May you live in interesting times
– Chinese Proverb
You’ve probably heard this expression before. Maybe you’ve even felt like you were living in the interesting times. The phrase is never considered a blessing. It is considered a curse.
We are currently living through an event unprecedented in our lifetimes. We are on the cusp of a potential worldwide pandemic that could change life as we know it. The virus came from China. We don’t really know much more than that. And the Chinese are not known for being particularly forthcoming.
Will the virus be overblown? Another “potential pandemic” that is easily contained and quickly forgotten? Or, will we be telling our grandchildren about the 2020, the year the pandemic hit?
The ironic thing about the “Chinese” proverb? It’s probably not even Chinese. It has become a phrase embraced by the world.
But, the virus was definitely Chinese. But, it has also come to belong to the world.
Be safe out there my friends. The times are interesting and we’re here.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Seriously, if I don’t say something in this post that offends you, I have failed.
Now, let’s be fair, as someone who writes on social media daily, I understand that nothing will make a post go viral quicker than a little bit of controversy.
But, that’s not my intent. It’s not about offending for offense sake. I think we as a society have forgotten how to be offended.
15: I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16: So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Revelation Chapter 3 (KJV)
We find ourselves, as we do every four years, in the middle of a presidential campaign. There are three main people left in the race, President Trump, a polarizing Republican, Senator Bernie Sanders, a progressive Democrat and former Vice President Joe Biden, considered by most people to be a moderate.
Four years ago, Donald Trump was the most polarizing candidate in the Republican field. His critics (including this writer) were sure that he would not last a month. . and then that he would not make it to the convention. . .and then he could not possibly win the presidency. After all, Senator Hillary Clinton, his opponent was much more moderate.
Why did Donald Trump win? This post is not nearly long enough to delve into that topic. Besides, I was consistently wrong all through the campaign last time. But, one thing that can be said with certainty is that Trump was much more objectionable than Senator Clinton. And yet he won.
I got put in Facebook jail today. Apparently one of my comments failed to meet the community standards for Facebook of bullying and harressment. I was naturally surprised since, as a writer, I pride myself on keeping my comments polite and well within the bounds of polite conversation.
It was a thread on a news site. The discussion was about guns. Dick’s Sporting Goods has announced they are going to stop selling guns in more of their stores. In the discussion the assertion was made that guns are only designed to kill people. After a few exchanges a woman named Christine Hall said,
We’ll agree to disagree
I responded,
Christine Hall, you can opt for that, but honestly since you have zero experience, your opinion really doesn’t carry much weight. Your ignorance is not equal to Al’s experience. When you “agree to disagree” with someone who has experience, you are really saying, “I don’t want to become educated on this issue.”
That was it. I asked Facebook to review it again. Two minutes later they sent me an email saying they did. And it was still in violation of the harressment and bullying policy.
I’ve seen much harsher comments on Facebook. So have you. I can only assume that Ms Hall reported my comment. I cannot imagine a scanning robot flagged it.
When facts conflict with someone’s world view it is easier for them to reject the facts than to change their world view.
And if you continue to argue facts, people often become offended. (And on Facebook that can get you thrown in Facebook jail.)
The legendary comedian John Cleese talked about the idea offense is necessary to comedy. And since comedy is often a slightly absurd look at society, society itself needs the ability to offend and be offended.
But, modern society has done everything possible to remove offense. We have trigger warnings to warn use that we might find something offensive. We have safe spaces were presumably we are “protected” from being offended at all. However, rather than improving society, these trigger warnings, and safe spaces, and facebook jail sentences, have turned us into a nation of wimps.
My son is an athlete. He will be a on the varsity football team at his high school this year. He noted that the best athletes get special treatment. “They don’t want to risk you getting hurt.”
He will quickly learn that special treatment doesn’t mean getting excused from exercise. In fact, the better the athlete, the more the coach will want them to hit the weight room, and the track.
Good athletes become great athletes when they are tested. When they subject themselves to hard workouts, grueling two or three-a-day practices. The best athletes understand that it’s the hard that makes them better.
It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.
– Manager Jimmy Dugan “A League Of Their Own”
If it’s true for athletes, it’s also true for our social lives. Being offended and learning to deal with that makes you a better person. Not just better, but stronger. Constantly being protected from being offended is not empowering. It’s debilitating.
Now, I may be a mean cuss. But, I’m the same mean cuss with everybody out there on that football field. The world don’t give a damn about how sensitive these kids are, especially the young black kids. You ain’t doing these kids a favor by patronizing them. You’re crippling them. You’re crippling them for life.
– Coach Herman Boone, “Remember The Titans”
The great British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said,
You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.
So, don’t be afraid to offend. Be hot or cold, radical or progressive, but not lukewarm. And realize that being willing to stand for something is what will make you strong.
I will post this to Facebook. . .tomorrow after I get out of facebook jail.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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It was 17 years ago. The pandemic of the day was Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. It had to have a short easy name. It was called SARS. No one knew a lot about it. We knew it was deadly (9.6% fatality rate.) We assumed it was spread by human to human contact. Or contact with an infected surface.
It also came out of China. One of the first places that was infected was Singapore.
And that’s exactly where my lovely wife and I were going to spend a nineteen our layover. Should we have been flying? It depends on who you ask.
The United States government just recently recommended that Americans not take any cruises until the current epidemic subsides. A friend on facebook asked,
Why would anyone even consider going on a cruise right now?
My dear mother loves cruises. She met my step father on a cruise. They’ve been happily married for years. And happily going on cruises all that time. She takes about 5 or 6 per year. It’s her hobby. And she has the money and the health to enjoy it. She was on a cruise two weeks ago. Yes, in the heart of the Coronavirus explosion.
Why? It’s a lifestyle. Last year I wrote a piece called “Leading Boy Scouts To Their Death.” I talk about the dangers of hiking and camping in our Rocky Mountains of Utah and Arizona. Why do we do it?
It’s a lifestyle.
Several years ago we had a bear attack in American Fork Canyon not far from my house. Bears are a constant danger in the Wasatch Range that I call home. They even invaded a boy scout camp my sons and I were attending one year. The dogs would wake us up at dawn as they chased the bears around the camp. I don’t think they ever caught the bears.
Never once have I cancelled a camping trip on account of bears. Should I? And why not?
Easy, because it’s a lifestyle.
The name of the current crisis depends on who you ask. Well, actually it depends on who old the person you ask is. For whatever reason, younger people, Millenials, call it Covid-19. Old people, Boomers, call it Coronavirus.
Weird that it’s divided along generational lines, don’t you think? But, then that’s not the only weird thing about this virus.
Toilet paper and bottled water? Really?
Those make zero sense as supplies to stockpile during a virus crisis. Surgical masks, although they don’t help keep you from getting sick at least are logical things to stockpile. But, TP and water?
Personally, I think it’s the same reason people donated blood in Salt Lake City on September 12, 2001. The day after the September 11 attacks. There was no danger in SLC (although we didn’t know that at the time.) But, people were scared. And they wanted to do something. So, they lined up and donated blood.
By the way, if you you want something productive to do, donating blood is a great choice. Blood supplies are currently dangerously low.
Anyway, today Americans are scared. Again, they want to do something. This crisis is quieter. And we fight back by going to ground. Toilet paper and bottled water are things you are going to need eventually anyway. (Yeah, you could skip the plastic water bottle and save the planet, but that’s a different blog.)
Should you travel? Should you take a cruise? Should you camp in bear country?
Of course you should. But, just as you never leave food in your tent when camping, and you wash your hands when travelling, and you travel with wipes, refusing to change your routine doesn’t mean you become cavalier or stupid about it.
Last year I travelled nearly 50,000. I’m grateful that this year’s travel schedule has been severely cut back.
So why were we traveling through Singapore in the middle of a SARS outbreak back in 2003? We were on our way to India. New Delhi, in fact. We were there to add the newest member of our family. A darling little girl that is now a confident 18 year old who will graduate in May. Why did we travel?
Easy, it’s a lifestyle.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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I’m grateful for short names. I mean the names of my sons-in-law. It’s not something you typically think about. And, of course, I have no say in it anyway, regardless of the fact that my sons-in-law approached me about marry my daughters.
No, my reason for short names is more selfish. For Christmas I wrote on boards with power tools.
I didn’t start with the power tools. First I found and printed out templates.
Then, I used the templates to write on the boards. And then the power tools figure into it. Mostly it’s a scroll saw.
As even short time readers know I spent a lot of time leading up to Christmas creating homemade woodworking gifts. I made colored blocks for my grandkids. I also made them large letters that spell their name.
For four of my children I made footlockers.
For my son-in-law I made a shelf with a hidden compartment.
For my lovely wife I made even more shelves (but without the hidden compartment.) I even made a baseball display rack for myself.
In addition, I wanted to make a gift for each of my married children. I wanted it to be unique, but also be something I could do several of without too much trouble.
And let’s face it, when someone says, “Homemade gift” if you are like me, you remember getting plenty of “homemade gifts” that your kids made in school. And as dearly as we loved those gifts made with more skill than love, they are typically not as well received as a maybe a nice gift card.
So, I opted for names. I’d already done a bunch for my grandkids. In fact, I did 37 letters out of plywood for grandkid names. I shared the idea with my lovely wife.
You aren’t going to create these out of plywood are you?
I was going to. Why?
Well, I’m sure the grandkids will enjoy theirs, but they were a little. . .
What?
Rough. Maybe you could make these out of real wood.
I suppose.
And, can you make the edges a little less. . .
Rough?
Yeah.
I recently received a bunch of 1×12″ clear straight boards. They were perfect for my project.
For the grandkids, I cut their letters out with a bandsaw and later a jigsaw. And the result was the edges were kind of. . .okay, yeah they were jagged.
To get clean edges I needed a new tool.
Any project, no matter how small, is an excellent excuse to buy more tools.
The tool to make clean curvey cuts on a board is called a scroll saw. I used to own one years ago. And I just never found an excuse to get a new one.
That was until this project. I don’t need a professional grade scroll saw. I found one on sale at Harber Freight for $29, the box was somewhatt crushed. Even the cheap Harbor Freight saws are typically $99.
When I got it home, I realized why it was only $25. It was broken. When the box got crushed, it broke part of the table. I posted a question to my friends on facebook, many of whom are mechanics.
You buy a $25 scroll saw at Home Depot and find out it’s broken. What do you do?
1. Wait to return it until Harbor Freight Opens and return it
2. Throw it away and buy a new one (After all, it’s only $25)
3. Get out the JB Weld and fix it
It was interesting to see the responses from my facebook friends. Most of them who weren’t the home improvement types chose option 1. You buy something. It’s broken. You return it. No question.
And yet, it was a Sunday afternoon and I really wanted to get started on my project. My friends who were used to fixing cars and bulding things instead said,
JB Weld, of course
After the JB Weld set up, the table was good as new.
Unlike the letters I cut out for my grandkids, the names for my kids were all connected. I designed them to hand on the wall, or to sit on a shelf.
And that was when I realized I care about how long my sons-in-law last names are. Drawing out and then cutting out the name was not a short process. I have three sons-in-law. Their names are
Swain
James
De La Rosa
It’s a good thing I love that last kid.
I also did another one for my lovely wife. She’s fond of dolphins.
And all the edges were nice and sharp.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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The explosions came in rapid succession, two that sounded nearly simultainiously. The crowd froze. Trying to figure out which way to run. Which direction was the threat coming from?
I along with about 5,000 fellow Microsoft employees were gathered inside Safeco Field, the Seattle Mariners’ ballpark in Seattle. The season was over and this was our company meeting. It was October, 2001.
This was the first public gathering many of us had been to since the horrific day of September 11, 2001. The country was still recovering. Many of us had never heard of Osama bin Laden, or Al Queda. But, and we were not sure who the enemy was or when they would strike again.
Our fear lasted for only a few seconds.
Welcome to the Microsoft company meeting!
And with that our company meeting started. Someone had the great idea of setting off fireworks to start the meeting. Fireworks, that looked, smelled and worse, sounded like a bomb!
In those days after September 11, many companies struggled with how to protect against potential physical threats. Microsoft was no different. And yes, some of us were a little anxious about going to work.
Today we face another threat. The Coronavirus has companies, including ours, struggling with how to protect our empoloyees from the virus.
My lovely wife went to the store today. It wasn’t an emergency trip. With five kids still at home, we go through stuff. Food, water and toilet paper.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has encouraged its members to have food storage set aside for a rainy day. We have a storeroom full of canned goods, buckets of flour and rice and a pantry full of peanut butter, crackers, taco shells and the various other things that a family needs to eat. But, we still run out of certain perishables; fresh fruit, bread, milk and yes, toilet paper.
You see where this is going? We weren’t hourding toilet paper, it was just the normal time to buy more.
Costco was out. She asked them when more was coming.
We don’t have an ETA. Apparently the drivers are scared to make delivery for fear of the virus.
My company is a call center. We have a lot of people in a single room. And we have centers all across the country. Naturally we are concerned with the potential for infection. We have had meetings to plan for best case, worst case and most likely case.
The biggest difference between today’s crisis and the situation 19 years ago, is the rise of telcommuting. When I worked for Microsoft all those years ago, I had dial-up internet access. Hardly sufficient to do much more than send email.
Today, I can be equally effective from home or from the office. In fact, my home office is equipped with many of the same tools I have at the office, VOIP phone, docking station, dual monitors, high-speed internet. Using my company’s VPN I have complete access to all my online tools, email, Teams, network shares, internal databases.
I won’t say I’m afraid to go to work. But, it’s also about being careful. My lovely wife had a doctor’s appointment today. I had to meet her there to pick up some paperwork for our son. Even though Utah has no known cases of the virus, I was consious of every door knob I touched, every chair arm, I rested my hand on. And when I left, I made sure to first search the waiting room for the hand sanitizer.
Oh, and tried to remember to not touch my face afterward. Maybe I am just a little concerned.
(Oh, and Walmart had some toilet paper, but not much left. No word on when they are getting more.)
Is your office making plans to deal with the virus? Leave me a comment and let me know.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Maybe it’s people with ADHD. I know both my son and I do it. Maybe it’s not related to ADHD at all. All I know is that it helps.
If I’m in a crucial conversation, a high tension situation, I have to move. (Yes, I was terrible had hide-and-seek.) My son needs to fidget. If we are discussing something he finds uncomfortable, he has to move around. We’ve discovered that forcing him to sit still and “pay attention” is actually pretty counter-productive.
Like I said, maybe it has ntohing to do with ADHD. All I know is that it’s a thing.
I’ve discovered the same thing happens with projects or TODO items. The beginning of the year is typially a busy time for projects. Often companies will run their projects based on the annual calendar. Projects start in January and they end in December.
Well, that’s not completely accurate. that makes it sound like projects are 11 or 12 months long.
They typically aren’t.
However, projects typically are targetted to wrap up before the end of the year. That would mean that you start the new year with a clean slate. That’s a great feeling right?
Yes. . .for about 3 weeks. By then, your projects are started. And like the start of anything, the beginning can be a little frantic. And if you aren’t careful, it’s possible to get overwhelmed.
I wasn’t careful.
I began to feel like I had so much to do that I couldn’t do anything. Some days it was all about reacting to the crisis of the moment. Other days I took the time to write down my TODO list. When it hit 30 items, I ran out of lines in my notebook. Just looking at the list was disheartening.
Not every line was equally overwhelming. At times, I had a line as simple as “Email Kurt about new router.” In David Allen’s excellent book “Getting Things Done,” he says if a task takes less than 2 minutes, you should just do the task rather than write it on your TODO list.
The problem for me was that every project felt like it took longer than 2 min. I tried to write down everything. Or some days I couldn’t write down anything. It didn’t help that a family member was struggling with health issues. And a close friend’s son was struggling with following the rules. . the rules of society. You might call them laws rather than rules.
Anyway, stuff got busy, and slightly overwhelming. But, life goes on. You have to get up everyday and if your employer is like mine, they pay you to get stuff done. Stuff being another word for your job.
So, what to do? What do you do when you feel overwhelmed like you can’t do anything? I’ve found it helps to do something. I pick an item, any item will do, but one that has a clear “end” point.
Sometimes I have to literally force myself to complete a simple task. I try to pick one of those “two minute tasks” that David Allen said I should have just completed rather than write down.
And a funny thing starts to happen. Have you ever seen water break through a levee? The water starts small. And the small trickle starts to cut away at the levee. The more water that goes through, the bigger the gap becomes. The bigger the gap becomes the more water goes through. Rinse and repeat.
And if I stick to it, that’s what happens to my pile of TODO items. And as the pile starts to flow from “doing” to “done” my mental block, like the levee itself, dissolves.
There’s no way to turn this into a true “teaching” moment. In other wrods, I don’t think that knowing how I get through a mental block will necessarily help you get through a mental block.
I’m just glad that it works for me. Feel free to leave a comment about what works for you.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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It’s like I’m rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
What do you mean?
You know, the ship that sank.
Of course, but why would you rearrange the deck chairs.
Yeah, that’s my point.
I thought everyone knew that phrase. Apparently my therapost wasn’t everyone. She’d literally never heard of it. The phrase means to participate in a not only useless, but fruitless activity.
After the ship hit the iceberg and it became obvious the ship was going to sink, many activites became pointless. It’s kind of like those end-of-the-world predictions. If the world was really going to end next month do you really need to pay your light bill?
I don’t mean to minimize the tragedy that was the sinking of the Titanic. More than 1,500 people died that April 15, 1912. They died because the ship was not equipped with enough life boats.
So, those on board knew that it was impossible for everyone to survive. It’s why they let the women and children go first. But, what of the men left behind? What did they do?
Would arranging the deck chairs be important or even useful? The phrase I started with says no. It’s a useless activity.
But, is it?
Picture yourself on that ocean liner, the largest in the world at the time, taking hours to slip below the waves. You have time on your hands. One of the most touching stories from that fateful night is the story told by survivors that the band played. Maybe they were playing to calm the passengers as they loaded the lifeboats.
But, after the boats pulled away, afraid to be sucked under when the ship finally slipped below the surface, the band played on. According to survivors, the band played to the very end.
Why?
What else could they do? If you were a musician, how would you choose to spend your final moments. They were going to their certain doom. They chose to die doing what they loved, or at least what they chose.
Now, imagine you are the deck steward on that ship. The lifeboats pushed off without you. As a crew member, you knew from the first moment that you were not going to get off the sinking ship.
How would you choose to spend your last moments? How would you choose to meet your doom? If your role on that cruise was to tend teh deck chairs, you might just have straightened them as your final official act. If the great ship must meet her doom, would you not want her looking her best? With every deck chair in it’s place?
I don’t know. But, I do know that there are times where the whole world seems to be out of whack. And I struggle to find my bearings. And sometimes I accomplish that by straightening the deck chairs.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Why do we remember those who passed away? Immediately after they pass away it’s a way to help us cope. We remember to re-experience the good times. We remember to clean up loose ends in our mind. Did we do everything we could for them? Did we do enough? Do we have survivor’s guilt? Do we need to examine why them and not us?
Sometimes we remember so we can make sure those who survive remember. I’ve spoken at my father’s funeral. I also spoke at my uncle’s funeral. I told stories. Some that I knew, some that were told to me. I told them both to honor the men I’d known and loved, but to also make sure their stories, their lives, the men that they were, would not be forgotten.
My father had a best friend, a man closer than a brother could be. His name was Tom. When I was writing the speech to give at my father’s funeral, I asked Tom about stories. He laughed and knowing that I would be speaking in church declined to share some of the more personal ones.
Marc Antony spoke at Julius Caesar’s funeral,
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The bad men do lives after them, while the good is oft interred with their bones
– Julius Caesar Act III, Scene II
The brilliance of Shakespeare is that Antony goes on to give a speech that praises Caesar. His praise is so effusive as to turn the crowd against his murderers.
I’m not that talented a writer, or that great a speech writer. But, we remember so that we can praise. And we praise so that we can remember.
Recently I wrote about a facebook group for people from my high school who have passed away. It’s sad to see so many names of former friends and classmates. And yet, there’s been some happiness too. Stories of classmates, prankes, weddings, kindergarten friendships, big important stories and tiny insignificant stories.
I didn’t remember that Duke Johnson went to our rival high school, North Thurston. I only remembered that he was a kid from our neighborhood. I also attended church with him. Duke was tall for a teenager. Exceptionally tall. In fact, he had a genetic defect that caused him to constantly grow. Duke knew that it would kill him one day. He passed away in high school. He was simply shooting baskets in his driveway.
He was one of the most upbeat kids I ever knew. We gave him a ride home from church one day. We had a four-door Subaru. It was a pretty small car. Duke was in the backseat. As we pulled up to his house, he insisted the person in the front seat move so he could get out.
Duke, it’s a four door car.
No it’s not. Now move.
Really, it is.
Come on, guys. This isn’t funny. Move!
So, we moved. And Duke pried his 6’5″ frame out the front door of a four door car. Duke was wrong, it was kind of funny.
Why do we do it? After all these years, why do we repeat their names? Repeat their stories? Smile at their memories?
Because keeping alive their memories, keeps us connected. Because we do what Shakespeare’s brilliant prose had Antony do although he claimed to be doing the opposite. We remember the good that men do and inter the bad with their bones.
So let it be with. . .all of us.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
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Some things don’t translate. No matter how well a person knows two languages, there are some concepts that do not translate between languages.
I used to teach American Sign Language. And despite the idea that it’s somehow “different” it’s still a language. I was good at ASL. I was better than good. I was very, very good. In fact, I was good enough that deaf people couldn’t tell from watching me sign, if I was deaf or not.
I did lots of interpretting while I was a fulltime missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. By the time I completed my two year mission, I was as good as I figured I could ever become.
When I was teaching classes, I would use an example to illustrate how interpretting isn’t only a matter of skill. For example, I assume you’ve heard a piano in your lifetime. Or better yet, a violin. In fact, you could probably recognize one playing. You could proably recognize the difference between a violin and a cello. If you were really good, you might even be able to recognize the difference between a violin and a viola. The great performer Victor Borge described the difference,
The difference between a violin and a viola is that a viola takes slightly longer to burn.
– Victor Borge
Now, think about what the violin sounds like. And in the comments below, explain to me what it sounds like. After all, you know what it sounds like, right? You can tell a violin from a cello. Assume I’ve never heard either and explain to me, taking as many words as you want, to explain it to me so that can recognize a violin when I hear it.
You can’t can you? There are some things that simply don’t translate. And while it’s easier to think about the difference between a spoken language and a visual one, there are differences in spoken languages just as stark.
I don’t sign as well as I used to. I can still communicate. But, I’m still better than I was when I started signing back at the beginning of my mission. A new missionary spends two months learning a language at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. We have a ruled called “SYL” Speak Your Language. ASL missionaries changed it to mean Sign Your Language.
The idea was that the best way to learn the language was to immerse yourself in it. Speak it, or sign it as much as possible, daily, constantly. There were a group of us all going through the MTC together. The advantage we had in the ASL program was that many of the missionaries were deaf. Obviously, they didn’t need to learn the language and they were a great help to those of us who were learning.
The deaf missionaries would also keep us on our toes about always using sign language. I think at times they enjoyed the fact that we couldn’t keep up with the conversations they had amongst themselves.
It didn’t mean we wouldn’t occasionally play tricks on them as well. In fact, one stands out still after nearly 40 years. We were in a classroom with everyone sitting in a circle. One of the deaf sister missionaries was standing in the middle of the circle explaining a concept.
Someone, I don’t remember who, started humming. How would you describe humming to a person who had never heard anything? Not that we tried to explain it. In fact, we joined in. Pretty soon, every hearing person in the room was humming. It wasn’t a song, it was just monotone humming. It wouldn’t even be called a song.
The Sister missionary noticed the sound. Her hearing aid let her know that there was noise somewhere. She quickly kept glancing around the circle to try to find someone’s lips moving. We all just smiled and shrugged our shoulders.
After all, some things don’t translate.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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Mark Lovelady Class of 1989
Stephanie Cresswell Class of 2015
Jamie Sandifer
Jon Paulson Class of 91
died by suicide 2013
The messages pop up on my Facebook feed unannounced. Some familiar. Most not. All of them tragic. Many of them jarring.
Raymond Estores Class of 2012
Scott Crapo Class of 81 or 82
Nick Walker Class of 84
A fishing accident with his grandfather
I graduated in 1983. My generation grew up with computers. We remember our parents buying their first microwave oven. And we remember our first computer.
We are the “old” people that are the reason the current generation abandoned facebook. But us? We are all over it. We use it to keep up with our grandkids (who are too young to know it’s not cool.) We are friends with our neighbors and church members. We plan our reunions with it. And we use it to keep track of our friends from high school.
Some friends from high school created a new facebook group and invited me. It’s called Timberline Blazers Gone, Never Forgotten. As you’ve probably realized by now, it’s a memoriam group. It’s a group dedicated to remember those from my high school who have passed away.
The crazy thing is that my high school is younger than I am. It opened in 1970. In May this year there’s going to be a celebration of the first 50 years.
What that really means is that most of the people who have passed away are close to my age or less. Despite my earlier comment I’m not old. I don’t consider myself old. And people who aren’t old shouldn’t die.
A couple of the posts in the group hit kind of hard.
Brad Tullis-Class of 83′ in 2012
Brad was part of my group of friends. It wasn’t a huge high school. We had about 350 in our graduating class. I haven’t seen Brad since high school. But, knowing he passed away was a shock.
Some of the posts were personal.
Lavel Godwin – died a few years ago from brain cancer
Lavel was my brother’s sister. I wrote about it a few years ago. I actually didn’t know her. But, knowning she’s gone was a shock.
One of the posts hit closer than any others. I knew it would be there, and yet it was still sad to see it.
Danny Murdock – Class of 83′
While attending College, in a car accident
Danny was the first to die. He passed away before the first reunion. The posts in the forum sometimes are just a name. Sometimes they incude a graduation date. And sometimes they include a cause of death.
My class is in our 50s now. We are dying of the things that people die of. Some are sickness. Cancer mostly. Some suicides. Murders. And accidents.
Danny died in an accident. He was attending BYU. . .the same school I attended. I think I was possibly on a mission for the Mormon church at the time. Danny was driving down Provo Canyon. It was a winding mountain road. Two lanes with a mountain on one side and the river on the other. It winds for 20 miles from Provo to Heber, Utah.
Danny was headed back toward Provo. As he came around a curve, a car coming from the other direction crossed the center line and hit him head on. His car flipped into the river. He died immediately.
Danny’s family and mine were very close. We were in scouts together. We went to church together. We were in classes together. In fact, my brother and Danny’s brother married sisters.
I added an explanitory comment to the post about Danny. He’s buried in Utah. I’ve been to his grave a couple of times. I didn’t think Danny’s death could affect me. I was wrong. Several people posted fond memories of Danny. And there was one post,
It was tragic I was in Utah at the times and saw his obituary, later i met the dude that hit him it was tough.
The group has only been around for a few weeks. People are still joining. I invited a bunch of high school friends to join, just as someone had invited me.
And because it’s new, many of the names keep getting posted for the first time, and some for the second time. And each time a new message pops up on my Facebook feed I have to wonder if it will be someone I knew, or just another stranger that sat through classes in inside the same four walls where I spent four years.
Not sure I can take too many more memories.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved