the park. The mixed group of citizens and officials eventually came up with a master plan for the park. One of the features the committee proposed was a much grander amphitheater.<br /><br />Plans for the amphitheater moved apace partially because funding became available earlier than expected. Although more than 20 public meetings were held about the matter, nearby residents were caught off guard when construction suddenly began in November last year. As the project progressed, some residents became alarmed at the scope of the project and suddenly became very active in opposing it, based on the original agreements about usage of the park.<br /><br />The trouble was that things were too far along to make major changes at that point. Although I have several concerns with the project, I declined to sign the petition asking that the project be stopped and reworked. Despite my respect for the opponents (many of whom are friends I know and love) and my empathy for many of their concerns, their request to stop the project seemed infeasible.<br /><br />Following unsatisfactory meetings with city officials, my friends filed a lawsuit based on their belief that the amphitheater violated the stipulations in the park's deed. The legal process took long enough that the project was very far along by the time a judge ruled against a temporary injunction seeking to halt the project. My personal concerns revolve more around taxation, insufficient infrastructure and parking, and the possibility (based on care of the city's current recreational facilities) that maintenance of the facility might be less than adequate.<br /><br />But I live a block and a half away, not right across the street from the venue. Many of the concerns of those that live adjacent to the new facility are valid. City officials are now trying to resolve many issues that should have been addressed well before architects began to design the new amphitheater, and which would have changed the nature and scope of the project. It's an unfortunate situation that is not going to be resolved anytime soon.<br /><br />In the meantime, my daughter and I had been cast in roles in the play that was scheduled to be the first theatrical production on the new stage. We had been rehearsing at the city's senior center and at the local high school. The amphitheater project was behind schedule, as is often the case with projects of this nature. When we first began rehearsals on site&nbsp;we were rehearsing in an active construction zone. Although the workers put in overtime to finally get the stage ready in the nick of time, work continues on the beautiful facility even after the run of the play.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/36878479_1939198622798209_6631254450746949632_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&amp;oh=352631c1b8fccd33957e17314acae9e0&amp;oe=5BDD1E3F" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="800" height="130" src="https://scontent-sjc3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/36878479_1939198622798209_6631254450746949632_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&amp;oh=352631c1b8fccd33957e17314acae9e0&amp;oe=5BDD1E3F" width="320" /></a></div>Future phases of the project are slated to include fixed seating, quality lighting and sound, and completed dressing rooms and shops. The building is pretty much an empty shell at present. These phases will be done as funding becomes available.<br /><br />It took me quite a while to warm up to the idea of auditioning for the play in the first place, since I had some clue about how much time and effort would be involved. But my daughter wanted to be in the play. And after contemplating my wife's observation that I had done a lot more with our four sons during their early and mid-teen years than I had done with our daughter (see <a href="https://reachupward.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-week-of-archaeology-in-southwest.html">my 5/16/18 post</a>), I kept feeling a whisper in the back of my mind telling me that I needed to share this experience with our daughter.<br /><br />There were a dozen other parents involved in the play along with with one or more of their children. So I was not alone. More than two months of rigorous rehearsals led to the first of our five performances. Four of the shows sold out and they even ended up adding a special encore performance due to demand. While our director initially worried about breaking even, he reported to the city council last night that the show cleared a decent profit that will go into the city's arts budget.<br /><br />Some of my neighbors were surprised to see me act in the play. But I have long harbored an enjoyment of being involved in live theater. It had just been a long time since that enjoyment had taken me onto the stage itself.<br /><br />My daughter and I now have another shared experience under our belts; a demanding experience that lasted three months. It was amazing to work with so many talented people, some of whom have divers world views and most of whom were decades younger than me. It made me feel a lot younger, especially when I had to keep up with them. Despite the size of our cast, I learned the name of each member of our cast and crew, each of whom I have grown to respect and love.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dc6hM1mS4OA/W1ALQRyI9xI/AAAAAAAABhc/eMID1sYicSEt3NCfmDQFZ0A2yizDYgAvQCLcBGAs/s1600/North%2BOgden%2BOnce%2BOn%2BThis%2BIsland%2B-%2Bcast%2Bphoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="927" data-original-width="1298" height="228" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dc6hM1mS4OA/W1ALQRyI9xI/AAAAAAAABhc/eMID1sYicSEt3NCfmDQFZ0A2yizDYgAvQCLcBGAs/s320/North%2BOgden%2BOnce%2BOn%2BThis%2BIsland%2B-%2Bcast%2Bphoto.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Many of the people who saw our play loved it. But more than a few had the same response as did my young fellow cast member about the protagonist being turned into a tree. This plot device would have been easily recognized&nbsp;as a symbol of the tree of life&nbsp;by people in the culture being portrayed. Many cultures have tales about a female, who is capable of literally spawning human life, transforming into the tree of life to bring about renewal and healing. So it is with OOTI.<br /><br />Toward the end of the show we sang a number called <a href="https://youtu.be/oosL8m4Nq_w?t=67">Why We Tell the Story</a>. One of the final messages in the song includes the following lines:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>So I hope that you will tell this tale tomorrow.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>It will help your heart remember and relive.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>It will help you feel the anger and the sorrow</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>And FORGIVE.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>For out of what we live and we believe,</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Our lives become the stories that we weave.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>A friend who played Asaka in our play (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD998TmCCs8">see Broadway version</a>) said that she thought she was years past being able to do live theater before her kids talked her into auditioning. She wrote, "I overcame all my fears of getting up in front of people. I worked at getting my voice back. I even lost [weight]. It gave me back.....something....I don't even know what that something even is, but I know there is something in me that is better."<br /><br />That's how I feel too. I am a different person than I was three months ago. Something in me is better. And this is why we tell the story.";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/6484169102335933498/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=6484169102335933498";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/6484169102335933498";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/6484169102335933498";s:4:"link";s:82:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2018/07/why-i-stepped-back-onto-theater-stage.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:6;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-8338222833466669880";s:9:"published";s:29:"2018-06-19T15:45:00.002-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2018-06-19T15:45:10.042-06:00";s:5:"title";s:69:"I changed my mind and attended my high school reunion, and it was ...";s:12:"atom_content";s:3862:"A few months ago <a href="https://reachupward.blogspot.com/2018/01/i-probably-wont-attend-my-high-school.html">I wrote</a> that I probably wouldn't attend my high school reunion. But something kept niggling in the back of my mind telling me that I ought to go to the reunion anyway. That thought persisted until I finally started giving it serious consideration.<br /><br />After pondering the matter, I realized that I was mostly concerned about trying to fit into the same social structures that existed decades ago when we were all kids. I was worried about what others might think about me. In other words, I was making the reunion all about me.<br /><br />The rational part of me long ago realized that making myself the center of matters is a sure fire way to achieve unhappiness. We are happiest when we reduce selfishness and increase care and concern for others. This doesn't mean that we don't engage in proper self care. After all, your ability to serve others is directly proportionate to your capacity to do so. I'm talking about a healthy balance between regard for self and for others.<br /><br />My focus changed as I thought about the reunion being a platform for serving others, allowing me to commit to attend. My wife was happy to attend with me. She enjoys that kind of sociality more than I do.<br /><br />There were 499 in my graduating class. After all these years, about a quarter of those came to the reunion, many with a spouse or a friend in tow. The event was held at the high school where we attended. We still live in the same community. Our four sons have attended that school, as will our daughter. I am currently involved in a community event that has included many meetings at the high school. It's a very familiar place to me, so I wasn't uncomfortable at all.<br /><br />It was remarkable how many people were easily recognizable even before seeing their name tags. There were still quite a few who I would not have recognized had I not seen their name tags. It didn't take me long to discover that none of the people I used to hang out with showed up. No matter. I found plenty of people with whom to touch base.<br /><br />Interestingly, there didn't seem to be much concern about social status. I suspect you see a lot more of that kind of thing 10 and 20 years after graduation. Four decades out people didn't seem to care much about it. They just wanted to connect with others who had some kind of common background.<br /><br />We ended up sitting at a table with three classmates I knew but had never hung out with during high school. We had run in different social circles and hadn't interacted with each other much back in those days. My wife and I still had a great time them and their spouses.<br /><br />A display had been arranged showing obituaries of class members who had passed away. I had known of about half of those deaths. While it was sad, the death rate was very close to average for our age demographic. So it was about what could be expected. I suppose that means that there will be a lot more of those in 10 years at the next reunion.<br /><br />Our senior class president had prepared a number of memories. He also invited anyone who wished to share memories. Some were funny and some were tender. But all in all, quite enjoyable. He noted the couples who had been married nearly as long as we have been graduated. Two of my classmates each had 10 children. One classmate had 28 grandchildren. Wow. It looks like my wife and I are still years away from having grandchildren. A surprising number of classmates came from out of state.<br /><br />At the end of the evening we gathered on the front steps of the school for a photo op. Many lingered to chat more afterward, as if they didn't want to leave. The Lord willing, I will see many of them again in 10 years. Best of luck to each in the interim.";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/8338222833466669880/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=8338222833466669880";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/8338222833466669880";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/8338222833466669880";s:4:"link";s:83:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2018/06/i-changed-my-mind-and-attended-my-high.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:7;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-5815642590074773784";s:9:"published";s:29:"2018-05-16T13:54:00.001-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2018-05-16T14:10:18.875-06:00";s:5:"title";s:69:"A week of archaeology in southwest Colorado with junior high students";s:12:"atom_content";s:12872:""You've done a lot of Scouting, church, and school activities with your boys over the years," my wife said one day months ago. "Now it's time for you to do some activities with your daughter." She was right, of course.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Having been a dad involved in Scouting and church young men groups, it has been pretty natural to attend Scouting and church youth events with my sons over the years. It hasn't been as natural for me to attend youth events with our daughter. But I could see my wife's point. Thus, I committed to be a chaperone on my daughter's week-long junior high trip.</div><div><br /></div><div>Actually, the trip was only for 9th graders who will be moving to high school next season. The school did this trip for the first time last spring and it was so popular that faculty and staff decided to repeat the event this year.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Given the number of students, teachers, and chaperones attending the event, it was decided to rent 15-passenger vans rather than chartering a bus. The teacher leading the tour and school administrative personnel worked for months with service providers to prepare for our week.</div><div><br /></div><div>Extensive and well organized information about preparing for the trip was provided to attendees (and their parents), preparation meetings were held well in advance, and a final meeting was held just a few days before the event to review the students' packing jobs. This allowed us on the morning of departure&nbsp;to move from gathering to leaving within a short period of time.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>We spent much of that day driving to the <a href="https://www.crowcanyon.org/">Crow Canyon Archaeological Center</a> near Cortez, Colorado. Three other schools spent the week at Crow Canyon with us. One was from South Carolina. Some of these school groups were comprised of 6th graders. Younger students participated in activities that were appropriate to them while older students participated in somewhat more advanced activities.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OS6tGZ79jK4/WvIMQjfLsQI/AAAAAAAABfw/vS6up4SeutITDyoye_w1lP1cgcHBUTm2ACLcBGAs/s1600/0501181107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OS6tGZ79jK4/WvIMQjfLsQI/AAAAAAAABfw/vS6up4SeutITDyoye_w1lP1cgcHBUTm2ACLcBGAs/s320/0501181107.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60857-d102661-Reviews-Crow_Canyon_Archaeological_Center-Cortez_Colorado.html">One TripAdvisor reviewer wrote</a>, "Crow Canyon Archaeological Center is a world-class archaeological education center and campus hidden away near Cortez, Colorado. ...&nbsp;Crow Canyon (CCAC) holds summer field school activities for children and adolescents. It has living quarters on the premises as well as a group dining facility for class participants and staff. ... Classes are also offered for adults as well as a summer lecture series, and an international travel adventure series. Housed on campus are various archaeology research professionals (archeo-botanists, field archaeologists, etc.) as well as a talented education staff. There is a small museum store and guest area on campus and an authentic replica Anasazi pit house. CCAC is a working educational institution managing archaeological digs in the area as well as classes. Well worth a visit! Fascinating place!"</div><div><br /></div><div>I agree. Having attended many Scout and youth camp facilities, I was surprised by the quality of our group's housing. Our "cabin" was a modern facility with three rooms that each hosted four bunk beds (8 beds in each room) and two rooms that could fit 3-4 people, roomy bathrooms, and a nice porch area where we held group gatherings. Meals were served in the lodge. The (nice) Gates Building includes offices, classrooms, and lab facilities.</div><div><br /></div><div>The faculty and staff at Crow Canyon were superb. Each group was assigned an educator who worked closely with the group throughout the week. We loved our educator, Cara so much that the school has requested that she be assigned to our school's group next spring. (Yes, the school has already signed up for next year. Crow Canyon is that good.) Our group also worked with other educators in various workshops. Each educator was professional and knowledgeable, and interfaced well with the students. Very impressive.</div><div><br /></div><div>Workshops were, well, work. They were quite rigorous. Each student received a workbook that they used throughout the week, building on knowledge gained step by step. But the workshops were also intriguing and engaging.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-581CC2Mm8Cg/WvO37taIA0I/AAAAAAAABgg/_etrMxGD68EL3iThXShbQwY0oq13rf01ACLcBGAs/s1600/0503181003_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-581CC2Mm8Cg/WvO37taIA0I/AAAAAAAABgg/_etrMxGD68EL3iThXShbQwY0oq13rf01ACLcBGAs/s320/0503181003_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>After spending one afternoon on a simulated excavation in one of the lab rooms, our group spent an entire day excavating at the <a href="http://www.crowcanyon.org/index.php/chaco-outliers-project">Haynie site</a> under the close supervision of professional archaeologists. This was tedious work but most of our youth worked quite diligently. Nearly everyone unearthed ancient artifacts that were marked and set aside for cleaning, cataloging, and analysis.</div><div><br /></div><div>We toured <a href="http://www.crowcanyon.org/index.php/chaco-outliers-project">Mesa Verde National Park</a> at the end of the week with our assigned educator. I have been to Mesa Verde on other occasions, but this time was so much more meaningful because we had a much greater awareness of what we were experiencing, having spent the week learning about the ancient inhabitants of the area through many hands-on experiences. We also had a personal guide in our educator.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CJlX5S-MBuk/WvO3O9TqnoI/AAAAAAAABgQ/SSQI5t_Fy9kpsnNws2c844zLyrLqI3xiACLcBGAs/s1600/0504181404_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CJlX5S-MBuk/WvO3O9TqnoI/AAAAAAAABgQ/SSQI5t_Fy9kpsnNws2c844zLyrLqI3xiACLcBGAs/s320/0504181404_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>While at Mesa Verde we took a tour of the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/meve/learn/historyculture/cd_balcony_house.htm">Balcony House cliff dwelling</a>. The park ranger who led the tour was a remarkably spry and sharp 70-year-old Native American fellow. Not only was he very knowledgeable, he had a marvelous sense of humor that kept us all engaged. At the end of the tour he expertly played a beautiful song on a Native flute to honor the ancestors whose home we were visiting.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the middle of the week our group took a break from Crow Canyon to go river rafting. As luck would have it, the day we had arranged months in advance turned out to be the nastiest weather of the trip, featuring cold temperatures, thunder, rain, snow, and hail.</div><div><br /></div><div>While on our way to Durango, the rafting company called and said that it wasn't safe to do our run that was scheduled for the Piedra River. Upon arriving at the <a href="https://durangorafting.com/">Mountain Waters Rafting Company</a>&nbsp;we consulted with the staff. They felt comfortable offering us two or three runs down portions of the Animas River that runs through the town of Durango.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/a8/05/8f/filename-mountain-waters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="550" height="239" src="https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/a8/05/8f/filename-mountain-waters.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>In hindsight I see that the rafting experience we ended up with was much better suited to the nature of our group than the more adventurous Piedra River trip would have been. As it was, we donned wetsuits and made two runs down segments of the Animas River in rafts and inflatable kayaks. It was cold, but we had a blast. They offered us a third run, but everyone was done by the end of the second run.</div><div><br /></div><div>I can't say enough good things about the Mountain Waters Rafting staff. Not only were they highly trained and extremely competent professionals, they were very fun to be around. They pulled together our tour on the fly and made it work for us. They also served us hot chocolate and lunch. I heartily recommend Mountain Waters Rafting. Don't just take my word for it. Check the <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g33397-d2558029-Reviews-Mountain_Waters_Rafting_Adventure_Company-Durango_Colorado.html">TripAdvisor</a> and <a href="https://www.yelp.com/biz/mountain-waters-rafting-durango">Yelp!</a> reviews.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the way home from our week at Crow Canyon we stopped at a tourist trap south of Moab, Utah called <a href="http://theholeintherock.com/">Hole N" the Rock</a>, where we took the 12-minute tour. The home built inside sandstone caverns is remarkable. But to me this this place seems pretty strange and quirky, like any number of other <a href="https://www.google.com/search?ei=DYv8WoC0IqzSjwSUpo6gBw&amp;q=odd+american+tourist+attractions&amp;oq=quirky+american+tourist&amp;gs_l=psy-ab.3.0.0i22i30k1.21994.25303.0.27961.23.23.0.0.0.0.136.1934.18j5.23.0..2..0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.22.1865...0j35i39k1j0i131k1j0i67k1j0i131i67k1j0i20i264k1j0i20i263i264k1j0i10k1.0.Dnil8IlZlCo">odd roadside attractions</a> that dot the American landscape.</div><div><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dqtkm2SQs4A/WvO3dJlhO8I/AAAAAAAABgU/SfFTfXCp42A9Pq4LbPkXkNaqdxC0KYXxwCLcBGAs/s1600/Hole%2BN%2Bthe%2BRock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="900" height="110" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dqtkm2SQs4A/WvO3dJlhO8I/AAAAAAAABgU/SfFTfXCp42A9Pq4LbPkXkNaqdxC0KYXxwCLcBGAs/s320/Hole%2BN%2Bthe%2BRock.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div>The stuffed horses and mule in the living room of the house creeped out one of our teachers. After hearing the story about how the critters were obtained, she quipped about the guy coming home and saying, "Look what I found frozen to death in the hills. We're going to put them in our living room!" As we were driving away she said, "There's a place I don't ever have to visit again." The kids, on the other hand, were quite entertained.</div><div><br /></div><div>During our week away from home our community of travelers grew much closer to each other. Pretty much everyone reported greatly enjoying the trip. But after a week away, even with good accommodations, everyone was ready to go home. My daughter feels like this was a valuable experience. It didn't make her want to become an archaeologist but she now has a much greater appreciation for that science and for the cultures we studied.</div><div><br /></div><div>This was not an inexpensive experience. Many students worked to earn money for the trip. In addition to the amount paid by students (and chaperones), the school covered another portion that was undisclosed, although, it was hinted that it may have been about half the cost.</div><div><br /></div><div>I also wish to add that Crow Canyon isn't just for school or youth groups. Anyone who is interested in the cultures of early peoples of that area or who has yen for archaeology is welcome to inquire about visiting. It was a very enriching experience for our group and for me personally. I am grateful that I was able to share this experience with my daughter.<br /><br />This isn't the last adventure I will have with my daughter. Due to her interest in theater, I auditioned with her and we both landed roles in a community theater production that will play this summer. It's already turning out to be a lot of work. But that is a topic for another post.</div>";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/5815642590074773784/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=5815642590074773784";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/5815642590074773784";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/5815642590074773784";s:4:"link";s:79:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-week-of-archaeology-in-southwest.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:8;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-2406651122264083197";s:9:"published";s:29:"2018-05-11T15:19:00.000-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2018-05-13T19:52:27.766-06:00";s:5:"title";s:86:"A longtime LDS Scouter's thoughts on the LDS Church discontinuing Scouting sponsorship";s:12:"atom_content";s:12889:"<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Last May I <a href="http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-lds-church-bsa-partnership-will.html">wrote</a>, "Scouting will continue. The LDS Church will continue. Both organizations will continue their partnership for now, although, it seems clear that the partnership must ultimately cease at some point." In October I <a href="http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/10/boy-scouts-to-allow-girls-to-join-cubs.html">wrote</a>, "I suspect that the fact that [the Church] will ultimately leave Scouting can't help but diminish its influence with the [the BSA]. Each of these two organizations must pursue the paths that make the most sense to them."<br /><br />We now know that the formal relationship between <a href="https://lds.org/?lang=eng">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints</a> and the <a href="https://www.scouting.org/">Boy Scouts of America</a> will cease at the end of 2019 (see <a href="https://www.lds.org/youth/childrenandyouth/joint-church-bsa-statement?lang=eng">joint statement by the LDS Church and the BSA announcing their upcoming divorce</a>). I'm not prescient. It has just seemed quite apparent to me that the LDS Church and the BSA had been on diverging paths for a long time so that they would eventually part ways.<br /><br />BSA membership has been declining for a number of years and the organization has been struggling to find relevancy in a changing culture. The BSA's own studies show that most parents of Scouting age youth see Scouting as old fashioned and not relevant to the needs of their kids and their families. The BSA must change that or the organization will die.<br /><br />Some of the decisions made by the BSA as it has tried to reorient to modern social patterns have seemed calculated to alienate the Church. A serious rift developed between the two organizations during the summer of 2015 and people held their breath while the Church re-evaluated its relationship with the BSA (see my <a href="http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2015/07/will-bsa-drop-its-ban-on-gay-adult.html">7/17/2015</a>, <a href="http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2015/07/bsa-allows-gay-leaders-will-lds-church.html">7/27/2015</a>, <a href="http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2015/07/will-lds-church-drop-bsa-part-2.html">7/30/2015</a>, and <a href="http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-lds-church-will-stick-with-bsa.html">8/26/2015</a>&nbsp;posts). On August 26, 2015 the Church all but said that the days of that relationship were numbered.<br /><br />The Church began sponsoring BSA units 105 years ago when the Church was largely a North American concern, mostly centered around the Wasatch Front and nearby areas, with a small number of members scattered around other parts of the world. During the post-WWII era both organizations aligned well with the mainstream American ideals of&nbsp;stoicism, patriotism, and conformity to societal norms.<br /><br />I became a Cub Scout half a century ago as the tumultuous cultural revolution of that era started to get into swing. After decades of cultural shift, mainstream American culture now identifies more strongly with the ideals of&nbsp;authenticity, social responsibility, diversity, and inclusion. Scouting has gone through some tough times as it has struggled to keep up with these changes.<br /><br />During my lifetime the LDS Church has become a multinational concern in a big way. More than half of its members now live outside of North America. While Scouting is also a worldwide movement, its offerings differ dramatically from country to country. For at least 15 years the Church has been up front about wanting to develop streamlined youth programs that meet the needs of its youth membership around the globe. Church leaders have bluntly stated that due to the diverse nature of Scouting programs in various countries, Scouting couldn't be part of that solution in the long term.<br /><br />Many surmised last May when the Church announced that it was discontinuing its sponsorship of Varsity Scout and Venturing units that the move was a precursor to the Church discontinuing all Scouting sponsorship. It turns out that they were right.<br /><br />Some surmised that LDS Scouting would die as soon as Church President Thomas S. Monson did; that his strong support of Scouting was the only reason the Church continued its relationship with the BSA. Despite this week's announcement coming four months after President Monson's passing, I still feel that this view is quite cynical and hardly in keeping with the doctrine of how the Lord runs his church.<br /><br />My point is that no one should be much surprised by the dissolution of formal ties between the LDS Church and the BSA. Still, it seems jarring to many of my associates who have been strong Scouters, even as Scouting's critics are cheering the move.<br /><br />More than 50 years ago as I attended Cub Scout pack meetings when my older brothers were in the program. I wanted to be a Cub Scout so badly that my teeth hurt. It was similar when I was nearly old enough to move up to the Scout troop. And again when I had the opportunity to become a member of the <a href="https://oa-bsa.org/">Order of the Arrow</a>, Scouting's national honor society.<br /><br />Throughout my adult life I have striven to keep the oath I took when I became an Eagle Scout "to give back more to Scouting than it has given to me" by serving in volunteer Scouting positions at the unit, district, and council levels. Over the past 50 years Scouting has given me irreplaceable experiences and has brought me into contact with wonderful people that I never would have otherwise known. I have seen many young men become high quality adults through Scouting. I deeply cherish the meaning Scouting involvement has brought into my life.<br /><br />This has all been possible only because my church, the LDS Church, has sponsored Scouting. I seriously doubt I would have been involved in Scouting at all had it not been for the fact that my local congregation sponsored Scouting units when I was younger.<br /><br />I'm not naive enough to be unaware of those whose LDS Scouting experiences have been quite different than my own. The program isn't equally administered and doesn't equally appeal to people. As noted above, it has also been obvious to me that the Church and Scouting have decreasingly fit well together over time. I cherish what has been. But I understand that it's time to move to a different paradigm.<br /><br />The next phase for the 10 Scout councils that presently have significant numbers of LDS sponsored units is going to be painful. They now have a year and a half to become what the vast majority of Scout councils have spent decades becoming. Instead of focusing mainly on relationships with the Church, these councils are going to have to work to build community sponsored units where there is little precedent for such.<br /><br />This means building nearly from scratch a framework that aligns potential sponsors (schools, civic groups, businesses, etc.) with willing participants. Where will the funds come from to fund the activities of these units? Where will they meet? How will recruitment occur? These are just some of the challenges ahead for Scouting in these councils.<br /><br />While there are many Latter-day Saints that support Scouting, my gut feel is that only a small percentage of Church members currently involved Scouting will move to community units. I told my wife that I expect the number to be about the same as the number of LDS families involved in competition league athletics. Most will see Scouting as overlapping with the Church's new youth programs and will see little need for the duplication.<br /><br />I strongly suspect that some Scout councils currently dominated by LDS sponsored units will end up collapsing and being combined with other councils. I empathize with those whose jobs will be affected. Many of them are friends of mine.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900018204/breaking-up-is-hard-to-do-lds-boy-scouts-partnership-wont-be-easy-to-disentangle.html">This D-News article</a> does a good job of discussing what might become of the properties owned and operated by some of these councils. Some of the officials quoted seem to expect the facilities to largely continue to operate with Church groups as customers. It is noted that the Church has few large camping facilities in these areas. Many people who have minimal understanding of the property issues involved think that the Church will simply buy many of these facilities from the Scouts.<br /><br />It's probably going to work out quite differently than either of these parties seem to think. There are a number of complex issues involved. Some properties, such as my beloved <a href="https://www.trappertrails.org/loll">Camp Loll</a> are only leased from the Forest Service. A few others have ownership arrangements that could cause the properties to revert to the original donors.<br /><br />Scout camps that serve mostly LDS populations tend to keep costs down by enlisting staffers who work essentially for free or close to it. This is strongly facilitated by the LDS-Scouting pipeline which has provided the necessary volume of willing participants. Without that pipeline it's going to be very difficult to recruit sufficient staff without paying them an acceptable wage. But paying staffers even minimum wage would increase camp fees beyond what most LDS groups would be willing to pay. Many LDS families think Scout camp fees are too expensive as is, despite prices being far lower than most other Scout camps around the country.<br /><br />My Scout council has eight major camps: 5 for Scouts, 2 for Cub Scouts, and 1 for high adventure. Some of the Scout camps also offer high adventure programs. Filling these camps has become increasingly difficult. Camps have switched some weeks from Scouting activities to Young Women camps, youth conferences, and family camps. Yet some of our camps have still been struggling to remain viable.<br /><br />Some camp properties sit on land that is now prime recreation real estate. Their current values are so high that I can't imagine that Scout councils won't quickly sell them when these councils are hurting for funds and are operating the camps at a deficit anyway.<br /><br />Another question is how much camping LDS youth groups are going to do. We haven't seen the Church's new youth programs yet, so we don't know. But the Church recently revised its Young Women camp program (see <a href="https://www.lds.org/church/news/changes-to-young-women-camp-detailed-in-new-guide?lang=eng">Church article</a>) to allow for flexibility with camping out. Girls can participate in the Young Women camp program without actually going to camp. Camping has always been a strong feature of Scouting, but it hardly seems essential to the mission of the LDS Church. Why would anyone think that the Church's new youth programs are going to strongly promote camping?<br /><br />As a Scouter I have seen a huge drop in camping interest among LDS families in my area over the past three decades. It used to be very easy to find 13-year-old LDS Scouts who had completed at least 15 nights of Scout camping during the previous two years, which is one of the qualifications for joining the Order of the Arrow. Although the actual number of LDS Scouts in my area has increased during that time, only a tiny fraction of 13-year-old LDS Scouts in my area today have done that much camping.<br /><br />The rare LDS Scout troops around that actually have monthly camping programs often find that boys won't show up for the camp outs. Parents offer excuses such as wanting to take the family to the movies.<br /><br />I'm not trying to downplay the importance of family together time. I'm merely trying to illustrate that the enthusiasm for camping isn't what it once was. I'm trying to show why I think that it's going to be impossible for the affected Scout councils to retain all or even most of their camp properties.<br /><br />It's not really possible for me to put into words the emotions I feel about my years of LDS Scouting. It has literally been a lifetime of experiences. But I'm not crying about the end of this era. I have seen it coming for a long time now. 2020 will bring a whole new set of challenges and opportunities for the Church and for the Scouts. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.<br /><br />My role in that process isn't at all clear to me at this point. But my wife, who is Cubmaster in a Cub Scout pack sponsored by the Church, has more than mildly suggested that come 2020 it will be time for us to shift our service efforts to a different focus. We'll see.";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/2406651122264083197/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=2406651122264083197";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/2406651122264083197";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/2406651122264083197";s:4:"link";s:84:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-longtime-lds-scouters-thoughts-on-lds.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"1";}}i:9;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-1384213464065553048";s:9:"published";s:29:"2018-04-04T13:45:00.001-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2018-04-04T13:47:36.633-06:00";s:5:"title";s:66:"Can the Order of the Arrow be rescued from impending obsolescence?";s:12:"atom_content";s:14825:"<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JW4q2vU4xHQ/Wrv5v1VUjNI/AAAAAAAABc0/Of1Lfy-a34IL3L5032CbAMPb1urTL3TjACLcBGAs/s1600/1200px-Order_of_the_Arrow.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JW4q2vU4xHQ/Wrv5v1VUjNI/AAAAAAAABc0/Of1Lfy-a34IL3L5032CbAMPb1urTL3TjACLcBGAs/s200/1200px-Order_of_the_Arrow.svg.png" width="200" /></a>I recently sat among a roomful of <a href="https://oa-bsa.org/">Order of the Arrow</a> advisers enduring yet another episode of hand wringing and calls to action. It was rather depressing to look around the room at a dozen and a half aging folks droning on and on essentially about how to recapture the glory days of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.scouting.org/">Boy Scouts</a> and the OA. This kind of thing has become increasingly common in my area in recent years.<br /><br />My love of and appreciation for the Scouting program and the Order of the Arrow run deep. These organizations took me as an insecure, dumpy kid and gave me a place to belong, a framework for development, and a way to become a confident leader. I have seen these programs benefit many boys over the years, including my own four sons.<br /><br /><i><b>Values on the move</b></i><br />But American culture has shifted significantly during my half-century of involvement with the BSA. The civic ideals of stoicism, patriotism, and conformity to societal norms that were strong during the post-WWII era have given way to the values of authenticity, social responsibility, diversity, and inclusion. It's not that the former ideals no longer exist or that the latter ideals weren't found five decades ago, or that one set is superior to the other; there has just been an undeniable shift in focus over time.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g_yU3TvH20I/Wrv6Wt_EreI/AAAAAAAABc8/DmQjrihhy7sDVz6anG4wNbMUNW4auGDPwCLcBGAs/s1600/shifting-values.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="216" data-original-width="430" height="100" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-g_yU3TvH20I/Wrv6Wt_EreI/AAAAAAAABc8/DmQjrihhy7sDVz6anG4wNbMUNW4auGDPwCLcBGAs/s200/shifting-values.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Organizations that were designed to mesh well with the mid-20th Century value focus have either changed or have become increasingly irrelevant. The decline of civic and service oriented organizations over my lifetime is well documented. Looking back at my recent OA adviser meeting, I realize that it's no coincidence that everyone in the room represented the old focus as opposed to the new.<br /><br />Increased valuation of diversity and inclusion fosters stronger cultural awareness. This is welcome but it presents a particular problem for the Order of the Arrow. A decreasing percentage of Americans think it's cool for non-Natives to dress as Natives and to use Native elements to add an air of mystique to their club. While this feature of the OA might have been more attractive at one time, it likely repels more people than it attracts nowadays.<br /><br />When it comes to inclusion, it's hard to get past the fact that the OA is by definition an exclusive society. Is it possible to be both exclusive and inclusive at the same time? It may be possible to develop an organization that requires high standards while including people from diverse walks of life, but it's not easy. Challenges can be seen in factors as simple as camping, which I will explore later.<br /><br /><b><i>More to do than ever</i></b><br />Over my lifetime there has been an explosion of options vying for kids' time and attention. There were essentially three little league sports back in my day: baseball in the spring and summer, football in the fall, and basketball in the winter. I recall one kid in junior high who was enrolled in martial arts. That seemed incredibly exotic back then.<br /><br />Families today have option overload when it comes to athletic programs for kids. Many of those programs run year round. Martial arts programs are ubiquitous. Many kids that enroll in sports today are pressured to achieve excellence, focusing so intently on a single niche that some facets of normal childhood get crowded out. This same pattern shows itself in other offerings as well, including academics, arts, gaming, leisure, etc.<br /><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A1vejs_pfMg/Wrv7YKcH3BI/AAAAAAAABdI/5PYHl9_3eMgZNwAcf2kCOl-rQ8e2DGMnwCLcBGAs/s1600/Busy-family.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="400" height="268" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A1vejs_pfMg/Wrv7YKcH3BI/AAAAAAAABdI/5PYHl9_3eMgZNwAcf2kCOl-rQ8e2DGMnwCLcBGAs/s320/Busy-family.jpg" width="320" /></a>Many adults think that today's typical kid is a video game addict. Some are. But researchers tend to agree that today's kids have far less unstructured time than their parents did. In an attempt to be responsible, parents often overload their kids with good activities. Reduced unstructured time lends to higher levels of anxiety and other mental health issues among youth and weakens the development of creativity and self-sufficiency.<br /><br />It isn't just the kids who are busy. Both parents in most two-parent families work outside the home and there are more single parents raising families than ever before, so families have less unstructured time and less together time than used to be the case. Thus, families tend to prize their time more than the benefits that might be offered by the dizzying array of options vying for their time, no matter how good these might seem.<br /><br /><b><i>The technology connection</i></b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c9etQsmE0ZA/Wrv4lFgoY3I/AAAAAAAABcs/Glnrhd00NIswtSm6l1Daeit1owf31D5VgCLcBGAs/s1600/water_buffalo_hat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="510" data-original-width="670" height="151" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c9etQsmE0ZA/Wrv4lFgoY3I/AAAAAAAABcs/Glnrhd00NIswtSm6l1Daeit1owf31D5VgCLcBGAs/s200/water_buffalo_hat.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>The ways people connect and socially advance have changed since I was a kid. Mimicking the reality of the day, characters from the 1960s cartoon <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flintstones">The Flintstones</a>&nbsp;went to the Water Buffalo Lodge and the bowling alley to network and connect. Technology has radically altered this paradigm. People still long to connect with others, but the need to be in close physical proximity to others for this purpose has greatly diminished. Many get by just fine rarely talking with others on the phone. Texting and instant messaging is preferred. Direct connection is still needed, but not nearly as much as once was the case.<br /><br /><b><i>Happy camping</i></b><br />Since its beginning the Order of the Arrow has been an association of honor campers. Qualification for OA nomination includes having spent 15 nights doing outdoor Scout camping over the previous 24 months. Camping is quite popular among Americans. Well, among white, relatively affluent Americans. Of the 37 million American families that went camping last year, 4 of every 5 of them were white, despite the general trend toward racial diversity. Some researchers suggest that this issue could be more based in economics and finances than in race. It turns out that camping isn't cheap.<br /><br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KWiqR0vGoC8/WsQJDg2nZoI/AAAAAAAABfA/_K6b7_up5G4G_OuYdmTzPIm9Qqmk8NJUACLcBGAs/s1600/Scout%2Bcamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="179" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KWiqR0vGoC8/WsQJDg2nZoI/AAAAAAAABfA/_K6b7_up5G4G_OuYdmTzPIm9Qqmk8NJUACLcBGAs/s320/Scout%2Bcamp.jpg" width="320" /></a>A quick perusal of Order of the Arrow related Google images, while hardly scientific, shows only an occasional non-white person. Kind of odd for a society based on Native Americans. When I attended the 2015 National Order of the Arrow conference, all but a small number of the 15,000 attendees and staff were white like me. Given shifting American racial demographics, organizations today need to appeal to more diverse audiences to remain vibrant. How do you do that when one of your core features, camping in this case, tends to lack appeal among many minority groups?<br /><br /><i><b>Choose your change</b></i><br />These are just a few of the social changes that have occurred since my youth. As this cultural shift continues, organizations must change to remain relevant. While not completely analogous to nonprofits, much can be learned from the way companies have handled the cultural shift. Some of their various approaches have included:<br /><ul><li>Decrease breadth to focus on a particular niche. While membership may decline, a focused approach can breed vibrancy and should enhance loyalty among remaining constituents. But this means lots of downsizing and alienation of many current stakeholders. <a href="https://www.motorola.com/us/home">Motorola</a> is among a number of companies that have strengthened returns in recent years by spinning off and selling various pieces to focus on core strengths.</li><li>Shift values to match current broader social values. This is an attempt to retain breadth by shifting constituencies. It entails purposefully alienating some constituencies to appeal to new ones. The BSA took this approach when it accepted openly gay youth and adults into its ranks, angering some of its more conservative membership. <a href="https://oldspice.com/en">Old Spice</a> followed this path when it changed its focus to younger men a few years ago. <a href="https://www.lego.com/en-us">Lego</a> successfully shed its old fashioned image to go from near-bankruptcy to being "the <a href="https://www.apple.com/">Apple</a> of toys" over the last decade.</li><li>Become something else entirely. <a href="https://www.hasbro.com/en-us/">Hasbro</a> used to deal mainly in textiles and school supplies before successfully shifting entirely to toys.</li><li>Maintain the status quo and slowly fade away. Anyone remember <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldsmobile">Oldsmobile</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL">AOL</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbuster_LLC">Blockbuster Video</a>, or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fotomat">Fotomat</a>? Each of these was once ubiquitous. They are among a huge number of concerns that have followed the road to obsolescence.</li></ul><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yVOXEgCHQTk/Wrv_v2kEbBI/AAAAAAAABds/x82BJWcLLS8GHFYW4CkWxBAemYmTL6fzACLcBGAs/s1600/old-way-new-way.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1400" height="128" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yVOXEgCHQTk/Wrv_v2kEbBI/AAAAAAAABds/x82BJWcLLS8GHFYW4CkWxBAemYmTL6fzACLcBGAs/s200/old-way-new-way.jpg" width="200" /></a>You might notice that all of these options involve change. The only difference is that uncomfortable change is deliberately chosen under the first three options, while the last approach provides the illusion of stability for a while. Maintaining the status quo is by far the easiest way to go but the results are predictably terrible.<br /><br />Since both the BSA and the OA are national organizations, the adults who sat in that room with me the other day have little capacity to determine which kinds of change those national organizations will embrace. This frustrates local leaders, but demanding that members achieve the results of yore by doing more of what was successful in yesteryear's culture isn't going to make it happen.<br /><br /><i><b>Focusing on what we can do, not what we can't do</b></i><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zCV7Ir6Ha9E/WrwAhWpLVaI/AAAAAAAABd0/z7e9m9dhhPYGWtnhJD0m9GmHyQbbQ3yXgCLcBGAs/s1600/stop-sign-run-over.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="300" height="166" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zCV7Ir6Ha9E/WrwAhWpLVaI/AAAAAAAABd0/z7e9m9dhhPYGWtnhJD0m9GmHyQbbQ3yXgCLcBGAs/s200/stop-sign-run-over.png" width="200" /></a>This doesn't mean that today's Scouters are powerless to effect positive change. Instead of expecting the impossible to happen, they could undertake a <a href="https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm">SWOT analysis</a> to explore strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This would entail acceptance of the ongoing cultural shift. It would involve asking what we are going to do now instead of ignoring the shift or pretending that a handful of old Scouters can stop cultural change in its tracks.<br /><br />We can't stop the flow of history or meaningfully change the direction of the national organizations. We can't expect to increase success by doing more of what is no longer successful, regardless of how well it once worked. We can consider which approaches are likely to bring the best bang for our buck and then focus our efforts in that direction.<br /><br />I am convinced that the Boy Scouts and the Order of the Arrow can be vibrant, successful organizations even as the culture changes. But I also believe that success may look quite different than it did back in the day.<br /><br />That might be a hard pill to swallow for an organization that prides itself on deep traditions. It might even require some longtime leaders to step aside so that the organization they love can be saved. So what is it going to be: pretend that we can recapture the past or give up some cherished traditions to boldly walk the uncharted path into the future?<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UdWB1i5Xsos/WrwF7rW1pAI/AAAAAAAABeY/w4Sbl1xt7HgAFrT2hC9jbeSOkxHpfofZACLcBGAs/s1600/0909171540_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UdWB1i5Xsos/WrwF7rW1pAI/AAAAAAAABeY/w4Sbl1xt7HgAFrT2hC9jbeSOkxHpfofZACLcBGAs/s320/0909171540_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/1384213464065553048/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=1384213464065553048";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/1384213464065553048";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/1384213464065553048";s:4:"link";s:79:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2018/04/can-order-of-arrow-be-rescued-from.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:10;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-4121639426224907983";s:9:"published";s:29:"2018-03-13T17:29:00.003-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2018-09-21T13:13:33.917-06:00";s:5:"title";s:24:"When Anxiety Attacks You";s:12:"atom_content";s:11768:"My eyes popped open to see the darkness of my bedroom. Something seemed wrong but I couldn't tell what it was. Glancing at the clock I saw that I had been asleep for a couple of hours. I tried to shrug off the odd sense of uneasiness and return to sleep. I can usually get back to sleep pretty rapidly.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Not this time. After a few minutes I suddenly started to feel very hot. Soon I bolted into an upright position with sweat pouring off me. My heart was racing. I felt an overpowering sense of distress and borderline nausea.</div><div><br /></div><div>Was I having a heart attack? Some of these things could definitely be <a href="http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HeartAttack/WarningSignsofaHeartAttack/Warning-Signs-of-a-Heart-Attack_UCM_002039_Article.jsp">heart attack symptoms</a>. But my chest didn't feel any different than usual. No pains in my arms, neck, or jaw. No problem breathing. I could even breathe deeply just fine. Even with all of this going on, I was able to access a deep spiritual center that whispered that this wasn't a heart attack.</div><div><br /></div><div>Was it some kind of intestinal issue? I hadn't eaten anything unusual. I hadn't overeaten. My tummy wasn't roiling. Although I was sort of queasy, I didn't feel any urge to vomit. Or to purge from the other end.</div><div><br /></div><div>All I knew for certain was that I desperately wanted to get away from whatever was assaulting me. But realizing that the problem was completely internal, I knew there was nowhere to go for escape. It suddenly dawned on me why some people with mental health issues turn to substance abuse. I would have done just about <i>anything</i>&nbsp;to escape this episode.</div><div><br /></div><div>My loving wife fetched a cold washcloth. After using that for awhile, the heat and sweat retreated and I found myself suddenly shivering and shaking. I wanted to get warm, but at the same time I didn't want to get warm or have anything covering me. The varied and conflicting sensations that washed over and coursed through me left me confused as to what I was actually feeling both physically and psychologically. Was this what insanity is like?</div><div><br /></div><div>After holding my wife's hand for 15 minutes or so the immediate desperation receded. Still, I experienced several additional but less intense waves over the next hour or so. Sometimes it would come on just as I was drifting off to sleep and I would suddenly be awake and distressed again.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm not sure when it all ended, but when Mr. Bladder awakened me a couple of hours later, I was just fine. There was no sign that anything had been wrong.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DJASi1lEDQw/WqhezTQNZWI/AAAAAAAABcQ/-m34mT9lhi07IQ2tAwkmPl_2TiiyxJeagCLcBGAs/s1600/Anxiety-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1143" data-original-width="1600" height="228" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DJASi1lEDQw/WqhezTQNZWI/AAAAAAAABcQ/-m34mT9lhi07IQ2tAwkmPl_2TiiyxJeagCLcBGAs/s320/Anxiety-.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div>What the heck had happened? Two of our children are professionally treated for clinical levels of anxiety, so we are somewhat familiar with anxiety disorders. But this was different. There was an immediacy of some kind of threat. But what? I couldn't consciously put my finger on anything. Why would I suddenly start having anxiety attacks when I am well into my sixth decade?</div><div><br /></div><div>I recall having a panic attack that felt something like this when a snow cave collapsed on me years ago. But that's normal. You're supposed to have a panic attack when you are suddenly in mortal danger. It causes your whole system to kick into survival mode, enabling you to address the immediate threat in powerful ways. It's very short-lived. The adrenaline begins to dissipate as soon as the threat is past and your system begins to return to normal.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is not normal to have high doses of adrenaline rip through you, activating your fight-or-flight response when no obvious threats are presenting themselves. How does your system know when the threat has passed when you have no idea what the threat is? There's no mechanism to tell your high defense system that it's time to stand down.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since my first panic attack a few months ago I have had a few more attacks. Several other times I have been on the verge of having an attack. Experiencing anxiety about having anxiety is a vicious and distressing no-win cycle.</div><div><br /></div><div>While researching anxiety and panic attacks, I came across several articles that discuss a link between <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/multiple-sclerosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20350269">Multiple Sclerosis</a> and anxiety. This piqued my interest, since I have been grappling with MS for nearly three decades. Since MS can affect any region of the brain, the disease sometimes causes anxiety unrelated to the traditional causes of anxiety, but there's no simple test for this. It is more common for people with MS to experience anxiety as the result of all the burdens and uncertainties that accompany the disease.</div><div><br /></div><div>My wife surmises that I simply have so many demands on me at present that some recently added demand was the straw that broke the camel's back, bringing a nearly unmanageable load to an unmanageable level. The difference between water looking still at 211° but boiling at 212°. It's not the demand itself, but the sheer fact that there are too many demands. The attacks occur when the water hits boiling point.</div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe. I think it probably has more to do with being excessively concerned with physical health, which apparently is a common factor in many anxiety cases.</div><div><br /></div><div>I grew up a bit pudgy. Looking at old photos, it wasn't that bad. (Especially by today's standards.) Still, I felt constantly harangued by peers and family members about being fat. I began fighting the battle of the bulge at age 16. I lost quite a bit of weight during my summer planting pineapples in Hawaii.</div><div><br /></div><div>That battle was fought off and on over the next few years until I got married and ballooned to 70 lbs. in excess of my current weight. It took a year of fanatical health focus to achieve the desired weight loss. But I soon discovered that keeping that weight off required (for me, at least) nearly the same level of fanatical nutrition and exercise. Although I have changed up my regimen a number of times over the past three decades, the one constant has been daily discipline.</div><div><br /></div><div>I now realize that I have developed an internal and public image of myself as a relatively healthy guy. This is at least partially a backlash against all of the teasing and bullying I experienced for being regarded as a fat kid. That's probably not the most psychologically healthy thing. On the other hand, I'm sure that my health focus has been at least part of the reason that my MS symptoms have been quite mild since the initial attacks years ago.</div><div><br /></div><div>But these aren't the only factors in health. Age happens. MS could still hammer me. As my high school class prepares for its 40th reunion, I have become more aware of some of my classmates' conditions. One lady with MS lives in a care facility and is pretty much incapacitated. Another guy who used to do triathlons and now has MS is experiencing increasing physical and cognitive issues. Another classmate who is quite active had a heart valve blow out on Thanksgiving. Our class president, who seems to be in spectacular shape for our age, recently spent four days in the hospital after getting blood clots in his lungs and being unable to breathe.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another thing that has been deeply implanted in my psyche is that both of my paternal grandparents, as well as my father, suffered debilitating strokes that robbed them of critical faculties and eventually took their lives. So heart disease runs in the family. Moreover, we found out after his stroke that Dad had experienced a series of heart attacks for which he had refused to get care. He rode out each of those episodes, but without care, significant portions of his heart died. His weakened heart was very susceptible to stroke-causing blood clots.</div><div><br /></div><div>Consequently, I think it's safe to say that I have become hyper aware of potential health (especially coronary) issues. This is likely the greatest contributing factor to my recent anxiety episodes. I'm not afraid of experiencing death. Between the time when my snow cave collapsed and the time I was rescued, I had an experience that let me know that my soul will continue and will be fine after death. I worry about leaving my family in the lurch, but death does not otherwise trouble me.</div><div><br /></div><div>Apparently, I have an irrational fear of experiencing some kind of major health issue because it would damage the image I have created for myself. So anytime I have the slightest inkling that something like that might be happening, or even that I might be in danger of something like that, I am susceptible to having my hyper awareness kick in and the perceived threat seeming very immediate. Then the brain then wants to shoot me full of adrenaline to get me to address the threat.</div><div><br /></div><div>Years ago a 42-year-old co-worker of mine died of a heart attack because he thought he was just experiencing extreme heartburn. I don't want to be like that guy. Nor do I want to be like my dad, who survived a number of heart attacks, only to later be killed by the effects of failure to treat them. But I also don't want to be so freaked out about the potential of a heart attack (or any other acute illness) that every little thing that might look like a possible symptom becomes an extreme threat.</div><div><br /></div><div>Balance. That's what I want. Proper balance. Apparently that's what I need to achieve to have a chance of preventing future anxiety attacks. Part of this needs to involve achieving a healthier relationship with my self image. I deliberately developed an image of myself as healthy because it motivates the discipline required to maintain that level of health. But when I feel threatened by the possible demise of my Mr. Health and Responsibility image, it tells me that my relationship with this image needs reworking.</div><div><br /></div><div>Mental health issues are as real as physical health issues, and just like physical health problems, they require proper care. Time to get going on that.<br /><br /><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Updated 9/21/2018:</span></b></i><br /><i>As a follow up, I have been pretty much free of anxiety attacks for several months now. How? I watched the following Barry McDonagh video, where his doctor provides a very simple approach to stopping anxiety attacks. Most other approaches I have seen involve various types of self distraction which leave the anxiety pattern intact. This doctor's approach, on the other hand, strikes at the anxiety pattern itself. Check it out. It worked for me and still continues to work for me.</i><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/g_mFzOudxng/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g_mFzOudxng?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div>";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/4121639426224907983/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=4121639426224907983";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/4121639426224907983";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/4121639426224907983";s:4:"link";s:69:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2018/03/when-anxiety-attacks-you.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"1";}}i:11;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:58:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-114951341321300725";s:9:"published";s:29:"2018-01-22T16:35:00.001-07:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2018-01-22T16:35:10.539-07:00";s:5:"title";s:48:"I (probably) won't attend my high school reunion";s:12:"atom_content";s:5566:"My high school class is having a reunion this summer. I probably won't attend, although, the event is less than three miles from my home.<br /><br />I was going to write that my K-12 experience was painful in many ways. But really, who doesn't that apply to? I suspect that this is largely true even for those who were on the top of the social heap in the bizarre microcosm that school life is. No doubt school life is more miserable for some than for others, but from my decades of observation it seems that everyone who attends school endures plenty of social suffering.<br /><br />In reality, my K-12 experience was unremarkable. I was nowhere near the top of the social pile, but I wasn't near the bottom either. Somewhere in the middle, I guess. I never got much involved in school related activities that earn students recognition, one way or the other.<br /><br />Part of this was due to the fact that I always had an after school job starting at age 11. But I suspect that the main reason for my low involvement in things like sports, student government, arts, clubs, etc. was that I simply didn't think I was good enough to do any of that stuff. I looked at the people who were involved in those things and figured that I didn't fit in with them. Once that concept formulated, everything I experienced seemed to confirm it.<br /><br />Consequently, school life wasn't any larger part of my social experience than was absolutely necessary. I don't recall that I felt particularly sorry about my aloofness from school social activities. It was what it was and I was pretty much fine with it. I was muddling through, finding my own social path <i>(pun)</i> in life. School social life was so unimportant to me that I didn't provide a photo for my senior yearbook and I didn't bother to stick around for yearbook signing at the end of the school year.<br /><br />Fortunately, some of the guys my age from my neighborhood formed a loose group during my junior high years, that over time picked up several other members. Group membership ebbed and flowed, but by the time I was a senior in high school there were about seven of us who did a lot of hanging out together. Our activities weren't always the best; we were typical teenagers. But for the most part I feel that these guys lifted and strengthened me, and provided positive peer pressure.<br /><br />Our associations continued more or less through our young adult years until each of us married. There was no online social media back in those days, so we kind of lost track of each other as we went about life. I hardly see any of those guys nowadays, although, some live nearby and we are now connected on social media. (I have no idea where two of them are.)<br /><br />Decades after high school graduation I can look back and see that life has had its ups and downs. My children bring me tremendous joy and pride, but also a fair amount of sorrow. It seems that these things are inseparably connected. I have had ups and downs in my career. Experiencing the inevitable aging and demise of parents has brought challenges. Everyone has their troubles in life.<br /><br />But for the most part I can say that my life has been idyllic. For a former fat guy and former college drop out my age who has Multiple Sclerosis and hypothyroidism, I have to say that my life has been tremendously blessed. I have a wife—a truly choice soul—who I love far more deeply than when we married decades ago. Better yet, she not only tolerates me; she loves me, despite my manifold foibles. We live in a decent neighborhood with decent neighbors. I have enjoyable relations with family members. Life is pretty darn good.<br /><br />Quite frankly, I have no interest in stepping back into the social structure of school life for even one evening. Why pollute the present goodness of life with memories of where I stood in the painful and weird pecking order that school life was?<br /><br />I have been told by some that when you get this far out from your high school days that the old social arrangements of those youthful years no longer matter. The two-thirds of life as mature adults that has passed since those callow times has made us all much more alike than different. It's not a competition about who has the most markers of worldly success, but an opportunity to connect with others who have walked a similar path.<br /><br />Maybe. But the last time I attended a high school reunion many years ago, I ended up seated among people with whom I had never had a single class and with whom I had literally never spoken during our school days. I'm not enough of a social creature that I enjoy hanging out with strangers like that, despite the fact that we attended the same school.<br /><br />I'm also wondering who I would really like to see at an event like this. I can only think of a few and there's no guarantee that any of them will attend. When I turn the question around and realize that others are also formulating lists of those they would like to see at a reunion, I can't imagine my name showing up on anyone else's list. Thus, I don't foresee myself attending this year's reunion. There simply doesn't seem to be enough incentive for me to be there.<br /><br />To each of my classmates who will be attending the reunion, please know that I wish you well and hope you have a great time. I hope your life has been wonderful so far and wish you much happiness going forward. I will be sending these good vibes remotely.<br /><br />Unless I change my mind and decide to attend. It could happen, I suppose.";s:12:"link_replies";s:147:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/114951341321300725/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=114951341321300725";s:9:"link_edit";s:70:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/114951341321300725";s:9:"link_self";s:70:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/114951341321300725";s:4:"link";s:82:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2018/01/i-probably-wont-attend-my-high-school.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:12;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-2701271464199384092";s:9:"published";s:29:"2017-12-15T15:23:00.000-07:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2017-12-15T15:23:41.114-07:00";s:5:"title";s:34:"My Family's Imperfect Mormon Stats";s:12:"atom_content";s:4175:"If you have lived in areas that are thick with Mormon culture, you may have heard the term <i>Mormon stats</i>. No, this doesn't refer to statistics about <a href="https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints</a>, although, there are lots of those generated by the Church and other sources.<br /><br />Rather, <i>Mormon stats</i> references the list of things many Mormons like to use to judge themselves and each other, such as:<br /><ul><li>Scouting rank / Young Womanhood award.</li><li>Missionary service.</li><li>Temple marriage.</li><li>Educational attainment.</li><li>Church leadership callings.</li><li>Career position.</li><li>Number of children.</li><li>Other markers of active participation in the Church and social success.</li><li>Children/grandchildren meeting or excelling in any of the above.</li></ul>This isn't an exhaustive list. Other items may include the amount of family history work done, volume of food storage on hand, service projects completed, full-time mom at home, etc. Yet other factors may be regional or specific to certain subgroups.<br /><br />I grew up in a family that had pretty great Mormon stats. My parents served in Church leadership positions, had successful careers, served missions, and had five Eagle Scout sons who all served full-time missions, married in the temple, raised (and are raising) great kids, have served faithfully in various Church callings, and have achieved well in education and career fields.<br /><br />When my wife and I married I was pretty sure our family would follow a path similar to my parents. It hasn't been exactly like that. We love and cherish each of our five children, but as promised in my patriarchal blessing, they have brought us a variety of challenges. Each of our children is a unique and beautiful, yet flawed soul.<br /><br />Among our kids we have Eagle Scouts, returned missionaries, college graduates, intelligence, talent, ingenuity, compassion, humor, and a host of other positive attributes. Our kids also have among them a variety of physical and mental health issues that make for some interesting (as in, perplexing) twists. Also, personal choices have occasionally led to spiritual and temporal challenges, some of them seemingly long-term.<br /><br />Let's just say that I have accepted the fact that our family isn't going to have perfect Mormon stats. But maybe that's OK. After all, there are some pretty awesome parents whose families don't look quite like the cultural Mormon ideal. Among them are those we refer to as our Heavenly Parents. A third of Their children are in a permanent state of rebellion and many others cause plenty of sorrow.<br /><br />Our kids really are wonderful people, even if they skew our Mormon stats a bit. Each is on their own journey that is intertwined with my journey, but <i>my child's journey is not my journey</i>. I think parents sometimes get messed up on this to the point that they want to force their children to do the "right" thing. Or maybe they just want their kids to make them look good socially.<br /><br />None of the Mormon stat markers are bad. In fact, most of them very desirable. But the extent to which they are about social status in our minds is the same extent to which our thinking needs to be re-engineered to focus on those things that are truly important. I'm talking to myself here. I seem to like checklists and I feel like I have accomplished something when I check off an item on a list. But too close of a focus on a checklist can cause one to lose sight of core matters.<br /><br />Our family is splendid. In its current state it has some distortions and cracks. But I don't expect it to forever remain in that state. I have full faith in Jesus Christ, the master craftsman who has the desire and the ability to make our family a perfect whole in His own way and time. Along the way we will do our best to do the right thing and to let the Savior do His work.<br /><br />Regardless of where my family is with respect to Mormon stats, each of my children knows that I will always love them and that I will always be proud to be their dad. Even after this life passes.";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/2701271464199384092/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=2701271464199384092";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/2701271464199384092";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/2701271464199384092";s:4:"link";s:78:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/12/my-familys-imperfect-mormon-stats.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"2";}}i:13;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-6337755514514238326";s:9:"published";s:29:"2017-11-17T12:24:00.002-07:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2017-11-17T12:24:24.131-07:00";s:5:"title";s:58:"Our autistic son survives playing a feature role in a play";s:12:"atom_content";s:6657:""This is nuts!" I exclaimed when my wife told me that our youngest son was going to try out for a part in the high school's autumn play, which is always a large scale musical. I was fully aware of how demanding rehearsals, performances, and everything else related to the play would be.<br /><br />The longtime drama director at our local high school is an old friend of mine who is a very talented performer in his own right. He was very fun loving as a kid but he also had some organizational and leadership skills. The fun side is still there, but the business and leadership sides have become much more honed over time. The high quality performances he directs are partly a product of how demanding he is. Despite <i>(because of?)</i> how challenging it can be, hundreds of students try out for the school's plays year after year.<br /><br />I have tried to be very supportive of my kids' extracurricular activities over the years. Practices, games, performances, ceremonies, and camp outs have been a large part of our life for more than two decades. But our youngest son is on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9eATBV-_lg">autism spectrum</a>. Plus he deals with some mental health issues&nbsp;including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOK1tKFFIQI">major depression</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_jkNmj5S0s">extreme anxiety</a>. In many ways he looks and acts like the "normal" teen he longs to be, but he has some notable differences and limitations.<br /><br />Included in our son's life package is the fact that he simply has far less bandwidth than does his typical peer. While our son is very bright, his cognitive in-processing takes longer and requires much more effort. This exacts a mental and physical toll that, coupled with his mental and emotional health issues, leaves less of him to go around than he would like.<br /><br />Thus, I simply couldn't see how our son could manage the rigors of being in the high school play. I could see this working out like many other endeavors where he has run out of steam and has been unable to fulfill commitments.<br /><br />I understand this on a personal level. Years ago after my first major <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB6yF6Rdxvc">Multiple Sclerosis</a> attack, I struggled to come to grips with and understand the boundaries of my capacities. Christine Miserandino captures this conundrum very well with her <a href="https://butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/">Spoon Theory</a>.<br /><br />Every day each of us has a certain allotment of physical, mental, and emotional capacities; our budget for what we can do and handle that day. While our budgets change from day to day, those with chronic illness tend to have a smaller budget than the typical person. When your budget is tight you have to learn to be frugal, lest you overspend and shut down. Sometimes you can borrow from tomorrow, but too much of this can result in a hard crash.<br /><br />It has taken me years to learn how to do a decent job of managing my daily allotment of capacities. Even after all this time I occasionally miscalculate and suffer the consequences. Our teen son is still developing and learning. Sometimes he optimistically commits to future demands on a day when his budget is in good shape, only to discover when payment is due that the balance in his physical/mental/emotional account is insufficient.<br /><br />That's what I could see happening with the high school play. Maybe reliability wouldn't be much of a problem if he were in the ensemble. But he sought for and landed the part of the preacher in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Brides_for_Seven_Brothers">Seven Brides for Seven Brothers</a>. He figured that this role was a minor speaking part that probably didn't require a lot of dancing <i>(it still did)</i> and that wouldn't be as demanding as the major speaking parts <i>(it wasn't)</i>. Besides, he figured that hardly anyone would think to apply for that role. His natural Asperger's stiffness also seemed to lend itself well to the role.<br /><br />At first things went well, despite many days of long rehearsals after school. At one point our son began to realize that the overall toll on him might be too high but he opted to stick it out. About a week and a half from the opening show, our son hit a wall. Just as when the typical kid gets sick and can't go to school, he just couldn't manage school. He essentially shut down for a couple of days. He was ready to quit the play, despite the disruption this would cause.<br /><br />My wife and I realized that if our son could make it through the run of the play he would feel a great sense of fulfillment. But it was not clear whether it would be good to push the matter. After counseling with our son, his adviser, and his drama teacher, we eventually arrived at a compromise. Some school pressures were temporarily eased and the drama teacher appointed an understudy who would cover the preacher role for half of the performances.<br /><br />Matters were still somewhat tenuous as this plan was put into place, but things got better after the long weeks of rehearsal came to an end and the play performances began. Our son did very well as the preacher in the play. As we had hoped, our son came out of the final performance feeling victorious. He had a sense of fulfillment from having been part of a grand, high quality production. But he was also very glad that the play was over.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iCtWBj2fOS4/Wg8z1x_KrXI/AAAAAAAABX8/oMz-JTV46ZwQAh2oQ-CXaFoienWzjYO7QCLcBGAs/s1600/Seven%2BBrides%2Bfor%2BSeven%2BBrothers%2BWHS%2B2017%2Bcast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iCtWBj2fOS4/Wg8z1x_KrXI/AAAAAAAABX8/oMz-JTV46ZwQAh2oQ-CXaFoienWzjYO7QCLcBGAs/s320/Seven%2BBrides%2Bfor%2BSeven%2BBrothers%2BWHS%2B2017%2Bcast.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>We are pretty happy with this outcome from a parental perspective. We are grateful to our son's teachers for their flexibility and to our son's understudy who came up to speed on the part in short order. We are especially grateful to the drama director for going beyond the call of duty during a very busy and highly stressful time to make this experience work well for our son. There are a number of situations that will need to be managed between now and graduation for our son, but it's great for him to have this victory under his belt.";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/6337755514514238326/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=6337755514514238326";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/6337755514514238326";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/6337755514514238326";s:4:"link";s:78:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/11/our-autistic-son-survives-playing.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:14;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:58:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-533718907150332657";s:9:"published";s:29:"2017-10-11T16:30:00.002-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2017-10-12T07:37:59.055-06:00";s:5:"title";s:91:"Boy Scouts to allow girls to join Cubs and Scouts — What does this mean for LDS Scouting?";s:12:"atom_content";s:7132:"The <a href="http://www.scouting.org/">Boy Scouts of America</a> announced today that girls will be allowed to join its <a href="http://www.scouting.org/Home/CubScouts.aspx">Cub Scout</a> and <a href="http://www.scouting.org/Home/BoyScouts.aspx">Scouting </a>programs (see <a href="http://www.scoutingnewsroom.org/press-releases/bsa-expands-programs-welcome-girls-cub-scouts-highest-rank-eagle-scout/">BSA press release</a>, <a href="https://www.ksl.com/?sid=46125082&amp;nid=157&amp;title=in-historic-change-boy-scouts-to-let-girls-in-some-programs">KSL article</a>). There is already a lot of knee-jerk reaction to this announcement. Let's see if we can take a more level-headed approach.<br /><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e5/Boy_Scouts_of_America_corporate_trademark.svg/890px-Boy_Scouts_of_America_corporate_trademark.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="695" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e5/Boy_Scouts_of_America_corporate_trademark.svg/890px-Boy_Scouts_of_America_corporate_trademark.svg.png" width="278" /></a></div><div>At least some of us in Scouting circles have been aware that discussions about admitting girls to the program have been occurring for some time and that these discussions became quite serious earlier this year. The BSA now has plenty of experience with its <a href="http://www.scouting.org/Home/Venturing.aspx">Venturing</a>, <a href="http://www.scouting.org/Youth/ContinueAdventure/SeaScout.aspx">Sea Scouts</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.exploring.org/?utm_source=scouting_dot_org&amp;utm_campaign=homepage&amp;utm_medium=banner">Exploring</a>, and <a href="https://stemscouts.org/">Stem Scouts</a> programs, which offer mixed sex environments for various age groups.</div><div><br /></div><div>There has been a lot of internal and external pressure to admit girls to Scouting. Some who have loved what Scouting does for boys have wanted that same experience for their girls. The first lawsuits attempting to force the BSA to open the ranks of Scouting to girls were filed decades ago. But some opined that when the BSA opened Scouting to "transgender boys" earlier this year (see <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2017/0201/Boy-Scouts-to-admit-transgender-boys-Why-the-shift">CSMonitor article</a>, <a href="http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-longtime-lds-scouters-views-on-lds.html">my 5/12/17 post</a>, <a href="http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-lds-church-bsa-partnership-will.html">my 5/20/17 post</a>) admission of girls to the program couldn't be far off. After all, how could the organization argue successfully in court that it would admit biological girls who feel like they are boys but not other biological girls?</div><div><br /></div><div>While research is all over the place on the value of single-sex youth programs, Scouting and Cub Scouts operate with a very deep tradition of being only for boys. Many supporters believe that youth need opportunities to spend time in environments with peers of the same sex. The BSA announcement makes it sound like the organization is trying to honor this desire while also making it possible for girls to participate in the program.</div><div><br /></div><div>Cub Scout dens, which are the smallest Cub Scout unit, will operate as single-sex organizations. Each pack, which is the next larger Cub Scout unit, may host only boy dens, only girl dens, or both boy and girl dens.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of my first thoughts was whether Cub dens and packs sponsored by <a href="https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints</a>&nbsp;would take on girls who now attend the Church's <a href="https://www.lds.org/callings/primary/leader-resources/activity-days?lang=eng">Activity Days</a> program. Although I found no official announcement on the <a href="http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/">Church's Newsroom site</a>, KSL reports that Church spokesman Eric Hawkins says that Activity Days programs will continue to operate as usual.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hawkins goes on to say, "We recognize that the desire of the BSA is to expand their programs to serve more young people in the United States. The Church, too, continues to look at ways to serve the needs of our youth worldwide."</div><div><br /></div><div>Read into that what you will, but the Church has made no bones about the fact that it would like to develop a young men's activity program that is more uniform worldwide, and that Scouting is incapable of filling that role. So it sounds like the Church will eventually get out of Scouting completely. But who knows when? Next year? 20 years from now? That's not clear.</div><div><br /></div><div>Suffice it to say that for now, LDS-sponsored Cub Scout units will continue to admit only boys in their youth ranks, regardless of what non-LDS Cub Scout units do.</div><div><br /></div><div>Starting in 2019 the BSA will "deliver a Scouting program for older girls that will enable them to advance and earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout." The press release doesn't provide many clues as to what that program might look like. But the <a href="https://www.scoutingnewsroom.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/BSA_Family-Entry-Fact-Sheet.pdf">Family Scout Fact Sheet</a> and the <a href="https://www.scoutingnewsroom.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Family-Scouting-FAQ.pdf">Family Scouting FAQ</a> make it sound as if the Scouting program for girls will be parallel to, but separate from Boy Scouts.<br /><br /></div><div>The BSA has previously said clearly that sponsoring organizations will continue have broad control over who may join the Scouting units they sponsor. So until the Church implements a different program, LDS-sponsored Scouting units will continue to be male-only organizations.</div><div><br /></div><div>More than a few people are upset that the BSA has made so many shifts in expanding membership in recent years. First gay youth, then gay adults, then transgender boys, then girls. Some say that this has weakened support for BSA programs among its traditional base. It is possible, however, that the BSA is working to stem an increasing tide of membership losses and struggling to remain relevant in a changing world.</div><div><br /></div><div>While the Church has traditionally had a very strong say in BSA policies, I suspect that the fact that it will ultimately leave Scouting can't help but diminish its influence with the organization. Each of these two organizations must pursue the paths that make the most sense to them. That may mean continued divergence.</div><div><br /></div><div>And while I feel that I and many others have benefited greatly from the close association of the LDS Church and the BSA, this divergence does not have to be a bad thing for either organization. I am certain that the Lord is fully capable of using this situation to advance His cause.</div>";s:12:"link_replies";s:147:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/533718907150332657/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=533718907150332657";s:9:"link_edit";s:70:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/533718907150332657";s:9:"link_self";s:70:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/533718907150332657";s:4:"link";s:83:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/10/boy-scouts-to-allow-girls-to-join-cubs.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"3";}}i:15;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-7754137093274846819";s:9:"published";s:29:"2017-09-27T15:11:00.002-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2017-09-28T09:03:32.426-06:00";s:5:"title";s:38:"On kneeling during the national anthem";s:12:"atom_content";s:5817:"I'm not sure where the custom of playing the national anthem at the outset of some athletic events originated. I have never questioned it. But lately there has been a lot of controversy about athletes, coaches, etc. kneeling instead of standing during the rendition of the national anthem. This has led to a lot of weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth, general ill will, and a lot of virtual and actual yelling.<br /><br />I'm not a sports fan so I rarely attend live sporting events, Nor do I watch broadcasts of sporting events. When I have been somewhere that the national anthem has been played, I have proudly stood and placed my hand over my heart. In situations like this I will sing along if it seems appropriate. I do this because of what America means to me.<br /><br />This country gave my ancestors freedoms that they lacked in their home countries. It gave my father citizenship a few years after he moved here from Germany. It gave me the opportunity to grow up with a level of prosperity and opportunity that relatively few throughout the annals of history have enjoyed. But I know that some in our country have been less fortunate.<br /><br />I am particularly fond of a poem titled American Spirit by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._W._McCall">Bill Fries (aka C.W. McCall)</a>:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-keO75_OYig/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-keO75_OYig?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>In this poem Fries reminds us that We The People <i>are</i>&nbsp;America.&nbsp;The USA is us, the people of this country. All of us. Fries says that we are "the Star Spangled Banner up there in the sky." All of us. The cubicle worker, rancher, nurse, construction worker, soldier, truck driver, executive, police officer, retiree, janitor, farmer, child, teacher, homeless person, pastor, warehouse worker, judge, plumber, actor, pilot, food service worker, etc. Not only are we all Americans, we are America.<br /><br />Given that there are some 323 million of us scattered over nearly 3.8 million square miles, we are necessarily a diverse lot, with different backgrounds, experiences, and ideologies. There is no single right way to be an American. Nor is any law abiding citizen more American than any other. The military veteran is no more American than the music producer, nor is the farmer more American than the athlete. The American flag represents each of us, but each of us has a unique relationship with America.<br /><br />I doubt that any American citizen thinks the country is so great that it lacks serious problems; although, we may comprehend and prioritize problems differently. To me I see a nation that, even with all its flaws, has produced the greatest level of widespread opportunity and prosperity in the history of this world. When I hear the national anthem I feel a swell of gratitude that demands that I acknowledge this blessing.<br /><br />When I see highly paid people involved in professional kid's games deliberately kneeling rather than standing during the national anthem, it looks like a bunch of ungrateful spoiled brats, regardless of how they view certain national problems. They are making the impossible perfect the enemy of the realistic good.<br /><br />But I would never want to force anyone to stand or place their hand over their heart to honor the flag or the national anthem. You see, my dad grew up in a country where failure to engage in mandated patriotic displays was punished. We call that place Nazi Germany. We don't want to be like that.<br /><br />Toward the end of his poem, Fries says, "We are that one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. And because we all live in the land of the free, you don't have to say it at all unless you want to." When people say that those who fail to engage in traditional patriotic displays stand against everything that this country stands for, I counter that the freedom to refuse such displays is a key element of what America really stands for.<br /><br />From my perspective, professional athletes and others who deliberately kneel during the national anthem have chosen a protest method that is too vague. Exactly what are they protesting? Police racism? Inequality? President Trump? Something else? Perhaps different protesters are protesting different things by the same action? How will they know when their goal has been achieved so that they can once again stand during the national anthem? None of this is clear.<br /><br />Marketing people call this bad branding. Using such a strong symbol with such a muddled message can't help but raise the hackles of many who cherish the symbol. Maybe they'd like to help. But it's not exactly clear what they are supposed to help with.<br /><br />While I am willing to stand up for the freedom of people to protest in a non-violent manner, I also defend the right of people who disagree with the substance or manner of a protest to refrain from buying goods or services that support the protesters. They are free to prove their sentiments through a boycott. The question is whether they can really stay away from a beloved activity long enough and in large enough numbers to make their point.<br /><br />This gives us a view into the substance of America, where we have a broad marketplace of ideas. Despite the sharp differences on the matter I have discussed, I feel that America is robust enough to navigate the situation and come out stronger on the other side. It's what America does. Even in our current pampered age, I believe that America retains a degree of grit and resilience that will keep it going for a long time.";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/7754137093274846819/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=7754137093274846819";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/7754137093274846819";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/7754137093274846819";s:4:"link";s:79:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/09/on-kneeling-during-national-anthem.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:16;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-7322141282169774068";s:9:"published";s:29:"2017-09-18T19:04:00.000-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2017-09-18T19:04:32.496-06:00";s:5:"title";s:40:"Six months sleeping on a Purple Mattress";s:12:"atom_content";s:9797:"Who hasn't hated their bed at some point? Each of us spends a lot of life sleeping. Complaints about beds are pretty common, but people often have difficulty finding something more suitable to sleep on.<div><br /></div><div><a href="https://waterbedstoday.com/42/natural-wood-bookcase-waterbed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://waterbedstoday.com/42/natural-wood-bookcase-waterbed.jpg" width="320" /></a>My wife and I have been through a series of beds and mattresses over the years. One of my contributions to our marriage was the king size waterbed I acquired during a brief stint working as a waterbed deliverer. We had that bed for a number of years. But there are reasons why the waterbed fad died out. Most waterbeds were high maintenance, difficult to move beasts that offered too much wave motion and sucked you back in when when you tried to get out.</div><div></div><div><br /></div><div>Upon exiting the waterbed craze we went through a series of standard mattresses on a standard foundation. Even when we had "pillow top" memory foam and when we regularly flipped and turned the mattress, each of these setups eventually ended up with two sunk areas and a ridge between them.</div><div><br /></div><div>At least, that was my main complaint. I do OK sleeping on just about anything. After all, I have spent hundreds of nights camping on a foam pad on the ground, usually sleeping alright. My wife hasn't been so lucky. Her joints provide a constant source of pain that make sleeping on most mattresses a miserable experience. I am generally a back sleeper, while she is a side sleeper. We are presently in our mid-50s and are within recommended BMI for our respective heights.</div><div><br /></div><div>I had finally had it with our last mattress. My wife was often spending portions of each night sleeping on a recliner. She wasn't ready to spend money on a new mattress but I insisted that we find something that would work better for her. I figured that anything that would work for her would be fine for me.</div><div><br /></div><div>We decided to follow the recent online mattress shopping trend. After all, it couldn't really be much worse than shopping in a furniture store where you flop on a bed for 30 seconds and try to figure out how well it will work for many hours night after night for years. With online shopping you get videos, lots of information, professional reviews, and user reviews that you can peruse at your leisure instead of having to make a decision on a furniture floor.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are a lot of online mattress companies out there nowadays that try to differentiate themselves from each other through various approaches. It turned out to be quite difficult to choose. We found several sites quite helpful, including <a href="https://sleepopolis.com/">Sleepopolis</a>, <a href="https://sleepsherpa.com/mattress-reviews/">The Sleep Sherpa</a>, <a href="http://www.sleeplikethedead.com/">Sleep Like the Dead</a>, and others.</div><div><br /></div><div>Many factors go into a mattress buying decision. Price range, sleep patterns, how warm you sleep, materials, reviews, return policies, etc. The reason there are so many options is that no single mattress or single provider is going to provide the best situation for everyone. You have to do homework to get some idea of what might work best for you.</div><div><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://sleepopolis.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/purple-mattress-review-1024x768.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://sleepopolis.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/purple-mattress-review-1024x768.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Purple is the color of materials on the inside not the outside</td></tr></tbody></table><div>After a lot of research we narrowed it down to three options. When we considered the pros and cons of each of the three, the Purple Mattress seemed to fit our desires best. But the king size model cost $100-$200 more than the other brands we were considering.</div><div></div><div><br /></div><div>The factor that pushed us over the edge was <a href="https://onpurple.com/refund-policy">Purple's 100-night money back guarantee</a>. At first we were angling to buy the mattress from Amazon, but then we read some user reviews that warned that the 100-night guarantee is only offered on purchases direct from Purple. So we bought the thing from Purple.</div><div><br /></div><div>We didn't buy a platform to put the mattress on, figuring that we'd just plop it down atop our existing foundation. That was a big mistake. More on that in a moment.</div><div><br /></div><div>When the mattress arrived it was left on the front porch in a long roll tightly wrapped in watertight purple packaging. The packaging was pretty dirty from shipping so I cleaned it before hauling it up the stairs. I'm not sure about the twin or queen, but I do not advise trying to move the king on your own. I managed it by lifting one end at a time, pivoting, and bringing that end back down pointing the opposite direction. You need some serious strength to pull off that kind of thing and even then you could seriously injure yourself.</div><div><br /></div><div>Although I was able to get the mattress into the master bedroom by myself without injury, there was no good way to open and unroll it on my own. Later when my wife was home I used the packaging cutter (which looks like an industrial strength letter opener) to cut the packaging. As other reviewers have reported, the cutter broke. But I was able to manage anyway. Oddly enough, the mattress was rolled with the downside in and the upside out. The easiest thing for us to do was to roll it out upside down and then awkwardly flip it over.</div><div><br /></div><div>One of the strengths of the Purple Mattress is that it is designed to expand to full size within a couple of minutes. We had bought sheets from Purple that are designed to work better with the mattress than regular king sheets. We like these sheets. The new mattress had an obvious scent. But it was not noticeable to us after about two weeks.</div><div><br /></div><div>As mentioned above, we realized right away that putting our new mattress on the old foundation was a bad idea. As is the case with most king size foundations, ours consisted of two twin box springs side by side on a king frame. The adjoining walls of the two box springs created a sturdy partition that made the middle of the bed feel like a ridge. We realized that this had contributed to the valleys and mountains in our past traditional mattresses.</div><div><br /></div><div>Although we had wanted to avoid the expense of a new foundation, we quickly ordered a new platform from Purple. Unfortunately the thing was on back order, so we had to wait for a few weeks to get it. I was concerned that the mattress would suffer permanent damage during that time, but when we put the mattress on the new platform the middle of the bed was just fine. The platform was superior to any we had previously seen. Very sturdy. No squeaks. The platform provides 15 inches of clearance, which is far more than a traditional bed. Our 67-lb <a href="https://www.dogbreedinfo.com/imoinu.htm">Imo-Inu</a> dog has taken to running through our room, passing under the bed. He also likes to sleep under the bed.</div><div><br /></div><div>We obviously decided to keep the mattress as we approached the end of our 100-night trial. I waited until we had used the bed for at least six months before writing a review. I have seen too many product reviews from people who have had the product for a few days. Those can give you a fresh-from-the-package vantage. But with a mattress you really want to know how well it's going to work for the long haul.</div><div><br /></div><div>From my perspective the mattress is quiet and comfortable. It does sleep cool, which is something I desired. That hasn't been a problem even on cold nights. The edges of the mattress aren't as solid as the edges of traditional mattresses, but that's never been a problem for me. The thing I like most is that my wife now sleeps all night on the mattress instead of retreating to a recliner.</div><div><br /></div><div>My wife says that she doubts that there is any bed in the world that would allow her to sleep 100% pain free, due to the current condition of her joints. She is always in pain; it's just a matter of how much. But she says that the Purple Mattress at least allows her to be comfortable, unlike our past mattress. When I asked her if the Purple was the most comfortable bed we have owned she responded that it's and apples to oranges comparison, because she has a different body than she had when we were younger. She thinks it works as well as any bed could given her current condition.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since we have had the bed for only half a year, I can't really speak to its durability. So far it seems quite durable. For what it's worth, the bed has a 10-year-warranty.</div><div><br /></div><div>And there you have it. We pretty much like our Purple Mattress and platform after six months of use. We will have to see how long it continues to serve our needs. I can't tell you whether you would like a Purple Mattress or not. If you're in the market for a new bed I suggest you go through the same research process that we did to find which product promises to work well for you.</div>";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/7322141282169774068/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=7322141282169774068";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/7322141282169774068";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/7322141282169774068";s:4:"link";s:83:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/09/six-months-sleeping-on-purple-mattress.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"1";}}i:17;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-2939992499275352149";s:9:"published";s:29:"2017-08-29T10:40:00.001-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2017-08-29T10:42:27.080-06:00";s:5:"title";s:44:"The necktie, the knife, and the bloody thumb";s:12:"atom_content";s:6063:"It's time to go through my neckties and get rid of the ones I don't or shouldn't wear anymore. For the record, I think neckties are ridiculous. I keep wondering how it is possible for our culture's grasp on this silly style to continue to hold fast. Yet the absurd necktie somehow remains as an icon of dignity year after year.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.samhober.com/gallery/Grenadine_Silk_Ties/files/imgThumb_338.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://www.samhober.com/gallery/Grenadine_Silk_Ties/files/imgThumb_338.jpg" width="149" /></a>Neckties serve no functional purpose. They're just a fashion thing. I consider them banal. But since I am no trend setter and I want to fit in various social settings including church, I acquiesce to wearing neckties as needed.<br /><br />In my closet are two necktie trees with nearly two dozen ties hanging on them. When I go to put a tie on I see many in my collection that I tolerate. I don't particularly like many of them. It's hard to find the right mixture of color and pattern to match the outfit I am wearing, along with the right cloth thickness and texture. Thicker, hardier cloth tends to feel uncomfortable around my neck. A tie might look great but feel awful or vice versa.<br /><br />My desire to purge my tie collection started on Sunday while we were sitting quietly in <a href="https://www.mormonwiki.com/Sacrament_Meeting">sacrament meeting</a>. That morning I had donned a tie that used to belong to my dad. The reddish background emblazoned with nearly indecipherable grayish images of <a href="https://www.lds.org/scriptures/gs/moroni-captain?lang=eng">Captain Moroni</a> looked OK with my black suit. But the tie was already a bit worn when I inherited it nine years ago after Dad passed away. I have kept it mostly for sentimental reasons, I guess.<br /><br />As we sat listening to the speaker, I noted that there were a lot of fuzzy little threads sticking out from the bottom hem of the tie. Thinking this was an ideal moment to trim away those errant fibers, I quickly deployed my tiny Swiss Army Knife, the like of which I have carried in my pocket most of my life. Hey, I'm an old Scouter. What do you expect?<br /><br /><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/410gGd7eTVL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="127" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/410gGd7eTVL.jpg" width="200" /></a>My initial attempts to trim fine strands met with reluctance from my knife's scissors. Then I remembered having used the scissors to cut the tape on a package, leaving adhesive residue in the pivot point. My wife looked at me askance as I began using my thumb to try to rub away the sticky stuff.<br /><br />Suddenly I felt the blade of the scissors bite into the skin on the pad of my thumb. My wife snickered as I pulled my thumb away to inspect the damage. Not too bad, I thought. It was just in the top layer of the skin. Or so I thought. I looked stupidly at my thumb as I noticed a tinge of bright red blood begin to seep from my self-inflicted wound. Seeing this, my wife worked so hard to stifle a laugh that she snorted at a time that the speaker was striking a serious note. I was so happy to be able to provide some entertainment.<br /><br />Fortunately, I also had a clean square of facial tissue in my jacket pocket. I used this to blot blood while I applied direct pressure to the wound. But after a couple of minutes the thumb was still leaking red fluid. This wouldn't have been a huge problem, except that I was substituting for the <a href="https://www.mormonwiki.com/Ward">ward</a> organist that Sunday. I had maybe 12 minutes before I would have to play the organ. Into my mind flashed the bloody organ keys from <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059221/">The Ghost and Mr. Chicken</a>.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pg4dR0d8CBg/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pg4dR0d8CBg?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>My wife leaned over and reminded me that we always carry a first aid kit in the car. I had to leave the meeting and run to the car in search of a band aid. We have long been prepared, but we have used that watertight kit so seldom that I had forgotten how good the quantity and quality of the supplies in the kit were. I quickly applied one of the better band aids I have ever used and returned to the meeting in plenty of time to be ready to play the closing hymn. They wouldn't have to use Bon Ami cleanser to try to remove blood stains from the organ keys.<br /><br />Upon contemplating my cut thumb, I realized that none of this would have happened had I been wearing a necktie that was in good shape. So it's time to go through my necktie collection and get rid of a bunch of them. Except for the ones that have sentimental value, I guess. Can I really chuck the Halloween tie the kids gave me years ago with plastic google eyes glued all over it?<br /><br />My dad taught me years ago that knives should be kept sharp. While I'm pretty good on that score, I have now learned that it's important to keep my pocketknife clean. None of this would have happened had I immediately cleaned away the adhesive residue after I used the knife scissors to open a package.<br /><br />This is an extension of the age old axiom, "A stitch in time saves nine." Meaning that promptly sewing a small hole in fabric may prevent the need to repair a a much larger hole that later develops because the small hole was not properly handled. In essence, if you take care of a small problem now, although it may be inconvenient, it may save you from much bigger problems later.<br /><br />I have also learned that playing with knives during church probably isn't a great idea.";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/2939992499275352149/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=2939992499275352149";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/2939992499275352149";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/2939992499275352149";s:4:"link";s:79:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-necktie-knife-and-bloody-thumb.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:18;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-8728815497574498073";s:9:"published";s:29:"2017-08-16T14:06:00.002-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2017-08-17T07:38:34.761-06:00";s:5:"title";s:48:"Nazism, Racism, and Hatred Toward Others: Not OK";s:12:"atom_content";s:8469:"My father grew up in Hitler's Germany, being only two years old when Hitler became chancellor. Dad's family lived in a little town up north on the west coast. They were far from the main action so it took longer for the effects of Nazism and Hitler's rule to impact them.<br /><br />Eventually town officials began to be replaced with Nazi Party loyalists. This continued over the years until, according to Dad, everyone from the mayor to the postal carrier and dog catcher was a party loyalist. Quality educators at Dad's school were kicked out and their jobs were given to low-educated Nazis whose "only other qualification was that they knew how to beat the hell out of [the students]."<br /><br />During the dozen or so years prior to becoming chancellor, Hitler allied himself with and then led the Nazi Party. Even back then people knew that the party espoused extremist views, including racism and violence. Yet the rallies Hitler spoke at around the country drew increasingly larger crowds as Hitler blamed the country's problems on Jews, political opponents, rivals, and foreign meddling.<br /><br />Many Germans turned to Hitler because they were desperate. The worldwide great depression hit Germany's rough post-WWI economy particularly hard. "Everyone knew Hitler was a nutcake," said Dad, "but after everyone else had failed at improving the economy, they figured they would give him a chance at it. At least he would then probably shut up after he failed too."<br /><br />But Hitler didn't fail, as far as many Germans were concerned. His approaches may have been unorthodox, but for the first time in a generation many found jobs and began to rise from years of hardscrabble life. Too bad they couldn't see that the improvements they were experiencing were being purchased with a level of horror that the world had never before seen.<br /><br />Many Germans were quite enthusiastic for war. The foreigners who had made their lives hell for 20 years deserved a dose of their own medicine. The soaring rhetoric of German superiority convinced many that foreigners should naturally bow to the German Empire. It wasn't as if countries that were compelled to fight the Axis desired war. But the Germans and their allies made it impossible to refuse.<br /><br />The Nazi Party's strength increased as the economy improved. This came at a cost too. As party loyalty became the coin of the realm, fear of displeasing the party became a factor of everyday life. We have several generations of family history because Grandpa had to prove to the government that he and Grandma had no discernible Jewish blood. Once after insulting a neighbor who was the wife of a low level party officer, Grandma was saved from a jail term by a family friend who was a clerk at the police station. Dad was forced to join the Hitler Youth, a twisted version of Scouting.<br /><br />When giving the Nazi salute became mandatory, Dad said that people would salute friends while saying, "The crap is this deep in Germany." But that kind of joke could only be shared among highly trusted allies because the consequences could be severe. Even in small resort villages party members openly exercised violence on those with whom they disagreed and those they didn't like for arbitrary reasons. Often this was done with official government sanction.<br /><br />Even in small villages families would disappear overnight. Maybe they were Jews or dissidents or some other "enemy of the state." Who knew? One thing was for sure: you couldn't talk about it with anyone for fear of experiencing the same fate. This three-minute video gives a little insight.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hRMcPJrWm-g/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hRMcPJrWm-g?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div><br />As the war drew on horrible rumors of atrocities carried out at prison camps trickled back to Dad's village. These tales were so terribly bizarre that they simply could not be believed. Only after the war when the shockingly horrible truth was exposed did people in Dad's neck of the woods realize that the outlandish rumors had been extremely mild.<br /><br />Dad disagreed with armchair moralists who claimed that carpet bombing by Allied Forces in Germany during WWII was immoral. "They didn't live there," Dad would say. "They have no idea how ingrained the ideology had become among the general populace. The Allies didn't just have to defeat the German military; they had to soundly defeat the German people to destroy the ideology. The quickest most compassionate way to accomplish that was through carpet bombing. The reason for WWII was that the seeds of the ideology had not been killed after WWI. If the Allies had not defeated the ideology in WWII, it would have risen again a generation later."<br /><br />Mind you, Dad's village was on the receiving end of that bombing. He suffered PTSD throughout life as a result. But he still insisted that this was the best way forward and that it proved effective. "Two years after the war," he said, "you couldn't find a single person in Germany who would suggest that Nazism had been a good idea."<br /><br />Some estimates put the military and civilian death toll from World War II at around 80 million. Not to mention untold injuries, unparalleled infrastructure devastation, and extensive economic destruction. Those who today idolize Nazism inescapably yoke themselves to this reprehensibly evil legacy.<br /><br />When Dad came to the free USA, he was stunned to find people who, he said, would have happily toiled away at killing people in labor camps for the Fatherland. They didn't use Nazi symbols but they thought along the same lines. We still have people like that in the US today.<br /><br />Freedom of speech in the US means that people in this nation may freely choose to think and speak like Nazis, and to engage in Nazi-like behavior that is peaceful, including waving the deplorable symbol of the Nazi flag. It means that people are free to think and speak like racists, despicable though this may be. Freedom of assembly means that these people are free to peacefully assemble with like-minded individuals. But they are not free to incite or engage in violence or to materially harm others.<br /><br />I do not doubt that many pro-white protesters who were in Charlottesville last weekend feel that they have legitimate concerns that are not being adequately addressed. I'm sure that there are also many like-minded folks who were nowhere near the Charlottesville protests. All these people have a right to say their piece, although, I can't help but feel about their cause as Ulysses S. Grant felt about the Confederacy when he <a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant">said</a>&nbsp;that their cause was&nbsp;"one of the worst for which a people ever fought...."<br /><br />Pro-white folks that grouse about scoundrel race baiting "leaders" among minority groups ought to be aware that the race baiter's cloak is just as ugly when worn by those among their own ranks. They should also know that the vast majority of people in this nation who happened to be born with lighter skin pigmentation in no way identify with the pro-white movement and their ilk. When I saw a video clip of one racist saying that white folk need representation based on skin color just as some minority groups have, I said out loud to the computer screen, "You, sir, do not speak for me."<br /><br />To the so-called pro-white folks I say, I am happy to consider your calm and reasoned arguments. But know that I will oppose any Nazi-like or racist sentiments. I will defend your right to harbor those sentiments. But you need to know that I believe such things are unseverably bound to some of the greatest evils ever perpetrated on this earth, and vary from such malignity only by degree, not by kind. I love you; but I am compelled to hate some of your ideals.<br /><br />I also say that there is a better and happier way forward that is found in the true gospel of Jesus Christ and in Jesus' teaching to love each person as a child of God who has infinite value, regardless of skin color, economic status, nationality, belief, or any other seeming division point. I invite you to put down your anger and hatred and come to the fount of joy.";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/8728815497574498073/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=8728815497574498073";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/8728815497574498073";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/8728815497574498073";s:4:"link";s:83:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/08/nazism-racism-and-hatred-toward-others.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:19;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-8451525275987540063";s:9:"published";s:29:"2017-08-03T21:38:00.002-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2017-08-04T13:07:35.287-06:00";s:5:"title";s:24:"Giving Up on Google Feed";s:12:"atom_content";s:4913:"A few years ago after I got a new phone, I kept getting hit up with messages prompting me to turn on a new feature called Google Now. I tried it for a little while, but it seemed mostly like one of those gee whiz features that isn't really very useful. So I turned it off.<br /><br />A few months later after repeated pestering I turned Google Now on again. Improvements had been made and it at least seemed marginally useful. So I kept it around. Over time the app learned to present more of what I wanted to see and less of what I didn't care about. I kept thinking that I'd turn the app off, but then I found myself using it more and more. Features seemed to improve over time as well.<br /><br />Here are some of the things I liked about the Google Now feed:<br /><ul><li>A notification would pop up when a it found a significant number of new stories that might interest me. I usually only was notified once or twice each day. If I didn't want to look at the cards right then I could simply swipe the notification away.</li><li>It was easy to swipe away cards I had finished with or that didn't interest me at the moment.</li><li>My feed usually only presented about dozen or so cards at a time, so it was manageable.</li><li>Tapping on a card took me to an article. When I was done with the article I could hit return and go back to the same point I was at in the feed before going to the story.</li><li>The feed was informed by my Google search patterns, which reflect my software development career. So I was regularly presented with interesting tidbits for which I didn't specifically search but that were both intriguing and useful on the job.</li><li>The feed was relatively unobtrusive. It didn't demand much of me but it was there when I wanted to use it.</li></ul>It seems that Google intended users to go to Google Now instead of social media apps as their main news interface. At least, I seemed to be going that direction. Until a few months ago when the app started to become less useful for me.<br /><br />First my app notification went away. Then it was replaced by a notification that looked very similar but that took me to a feed that was entirely about weather. I have a weather widget on my phone's main screen and I can look outside at the weather anytime I want. A whole feed about weather seemed pretty useless to me. I tried many different setting changes but nothing helped.<br /><br />My news feed was still available but only by tapping on the Google app search bar. And then the news cards were obscured by the keyboard. While it's not too difficult to escape out of the keyboard, it seemed noisome and unnecessary when I wanted to see my feed.<br /><br />Then another problem surfaced. I could still peruse the cards in my news feed and I could tap on a card to go to the actual story. But any attempt to return from the story completely closed the app and dumped me back on the phone main screen. If I wanted to get back to my feed I'd have to once again tap on the Google app search bar and dismiss the keyboard.<br /><br />On July 19 Google released an upgraded Google app that included the feed. There was a lot of hype touting this as brand new and saying that Google Now was going away (See <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/19/15994156/google-feed-personalized-news-stream-android-ios-app">The Verge article</a>&nbsp;for example). But it really wasn't brand new. It looked pretty much like the feed had looked in Google Now. Still, there were supposed to be improvements. That had to be good, right?<br /><br />Not so much for me. After the app upgrade I could no longer swipe away cards from my feed. To get rid of a card I had to tap on the three dot icon in the upper right corner of the card and select "Done with this card" from the drop down menu. I tried various solutions — including uninstalling updates, clearing cache, disabling/re-enabling, and a variety of more obscure approaches — but none of them worked. The problems even persisted with a new phone.<br /><br />That's when I cried uncle. If Google's goal was to get people to shut off their Google app feed altogether, their methodology was effective for me. True, they had to wear me down over a period of half a year. But they finally got me. I'm done with Google feed on my phone.<br /><br />I would say that I don't miss the feed, but that's not accurate. It is true that I used the feed decreasingly as it became less convenient, so that turning it off wasn't that big of a step. Still, I have a dandy phone and I think it ought to do some of the same cool things its predecessor did well for several years.<br /><br />So I miss the feed. I liked a lot of things about it when it worked well. What I really don't miss is all of the problems my Google feed developed over the past half year. So it's with a somewhat heavy heart that I say, "So long, Google feed. Thanks for the good times."";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/8451525275987540063/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=8451525275987540063";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/8451525275987540063";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/8451525275987540063";s:4:"link";s:69:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/08/giving-up-on-google-feed.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:20;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-8725147100479162167";s:9:"published";s:29:"2017-07-24T20:52:00.000-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2017-08-01T21:04:33.983-06:00";s:5:"title";s:34:"When Church and Technology Collide";s:12:"atom_content";s:14487:""I am just amazed at how you knew how to do all that," the fellow said after I coached him through a computer task. The funny thing is that I hadn't know how to "do all that" when I walked into the office 15 minutes earlier. I simply followed my instincts, tried a few things that seemed to make sense, and ultimately figured out how to do it. The main reason it took as long as 15 minutes is that I insisted that the other man operate the computer so that he could get first hand experience doing the task.<br /><br />A tech article I once read said that the main difference between techies and non-techies is that techies aren't afraid to break things. That is, they are willing to try technology operations that have a chance of doing something desired but that might also break something. They push buttons, click on stuff, and hunt around for the right thing to do, having some confidence that they will be able to recover from any problems caused along the way.<br /><br />By doing this, tech folks develop instincts about what is likely to work and what isn't. They also learn how to usually keep from going too far down the wrong path. To non-techies, the steps techies take can seem like magic. They aren't. Techie instincts are sometimes purchased at the cost of a lot of pain and distress.<br /><br /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9wgLqnia3YE/WXVi0RsiOMI/AAAAAAAABKw/e3oydyZYmGQKVuZqKv7cpH2ZZsy0fgRQQCLcBGAs/s1600/Merlin%2Band%2BMim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9wgLqnia3YE/WXVi0RsiOMI/AAAAAAAABKw/e3oydyZYmGQKVuZqKv7cpH2ZZsy0fgRQQCLcBGAs/s1600/Merlin%2Band%2BMim.jpg" /></a>One of the fun scenes in Disney's 1963 animated feature <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057546/">The Sword in the Stone</a> depicts a wizard's duel between the (good) wizard Merlin and the (evil) enchantress Madame Mim. Merlin wins the duel, of course. While Mim is only left with a temporary illness as the result of her loss, Merlin's student Wart (the future King Arthur) sputters to Merlin, "You were really great, Merlin, but... but you could've been killed." Merlin replies, "It was worth it, lad, if you learned something from it."<br /><br />Techies are like Merlin when it comes to technology in that a difficult challenge that seems to nearly figuratively kill you can be worth it if something valuable is learned along the way.<br /><br />For the past year or so I have been serving as the technology specialist in my <a href="https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng">LDS</a> <a href="https://www.mormonwiki.com/Stake">stake</a>, after having served as <a href="https://www.mormonwiki.com/Ward">ward </a>technology specialist for about a year. I have a wonderful assistant at the stake level with whom I work closely. Each ward has a tech specialist. Together we make up the stake technology committee. Ward specialists deal with tech matters at the ward level. My assistant and I handle stake technology matters as well as ward matters that bubble up to us.<br /><br />In my professional life I have been a software developer for more than two decades. To most people outside of the IT industry all techies are the same. In real life we tend to be highly specialized. Software developers write the programs that run the hardware. We know a lot more about hardware than the typical computer user but usually a lot less than does the average hardware support person.<br /><br /><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bw27Dqv-izA/WXY4XMY0quI/AAAAAAAABLQ/BJ-sZcL3FkUjU_xFXYKkIuvzD1z5NuEDwCLcBGAs/s1600/software-development.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="262" data-original-width="370" height="226" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bw27Dqv-izA/WXY4XMY0quI/AAAAAAAABLQ/BJ-sZcL3FkUjU_xFXYKkIuvzD1z5NuEDwCLcBGAs/s320/software-development.png" width="320" /></a>Software developers also tend to be highly specialized within their field. I work with databases, structuring data, getting data in and out, and presenting data in useful ways. Developers who work with gaming and those that program scientific instruments have entirely different skill sets and I do. Except for those that work with audiovisual material, you can expect software developers to know less about A/V stuff than your typical savvy A/V user.<br /><br />As a stake technology specialist I deal mostly with what we in the industry call IT support. This comes in several varieties such as customer, desktop, mobile device, hardware, network, and audiovisual support. There is no software engineering involved in this calling. Thus, I have been forced to pick up skills that might be somewhat related but are quite different than what I do at work. Still, techie instincts constantly come in handy in this calling.<br /><br />When responding to a call or a text presenting a problem I have to come across as knowledgeable and I need to communicate with the reporting individual on a level they can comprehend. That typically means that I need to be able to translate from layman terms to useful tech terms and vice versa. We also have many tech savvy folks in our stake. It can be challenging to work simultaneously with people at both ends of the spectrum. While it can be ego enhancing to talk above people's heads in techie dialect, it's better to try to make them feel comfortable. Frankly, techies that don't deal with customer service in their daily lives tend not to be great at that sort of thing. But I try.<br /><br />My assistant and I regularly pray that the technology we work with will be inconspicuous and won't impede the message it is intended to support. The whole reason the Church has technology is to better accomplish its mission. Technology best serves this purpose when it just works without much fanfare. This is more difficult than it may seem.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dudfQIDI11I/WXaetVB4HiI/AAAAAAAABMg/V8e2Vqn95p4pLuMEBCcuKCZWabkVpRdUgCLcBGAs/s1600/Chromecast%2Bpromo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="972" data-original-width="1600" height="194" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dudfQIDI11I/WXaetVB4HiI/AAAAAAAABMg/V8e2Vqn95p4pLuMEBCcuKCZWabkVpRdUgCLcBGAs/s320/Chromecast%2Bpromo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Let's say you want to show a video during a lesson in a classroom at a church building. Unless you have a tiny class, your phone or tablet screen probably isn't effectively viewable for all class members. Your laptop screen might not be large enough either. So you want to use one of the TVs from the building's materials center. Since you don't live in the past, you have no DVD. You expect to stream the video from your device.<br /><br />But how do you do that? Is it an Apple, Android, Windows, or other kind of device? If it's Apple, does it use a 30-pin, Lightning, Thunderbolt, or HDMI connector? You could go wireless, except that AppleTV is probably so expensive that your building doesn't have one. So do you have the right kind of connector cord? If you have an Adroid device you may have no way to directly hook it to the TV using a cable. Does the TV have a Chromecast or Roku device? Quick, download the corresponding app. Now, can you get your device to link to the cast receiving device on the TV? Remember that both devices must be on the same WiFi network. Oh wait, you're in the Relief Society Room at my stake center where the WiFi signal is mostly nonexistent. You're out of luck. See how challenging it can be to accomplish a tech task that should be simple?<br /><br /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7UzVLGPPIE8/WXZw6BSqV3I/AAAAAAAABLs/4HN3ToyAZmQR9F8ZFI-MHQfGmuJivjJtwCLcBGAs/s1600/Stake%2BCenter%2BPic%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="1140" height="162" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7UzVLGPPIE8/WXZw6BSqV3I/AAAAAAAABLs/4HN3ToyAZmQR9F8ZFI-MHQfGmuJivjJtwCLcBGAs/s320/Stake%2BCenter%2BPic%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a>As a stake tech specialist one of the things I most long for is upgraded integrated audiovisual technology at our stake center. We support four buildings, although, one building is split with another stake. Our newest building is 30 years old, while the oldest is 52. Our stake center had state-of-the-art technology when it was dedicated 35 years ago. While some technology has been upgraded over time, all four buildings lack modern built-in video capacity, making broadcast of stake conferences and switching between video inputs nightmarish. All four buildings have WiFi, but it is pretty spotty in some parts of the buildings.<br /><br />The previous tech specialist in my stake did a great job. He was an innovator who showed stake leaders what was possible at stake conferences. So they came to expect internet broadcast to shut-ins and people who are away, video monitors on the stand in the chapel so that those on the stand can see what the video camera sees, seamless switching between video sources, the ability to show content from an iPad on the fly, etc.<br /><br />It takes multiple techies many hours to set up for stake conferences and other major meetings. Cords snake all over the place. Even after being secured with expensive <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaffer_tape">gaffer tape</a>&nbsp;safety is still an issue due to tripping hazards. The high number of temporary connections present so many potential failure points that it's amazing when any of this stuff works at all. Leaders and speakers usually handle inevitable live-time glitches with grace. But it galls me every time our taped-together tech interferes with the gospel message.<br /><br />I can't deny that I am envious every time I visit other older LDS meetinghouses that have built-in video cameras, projectors, and screens in the chapel. Such an installation would significantly reduce failure points and labor involved in meeting prep/cleanup, but nothing like that is apparently on the radar for our stake.<br /><br />We have professionals in our stake that could wire up a great A/V setup but Church rules prevent them from doing so. You can't really blame the Church for this policy. They have had to deal with more than a few well-meaning do-it-yourself jobs that create long-term maintenance problems. They also have to worry about building codes and safety guidelines. A DIY electrical job gone wrong can quickly burn down a church building.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_3hL6xSs0jc/WXZ6jYhZkfI/AAAAAAAABMI/E5vIv2q3Tg4ivILcugiSfbPcRZL8yVQ2ACLcBGAs/s1600/Ogden%2BTabernacle%2Bmain%2Bhall%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2Brear.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_3hL6xSs0jc/WXZ6jYhZkfI/AAAAAAAABMI/E5vIv2q3Tg4ivILcugiSfbPcRZL8yVQ2ACLcBGAs/s320/Ogden%2BTabernacle%2Bmain%2Bhall%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2Brear.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Our local tabernacle in town may have spoiled me a bit. Everything is built-in: video cameras, screens, projectors, flat screen monitors on the stand and in other rooms, internet broadcast equipment, etc. A small touch screen mounted off to the side of the choir seats controls it all. It takes a little training to use, but it's not bad. (This was all installed during a major renovation project three years ago.)<br /><br />When we have stake conference in this building, I hook my laptop to a built-in plate on the wall below the touch screen. From there I run the internet broadcast through the building's equipment and show lyrics during hymns. Everything else is run from the mounted touch screen.<br /><br />Is it too much to ask for a setup like that for my stake center? Apparently so. The wiring for that kind of thing is significant. It is also important to realize that technology tends to age far more rapidly than the building space that hosts the technology. Architects try to design modern buildings to be flexible enough to work with tech upgrades. But they can't see the future of technology so it's impossible to get this right. This means that it is often difficult and costly to upgrade technology in church buildings that are designed to outlast many technological cycles. (Remember that my stake's four buildings are 30-52 years old.)<br /><br />While the gospel message can be shared without technology, there is a reason the Church has invested so much in media content. As a stake tech specialist, I want nothing more than to help people easily use appropriate tech to accomplish their callings. But due to shortcomings in technology I often feel more like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dilbert_characters#Mordac">Mordac</a>, the Preventer of Information Services of Dilbert fame.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Cn1HkoIsAAI/WXajns3xm7I/AAAAAAAABM4/AgRlXpoJXO04Zn0FxtYlo79x2qPP_eDoACLcBGAs/s1600/Mordac%2Bagreria%2Breassignment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="199" data-original-width="640" height="196" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Cn1HkoIsAAI/WXajns3xm7I/AAAAAAAABM4/AgRlXpoJXO04Zn0FxtYlo79x2qPP_eDoACLcBGAs/s640/Mordac%2Bagreria%2Breassignment.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Last Christmas a dear sister in my stake sent me a lovely Christmas note saying that she appreciated the way I carried out my "behind the scenes calling." While I appreciated the sentiment, the note was evidence that I'm not nearly as behind the scenes as I should be. I and my ilk should be able to work well enough with the technology that we fade into the background. Maybe it's that way in some stakes but in my stake we're a long way from that ideal at present.<br /><br />Despite the challenges inherent in my current calling, I'm happy to serve in any station for Jesus the Crucified (<a href="https://www.lds.org/music/library/hymns/ill-go-where-you-want-me-to-go?lang=eng">Hymns 270</a>).";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/8725147100479162167/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=8725147100479162167";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/8725147100479162167";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/8725147100479162167";s:4:"link";s:79:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/07/when-church-and-technology-collide.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:21;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-1671430738274995905";s:9:"published";s:29:"2017-06-26T16:58:00.000-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2017-06-27T08:30:53.219-06:00";s:5:"title";s:45:"The dog, paw surgery, bandage, and cone drama";s:12:"atom_content";s:8826:"Our 5½-year-old <a href="http://www.dogbreedplus.com/dog_breeds/imo_inu.php">Imo Inu</a> dog (cross between <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Eskimo_Dog">American Eskimo</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiba_Inu">Shiba Inu</a> breeds) is a gorgeous white male that is more than half again as large as his breed is supposed to get.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IFy-xT6aFk8/WVFuRXestLI/AAAAAAAABGk/4-C1PN5ErdAqQjKazgFVl7N8lo12BscQACLcBGAs/s1600/2017-05-27%2BShiranui.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IFy-xT6aFk8/WVFuRXestLI/AAAAAAAABGk/4-C1PN5ErdAqQjKazgFVl7N8lo12BscQACLcBGAs/s320/2017-05-27%2BShiranui.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>One of the nice things about our dog's breed is that it tends to self clean, similar to many breeds of cat. This has many benefits. Our dog doesn't often traipse into the house with messy paws, for example. But our dog's penchant for self grooming recently became a problem.<br /><br />A few weeks ago we noticed a growth on the top of one of the dog's front paws. We took him to the vet, who said it was something like a cyst that needed to be removed soon. After the surgery we kept his foot wrapped with gauze and a self-adhering bandage.<br /><br />As soon as the effects of the general anesthetic wore off, it became quite clear that we would need something to prevent the dog from accessing his paw with his mouth. A standard plastic e-collar (Elizabethan collar, aka "cone of shame") seemed to be the most economical approach. But the size that fit him was simply not adequate. Our dog could access his paw with relative ease even with the collar properly in place.<br /><br />Before long we obtained a Comfy Cone brand padded fabric collar for the dog. It was a little longer. But the dog could still get to his paw. So we came up with the brilliant idea to extend the Comfy Cone by attaching the e-collar with duct tape, redneck style.<br /><br />Although this extended the cone, our dog could still manage to reach his paw via somewhat extraordinary contortions. He would stand up and bend his head down in a way that bent the outer edge of the extended cone, at the same time shoving his paw forward as far as it would go. Then he would extend his neck far enough that he could reach the paw with his front teeth. This allowed him to rip off the bandage and chew up his knuckles to the point of making them bleed. (Although, he still couldn't reach the stitches.)<br /><br />After getting very tired of having to constantly baby-sit the dog, I grabbed an old ice cream bucket one day, cut the sides from it, and used duct tape to attach the pieces so that they extended the double cone yet more. Seeing how this worked, I used parts of two more ice cream buckets to make a (nearly) full circle.<br /><br />The pieces of ice cream bucket looked like flower petals. This conical concoction was heavy and unwieldy. I started calling it "Conehenge." It looked utterly ridiculous. But it kept our tenacious dog from reaching his paw. The paw began healing nicely over the next couple of days as we regularly changed the dressing, gave the dog prescribed antibiotics, and also gave the dog buffered aspirin formulated for canines.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FXqQy3aUI-k/WVGXY79eb3I/AAAAAAAABII/VMs15rlx44oBIqJW5PGVY116pB1q-OC4gCLcBGAs/s1600/20170617%2BShiranui%2B%2528Conehenge%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FXqQy3aUI-k/WVGXY79eb3I/AAAAAAAABII/VMs15rlx44oBIqJW5PGVY116pB1q-OC4gCLcBGAs/s320/20170617%2BShiranui%2B%2528Conehenge%2529.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>As you might imagine, this was an imperfect solution. The ice cream bucket pieces were far less durable than the e-collar material. The dog whacked the massive cone on everything, causing the ice cream bucket pieces to split and chip. But he still couldn't get to his paw.<br /><br />Until he could. He managed to break Conehenge enough to access his paw while we were out of the house. It ripped up his mouth to do so, but apparently that was an acceptable price to pay. We were frustrated. Although we realized that the dog was simply doing what his instincts told him, we were about out of options. My brother suggested that the correct answer to a situation of this nature was a bullet to the noggin. And before anyone asks, nasty tasting deterrent sprays and bitter tasting bandage material offered little in the way of dissuasion to our dog.<br /><br />While we were trying to figure out how to deal with our dog's cone situation, the dog was unattended for a few moments when we thought he was sleeping. I soon discovered that his paw was missing the bandage and wound dressing. I looked around, but the remnants were nowhere to be found. My wife said that he must have eaten it. The dog has always had a thing for bandages. He would love to lick a bandage right off your finger if you let him. But I couldn't imagine how the critter could have ingested the entire paw dressing in such a short time frame.<br /><br />We ended up buying an extra large e-collar and hooking that to the Comfy Cone with duct tape.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0GHS_jN48WY/WVGI4-Gm4aI/AAAAAAAABHY/xb0KZTfYgngYknh7q2T5YqLE95yfm2IhwCLcBGAs/s1600/2017-06-26%2BShiranui%2Bwith%2Bdouble%2Bcone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1264" data-original-width="1600" height="252" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0GHS_jN48WY/WVGI4-Gm4aI/AAAAAAAABHY/xb0KZTfYgngYknh7q2T5YqLE95yfm2IhwCLcBGAs/s320/2017-06-26%2BShiranui%2Bwith%2Bdouble%2Bcone.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Conehead the Barkbarian</td></tr></tbody></table>This setup seems to work. It's as large as Conehenge without the excessive weight and brittleness. The dog can't get to his paw. Although he had the stitches out the other day and he no longer needs to have the paw bandaged, it still has a scab which he simply can't let be. The dog may need to wear the collar for several weeks until the paw is 100% healed.<br /><br />Although the super cone keeps the dog's paw safe, it is still unwieldy. He can go down steps, but he can't go up stairs of his own accord because the lower lip of the cone hits and gets stuck on every step. We end up having to heft and carry our 65-lbs of Imo Inu every time steps must be climbed. The dog can't eat or drink on his own. He can't get as close as he'd like to sniff at stuff. He can't self groom. He constantly bumps into people, walls, furniture, the floor, etc. In other words, the cone is a pain for the dog and for us. But what else can we do?<br /><br />Last night our coned canine seemed uncomfortable all night long. He just couldn't seem to get into a comfortable position, dog aspirin notwithstanding. He made a lot of noise rustling about, which interrupted the sleep of family members. We couldn't fathom what was wrong. His paw seemed to look so much better.<br /><br />This morning as I sat down to work, the dog leaned on my legs beneath my desk. He was being especially clingy. Then suddenly he hurled up a massive load of vomit. I couldn't keep all of it from going onto the carpet, but I was able to quickly direct his cone so that most of the bilious mass sloshed onto my plastic chair mat, like it was sliding down a reverse funnel.<br /><br />The central feature of this nasty spew was the bandage and gauze that had gone missing from the dog's paw, in two large and two small chunks. The whole thing was there. It had somehow been in his belly for four full days. He had eaten, drunk, urinated, and defecated during that time without showing signs of gut problems. I have no idea why he suddenly became uncomfortable only last night. At least he seems to be feeling better now, although, I had to clean up under my desk.<br /><br />I am fond of reminding family members that I voted against getting the dog. I knew he would impose a number of burdens on our family that I didn't think were worth the trade off. The dog regularly frustrates me and I am forced to deal with the onuses that I knew would be part of dog ownership. But I still love the dog and everyone in the family knows it. Including the dog.";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/1671430738274995905/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=1671430738274995905";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/1671430738274995905";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/1671430738274995905";s:4:"link";s:81:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-dog-paw-surgery-bandage-and-cone.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:22;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-3725107758644667161";s:9:"published";s:29:"2017-05-30T12:09:00.001-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2017-05-30T12:20:21.546-06:00";s:5:"title";s:48:"My newfound fascination with the unfollow button";s:12:"atom_content";s:4820:"Dear Facebook Friends,<br /><br />I have recently been unfollowing many of you. I was going to write something trite like, "It's not you; it's me." But that wouldn't be completely true.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nez-QLW8Brs/WS2ovJmMElI/AAAAAAAABEg/Sa_I3rrwmGAcNz0P7FOG6iaeThUfXn-3ACLcB/s1600/unfollow-blog-1024x719.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="1024" height="224" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nez-QLW8Brs/WS2ovJmMElI/AAAAAAAABEg/Sa_I3rrwmGAcNz0P7FOG6iaeThUfXn-3ACLcB/s320/unfollow-blog-1024x719.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />It started out with just a trickle. I didn't really think much about why I was doing it. After looking at one of your posts that I thought was inane, I just tapped on the little down arrow and selected the unfollow link. It was so easy. The guilt and FOMO (fear of missing out) that I expected to feel never materialized. Instead I felt a sense of euphoria, as if fetters with which I had been bound suddenly melted away.<br /><br />That intoxicating feeling resulted in unfollowing increasing numbers of friends. Yes, I know that if this trend continues my feed will soon be empty. But I'm wondering if that's really such a bad thing, considering the general quality of the material I see in my feed.<br /><br />This process has caused some introspection, allowing me to see some patterns appear as I have unfollowed increasing numbers of you. Let me plainly admit that the moment I see that your post has foul language or risqué images/messages, I choose to hide it. I just don't need that junk in my head. If too many of your posts are laced with this kind of crap, it's just easier to unfollow you than to sit around hoping that you will at some point post something of value.<br /><br />Actually, those of you whom I have unfollowed for such unfortunate messages have been few. Nor have I unfollowed any of you because I disagree with you politically, religiously, or otherwise ideologically. I appreciate diversity of thought. Value exists in having one's positions challenged and in recognizing that there are thoughtful people of goodwill who see things differently.<br /><br />Rather, I have realized that the main reason I have unfollowed many of you is the sheer volume of stuff you send across my feed. Quite frankly, some of you must feel a need to share everything you see on Facebook. Some of you have your settings such that I see everything you like. And it seems as if some of you like everything you see.<br /><br />When my feed is jammed with 40 of your shared or liked items in a single day, it's just too much. I'm overwhelmed. I don't have time to deal with that kind of volume. Nor do I need to clog my limited mental bandwidth with most of the material you share or like.<br /><br />Please realize that the most entertaining stuff you send across my feed has usually come to me many times already. Reruns. Much of the other stuff in my feed does little to enrich my life. When the great majority of material I see from you falls in these categories, I unfollow you.<br /><br />I'm also going to unfollow you if you overload my feed with political posts, regardless of whether I agree with you politically or not. We all know that the vast majority of political posts on social media amount to sniping at the opposing party and validating your own party, without providing much newsworthiness or informative value.<br /><br />I ... have ... had ... enough! I do not need to be exposed to breathless political drivel to be sufficiently informed about political matters. An occasional thoughtful political message is fine. But a constant feed of political nitpicking daily? Just go away already.<br /><br />One more thing. Keep your passive aggressive posts to yourself. Every time I see something like, "I bet this won't get very many likes," or "I'm going to rant..." or any other approach that tries to make me feel like garbage if I don't repost, share, or like something, I'm going to unfollow you. I'm tired of seeing posts of that nature. It's bad social media citizenship.<br /><br />Oh, and feel free to return the favor. It won't bother me at all if you unfollow me. I won't know that you've unfollowed me. Nor will I care. You have your life to live. You are not required to spend your limited resources paying attention to stuff I post, like, or share.<br /><br />There, I got that off my chest. I hope we can still be friends. Just because I don't find value in everything you value does not mean that we can't have a relationship. I wish you goodness and happiness, despite no longer following you on Facebook.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br />Scott";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/3725107758644667161/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=3725107758644667161";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/3725107758644667161";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/3725107758644667161";s:4:"link";s:82:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/05/my-newfound-fascination-with-unfollow.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:23;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-3848077436375937862";s:9:"published";s:29:"2017-05-20T21:25:00.001-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2017-05-20T21:25:16.518-06:00";s:5:"title";s:52:"The LDS Church-BSA partnership will continue for now";s:12:"atom_content";s:6698:"About a week ago I wrote <a href="http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-longtime-lds-scouters-views-on-lds.html">this post</a> about the <a href="https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng">LDS Church</a> discontinuing its sponsorship of &nbsp;the<a href="http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/Resources/VaristyProgram.aspx">Varsity Scouting</a> and <a href="http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Venturing.aspx">Venturing</a> programs. After a week of considering the matter, I now see some facets of this issue differently. I covered some of this in comments on that blog post. But after more consideration, I think this warrants its own post.<br /><br />Some are certain that the Church's action is simply a precursor to discontinuing its relationship with Scouting completely. While some make this prognostication with deep regret, others are gleefully ready to pound nails in the coffin of Scouting. I'm not ready to go there. The recently announced program change might indeed be the prelude to the end of LDS Scouting. But quite frankly, I've been hearing variations on this theme for 35 years, often as an excuse for shoddy stewardship in a calling.<br /><br />I will be the first to admit that the world is a very different place than it was when Scouting was vogue, and that the Scouting program suits some boys better than others. Certainly there are cogent arguments for the Church to drop all sponsorship of Scouting. But there are also solid reasons for the Church to continue to sponsor <a href="http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/CubScouts.aspx">Cub Scouts</a> and <a href="http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts.aspx">Boy Scouts</a>.<br /><br />I found it informative to watch the following 20-minute interview with current <a href="http://www.scouting.org/">BSA</a> National Commissioner <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_W._Dahlquist_II">Charles W. Dahlquist</a>, who served as LDS Church Young Men General President from 2004 to 2009.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kWpDc3d3E5s/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kWpDc3d3E5s?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div><br />Brother Dahlquist has been on both sides of the LDS-BSA equation. Even he can't say where this will ultimately go. He references a statement made by Church leaders some four decades ago, saying that when Scouting no longer meets the needs of the Church and the <a href="https://www.mormonwiki.com/Aaronic_Priesthood">Aaronic Priesthood</a>, the Church will discontinue its sponsorship of Scouting. He said that this statement remains true today, but in his estimation we are from from the point where Scouting does not meet the Church's needs. I know people who disagree with him, but they are not among top decision makers in the Church.<br /><br />In my previous post I opined that the Church would likely stop sponsoring Scouting if the BSA were to make the programs now known as Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts co-ed. In a comment I cited the reasoning of a Scouting friend, who noted that the BSA already began allowing "transgender boys" (i.e. girls who say they identify as boys) into these programs. There are already girls suing the BSA for keeping them out of Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts. My friend asked how the BSA can say in court that girls must not be permitted into these programs, when it already allows girls into the programs. So it would seem that it's only a matter of time before Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts become mixed-sex programs. I assumed that at that point the Church would get out of Scouting.<br /><br />Brother Dahlquist brushed aside these concerns by citing the fact that religious organizations that sponsor Scouting units have solidly protected rights to determine unit membership for religious purposes. For example, Venturing has been a co-ed program for decades. Yet in all the years the Church has sponsored Venturing, its units have been exclusively for boys and their male adult leaders. This precedent shows that the Church could continue to register only boys in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts if the BSA made these programs co-ed. So I believe that the concern I penned in my previous post really amounts to nothing.<br /><br />The main question, as framed by Brother Dahlquist (quoting previous Church leaders) is whether top Church leaders believe that Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting meet the Church's needs at present. The recent statement shows that Church leaders feel that these programs fill the need for now. But, as Brother Dahlquist noted, that question is constantly up for review.<br /><br />Commissioner Dahlquist also admitted that the Church is actively seeking a more global approach to youth programs. The diversity of Scouting programs around the world make it impossible for Scouting to be that global program for the Church. So it would seem that the Church is well aware that it will fully drop Scouting at some point. Brother Dahquist expressed hope that this juncture was yet many years away.<br /><br />Whether the Church gets out of Scouting in the near or distant future, my plan is to continue to sustain Church leaders. Since they have directed that Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting continue for now, I will continue to enthusiastically support these programs in the Church.<br /><br />My role is somewhat different as an <a href="https://oa-bsa.org/">Order of the Arrow</a> chapter adviser. OA units are sponsored by the BSA, not by any external organization. The Order's membership policies must mirror those of the Boy Scout program. If that program admits both boys and girls, so will the OA. And it will be just fine. The OA will flex to meet the needs of its members.<br /><br />It seems to me, however, that if the OA begins to admit girls, it will need to revamp some fundamental tenets of its program. Namely, the OA is a brotherhood. It is a fraternal service organization. Brotherhood is heavily referenced in its ceremonies and program materials. It is part of the Obligation (OA oath) and the song of the Order. The first word in the three-word Native American name of the Order translates to Brotherhood. I'm certain that national officials are quite aware of this issue. I suspect that they are studying changes that would become necessary if girls are admitted to the OA.<br /><br />Scouting will continue. The LDS Church will continue. Both organizations will continue their partnership for now, although, it seems clear that the partnership must ultimately cease at some point. Until that time, I will continue to support this union.";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/3848077436375937862/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=3848077436375937862";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/3848077436375937862";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/3848077436375937862";s:4:"link";s:80:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-lds-church-bsa-partnership-will.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"0";}}i:24;a:13:{s:2:"id";s:59:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035.post-6544901070430408179";s:9:"published";s:29:"2017-05-12T14:45:00.001-06:00";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2017-05-12T14:45:54.246-06:00";s:5:"title";s:91:"A longtime LDS Scouter's views on the LDS Church dropping support of some Scouting programs";s:12:"atom_content";s:10019:"I still remember what it felt like to officially become a <a href="http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/CubScouts.aspx">Cub Scout</a>. My oldest brother had been a Cub Scout and had recently advanced to the <a href="http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts.aspx">Boy Scout</a> troop. Brother #2 was now a seasoned member of the Cub Scout pack. My family couldn't afford official Cub Scout pants, but upon my induction I received an official Cub Scout shirt with appropriate patches, a neckerchief with slide, an iconic blue Cub Scout web belt with its gold buckle, and a Cub Scout cap. I had arrived. I was part of something big, noble, and important.<br /><br />That sense of pride was repeated as I made transitions to succeeding BSA programs sponsored by my LDS <a href="https://www.mormonwiki.com/Ward">ward</a>. I was so proud to don the khaki Boy Scout uniform. Eventually I became an <a href="http://www.exploring.org/">Explorer</a> and even represented my council at the National Explorer President's Congress in Washington DC. (The <a href="https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng">LDS Church</a> later transitioned from sponsoring Exploring to sponsoring <a href="http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Venturing.aspx">Venturing</a>.)<br /><br />It was with great pride that I became a member of the <a href="https://oa-bsa.org/">Order of the Arrow</a>, Scouting's national honor society, and then became an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Scout_(Boy_Scouts_of_America)">Eagle Scout</a> the following year. My summers working on Boy Scout camp staff provided a strong platform for a life of dedicated service to others. So valuable were my youthful associations with the <a href="http://www.scouting.org/">BSA</a>&nbsp;that I have volunteered as a Scouting leader throughout my adult life, hoping to provide for others something akin to what my leaders provided for me during my formative years.<br /><br />During my first couple of decades as a member of the BSA, the values of the LDS Church and the BSA seemed to mesh well, even as the BSA was challenged in various venues for holding to traditional values. But it is no secret that the approaches of the two organizations have increasingly diverged during the current decade.<br /><br />The fraying division starkly came into focus as I prepared to attend <a href="http://event.oa-bsa.org/events/n2015/conf/">National Order of the Arrow Conference</a> in the summer of 2015. The BSA had voted to permit gay leaders, after the LDS Church had asked that the final vote be delayed until after top church leaders could confer on the matter. The Church responded with a public statement saying that it was "deeply troubled" by the vote and that it would carefully review the matter. (See my <a href="http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2015/07/bsa-allows-gay-leaders-will-lds-church.html">7/27/15</a> and <a href="http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2015/07/will-lds-church-drop-bsa-part-2.html">7/30/15</a> posts.)<br /><br />We went to NOAC under a cloud of uncertainty as to whether our LDS contingent members would still be members of the BSA after the conference. Toward the end of the summer the Church announced that it would continue to sponsor BSA units. (See my <a href="http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-lds-church-will-stick-with-bsa.html">8/26/15 post</a>.) Still, the Church's announcement of the continuation of the LDS-BSA relationship made it clear that this partnership was subject to future revision.<br /><br />A part of that future became present yesterday when the Church announced that it will discontinue sponsoring <a href="http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/Resources/VaristyProgram.aspx">Varsity Scout</a> and Venturing units at the end of 2017. See:<br /><ul><li><a href="https://www.lds.org/church/news/church-replacing-varsity-and-venturing-scouting-with-new-activities-program?lang=eng&amp;cid=facebook-shared">Church News article</a></li><li><a href="http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/questions-answers-changes-young-men-program">Mormon Newsroom Q&amp;A</a></li><li><a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865679711/Mormons-drop-Scout-programs-for-older-teens.html">Deseret News article about announcement</a></li><li><a href="http://www.ksl.com/?sid=44204644&amp;nid=1016&amp;title=lds-church-to-no-longer-participate-in-varsity-venture-scouting">KSL article about announcement</a></li><li><a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865679717/Elder-Holland-Scout-leaders-have-been-understanding-kind-regarding-LDS-decision-to-discontinue.html">Deseret News article on Elder Holland's comments</a></li><li><a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865679790/Reaction-Utah-Scouting-leaders-show-surprise-relief-appreciation-and-uncertainty.html">Deseret News article on BSA leader response</a></li></ul><br />Let me first address the obvious points of this policy change. This announcement will change nothing about the way the vast majority of LDS units in North America run activities programs for young men ages 14-18. Quite frankly, only a tiny percentage of LDS units have really been doing either the Varsity Scout or Venturing programs for many years now. The policy change merely makes official what has long been occurring in most wards and branches.<br /><br />By saying this I intend no disrespect to those leaders who have valiantly worked to implement these programs in their units. Those units will be impacted by this decision. But most of the young men targeted by these programs during this century have been Varsity Scouts or Ventures in name only. Most of the LDS boys registered in these programs couldn't tell you anything substantive about their programs. This undoubtedly is part of the reason the Church is dropping its support of these programs.<br /><br />In its announcement, the Church signaled its continued support of the Cub Scout and Boy Scout programs, targeting boys ages 8-13. LDS boys ages 14-17 who wish to continue working on Boy Scout advancement will be registered with the troop. I assume that most of these will still attend Mutual with their respective age groups.<br /><br />There has long been a sentiment in North American LDS culture that a young man is pretty much done with Scouting when he turns 14. It's been like a rite of passage. They think that their 14th birthday means that they will never wear a Scout uniform again. This is true for many. But some boys have continued Scouting even when the Varsity Scout and Venturing programs have been largely absent in their wards. I believe that this new change will intensify the end-of-Scouting tendency and will further thin the ranks of those that wish to continue their Scouting efforts.<br /><br />Last night at Scout leader round table meeting, a member of our district relationships committee (a member of a local stake presidency) warned against reading too much into the Church's announcement. In instances like this, he noted, we sometimes have a tendency to assume we know what will happen next, when, in fact, we don't.<br /><br />He's right. Many will assume that the Church is merely taking a piecemeal approach discontinuing its association with the BSA. That may be true. But I'm willing to take the statement at face value. North American LDS Church members have long exhibited strong support of the Cub Scout and Boy Scout programs, notwithstanding those Church members that don't care for Scouting programs. (A friend and his wife call Scouting "The 'S' word.")<br /><br />Regardless of intention, yesterday's announcement can't help but have a chilling effect on Church members' enthusiasm for the portions of the Scouting program the Church will continue to support. People may not know what comes next in the relationship between the LDS Church and the BSA, but they probably can't help but notice a pattern.<br /><br />The Church's Q&amp;A about the Scouting policy change ends by asking, "Is this a reaction to the news that the Boy Scouts of America is considering the inclusion of girls and young women in its programs?" The answer simply says that this was not a known factor at the time the decision was made. It make no allusion to what might happen if the BSA goes co-ed with its programs now known as Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. But I would be very surprised if the Church continued to sponsor Scouting at that juncture.<br /><br />While the broader culture continues to move away from male-only programs for youth, the Church finds gospel centered value in continuing to offer single-sex programs for its youth ages 8-18. (I was going to write that the broader culture is moving away from single-sex programs for youth, but I'm not sure that's true. Support for many girl-only programs seems strong, while male-only programs in general are increasingly viewed as ignoble. Still, there is a motivated effort afoot to completely erase all distinctions of sex, allowing individuals to define sex for themselves. So there's no telling where this will go.)<br /><br />I don't have a crystal ball that tells me where the relationship with the LDS Church and the BSA is going or how soon it will get there. What I can say is that over the space of many years, millions of boys have benefited from this relationship. But the values of the two organizations may diverge to the point that this partnership no longer makes sense.<br /><br />If we get to that spot, I will find myself no longer be registered with a BSA unit. I could go out and find a community unit to link up with or I could found a community unit. That would be noble, but I've got too much going on in my life as it is, so that prospect seems doubtful for me.<br /><br />Regardless of whether the Church ultimately drops Scouting completely, I will always look on my decades of involvement with the BSA with fondness and gratitude. I can't begin to enumerate the good that has come into my life through Scouting. I won't live in nostalgiaville, but I will always find ways to serve others in a meaningful fashion.";s:12:"link_replies";s:149:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/6544901070430408179/comments/defaulthttp://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10424035&postID=6544901070430408179";s:9:"link_edit";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/6544901070430408179";s:9:"link_self";s:71:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default/6544901070430408179";s:4:"link";s:81:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-longtime-lds-scouters-views-on-lds.html";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:3:"thr";a:1:{s:5:"total";s:1:"5";}}}s:7:"channel";a:14:{s:2:"id";s:34:"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10424035";s:7:"updated";s:29:"2019-01-10T09:48:21.968-07:00";s:5:"title";s:12:"Reach Upward";s:8:"subtitle";s:114:"Exploring issues involving religion, politics, family, health, etc through my personal religious and moral filter.";s:42:"link_http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed";s:51:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default";s:9:"link_self";s:60:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default?alt=atom";s:4:"link";s:32:"http://reachupward.blogspot.com/";s:8:"link_hub";s:32:"http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/";s:9:"link_next";s:90:"http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10424035/posts/default?alt=atom&start-index=26&max-results=25";s:11:"author_name";s:14:"Scott Hinrichs";s:10:"author_uri";s:51:"http://www.blogger.com/profile/11831447472339880148";s:12:"author_email";s:19:"noreply@blogger.com";s:9:"generator";s:7:"Blogger";s:10:"opensearch";a:3:{s:12:"totalresults";s:4:"1357";s:10:"startindex";s:1:"1";s:12:"itemsperpage";s:2:"25";}}s:9:"textinput";a:0:{}s:5:"image";a:0:{}s:9:"feed_type";s:4:"Atom";s:12:"feed_version";N;s:8:"encoding";s:5:"UTF-8";s:16:"_source_encoding";s:0:"";s:5:"ERROR";s:0:"";s:7:"WARNING";s:0:"";s:19:"_CONTENT_CONSTRUCTS";a:6:{i:0;s:7:"content";i:1;s:7:"summary";i:2;s:4:"info";i:3;s:5:"title";i:4;s:7:"tagline";i:5;s:9:"copyright";}s:16:"_KNOWN_ENCODINGS";a:3:{i:0;s:5:"UTF-8";i:1;s:8:"US-ASCII";i:2;s:10:"ISO-8859-1";}s:5:"stack";a:0:{}s:9:"inchannel";b:0;s:6:"initem";b:0;s:9:"incontent";b:0;s:11:"intextinput";b:0;s:7:"inimage";b:0;s:17:"current_namespace";b:0;s:4:"etag";s:70:"W/"74928c92e6962fcec6a1fef9037fc6ca6be47f2f8d4481f6f2893adb9dcebb4a"
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