Reading - Part II

This editorial in the Church News goes right along with what I've been thinking of this week! It is entitled Good Books, and here are some thoughts from the article:

"Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom" (Doctrine and Covenants 88:118).

While still a young man, Gordon B. Hinckley wrote of his personal love for language and books in 1937:
"It is both revealing and invigorating to occasionally set aside the worries of life, seek the company of a friendly book and mingle with the great of the earth, counsel with the wise of all time, look into the unlived days with prophets. . . . From the reading of 'good books' there comes a richness of life that can be obtained in no other way. . . . To become acquainted with real nobility as it walks the pages of history and science and literature is to strengthen character and develop life in its finer meanings" (Millennial Star, Dec. 21, 1937).

The scriptures should remain at the top of anyone's "best book" list. They contain the words of the Lord and the sacred writings of His prophets. The scriptures are, at once, personal and communal. They remind us we are not alone.

Check out this interesting site to help you manage and track your scripture reading.

Reading - Part I

When you get homesick for Rupert, check out this slideshow under "Rupert slide show" and be sure to stop at the DeMary library web site located here.

Also check out this link for city data about Rupert. Fascinating!

I wanted to find a picture of the public library in Rupert. I didn't ever find a picture, but I did find those fascinating websites instead. I love Google and I love the Internet!

Anyway, I wanted to give a shout out to the DeMary library in Rupert, Idaho. Did you know this interesting fact?

The library just celebrated it's 50th anniversary. One of Mr. A.C. DeMary's goals for Rupert was to have a building just for the library. He made this goal a reality in 1958 by building and presenting this library to the city. This was done shortly before his death. Photos of this ceremony are available to view at the library.

Thank YOU Mr. A.C. DeMary! This is the place where I gained a love for reading. This tiny, little library was magic to me back in the day. On Wednesdays, we attended Primary (which was an after-school activity and lesson group meeting for LDS children.) We walked from Lincoln elementary school the three blocks to the church where we had primary from 3:30-5:00 pm. Most weeks my friend Carla M. and I walked over to the DeMary library and picked up some books on our way to Primary, smartly outfitted in our cotton dresses, bobby socks and oxford shoes. If I were extra lucky, I would stop by Nelson's grocery store and buy a big, red, juicy apple for 25 cents. We had our very own library cards and we enjoyed reading many of the same books. I still remember some of the titles and series I loved: All the Little House on the Prairie books (I'll still watch the TV show if I come across it while channel hopping), Nancy Drew girl detective series, Heidi, Where the Red Fern Grows (cried my little eyes out over that one), along with Old Yeller and the magical A Wrinkle in Time - which was my first exposure to Science Fiction. There were other classics like A Witch of Blackbird Pond and the Bronze Bow.
My friend's mother was the librarian at the elementary school in Heyburn and she always gave Carla good suggestions on books to read which she passed on to me. I loved to read those child adventure books and I became hooked on the notion that a book had the power to transport me out of Rupert, Idaho to some far-flung place. I loved to let my imagination wander and I generally became engrossed in the story to the point where I couldn't put the book down until I had finished reading it.
I loved receiving books as gifts and I wish I would have kept more of my childhood books. I learned at an early age that reading was powerful stuff.

Good children's literature appeals not only to the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child. ~ Anonymous ~

A library is a hospital for the mind. ~ Anonymous ~

People die, but books never die. ~ Anonymous ~

If you can read this, thank a teacher. ~ Anonymous Teacher ~

An epiphany

Dave recently asked me what elective classes I took in high school. As I told him about the classes I took, I came to an amazing realization! I realized that the classes I took at that tender age of 14-18 had a huge impact on my life. Just like everyone else, I was taking classes that I was interested in - experimentation classes to explore my interests and abilities. I'm just realizing all these years later, that an amazing thing happened during that process and it is this - I'm still using and pursuing many of those very same interests. I believe that part of who I am today is in large measure because of the classes I took that exposed me to some very interesting ways of thinking, and also exposed me to some skills and knowledge that kind of set the course for my life. Let me illustrate:
~I took an entire year of Shakespeare, for which I still have a passion and from which I can still explore the timeless themes that the plays address
~I took an additional year of grammar as an elective. (This was in the days before Title IX so there weren't any fun PE classes for girls to take!) One of the counselors said it would be a good class for college preparation. I diagrammed more sentences than I care to remember and consequently, my highest score on the ACT test was in English. It gave me a leg up in writing and understanding the mechanics of sentence structure.
~Four years of clothing construction and food preparation - good ole Home Economics which I addressed earlier. I still have a passion for home making and consider it an essential art.
~Two years of speech. I learned how to prepare and present talks and speeches for different occasions and I learned how to speak in front of people. I love to give talks now and we get that opportunity in our church assignment. I remember watching and listening closely when my Dad spoke. I tried to follow his pattern and use some of his techniques because I considered him to be a very good speaker. My mother was very good at giving readings and poems and I have learned from her example as well. I have given many, many talks through my life and I think this training early on helped me know how to do it and to have the confidence to speak. I even competed in speech contests in HS and got some recognition for extemporaneous speaking.
~Two years of debate. I'm just realizing that these classes may have had the biggest impact on me out of all the classes I took. I learned how to reason. I learned how to prepare an "argument" and present it in a clear and concise way. I learned how to back up my arguments with facts. I learned how to draw logical conclusions and present those facts. I learned how to research and think through a problem and look for ways to solve that problem. And I learned that there is always a PRO and a CON opinion and that each side always gets their chance to present.
Most High School debates share some general features. Specifically, any debate will have two sides: a proposition side, and an opposition side. The job of the proposition side is to advocate the adoption of the resolution, while the job of the opposition side is to refute the resolution.
The resolution can take many forms, depending on the format. But in most cases, the resolution is simply a statement of policy or a statement of value. In many debate formats, there is a requirement that a policy resolution (a resolution regarding the policies followed by some organization or government) represent a change from current policy, so that the opposition team will be defending the status quo. Usually, there is also a judge present in the debate whose job is to decide the winner.
I think I was probably kind of hard wired for this way of thinking already (given my personality color), but I believe that by taking these classes and actually participating in debates, that it set the stage for all future "arguments" what would come my way in the future. My husband has said many times that I would have made a great prosecutor and that I should have gone to law school. That may be true, but we'll never know.
Anyway, the epiphany is this - I can make a solid, logical argument and I know how to present the facts on many topics. If I don't know the facts, I'm willing to do the research to find them. But I also recognize that there are at least two sides to everything (as stated earlier in the pancake object lesson) and that the other side should always get their chance to present.
I wonder if sometimes people are so overwhelmed by the latent debater in me and with the presentation of my argument, that they come to the conclusion that I think I'm right and that I think I have all the answers. In reality, I've just presented my side of the argument and I'm perfectly willing to hear their side of it too. Sometimes they just give up because they don't have solid facts to support their views or they don't know how to do it. I also realize that some differences of opinion don't always deal in "facts" and that they are more subtle and nuanced. And in the end, there needn't be a winner or a loser, just an agreement reached whereby the two parties agree to disagree. This debate situation doesn't happen often, but when it does, I've always been baffled by the response of the "opponent" which is usually to fight (make it personal) or to take flight. Why don't people stay in the discussion until some resolution is reached, especially if the stakes are high?
Do you think I'm on to something?

I liked her hat

Paris? No.
Milan? No.
New York? No.
New Center? Yes!
Aretha Franklin's now-famous bow-tied, gift-wrapped, jewel-studded, $179 inaugural hat was designed, produced and sold to the Queen of Soul by Mr. Song Millinery, a family-owned business on Woodward Avenue just south of W. Grand Boulevard, a couple of blocks from the Fisher Building.
Starting minutes after Franklin finished her distinctive rendition of "My County 'Tis of Thee" Tuesday, the store's phones started ringing.
By this afternoon, they had sold hundreds of hats. A store they work with in Dallas had sold 500 more, and the material was running out.
"People are calling from England, asking for the hat," said Luke Song, who designed Franklin's chapeau. "I'm shocked. I had no idea. We did not expect this." (D News Jan 26, 2009)

I didn't care for Aretha's rendition of My Country Tis of Thee but I LOVED her flamboyant hat. I wish that more women actually wore hats in these days. Maybe this hat will start a come back. I know Syd agrees with me on this point. Think of how easy it would be to just GO every day by putting a hat on and not having to deal with fixing hair. So easy and so fun! Go Aretha Franklin!

An Answer to World Poverty

Deseret News editorial
Published: Monday, Jan. 26, 2009

World poverty won't be solved by grand schemes or government programs. As the worldwide microcredit movement has demonstrated, it will be solved one person at a time.
Incredibly, that approach has now reached more than 100 million individuals, which was the goal the movement established a decade ago.
Microcredit involves giving small loans, sometimes no more than a dollar or two, to hard-working but extremely impoverished people, and setting up a system that gives them support and tracks their progress. These new entrepreneurs use the money to establish their own businesses, and when they pay off the first loan, they get a loan that is a little larger, and so on. Eventually, they become self-sufficient and successful, able to afford food, shelter and educational opportunities for their children.
The founder of this idea, Muhammad Yunus, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. His approach may well be the key not only to solving worldwide poverty, but to ending the threat of terrorism, which seems to find fertile ground amid the despair of endless poverty. If President Obama wants to dramatically increase U.S. aid to the poorest nations of the world, he could do much worse than to support a massive investment in microcredit programs.

Yunus was an economics professor in his native Bangladesh in 1974 when he decided to understand why economic theories seemed not to work in the everyday realities that surrounded him. He ventured into a nearby neighborhood where he met a young woman who made stools out of bamboo. She was borrowing money from a trader who then required her to sell the finished product back to him, leaving her with only about 2 cents per day for herself. Yunus decided to lend her $6, which was enough for her to buy her own bamboo. Right away, she began earning $1.25 per day, which made a huge difference.
In all, Yunus found 42 people in that neighborhood who needed a combined total of $27 to become more self-sufficient. He lent them the money out of his pocket. All of them repaid him.
When Yunus took his idea to banks, he found no one willing to help. So he formed his own, the Grameen Bank. Now, other banks have been formed to make similar loans.
It's scarcely possible to imagine 100 million people. Take the seemingly endless sea of faces that packed the Mall in Washington for Obama's inauguration and multiply it by 100. Then realize that each one has been lifted out of hopelessness and given a real chance to succeed.
That's a rare piece of bright economic news in these troubled times. It ought to spur Congress, the president and anyone else interested in ending poverty to a renewed emphasis on microloans.

This editorial in the DNews was of great interest to me. I'm a firm believer in microloans and support without reservation the mission and goals of these organizations that help people pull themselves out of grinding poverty:

Enterprise Mentors International (EMI) that I mentioned earlier here and here.

and the

Perpetual Education Fund of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I believe that is it incumbent on those of us who can, to contribute to these organizations or others to help those less fortunate. Even a small donation a month will combine with other contributions to made a difference in the lives of people who are struggling to just survive and better themselves and their families.

One of the workers at EMI found my blog entry last fall and asked if they could link my blog write up on EMI to their blog (which they did.) They also asked if I would post a link to their EMI blog for readers of my blog. Here it is. Please take a minute to read over some of the stories of people who have been helped by microcredit loans. It just makes me think that I don't need one more new thing. I don't NEED anything. I can give more.