When I was in high school one of my heroes was Alexander Pope. I chose him as a hero for the same reason I chose Cyrano de Bergerac: they were witty and intelligent men that women would never be attracted to. I had fairly low self esteem in high school, but that's not the point I'm trying to make. Alexander Pope was one of the great writers of this or any other age. His heroic couplets tend to say more about humanity than most people can say in entire volumes. You may not know him by name but you probably know him by famous lines like these: "To err is human, to forgive divine" "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" "Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace." "A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing" "Love the offender, yet detest the offense" "Hope springs eternal in the human breast." As you can see, Alexander Pope has given us a murderer's row of quotable quotes.
In his "Essay on Man," Alexander Pope explains, among other things, the existence of evil in the world, the workings of God, and the answer to the age old question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Consider the following lines:
All Nature is but Art unknown to thee;
All chance direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good
As you know, Megan and I are passing through some trials and tribulations and tests of our faith. It wasn't that long ago that Megan had 4 job interviews in a single week and I had an interview for a good job that I stood a decent chance of getting. That was over a month ago. We've seen several peaks and valleys in our hope since then. Currently, we're waiting to hear back from a job for which she has interviewed twice and has been told that she is the top candidate. But they're at the end of their fiscal year so they need to make sure they can afford to hire her. We were supposed to hear the news as to whether or not she'll get the job last Friday. Then we were told that they'd be having a meeting on Monday and we'd know by the end of the day. Now it's after 5:00 on Thursday and we're facing the possibility of going into another weekend without getting an answer.
We have another mortgage payment due soon. The Arizona Department of Revenue has, in it's infinite wisdom, decided to bill me twice for the same tax. The second time they billed me, they added a $100 bank fee, just to make things interesting. We're trying to get them to give us a refund as soon as possible, but there is no apparent haste on their end despite the fact that they didn't waste any time in billing me twice. Megan is finding it harder to bring in extra money. She isn't getting as much freelance work, we haven't been asked to house sit in dog's years (Dog's years! Get it?), and balloon tying hasn't brought in as much money as it used to. She doesn't get called up too often to substitute teach. She's trying to apply to as many jobs as she can, but design jobs are hard to come by these days. Add to that the fact that she's been pretty sick lately and might not feel good enough to tie balloons this weekend and you've got yourself a world class conundrum. There are probably other depressing factors in our financial situation, but I don't want to recount every little detail.
We're obviously in a situation that we are powerless to deliver ourselves from. We're not in this situation due to bad financial planning or extravagant spending. We have been putting money into our savings account every month since the beginning. We bought a house that was well under the amount of money banks were willing to loan to us. We've been shopping at thrift stores, second-hand stores, and yard sales even before Megan lost her job. We're frugal people, but these are tough economic times where people like Megan and I are struggling to get by. I could get political and blame things like deregulation of banks and the proliferation of predatory and subprime lending, but I'm not going to. From the beginning Megan and I have seen this as a test of our faith. I would be lying to you if I told you that my faith has not wavered at times during the past few months. Yet we soldier on. We continue to do all that we can do and put our trust in the only power that can deliver us.
Now let's get back to Alexander Pope. In those 4 lines he is telling us that there may be things in this world that we may judge to be evil, discordant, or the product of chance. I think back to a talk given in our last Stake Priesthood meeting. We were told that there are three types of storms in this life: 1) Those we are to avoid 2) Those we are to endure, and 3) Those we are to enjoy. I can't say that Megan and I have been jumping on the bed shouting, "Yeah! You lost your job! Isn't this fun?!" But we have drawn closer together in this time of trial. I can see actual tangible blessings that have come from merely enduring this trial and trying not to whine so much (That's a problem for me. I can be a big whiner). From the outset Megan and I have not judged the fact that she lost her job as evil, discordant, or the product of chance. We know that were are supposed to be learning and growing. Maybe we haven't learned all we need to learn yet. Maybe we haven't grown in all the ways we're supposed to, but I do know that we will be fine. We will make it through to the other side and be better for it. In the end these things will be good, harmonious, and they will point us in the direction we were intended to go.
When Megan is feeling particularly down I always ask her two questions: "What do we always land on?" and "How are things going to turn out." The correct answers are "our feet" and "just fine," respectively. This trial is turning into one of the most difficult things I have ever been called to endure, but the blessings are already showing. We know that everything will work for our good and we will be thankful in the end. I remind Megan that someday we'll be able to laugh about this. Every married couple has stories about, "We we so poor back when..." or "We were literally just living on love back when..." and Megan and I are carving out some of our own. There will probably be other lean times in our lives as well (especially when we start having kids) but we're learning how to get through it in the here and now.
When I was single I got used to being able to buy what I wanted when I wanted it. Now every purchase is carefully planned. One of the most important aspects of this trial is learning to be less selfish, which is hard. When you're single it literally is all about you. You're working on self improvement, you spend all your money on yourself, you do things that make you happy. When it comes don to it, young singlehood is probably the most selfish time of your life. Now I'm part of a partnership and I can't do what I want when I want to do it. There are compromises and sacrifices that need to be made and we're making them together.
I don't know if I should be throwing this up here because it's kind of a personal intimate moment, but here goes: Megan was feeling pretty down last night. It's understandable. Another day had come and gone without hearing about this job. She was sick as a dog and things looked particularly hopeless. She had laid down to sleep, but was having a hard time breathing with her nose stuffed up. She was losing her voice and couldn't say more than a couple words at a time, so she couldn't tell me everything she was thinking. She was feeling particularly helpless. So I got the chance to hold my crying wife in my arms and tell her that everything was going to be okay. The memory that came to my mind was of the women's pull on the trek. The women in our family had to pull the handcart up one side of a hill and down the other. The men were not allowed to help pull, but we helped by taking whatever heavy items we could get our hands on and carrying them to make the cart lighter. But the women had to struggle under the weight of the cart. In any decent trek, the women's pull tends to be one of the most memorable parts of the experience. The reason I bring up this memory of the women's pull is that as I held my sobbing wife, I couldn't help but sense how much harder this is for her than it is for me.
My life is ostensibly the same now as it was before Megan lost her job. I raise my hopes with her as opportunities have come and I have mourned with her as those opportunities have passed us by. I share the emotional baggage of this situation as well, but I can tell that she feels it more than I do. Any time you lose a job and have trouble finding a new one, the psychological pressure can be unbearable. The fact that she has borne it as well as she has is a testament to her strength. As I held her last night I couldn't help thinking, "She's the one who lost a job, not me. She's the one who is so sick she can barely speak, not me. She's the one who has to find ways to fill her days with productive things despite all temptation to wallow in despair, not me." It has been hard to have things stay relatively the same for me and change so drastically for her. I feel selfish. I feel like it should be harder for me (Then I reconsider, because it's plenty hard as is). Anyway, I can't make the point in writing that I can see in my head. Know this: Megan is a woman of strength and integrity. I lucked out when I married her and I hope I always remember that.
Anyway, I've wandered all round the point of this entry so much that you should be able to read it and get some sense of what I'm talking about. We're still hopeful and we still believe that things will work out and we'll be fine. As always, we are grateful for your love and prayers.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Sorry for the Silence
I just realized how long it's been since either of us updated the blog. I think I was just wanting to update it with some really exciting news, so I've been holding off in hopes that the news will come soon, but it hasn't quite yet.
For the third consecutive working day, I might find out if I have a job today! I got an email from FreeLife International last Monday letting me know that I am the candidate they want for the job. Since it is the end of the year and the budget, they have to reevaluate all new positions. In the email I was told that they should know by the end of the week and to give her a call if I hadn't hear by then. I hadn't, so I gave her a call and left a message figuring that I would find out on Monday. I called on Monday and found out that they don't know yet, but they have a meeting today and hopefully they will have the approval at the end of the meeting. So maybe just maybe they will call me today and tell me that I've got the job. So, it's news that doesn't really tell us anything but I'm grateful to have it. If nothing else, I'm at least who they want for the job.
I had a job interview yesterday with Macayos's Restaurants wanting a contract graphic designer. The interview moved at about 100 miles an hour going between my application, my resume, the story of me, my resume, my story, my application, my portfolio, my resume, my story, ext. By the end, I think the interview went well, but it's only a good option if I decide to do just freelance work. I would have less than part time hours, but they would want me to come in during the day during working hours on occasion to work on stuff. I don't think I could do this if I had a full time job. It is nice to have another prospect our there anyway.
I had my first substitute teaching assignment on the 6th. I taught preschools special ed. It was actually really fun. I got to run circle and sing songs do crafts with the kids. I had my second sub job on the 7th and 10th. It was to teach the Emotionally Disturbed kids over at a special school over in Mesa. I was terrified out of my gourd on Thursday night. Since I haven't had any sub experience to speak of in the past, I was nervous of whether or not I could control ANY classroom and now I was supposed to teach a class of students that are in that class because they act up - sometime violently. I had James give me a blessing before I left for the school. I wanted to get there really early, but I ended up running late so I only got there 15 minutes before class started. I was scrambling trying to find the lesson plans and get a handle over them before class started. I was relieved to find that the class had an aide who was a great help throughout the day. She handled most of the discipline of the children and I could just teach. I panicked when it came time to teach math because we were adding, subtracting, and multiplying fractions. Since I haven't touched math class in 7 years I wasn't sure if remembered how to do that stuff. Just in time I found the teacher's edition of the math book that had all the answers in it, so I at least knew I had the right answers. To my relief for the last half of the day we just watched movies.
On Monday I got to do the whole thing over again and I thought it would be easier because I had done it already and knew the kids. It wasn't easier. During language the first hour I had one student refuse to sit down and take of his hat and sunglasses just because he was looking for ways to act up. During reading I had to take away the pencil of a boy who kept beating it on the desk to annoy me and the other students after I asked him three times to stop. When I took his pencil, he threw back his chair and screamed F@#$% You! Then he tried to rip the book in half and kicked the wall. Oops. The assistant got him to relax quickly and after I got him to promise not to take the pencil away again I gave it back to him.
Things went smoothly for a while after that but in Science the same kid who refused to take off this had and sunglasses got into an obscene yelling match with one of the other students calling him gay in very colorful language and hand gestures. The class aide eventually put him in the time-out room (which is a closed off area in the classroom) but he was still so loud that not one could concentrate. Since there was only five minutes left of class we all just had to listen to the disgusting remarks and try to talk the victim of the verbal abuse to not go back there and kill him. Needless to day, I was happy when that day was over. In the end the class aide really liked me and is going to refer me to be the sub every time the teacher is out. I guess if I can succeed as a sub there, I can succeed anywhere.
I will keep you posted of what I hear about the FreeLife International job.
Megan
For the third consecutive working day, I might find out if I have a job today! I got an email from FreeLife International last Monday letting me know that I am the candidate they want for the job. Since it is the end of the year and the budget, they have to reevaluate all new positions. In the email I was told that they should know by the end of the week and to give her a call if I hadn't hear by then. I hadn't, so I gave her a call and left a message figuring that I would find out on Monday. I called on Monday and found out that they don't know yet, but they have a meeting today and hopefully they will have the approval at the end of the meeting. So maybe just maybe they will call me today and tell me that I've got the job. So, it's news that doesn't really tell us anything but I'm grateful to have it. If nothing else, I'm at least who they want for the job.
I had a job interview yesterday with Macayos's Restaurants wanting a contract graphic designer. The interview moved at about 100 miles an hour going between my application, my resume, the story of me, my resume, my story, my application, my portfolio, my resume, my story, ext. By the end, I think the interview went well, but it's only a good option if I decide to do just freelance work. I would have less than part time hours, but they would want me to come in during the day during working hours on occasion to work on stuff. I don't think I could do this if I had a full time job. It is nice to have another prospect our there anyway.
I had my first substitute teaching assignment on the 6th. I taught preschools special ed. It was actually really fun. I got to run circle and sing songs do crafts with the kids. I had my second sub job on the 7th and 10th. It was to teach the Emotionally Disturbed kids over at a special school over in Mesa. I was terrified out of my gourd on Thursday night. Since I haven't had any sub experience to speak of in the past, I was nervous of whether or not I could control ANY classroom and now I was supposed to teach a class of students that are in that class because they act up - sometime violently. I had James give me a blessing before I left for the school. I wanted to get there really early, but I ended up running late so I only got there 15 minutes before class started. I was scrambling trying to find the lesson plans and get a handle over them before class started. I was relieved to find that the class had an aide who was a great help throughout the day. She handled most of the discipline of the children and I could just teach. I panicked when it came time to teach math because we were adding, subtracting, and multiplying fractions. Since I haven't touched math class in 7 years I wasn't sure if remembered how to do that stuff. Just in time I found the teacher's edition of the math book that had all the answers in it, so I at least knew I had the right answers. To my relief for the last half of the day we just watched movies.
On Monday I got to do the whole thing over again and I thought it would be easier because I had done it already and knew the kids. It wasn't easier. During language the first hour I had one student refuse to sit down and take of his hat and sunglasses just because he was looking for ways to act up. During reading I had to take away the pencil of a boy who kept beating it on the desk to annoy me and the other students after I asked him three times to stop. When I took his pencil, he threw back his chair and screamed F@#$% You! Then he tried to rip the book in half and kicked the wall. Oops. The assistant got him to relax quickly and after I got him to promise not to take the pencil away again I gave it back to him.
Things went smoothly for a while after that but in Science the same kid who refused to take off this had and sunglasses got into an obscene yelling match with one of the other students calling him gay in very colorful language and hand gestures. The class aide eventually put him in the time-out room (which is a closed off area in the classroom) but he was still so loud that not one could concentrate. Since there was only five minutes left of class we all just had to listen to the disgusting remarks and try to talk the victim of the verbal abuse to not go back there and kill him. Needless to day, I was happy when that day was over. In the end the class aide really liked me and is going to refer me to be the sub every time the teacher is out. I guess if I can succeed as a sub there, I can succeed anywhere.
I will keep you posted of what I hear about the FreeLife International job.
Megan
Friday, November 07, 2008
Lincoln Said it Best
So the election is now behind us and we can stop being inundated with political ads and go right back to being inundated with ads that try to compel us into the sort of reckless debt-driven consumer behavior that got us into the financial mess we're in in the first place (though of course the consumers aren't the only ones to blame. The institutions who thought it was a good idea to lend money to people who have a history of not paying money back and then buy and sell those loans as if they were a commodity with any redeemable cash value had more to do with the pickle we're in than anything else. I think I'll take the safe road and blame everyone). But I feel I need to say a few things about my personal political stance before I let this thing go.
As some of you may remember, I used to be a Rush Limbaugh-listening Ayn Rand-reading hardcore right wing Republican. Now I'm a moderate who tries his best to look at the issues without throwing around terms like "liberal" or "conservative" which are tossed around so carelessly these days that they seem to have lost most of their meaning. I was a conservative in high school because that's what my friends were. It wasn't until I got out into the world a bit that I began to see that no single political party holds all the answers to every political question. Since high school I've seen poverty, corruption, crime, racism, and a whole slew of other sociopolitical problems that I just couldn't wrap my brain around in a hardcore conservative way. I also made friends with some hardcore Democrats and found more than a few hardcore Republicans that I couldn't stand. It didn't take long for me to see that my hard right stance wasn't right in every case and instance. Of course the left wasn't right all the time either. I soon found myself in a political no-man's-land where neither party fit my views and all the third parties seemed too radical or too absorbed in a single idea or issue. So what was I to do?
I began to look at the politics of this country as the swinging of a great pendulum. If it swings too far or too long to the left or the right, it upsets the delicate balance that keeps the political leanings of this country generally moderate. I don't think Democrats should be able to implement too many of their policies over too long a period of time and the same goes for the Republicans. If you think about the fact that George W. Bush has had a key to the front door of the White House for 20 of the last 28 years (It's true. There were 8 years where his father was Vice President under Reagan, 4 years where his father was President, and he has been President for 8 years) you can see that the delicate balance has been off kilter for a while. Bear in mind the fact that I have voted for Bush twice. I voted for him in the absence of better choices, and for campaign promises that he absolutely failed to live up to, but I did vote for him.
This year I voted for Obama. I did it proudly and happily. My only regret is that I didn't have two votes to cast for him because I woulda done it in a heartbeat. In the days leading up to and after the election, I have heard every slanderous accusation against Obama that you could imagine. I've heard him accused of not being a citizen of this country (a ridiculous argument because don't you think a candidate's citizenship is the first they check when you announce your candidacy?) I've heard him accused of being a terrorist (another ridiculous accusation which is absolutely false. But if it were true, which is isn't, it would represent a major breakdown in anti-terrorist intelligence, which is something I don't think Obama's accusers have considered). I've also seen him painted as a member of a radical Christian church and a Muslim, which are mutually exclusive religious affiliations. Fox news even went as far as to call a fist bump between Obama and his wife a "terrorist fist bump" or "terrorist fist jab." This is about as insane an argument as you can make. Megan and I have been bumping fists for a long time now and we have no ties to Al-Qaeda or the Taliban. It's a thing young people do and it is similar to a handshake or an old fashioned "high-five." I have just seen way too much mud slung Obama's way and so little of it has any bearing in reality.
Now please understand that I have a great amount of respect for McCain. When it was suggested that he should run for President, I told several people that I wished he wouldn't. He has done a lot of good as a Senator and has represented the state of Arizona with dignity and pride. I don't fault anyone who voted for McCain, just as I hope no one thinks any less of me for voting Obama way.
It breaks my heart to see how partisan this country has gotten. We have Democrats who think Republicans are heartless uneducated Bible-thumpers who wear bib overalls and have no grasp of the issues. We have Republicans who think Democrats are sandal-wearing hippies and godless heathens who have done so many drugs they wouldn't know an issue if they saw one. These generalizations don't really represent the makeup of either party. There are good people on both sides of every divisive issue in this country and I wish people would stop squabbling with each other long enough to realize that we're all just people trying to make the best of this world the only way we know how. We may go about it in different ways, but we're really not so different that we can't be friends.
Some of you may have missed the excellent speech Obama made after winning the election. I don't remember the last time I was as inspired by a political speech. Here are two quotes from that speech:
"I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he's fought even longer and harder for the country he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader. I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead."
"Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House - a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, "We are not enemies, but friends...though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn - I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too."
McCain's concession speech included similar sentiments. Here is a quote from that speech:
"I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our goodwill and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited."
McCain was gracious in defeat and Obama was gracious in victory. There has never been a time in my life where two such men opposed each other for the office of the President of the United States. I know that some of you are less than pleased that Obama won the election, and I know some of you may disagree with nearly everything I've said in this entry. But the words of Abraham Lincoln are as true now as they ever were. "We are not enemies, but friends." I sincerely hope that this country will learn to put aside its partisan ways. That talking heads on the news and on the radio would love nothing more than to see the citizens of this country go another 4 or 8 years bashing heads with one another, but that is not the way it is meant to be. "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." We are not to do as Adlai Stevenson said we do as citizens, "Pick a President, and then for four years pick on him."
In the early days of the church, the saints were taught to seek legal recourse for the wrongdoings they suffered and to not take matters into their own hands. If you remember President Packer's talk from general conference, he talked about how the saints, upon reaching the Salt Lake Valley, held a patriotic parade the likes of which most of us have never seen in our lifetime. He said, "They chose patriotism and loyalty to that same government which had rejected and failed to assist them." There is much we can learn from the example of our pioneer ancestors.
Obama has not as yet set his hand to the bible to be sworn in as President of this country and there are those who refuse to give him any sort of chance to lead this nation. There are those who have already begun to murmur and speak in hushed voices about assassination. Those are not the principles by which we are to live our lives. We are always shocked to find members of our ward who go inactive when a new bishop is called because they refuse his leadership. Let us not be guilty of the very same transgression by refusing to accept the duly elected leader of our country.
Our country is in a precarious position right now. We are in a highly controversial and complex war. Our economy is teetering on the brink of depression. We are finding fewer and fewer allies in the other countries of the world, and more and more Americans are pretending to be Canadian when traveling abroad. The reputation of this country and the office of the President have been tarnished significantly over the past 16 years (yes, I'm including the Clinton Administration. See how I did that? I told you I was moderate). There is a long road of restoration and recovery ahead of us and any bickering or partisan pettiness only serves to impede the progress we could be making as a country.
So that's all I'm going to say about that. One thing I didn't plan on mentioning because I didn't think it was my place: I got some unexpected sad news from Todd today. Many of you may have heard that his Mom passed away. I don't have too many details because I didn't think it would be right to press for them, but her passing was unexpected. She was as good a woman as you could ever hope to meet. She was as kind to me as anyone has ever been and during high school she was like a second mother to me. I send my condolences to the Wilhelm family and I hope they will be comforted in this time of loss. This is one of those times where it all seems to be piling on. The tragic death of Vincent Romero and Timothy Romans and the uncertain fate of Vincent's son whose life will surely never be the same. Then we have the Wilhelms going through a difficult and sudden loss of their own.
In the midst of all the sadness and loss, there is a ray of hope. So I'm going to try to end this entry on a positive note. But you have to understand how all this went down so you'll understand why my head was spinning up until a few minutes ago. There were about a billion people who came up to the desk here at the library. It's crunch time on this particular project and we're getting the desperate procrastinators who come in droves and make unrealistic demands of us. So I'm dealing with all this hoo-ha at the front desk when I get a call from Megan, which is the ray of hope I'll share with you in a moment. Then I get a call from Todd, who is noticeably upset and in need of someone to talk to. I tried my best to be there for Todd in the little time I had so I could get back to the desk and deal with another barrage of patrons. In a span of only 10 minutes I was dealing with joy, frustration, guarded hope, sadness, loss, and madness. It seemed a bit much and I'm still trying to digest it all.
So here's the ray of hope: Megan got an email from the MLM that she interviewed with. They told her that she was at the top of their list for that job she interviewed for. Does this mean she gets the job? We don't know yet. That's why it's guarded hope. They're finishing their quarter or fiscal year or something and they need to do some evaluation before they can officially offer a job to Megan, but they wanted her to know that she is their first choice. So she'll find out this week if they can afford to take her on or not. So we are crossing every part of our bodies that can possibly be crossed and hoping this works out. There are so many things happening now that it wouldn't be greedy to ask that one of those things be good for us. So please remember us in your prayers. We appreciate all you have done for us thus far and for all the love and support we get from you.
I think that is officially it for this entry. It's a bulky one, but I hope you all made it through.
As some of you may remember, I used to be a Rush Limbaugh-listening Ayn Rand-reading hardcore right wing Republican. Now I'm a moderate who tries his best to look at the issues without throwing around terms like "liberal" or "conservative" which are tossed around so carelessly these days that they seem to have lost most of their meaning. I was a conservative in high school because that's what my friends were. It wasn't until I got out into the world a bit that I began to see that no single political party holds all the answers to every political question. Since high school I've seen poverty, corruption, crime, racism, and a whole slew of other sociopolitical problems that I just couldn't wrap my brain around in a hardcore conservative way. I also made friends with some hardcore Democrats and found more than a few hardcore Republicans that I couldn't stand. It didn't take long for me to see that my hard right stance wasn't right in every case and instance. Of course the left wasn't right all the time either. I soon found myself in a political no-man's-land where neither party fit my views and all the third parties seemed too radical or too absorbed in a single idea or issue. So what was I to do?
I began to look at the politics of this country as the swinging of a great pendulum. If it swings too far or too long to the left or the right, it upsets the delicate balance that keeps the political leanings of this country generally moderate. I don't think Democrats should be able to implement too many of their policies over too long a period of time and the same goes for the Republicans. If you think about the fact that George W. Bush has had a key to the front door of the White House for 20 of the last 28 years (It's true. There were 8 years where his father was Vice President under Reagan, 4 years where his father was President, and he has been President for 8 years) you can see that the delicate balance has been off kilter for a while. Bear in mind the fact that I have voted for Bush twice. I voted for him in the absence of better choices, and for campaign promises that he absolutely failed to live up to, but I did vote for him.
This year I voted for Obama. I did it proudly and happily. My only regret is that I didn't have two votes to cast for him because I woulda done it in a heartbeat. In the days leading up to and after the election, I have heard every slanderous accusation against Obama that you could imagine. I've heard him accused of not being a citizen of this country (a ridiculous argument because don't you think a candidate's citizenship is the first they check when you announce your candidacy?) I've heard him accused of being a terrorist (another ridiculous accusation which is absolutely false. But if it were true, which is isn't, it would represent a major breakdown in anti-terrorist intelligence, which is something I don't think Obama's accusers have considered). I've also seen him painted as a member of a radical Christian church and a Muslim, which are mutually exclusive religious affiliations. Fox news even went as far as to call a fist bump between Obama and his wife a "terrorist fist bump" or "terrorist fist jab." This is about as insane an argument as you can make. Megan and I have been bumping fists for a long time now and we have no ties to Al-Qaeda or the Taliban. It's a thing young people do and it is similar to a handshake or an old fashioned "high-five." I have just seen way too much mud slung Obama's way and so little of it has any bearing in reality.
Now please understand that I have a great amount of respect for McCain. When it was suggested that he should run for President, I told several people that I wished he wouldn't. He has done a lot of good as a Senator and has represented the state of Arizona with dignity and pride. I don't fault anyone who voted for McCain, just as I hope no one thinks any less of me for voting Obama way.
It breaks my heart to see how partisan this country has gotten. We have Democrats who think Republicans are heartless uneducated Bible-thumpers who wear bib overalls and have no grasp of the issues. We have Republicans who think Democrats are sandal-wearing hippies and godless heathens who have done so many drugs they wouldn't know an issue if they saw one. These generalizations don't really represent the makeup of either party. There are good people on both sides of every divisive issue in this country and I wish people would stop squabbling with each other long enough to realize that we're all just people trying to make the best of this world the only way we know how. We may go about it in different ways, but we're really not so different that we can't be friends.
Some of you may have missed the excellent speech Obama made after winning the election. I don't remember the last time I was as inspired by a political speech. Here are two quotes from that speech:
"I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he's fought even longer and harder for the country he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader. I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead."
"Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House - a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, "We are not enemies, but friends...though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn - I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too."
McCain's concession speech included similar sentiments. Here is a quote from that speech:
"I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our goodwill and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited."
McCain was gracious in defeat and Obama was gracious in victory. There has never been a time in my life where two such men opposed each other for the office of the President of the United States. I know that some of you are less than pleased that Obama won the election, and I know some of you may disagree with nearly everything I've said in this entry. But the words of Abraham Lincoln are as true now as they ever were. "We are not enemies, but friends." I sincerely hope that this country will learn to put aside its partisan ways. That talking heads on the news and on the radio would love nothing more than to see the citizens of this country go another 4 or 8 years bashing heads with one another, but that is not the way it is meant to be. "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." We are not to do as Adlai Stevenson said we do as citizens, "Pick a President, and then for four years pick on him."
In the early days of the church, the saints were taught to seek legal recourse for the wrongdoings they suffered and to not take matters into their own hands. If you remember President Packer's talk from general conference, he talked about how the saints, upon reaching the Salt Lake Valley, held a patriotic parade the likes of which most of us have never seen in our lifetime. He said, "They chose patriotism and loyalty to that same government which had rejected and failed to assist them." There is much we can learn from the example of our pioneer ancestors.
Obama has not as yet set his hand to the bible to be sworn in as President of this country and there are those who refuse to give him any sort of chance to lead this nation. There are those who have already begun to murmur and speak in hushed voices about assassination. Those are not the principles by which we are to live our lives. We are always shocked to find members of our ward who go inactive when a new bishop is called because they refuse his leadership. Let us not be guilty of the very same transgression by refusing to accept the duly elected leader of our country.
Our country is in a precarious position right now. We are in a highly controversial and complex war. Our economy is teetering on the brink of depression. We are finding fewer and fewer allies in the other countries of the world, and more and more Americans are pretending to be Canadian when traveling abroad. The reputation of this country and the office of the President have been tarnished significantly over the past 16 years (yes, I'm including the Clinton Administration. See how I did that? I told you I was moderate). There is a long road of restoration and recovery ahead of us and any bickering or partisan pettiness only serves to impede the progress we could be making as a country.
So that's all I'm going to say about that. One thing I didn't plan on mentioning because I didn't think it was my place: I got some unexpected sad news from Todd today. Many of you may have heard that his Mom passed away. I don't have too many details because I didn't think it would be right to press for them, but her passing was unexpected. She was as good a woman as you could ever hope to meet. She was as kind to me as anyone has ever been and during high school she was like a second mother to me. I send my condolences to the Wilhelm family and I hope they will be comforted in this time of loss. This is one of those times where it all seems to be piling on. The tragic death of Vincent Romero and Timothy Romans and the uncertain fate of Vincent's son whose life will surely never be the same. Then we have the Wilhelms going through a difficult and sudden loss of their own.
In the midst of all the sadness and loss, there is a ray of hope. So I'm going to try to end this entry on a positive note. But you have to understand how all this went down so you'll understand why my head was spinning up until a few minutes ago. There were about a billion people who came up to the desk here at the library. It's crunch time on this particular project and we're getting the desperate procrastinators who come in droves and make unrealistic demands of us. So I'm dealing with all this hoo-ha at the front desk when I get a call from Megan, which is the ray of hope I'll share with you in a moment. Then I get a call from Todd, who is noticeably upset and in need of someone to talk to. I tried my best to be there for Todd in the little time I had so I could get back to the desk and deal with another barrage of patrons. In a span of only 10 minutes I was dealing with joy, frustration, guarded hope, sadness, loss, and madness. It seemed a bit much and I'm still trying to digest it all.
So here's the ray of hope: Megan got an email from the MLM that she interviewed with. They told her that she was at the top of their list for that job she interviewed for. Does this mean she gets the job? We don't know yet. That's why it's guarded hope. They're finishing their quarter or fiscal year or something and they need to do some evaluation before they can officially offer a job to Megan, but they wanted her to know that she is their first choice. So she'll find out this week if they can afford to take her on or not. So we are crossing every part of our bodies that can possibly be crossed and hoping this works out. There are so many things happening now that it wouldn't be greedy to ask that one of those things be good for us. So please remember us in your prayers. We appreciate all you have done for us thus far and for all the love and support we get from you.
I think that is officially it for this entry. It's a bulky one, but I hope you all made it through.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
A little hope
So things are getting much tighter around here, but would it really be a test of faith if faith wasn't all we had at the end of the day? We've been put in a situation where more than half of our income has been eliminated and we've still been able to make ends meet for the past two months. We have learned to rely on each other as husband and wife and our relationship is closer than it's ever been.
Here are some things to hope for:
1. We should be getting a check for three freelance jobs that I've done this week and James gets paid on Friday.
2. I had my final interview with FreeLife International last Thursday and it went well. We were hoping to get the job offer in that interview, but they won't have a decision until the end of this week or next week. I have done everything in my power to get that job, so now we just have to have faith that if it's the right job for me at this time than I'll get it.
3. I worked out a deal with a very popular restaurant in Gilbert that I can go do balloons for tips every night of the week and lunch on Saturday. This is how I supported myself all through high school and college and usually brings in a decent chunk of money. In doing this, I will still have my days free to substitute, work on any freelance jobs that might come in or go to interviews.
There's more that I would like to write about, but I've got to get ready to go to Young Womens so you all have a fantastic evening. Thanks again for all your love and support.
-Megan
Here are some things to hope for:
1. We should be getting a check for three freelance jobs that I've done this week and James gets paid on Friday.
2. I had my final interview with FreeLife International last Thursday and it went well. We were hoping to get the job offer in that interview, but they won't have a decision until the end of this week or next week. I have done everything in my power to get that job, so now we just have to have faith that if it's the right job for me at this time than I'll get it.
3. I worked out a deal with a very popular restaurant in Gilbert that I can go do balloons for tips every night of the week and lunch on Saturday. This is how I supported myself all through high school and college and usually brings in a decent chunk of money. In doing this, I will still have my days free to substitute, work on any freelance jobs that might come in or go to interviews.
There's more that I would like to write about, but I've got to get ready to go to Young Womens so you all have a fantastic evening. Thanks again for all your love and support.
-Megan
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Kompek Kompok
Hey everybody. There are so many things I need to write about I don't even know where to begin. I think I'll just start and see where it takes us. Megan still doesn't have a job (obviously, we would have called you if she did) and things are getting a bit tight around here. I had one of my paychecks levied by the state of Arizona who thinks that no matter how much I pay them in taxes, it's always a couple hundred bucks short. We had our electricity cut off a couple weeks ago (We had the money to pay it, we just thought we had paid it when we apparently hadn't) which cost us some money then and is going to continue to cost us in the months to come (seriously, SRP is taking way more than a pound of flesh and it seems completely ridiculous). There are other depressing wastes of money all around us which I'm probably forgetting to mention. Megan and I are running out of money and there isn't any end it sight. The economy is horrible and the job market couldn't possibly be worse. I say all this depressing stuff because Megan and I have chosen to keep our hopes high in the face of all this stuff. We know that we have no idea where next month's mortgage payment is coming from. We know we're going to have to tighten our belts even more than we already have. Even though we're fully aware of the calamity knocking at our front door, we're choosing to keep our faith and hope alive. We do not have the power to deliver ourselves from these problems, so we are putting our trust in a higher power. That being said, please continue to pray for us. We really need all the help we can get.
"We had a really nice weekend," he said, making a very bad transition from one line of thinking to the next. But yeah, we had a really nice Halloween and everything. Mary and Konden were out of town so they dropped off a couple of their kids (Edie and Aster) and we got to take them trick or treating. We went trick or treating in Shannon and BJ's neighborhood because that's where the girls were spending the night. We started out as a group and even met up with BJ's parents (BJ's mom was our realtor so it was nice to see her again) but before too long it was just Megan and I and the girls. It didn't take too long for Aster's bag to get too heavy for her to hold. She was nearly falling over backwards because of all the candy (BJ and Shannon's neighborhood is one of those neighborhoods that parents bus their kids to instead of having them trick or treat in their own neighborhood) so I was carrying her and her candy before the night was over. But they had a lot of fun and Megan and I enjoyed ourselves as well.
On Saturday we ended up going to the zoo with Richard, Carol, BJ, Shannon and the kids. It was nice to be back at the zoo. The only thing I remember about the zoo when we went back in the day (I think I was 12 the last time I went to the zoo) was that there was a massive goldfish in the water under the bridge. Well, that gigantic goldfish is still there. So at least some things don't change. We had a nice time at the zoo and Megan and I spent a little extra time with the Aldabra and Galapagos tortoises because we can't help ourselves. We even went to a pet store afterward and they had a couple nearly mature African Spurred tortoises. They get to be pretty big (24" across the shell lengthwise and in the neighborhood of 150 pounds) but they're only about half as big as the Aldabra and Galapagos tortoises. Anyway, I still want an African Spurred tortoise about as bad as I ever have.
Anyway, we had a really fun weekend. I think I was going to write more in this entry, but I forget what. So I think I'll just throw this up and let you enjoy it...or not. Whatever. I won't tell you how to feel about it.
"We had a really nice weekend," he said, making a very bad transition from one line of thinking to the next. But yeah, we had a really nice Halloween and everything. Mary and Konden were out of town so they dropped off a couple of their kids (Edie and Aster) and we got to take them trick or treating. We went trick or treating in Shannon and BJ's neighborhood because that's where the girls were spending the night. We started out as a group and even met up with BJ's parents (BJ's mom was our realtor so it was nice to see her again) but before too long it was just Megan and I and the girls. It didn't take too long for Aster's bag to get too heavy for her to hold. She was nearly falling over backwards because of all the candy (BJ and Shannon's neighborhood is one of those neighborhoods that parents bus their kids to instead of having them trick or treat in their own neighborhood) so I was carrying her and her candy before the night was over. But they had a lot of fun and Megan and I enjoyed ourselves as well.
On Saturday we ended up going to the zoo with Richard, Carol, BJ, Shannon and the kids. It was nice to be back at the zoo. The only thing I remember about the zoo when we went back in the day (I think I was 12 the last time I went to the zoo) was that there was a massive goldfish in the water under the bridge. Well, that gigantic goldfish is still there. So at least some things don't change. We had a nice time at the zoo and Megan and I spent a little extra time with the Aldabra and Galapagos tortoises because we can't help ourselves. We even went to a pet store afterward and they had a couple nearly mature African Spurred tortoises. They get to be pretty big (24" across the shell lengthwise and in the neighborhood of 150 pounds) but they're only about half as big as the Aldabra and Galapagos tortoises. Anyway, I still want an African Spurred tortoise about as bad as I ever have.
Anyway, we had a really fun weekend. I think I was going to write more in this entry, but I forget what. So I think I'll just throw this up and let you enjoy it...or not. Whatever. I won't tell you how to feel about it.
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