Monday, October 10, 2005

Roark and Katelynn had a wonderful marriage in Soquel, California. I've always had a fond spot in my heart for Roark (he's one of my nephews). He and Katelynn have been together since they were thirteen, he's now in grad school at MIT, and, as his brother Ben pointed out, it was time. And a wonderful time it was.

Win got called in to do a liver transplant tonight, so as I sit here just back from vacation, thinking about weddings and I how I love her, she is at work and not here. Speaking of Win, I've now gotten to see her brain (via watching a cat scan in real time) and it is as pretty as the rest of her. She was pretty bad off, but it was just food poisoning, potassium driven down below three, and an inner ear infection, all coming together. Gave us all a scare, but the ER folks were kind, though they sent me an orderly the size of Rachel. Luckily Win doesn't weigh that much, so I picked her up and put her in the wheel chair to take her in. She was clamped up and unable to walk at that point.

But, this visit to California was a good one, though we are all glad to be back in Texas and to have our house back from the Wichita Falls refugee who stayed in it last week.

Too much to write about.

But who we marry says a lot about us, and who Roark married says good things about him.

Though California is a funny place. Met a Seminary teacher out there who defined a student who really "got it" as one who decided against going on a mission and became completely secular. They have different goals and ideas out there.

Guess two more notes.

In Africa, some of the wards had the sisters blessing and passing the sacrament (the men tend to delegate anything that looks like work). It was pointed out to them that the sacrament is a priesthood responsibility. Next visit, the women handled the sacrament again. When the visiting authority asked, the bishop assured him that it was ok this time, they had ordained all the sisters to the Aaronic priesthood. Nothing was done at the time, I don't know if anything has happened since. Interesting that ordination to the priesthood was treated as a step down in status, rather than a step up for the sisters.

In one of the temples there was an effort to have the position of sealer restricted to only those who had been stake presidents. The only comment that was made was that perhaps the position should be restricted to only those who have served missions.

So many ways to look at things, so little time.

10 comments:

john f. said...

Is he named after Howard Roark from The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand?

Stephen said...

I'm not sure, though I fear so.

Stephen said...

I should be clearer. My brother had a serious head injury on his mission. When he returned home, his doctor's approach was that the kid just needed to be addicted to pain killers and live out his life on them.

He decided to take responsibility for himself, and cut himself off from his perscription. Interesting, what he got from Rand was not an excuse to condemn others but a push to take responsibility for himself.

annegb said...

I'm confused, too, Stephen. Is Win your wife and is she a doctor?

Your comment about who you marry makes me feel hopeful for my son-in-law.

Stephen said...

Win is a CRNA -- a graduate degree nurse who does anesthesia, not an M.D.

Hope that is clearer.

annegb said...

I'll probably forget again. The comment about the transplant seemed to come out of nowhere.

I'm going to try to post a couple of pictures of Sarah's wedding on A Quiet Life. I have to figure out how. It was a beautiful wedding, but the fourth most stressful of my life. I never want to do that again.

annegb said...

You know, I was in the ER last week, just after the wedding with an inner ear inflammation. I was so sick, I thought I had diabetes. I'm still not all there.

Shutting up now.

Stephen said...

I've edited and cleaned up that transition -- thanks for catching it for me.

lochan said...

I'm so glad to hear that Win is alright.

ESOdhiambo said...

I don't know where in Kenya this happened, but I do know that while I was there (1999-2002), some of the branches had been shut down due to incorrect teachings/practices. When I was leaving, some missionaries were just being assigned to reopen that area of the country (Kitale).

Largely due to a fear of this sort of unorthodoxy (I think), the church currently operates under a program they call "Centers of Strength" in which they do not open new areas witout a critical mass of trustworthy members/leadership. I can understand the wish to avoid such problems, but it did make it very frustrating that a congregation could not meet within 200 KM of where I lived because we were not yet "ready."