My Life

I was jogging with Serena, our new puppy, the other day, and I became contemplative when I observed her behavior around other people.  During this jog, there were at least half a dozen people that came across our path.  With every one, Serena became very aggressive.  The hair on the back of her neck stood straight up.  She was terrified.  She growled, she bared her teeth.  She tried to chase after the person after they passed us (going the other way).  Konan's behavior was very similar, while we had him.  Kole was more friendly toward other people, but still not completely trusting as some dogs are. Of course, there may be some explanation in both nature and nurture here in this phenomenon, but I believe that nurture does play a significant role.  I have heard from dog trainers and people more versed with animals than myself that dogs need to socialize in order to learn good manners.  They need to be around other people and other dogs ...

When I was a child, before email existed, my mother would write letters to her parents, who lived almost 100 miles away.  We'd go visit a few times a year, but the letters were for times between visits.  She always addressed the letters "Dearest parents".  One time I asked her why and she replied that it was the manner of address her parents had requested.  I participated with my mother in her tradition, and would often include letters with my mother's.  When we got the fancy new Mac (SE II, I think), I would type my letters and print them on our fancy new dot-matrix printer.  I believe my grandmother said that she preferred handwritten letters, but to be honest I think the computer ones were far easier to read. My grandparents had a country house on a huge lot when I was a child.  My grandfather raised horses and had a buggy that he let us ride.  He grew lots of his own produce.  They had a solar dehydrator for preserving food.  They ...

The LDS Church has a sort of hybrid organization similar to that of the governments in the United States.  There is a core organization, called the general authorities, who preside generally over the whole church, much like the federal government.  There are also stakes, each with a presidency and high councilors, similar to states, and wards and branches similar to counties or other smaller municipalities.  Sometimes there is a bit of interplay between the two, just as there is often struggle between the states and the federal government.  The doctrine teaches that all the priesthood leaders at every level of the church are guided by revelation, so theoretically everyone should be on the same page, since all of the direction should be coming from God directly. The church has a disciplinary system in place, for members who disobey the teachings or who teach doctrines contrary to those of the church.  This has been called "church court", but I believe more re...