Trunk or Treat Stevens Creek Ward

I didn't take many pictures of this even, and mostly they are of my kids.  This is an annual event where we can get together as a church group and enjoy the kids.  We missed the event last year as we were in Utah burying my nephew.  Tony enjoyed giving out the candy more than trick or treating.  As you can see, we did a fishing game.  I put the candy on the trunk, which is over the water.  Of course he candy dish slipped off, and at least half ended up in the water.  Fortunately with the half I saved we had enough.  There was some more that didn't fit in the bin, which I added.  Even so we didn't go through it all and there was plenty left.  We kept the wet for us.

Charity and Anthony are actually dressed for another party.  Tomorrow, for regular trick or treats tomorrow, I think we are going to be gone.  However we will run some to the neighbors to keep up a tradition.

Book Review: **The Harp of Zion

This is the first book of poetry published by the Church.  It was published in England, by the European Mission in 1853.  The poems were written by John Lyon.  It was published to support the Perpetual Emigration Fund. The book of poetry can be accessed on Google Books. http://books.google.com/books?id=ErgUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=theharp+of+zion&source=bl&ots=FMOu6qyxIq&sig=z_wareIzGLEQVy2H9l2OiEGQwcg&hl=en&ei=uEY9TNTSDIiCsQPinpifCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
Thomas Edgar Lyon Jr. wrote an interesting article about the book in BYU Studies 27:1987 "Publishing a Book of Mormon Poetry: The Harp of Zion".
  http://byustudies.byu.edu/PDFLibrary/27.1Lyon%20f9ef2f49-2669-439f-8f18-407351cf305b.pdf
The book was to assist the PEF by selling for more than the cost of printing.  Eventually all the volumes were sold, but only after many were sent to Utah.  It took some time for the Church to recoup its investment.

A couple deserve mention here.  One of these is a poem with regards to the Perpetual Emigration Fund, carrying that name.  I encourages people to donate:

The Perpetual Emigrating Fund.

Come on, ye rich, with all your gifted store;

Give to the poor, and God will give you more!

Your feeling hearts, responsive to His call,

Will find His love and blessing best of all:

Yea, tenfold int’rest on the things you have,

And more than all your charities e’er gave!                 

Why should the rich not help the lab’ring poor?

Both are compell’d to know at mercy’s door!

As well the river scorn the stream and brook

From which it all its swelling greatness took;

Or the great sea retain her liquid store,

Nor give one drop to quench the parched shore;

As wealth withheld accumulated toil,

And say to Poverty,--Starve on the while!

Let richer Saints pour in their glitt’ring gold,

‘Twill pave your way to Zion’s mountain fold!

Ten thousand hearts, with prayerful ardour, seek

The means to live, yet mourn from week to week,

Who could be blest through your beneficence,

To go where labour gains a recompense,

Oh, then! Let love your names in sums record

What you will do for Zion, and the Lord!

Ye poor who labour, learn with pure delight,

How much in value was the widow’s mite!

How farthings multiplied to pence make pounds,

And pounds, to hundreds, thousands—have no bounds!

Till ever Saint reliev’d, and sinner stunned,

Will shout,--LOOK HERE! At this Perpetual Fund!

The author does not have a lot of gathering poems as you would expect, but there are some.   These are a couple examples:

Strike the Lyre

Poor outcasts we, still forced to flee,

By mad sectarians driven,

Condemned, despised, robbed, and reviled,

Without an insult given.

For many years we’ve sown in tears,

Yet, dauntless we’ll remain!

With Ephraim blest, we soon shall rest

So strike the Lyre again, again,

So strike the lyre again.

Song of Zion  (chorus)

Far away from vain strife

There’s a land in the West,

Where our friends live the best,

‘Tis the Valley of Life!

I want to quote a couple more poems I found enjoyable.  One dwells upon helping the poor, but also hits the theme that one needs to develop the means in order to accomplish this:

Practical Religion

With diligence we’ll still pursue

Those acts of grace and mercy due

To toil worn, lab’ring man!

We’ll help the helpless, and secure

The means of life to bless the poor,

And help them all we can.

Cholera was a big killer of the time, not only in England but around the globe.  Poor sanitation conditions were part of the cause.  Cholera was also a culprit along the Pioneer Trail:

Cholera

What wailing’s this I hear, at home abroad?

A strange foreboding of calamity,

Which all men dread, and few can understand:

At which the vulgar stare, and more profane

Would love to jest it out of countenance.

Yet, still it comes with stealthy, murd’rous step;

The grave and gay, alike before it fall;

The learned seem baffled at its dark approach,

And, as an antidote, propose what might

Have been a sure preventative to some,

If timely given!  But common charity

Must see its haggard victim breed disease;

And when its influence spreads, retire afraid

At what their sins have made! And say ‘tis DEATH!

I would recommend a preview of this work, but mush of it a hurried over.

Movie Review: **^Brothers, on Holy Ground

Finally a movie worth watching with regards to 9/11.  This movie was produced in 2003 by Engine House Productions.  It was filmed by Mike Lennon.  He was a fellow New York Fireman, and had filmed before his death in documentary fashion, one of the victims of 9/11.  He also interviewed others of the survivors, some of whom had survivors guilt.  It talked about the outpouring of condolences for the fire houses of New York, almost all of which were affected by this day with a lost comrade.  This movie brings home some of the tragedy of that day.

At one point the firemen below a certain floor were told to evacuate, and it talks of those who left the building worried about those who were above.  It also showed the reactions of wives and friends.  It was a moving expose.  I would recommend this movie.  I got it at the library.

I am hewn out of stone

I am reading a book about the geology along the Pioneer Trail. "Hard Road West".  "Rock--naked broken, mountainous rock--is the West.  Water is sparse in much of the West.  Soils are thin, plants are few.  Rock rises to view with rare clarity, revealing its intricacy and structure."  (Meldahl, Keith Heyer)

I have had the thought for some time, that I am hewn out of stone.  I have on my desk at work a picture of the Tetons.  It was in my father's trunk, which I inherited when he passed away five years ago.  In this picture, the jagged rock of the Grand Teton Peek is intermingled with the snowy glaciers.  The clouds float overhead.  The Tetons were a special place to our family growing up.  We use to go to Jenny's Lake.  My great grandfather was an early settler of the Teton Basin, the back side of the Tetons.  And so to our family, the Tetons were a mystical, magical place.  A place where we were firmly planted.

Growing up in Cache Valley, I could always look to the mountains, the rock cliffs.  We would tell the seasons by the view of the snow on the mountain.  When you could see the woodpecker, left in the pattern of the snow against the mountain face, it meant spring had finally arrived.

Living in the Basin there were rocks.  I use to stop at someone's home in Gusher, and see the mushroom rock.   It was a small version of something you might see in Bryce Canon, in the shap of a mushroom.  It was in a pasture.  I don't know if it still stands,  but I visited it many times on the trip between Roosevelt and Vernal.

Outside Vernal was Dry Fork Canyon, with its sheer cliff wall across from the park where someone painted a flag with the words "Remember the Main".  And close by were houses built it seemed into the cliff.  Those are rocks that are firm, immovable. Rocks that created a sense of foundation.

And when you drove int he high Uintahs, above the timberline, all that was left were rocks, sharp, jagged, monolithic rocks--incredible.

In coming to California, the first thing you see are the magnificent granite monoliths.  Rocks and cliffs larger than anywhere else in the world.  Yosemite makes it living on these rocks, and the waterfalls that flow from them.

Still nothing gives me as much joy, as climbing to the top of a boulder, standing on top in a conquering way.  Living in the Bay Area, we can look and see the mountains, and if you drive up them, you can find large rocks, Goat Rock and Castle Rock.  On a Saturday there are any number of rock climbers on the face of these large rocks.  But they are not planting rocks.  They are rocks you have to look for, They are not rocks you can look towards, and see then on a daily basis.  Here you can look to the mountains, and see the Lick Observatory; no they are not the strong foundational core rock.

And so I have been looking.  I bring rocks home with me when I can.  Some I have hauled from Utah, and put in front of the house.  I miss the rocks we left at a former residence.  They were my friends.  But even so, the small rocks I place around the house are not planting rocks, rocks where you can plant your soul.

I am hewn from stone, and I am looking for that solid foundation.

Movie Review:*The 11th of September; Moyers in Conversation

boring, and some of the guests are really stupid
 
This movie presents the Bill Moyers show, and conversations he has with his guests following the terrorist attack against the World Trade Center.  It presents several different guests, with different views.  The first episode, I think the evening of 9/11 has a conversation with regards to the bravery of the firemen and police officers.  Everyone was going down and the rescue staff were going up.  Everyone was running away, but the police and firemen were running  towards the disaster.

The next week presented an individual talking of taking everything slow, and turning rage into I don't know what. He had written about a Japanese terrorist attack in the subway.   He commented that the U.S. were also terrorists, nuclear terrorists.  I don't know what point he was trying to make; he must have been an American hating citizen.  Bill Moyers seemed to agree with him.

He presented his own minister, a humanist it would appear, as well as people of the Islamic faith.  The point being even though Islam has its groups of extremists, so does Christianity.

And then another week he w=has a guest talking about the Crusades, and being careful with regards t our own religious views.  We have to look of ourselves as "The Devil."  Why do other cal us the devil and are willing to die killing us.

This was boring.  It does let you know why Obama won't use the work terrorist, or Islamic.  They are just people from diverse groups who want to kill us.

Music Review: **Monty Python's Spamelot, original cast recording

I was very much enjoying this CD until the end.  The music was actually funny.  Looking at the picture of the cast in the enclosed pamphlet was enough to make one laugh.  I especially enjoyed “The song that goes like this.”  It was clever in its parody of the musical genre.  I liked the reaction of the singers after they did the habitual key change. "I should have stayed in D"  Funny. I also liked how the song went from “the song that goes like this” to “the song that goes too long.”  It was very clever.

 

Lady of the Lake and the “Laker Girls” was very fun.  More for me because I HATE THE LAKERS.  Every year they do in the Jazz, and they get every call, and it’s a travesty for the game, and yes, as the ref that was caught cheating indicated, there is a bias for the Lakers coming down from the front office.  Any way, I wish the parody had been for the team and not the cheerleaders (I have a friend whose daughter was a Laker Girl.)  At least I get some satisfaction.  I would have much rather seen Kobe Bryant stuffed however.

 

The Lady of the Lake, Sara Ramirez, was very good and very enjoyable.  Her reaction to being off stage for too long, when she is the “Diva’ is humorous. “What ever happened to my Part” continues with the parody of musical theater that makes this CD fun.  That the “grail” is King Arthur proposing to her is amusing.  Off course there is a big wedding scene.

 

However there were a couple parts of this CD that made it offensive; although the word they use is “controversial.”  One is a story that indicates for a show to make it on Broadway it must include “Jews.”  That went a bit far for me.  The other is that Lancelot is gay and takes a lover, Herbert.  Now that goes way beyond being entertaining.  These too parts could have been left out, and the show had been more enjoyable as a result. 

 

 

Poem: A Wife, by John Jaques; dedicated to Sheri

This poem was written by John Jaques in the 1800s.  I have not included the entire poem, but what I am including I am dedicating to Sheri, the love of my life.

A Wife
by John Jaques

I’ll speak a work commandingly
Of modest, true, and faithful wives,

For everybody knows they are
The pride and comfort of our lives.

How boundless her devotion is

How tender her affection!  She

Think toil, or pain, or sacrifice
For his dear sake will pleasure be.

How beautiful are all her ways!

How charming all her manners seem!

How precious she is in his sight!

With her life is a glorious dream.

How sweet and wholesome is her love—

How pure, how fraught with life and health!

How gracious all her favors are—

Unbought and priceless, truest wealth!

Her husband thinks when she’s away

There’s always something going wrong;

But when she comes into the room,

Brightness and gladness come along.

She is more welcome than the spring.

More welcome than the flowers in May.

More welcome than the morning sun.

More welcome than the light of day.

The magic of her presence spreads

A grateful influence around.

The very rustle of her dress

To him is a delightful sound.

Her voice is sweetest melody. 
Her step is music to his ear.

The air is full of light and love

And blissfulness when she is near.

The ground’s enchanted where she stands.

There captivation in her walk.

There’s fascination in her eye.

And pearls of wisdom in her talk.

“A glory gilds” her every deed

A halo doth her life invest.

Who else could do things half as well?

But everything she does is best.

The best thing I ever did

Was making a good girl my bride.

The best day I ever saw

 Was when she stood thus by my side.

It was fulfilling God’s great law.

To us a grand experiment—

From that blest day to this blest hour

We’ve not seen first cause to repent.