Time Experience Thoughts

Rick Telander on Football’s Lessons for Life: Discipline, Listening, Fun, Testing, Pain and Loss “Emily Dickinson is a poet I admire.  She wrote about bees, and clouds, and daisies, and within her quiet realm she unlocked the universe. ‘For each ecstatic instant we must in anguish pay, in keen and quivering ratio to the ecstasy.’ “I think of all the things football has taught me. The obvious things, discipline, the importance of listening to instructions. Yeah, I limp because of football. But if it weren’t for football I would limp because life makes everybody limp. And there were other lessons too. “Colliding with things is just a whole damn lot of fun. Testing yourself is necessary. Pain does not have to be evil. Football ends. Like everything you care about. The clock runs out. And you will lose. Imagine. Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers, two of the greatest in history, never played in a post-season game. And so you have to accept losing. Or, rather you don’t. You process and st

And now for something completely different. See link below. This afternoon I was happy to accidentally run across an article in the New York Times about an issue near and dear to my heart – one with strong implications for writing with clarity, emphasis and style – the long forgotten, but mighty Em Dash.* I am not talking about the hyphen.** I have long preferred the old-style usage of the Em Dash to the lowly comma. The Em Dash profitably draws attention to key parenthetical statements which modify the main idea at hand. This usage allows for concurrent thoughts being melded together as one into a complex blend of related ideas. This method is preferable (when it is preferable) to putting the parenthetical statement into a following stand-alone sentence. Or using parentheses themselves. Ah. Freedom of choice! Freedom of expression! Freedom from confining, unprofitable, arbitrary rules!*** Glad to know that the New York Times addresses the interesting -- if not

Scott L. Vanatter Opening Time seemed to stand still. A woman drove her car through a red light, crashing into Becky’s side of our Volvo. We had a green light all the way. I was driving. Our car flipped over, then spun around and around crossing two lanes of opposing traffic. The sun roof popped off. Windows shattered and glass spread throughout the car, and our hair, and our clothes, and our pockets like a shower of hot water. After the car stopped spinning, it was resting upside down on its roof on the curb on the opposite side of the street, a twisted pile of metal, broken glass, and dripping engine fluids. Then, my dear sweet young unconscious wife, seven months pregnant with our second daughter, suddenly went into massive and violent seizures. Blood seemed to be coming from everywhere. After what seemed an eternity, but which probably only lasted for about a minute, her seizures violently stopped. Then it was perfect stillness and absolute silence. In that moment it appear

Small, sweet, soft and tender. Delicate, elegant, beautiful and growing. Grand and glorious, in time and eternity. Her gentle voice sounds in our ears Drawing us back to those timeless Holier spheres. She’s right here, resting right there Next to my heart in sacred Silent prayer. Her finely-featured face, in temporal serenity, Splendidly reveals her Eternal identity. Yes, I held her in my hands, gently; And she held my full attention, Intently. Her very soul echoes through our whole being Freeing us to real Seeing. Our yearning matching hers -- with us she shares The secure promise that, together, we Shall be Heirs. ~ By Scott Vanatter, July 7, 2012 (On the birth of Emma Lenore Kearns.)

About eight years prior to the start of the Civil War (and about eight years after Joseph Smith ran for President of the United States with an anti-slavery plank included in his platform), Frederick Douglass, gave an important, prescient, insightful and – in the face of the horrors of slavery – hope-filled Fourth of July speech in Rochester, NY. Please see below excerpts from the speech having to do with the meaning of the Founders and the Fourth of July, and the fact that the principles in the Founding Documents were antithetical to slavery. Enjoy your Fourth of July celebration.  [Emphasis and subheadings added my me.] HOPE AND CONSOLATION THAT AMERICA IS YOUNG [This] is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. . . . I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young . Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. . . . According to this fact, you are, even now, o

Passion (Cade’s blessing) Focus (Christmas 2010) Honor (Sean’s, Kyle’s birthday; Soldiers and Scouts) ~ T hink, T ough, T oughness (Ryan’s birthday 2011) H abits, you can do H ard Things (Ryan's baptism 2011) E xcellence (Start of school, Sept 2011) A ttitude (Kansas/Thanksgiving, Nov 2011 ) N umbers (Kansas) S kills (Kansas) W ork, W ork Hard, or Hard W ork (Christmas 2011 ) E nthusiasm (End of school year 2011-2012) R . . . I . . . S . . . L . . . O . . . V . . . E  . . . (I've got a couple hundred more...)

In Place By Scott L. Vanatter, May 21, 2012. A poem in commemoration of our youngest daughter’s birth and her current pregnancy. She is now progressed to about the same stage where Becky and Sydney survived a pretty bad car accident. (Me too. Carrie was with my Mom, as Becky and I went out to lunch.) Becky was seven months pregnant with Sydney when we were involved in an automobile accident in 1979. Our Volvo was totaled. Half the glass in our car shattered into thousands of tiny pea-sized pieces. Becky's side of the car was destroyed. The moon roof popped off. Her head must have hit the side of the car, or the pavement, or both. She was in the Intensive Care Unit for a week. She didn’t move a muscle for the first six hours. She had a massive concussion, and a 4-inch crack in her skull, but she fully recovered -- and Sydney was unharmed. NOTE: After the paramedics stabilized her head, neck and back, they drove us ever so slowly to the nearest hospital, Queen of the Valley. Lat

On Destructive Doubt Compared to Fruitful Faith Scott L. Vanatter, October 1, 2006, August 29, 2007, October 10, 2007, May 15, 2012   Of course, there is such a thing as faith run amok, as well as there is such a thing as a healthy skepticism. (“Trust, but verify.”) Still . . .   I. Faith creates clarity.       Doubt causes confusion.  Faith enlightens.       Doubt darkens.  Faith is light.       Doubt is dark.  Faith feels.       Doubt numbs. Faith joys.       Doubt fears feelings. Faith is full.       Doubt is empty.  Faith fills with beauty.       Doubt ends in ugliness.       Faith Sings.       Doubt sorrows.  II. Faith is assurance; doubt, misgivings.  Faith creates commitment; doubt, discord.  Faith commits; doubt cannot.  Faith fills us with promise; doubt sets limits.  Faith opens new Opportunities and beautiful Vistas.       Doubt closes doors.  III. Faith is action.       Doubt is delay, hesitation, wait, pause, ‘not now’, lat

As Always (Daughter, Sister, Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Great Grandmother, Friend and Genealogist) Every word she speaks Every time we meet . . . No wonder we seek Acceptance, received As always so freely And consistently     Offered No trouble, no matter our grieving There's no end to her reaching     Our souls Never doubting, we believe Nothing wavering, we cleave     Unto her, naturally This is no Dream, but Real . . . And we see     Her Eternally By Scott L. Vanatter, poem written Feb. 25, 2012 for my Mother's 78th birthday.

Passion -- Cade’s blessing Focus -- Christmas 2010 Honor -- Sean’s, Kyle’s birthday (Soldiers and Scouts) ~ T hink, T ough(ness) -- Ryan’s birthday 2011 H abits, you can do H ard Things -- Ryan's baptism 2011 E xcellence -- Start of school, Sept 2011 A ttitude -- Kansas/Thanksgiving, Nov 2011 N umbers -- Kansas S kills – Kansas W ork, W ork Hard, or Hard W ork -- Christmas 2011 E . . . R . . . I . . . S . . . L . . . O . . . V . . . E  . . . (I've got a couple hundred more...)

Lola Lenore (Bull) Allen, 1928–2011 Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at Union City, CA Opening "The things of God are of deep import; and time, and experience, and careful and ponderous and solemn thoughts can only find them out." (Joseph Smith) Lola Lenore Allen – Grandma Lee to most of us – has experienced over time the joyous heights of what life here on earth can offer; also, she has suffered (patiently) the painful depths of some of life’s most difficult trials. The nature of her experience -- and especially her response -- has seared into her very soul the most important of life’s key lessons. Of all women who bore their suffering well, Grandma Lee stands out as one of life’s preeminent, exemplar queens. Thanks On behalf of her daughter (my wife Becky), her sons Fred and Craig, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and her entire family on this and the other side of the veil – and especially Lenore’s lone surviving sibling, her sister Jolinda Resa -- I expres