Refusing to be bound

We refuse to be bound by the interpretations which others place upon our beliefs, or by what they allege must be the practical consequences of our doctrines. Men have no right to impute to us what they think may be the logical deduction from our beliefs, but which we ourselves do not accept.

So often it seems that someone else tries to define for us what we are, what we believe, in whom we have faith.

My Wheat&Tares post tomorrow is on prayer.  I had started one on how correlation was not causation, nor was it cooperation.  Thus President Hinckley could state that we needed some limits on guns without being in the same camp as the Libyan dictator who attempted to disarm his opponents the better to kill them all or those who promote various items of gun control in an agenda to remove all firearms from the hands of the population.

If you've ever read Dan Quayle Was Right  you are aware that there was a movement aimed at destroying traditional families, encouraging children to have sex, and promoting acceptance of what was, at the time, considered unnatural as natural. Yet, perhaps, favoring allowing all to marry, no matter who, what or when they may, does not necessarily mean embracing or cooperating with that movement.  Or perhaps it does.

I'm sure that would have resulted in more commentary, but ever since I read the http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/ post on prayer, I've been thinking more about it again.  And deciding that I can define for myself what prayer is, what the consequences of it are, and what I accept about it.

Rachel's new ride ...

Ok, not a car or even a bicycle, but she is getting really good with this new vehicle.

Rachel fell off a cliff at Turner Falls, bruised, battered, but will recover

http://www.turnerfallspark.com/ is the location, has always been a family favorite.

Transverse process fractures, lung contusion, fracture to left heel, bruised, split her pants.  

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=a00368 kind of explains what a transverse process fracture is.  To quote "transverse process fractures are predominantly treated with gradual increase in motion, with or without bracing, based on comfort level."

She fell about twenty feet.  They are coming home tonight so Win told me not to drive up, expects we would just pass each other on the way. I feel helpless, obviously.

If she was worse off, I'd feel even worse. I had to go to work today, have to go in for a hearing set by a judge tomorrow and while it is a telephone hearing, they said no cell phones. Otherwise I'd have been up there with them, I had vacation scheduled so we could go as a family.

A terrible thing to tell Heather about, except we couldn't hide it from her either. So Win called her to give her a heads up, I called her when we had more news. I'm just grateful it is "battered and bruised" rather that "broken" or worse. 

You may be hard core, but we don't put up with lifting weights in pink stripe oxford dress shirts around here ...

About my experience at the gym today ...

Other threads about my lifting at:

• http://tnation.t-nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_senior/returning_to_iron
• http://tnation.t-nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_senior/the_over_50_lifter

My training this year has been spotty.  Realized I need to just lift to lift, not for any other reasons.

Got out to the rec center after a meeting.  I had a black polo on under my button down dress shirt, but I was in a hurry, so I ended up not taking time to take the dress shirt off.

Leg Press:  405lb/9 reps.  Under my PR, but on the way back. 
Adductor, 165 (machine max) lb/18 reps.
Abductor, 165 (machine max) lb/13 reps.
Triceps cable pull-down, 145 lb/8 reps.  I'm just getting the hang of this exercise.
Pull down machine (like doing pull-ups, but the weight comes to you) 200lb/8 reps
Robe Curl, 180lb/8 reps
One handed wood chop on cable weight machine, 70lb/9 reps
Overhead dumbbell press, 2x35lb dumbbells/9 reps
Dumbbell Row, 75lb/9 reps each side
Back machine, still 245lb (machine max), 12 reps -- do this to work my hamstrings as much as anything (have the foot rest set so my legs aren't locked out).

Good workout, but a guy stopped me to tell me "You may be hard core, but we don't put up with lifting weights in pink stripe oxford dress shirts around here" after I was finished working out.

He figured I was in a hurry, was impressed with the leg work I was doing, the teasing was gentle.

Then yard work, remulched the chickens, dug out and replaced the sand for the sand baths, miscellaneous stuff around the house, the darn spa still isn't running right since the pool was resurfaced.

But I'm hoping to get back into keeping at it again.

But no more oxford dress shirts while I'm lifting.  It just was kind of cold today.

Spending over thirty thousand dollars on a child's party, a perspective

There have been some discussions stemming from a woman in Utah who spent about thirty-two thousand dollars on a small child's birthday party. Themes of this type have a long history in the bloggernacle. Other groups have them too, such as concerns in Jewish quarters about six and seven figure bar mitzvah parties. There is even a television series.

But it made me think of going shopping for potato chips for a party at the house.  As I was at check-out, the rail thin cashier was just staring at my purchases, almost in disbelief.  She was new.  I had less than forty dollars worth of junk food for the party.  She was a Kurdish Iraqi refugee (the Albertsons was part of a program for integrating refugees).

She was having trouble imagining anyone spending that much money on such frivolous food.  She had trouble as she rang me up, but got through it.

And I thought about it.  About how my spending less than forty dollars for a party for people in the ward was so excessive it was almost beyond her comprehension, so new she was to America (and yes, over time her English got better and she adjusted more to what people were buying at the grocery store).

I've had times when thirty-five dollars worth of food would have been a major purchase.  Times when I would not notice spending that much money.  It seemed like a good cause at the time I bought what was basically an excess of junk food.  I was buying what people wanted and expected, at a reasonable price, for a social time with a large number of people, who all enjoyed the evening.

But I have reflected a good deal since on how just as what others do may seem foolish or extravagant to me, what I do in passing can be extreme enough to others to cause them to literally stutter in disbelief.  It makes me humble and gives me pause when I see criticism.