Resilience -- a great list

I ran across this and really liked it.

1. Get Connected- You know, make friends and then make more friends. Probably not a bad idea.

2. Keep a Journal- Do you think a blog no one reads would count?

3. Take Care of Yourself- Not as easy as it sounds, but I think this one is worth the effort and it should pay off in the long run, whether it builds resiliency or not.

4. Remain Hopeful- Find something good in every day. This builds gratitude and helps maintain a healthy perspective.

5. Take Action- Don't wait for things to change to suit you, but rather seek to change them to meet your needs. Make a plan and start taking active steps towards your goals.

That post has more useful information than all of

You're Stronger Than You Think: Tapping into the Secrets of Emotionally Resilient People by Peter A. Ubel (Mar 29, 2006)

 

At least as far as recovery goes.  Now, I got what I needed for a brief in some litigation from the book, but not much for giving anyone advice.

 

A blog on logic fallacies

Who can resist someone talking about Ignoratio Elenchi?

http://pix2brix.com/ -- worth a visit

Thinking about Bibles

Yesterday, while we were on the way to Church, our eleven year old interrupted us with a "you've got to read this."  We had her read it to us.  She had just finished Matthew Chapter 6 and had to share it.

Of course they had read it a couple of weeks ago at Church.  Not the same impact.  She's smart (three standard deviations above her class's norm on her latest assessment scores), but two weeks ago it was the King James (which I love for its poetic flavor).  Sunday it was a modern translation.

NET Bible Noteless (on her itouch)

She kept reading, engrossed, all through Sacrament meeting.

I've seriously rethought my feelings on the King James based on that experience.  I love the flavor and the poetry, but to see her just enraptured in the scriptures, that was a significant moment for me.

Vivah, movies

Ok, we saw this at the Plano public library and brought it home along with another movie that the staff recommended.  The version we watched was in Hindi with English sub-titles. 2007 copyright.

Wiki summary at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivah

The one we watched had a different cover than these two covers (which apparently are the ones for the American export versions):

Vivah

Vivah

Those are links to two of the three English translations (the one I have not provided a link to is a print on demand service that often is reported to botch the prints of the DVDs).  Really enjoyed watching it with Win this morning.  Reminded me of falling in love with my wife.  Though, honestly, we did end up kvetching during some of the hospital scenes (all oxygen tanks are green -- it is an international standard.  If someone is hooked up to a tank of a different color, inquiring minds want to know just what is in it.  I know more than I want to know about burn victims, etc., air beds and such.  But who watches a Ballywood movie for an accurate depiction of a burn victim?).

The other movie we kind of saw, parts of, was Get Him to the Greek.  It was just too much, so we bailed on it before it got started, really.  Read the Amazon reviews, I'm impressed by the guy who at least got two minutes in.  For the Wiki Summary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Him_to_the_Greek

You know, every so often I get talked into a Ballywood movie.  Some are a lot of fun.  Some leave me with a "huh??" or "thank goodness I was able to take a nap during the movie" feeling. I liked Vivah, was glad I'd seen it.  The other, at least we did not pay or spend any time on a download or waiting on Neflicks for it. ;)

On intellectuals

So, there was a recent thread on "intellectuals" where the starting post noted that the word:

it connotes not intelligence (a word with its own Mormon history), but a certain kind of attitudinal disorder.  Indeed, I have since learned that to qualify among the Saints as an intellec-chal requires neither grades, nor credentials, nor learning, nor for that matter, intellect, but only the disturbing symptoms of a too objective or analytical distance, a kind of willful autism of the spirit ...

 

That original essay (which the quote comes from) led to an excellent post (which is where the quote links to, not the original). Kristine realized that "intellectual gifts, like most of what we bring to the altar, are not nearly as valuable as we think they are" and "Perhaps we need to be told exactly what to sacrifice because we aren’t very good at recognizing what is valuable. Maybe Paul’s description of gifts within the body of Christ isn’t just about other people’s gifts that we wrongly think are less worthy than our own, but about our estimation of what it is we ourselves have to offer."  [cf "brilliance"]

Which leads to my Wheat and Tares post for today, one that is recycled from a post at this blog, but which fits very much into the current discussion: http://www.wheatandtares.org/2011/07/07/trusting-god-in-spite-of-confusion/ -- not only are you probably not as bright as you think you are, most of us are probably confused as well.  I know I often am, more than I realize.

Persistence of Vision

There is a short story, with a longer name than just "Persistence of Vision" but it evokes the feeling of things that endure.  I have to admit I am always amazed at the endurance of emotional resonances in my life.

For example, while Robin was born on July 6 and died on August 31, I still associate the 4th of July and Labor Day with her birth and death and emotionally they hit me on those days rather than the "real" ones.

The other thing about emotion is that it is one thing to read and hear that the emotion of loss will linger, to have recounted David O. McKay's wife's story about how as a grandmother she stll felt the death of her infant son, quite another to experience that loss and pain persist.  They become more endurable, more acclimated, even more distant, in a way, but there is a persistence.

This fourth of July week end brings joy, and rest, and peace and pain.  But above all else, hope persists as well.