Gratitude is Happiness Doubled by Wonder

I read a book this afternoon with my 6-year-old grandson. It's fascinating to watch the development of language abilities in children. I don't remember learning to read myself; but there are some strong parallels to learning a foreign language, and to other kinds of learning in life. First of all, the text in the book was extremely basic. The word choice uses short, monosyllabic words; the development of the story line follows simplified plots. No native or experienced speaker would ever talk like this. Even young children quickly pass this in their oral communication. HOWEVER - when I try to write or converse in a language I'm not very familiar with, I find myself doing the very same thing. I have a limited, basic vocabulary, and so I try to use only those familiar words to get my message across. I even sometimes change a storyline because it doesn't fit my simple vocabulary. When my grandson read the story, he had to proceed slowly and carefully, sounding out many of ...

I am fascinated by light. I love being in the hills overlooking a valley in the late evening or early morning, and looking out over the twinkling lights of civilization down below. Those twinkles come from streetlights, headlights, homelights. Many of them represent families, people - so many tens of thousands of stories. What is really fascinating is to imagine similar scenes in years past. Thinking about the evolution of lighting is pretty fascinating. For millenia, for almost all of the world's history, homes and cities were illuminated by flames. It took a long time to get from open wood-burning fires, to torches, to oil lamps and wax candles. But though these developments added convenience, the amount of light didn't increase much. It's been a little over 140 years since Thomas Edison patented the first functional incandescent bulb, and the modern "era of light" began. So we compare the millenia that preceded with the tiny slice of less than 140 years of elec...

I love astronomy. The stars and planets fascinate me. Such a vast and infinite field to explore! Right now, the planet Venus can be seen in the morning sky - one of my favorites. Since it's the closest planet in our solar system to the earth, it catches and reflects more sunlight to us, making it the brightest thing in the sky, other than the moon. Its brightness certainly must have captivated the ancients who studied the starry sky so thoroughly. Since Venus' orbit is inside the earth's orbit, it is never far from the sun as viewed from the earth; depending on the time of the year, it either is seen in the evening just after sunset, or in the morning just before dawn. The names "evening star" and "morning star" for the planet both have significance and meaning. A few years ago, I wrote an essay about the religious symbolism attached to Venus. For those interested, see here: https://smallestpart.blogspot.com/.../the-bright-and... We barely scratch the su...

Following some oral surgery this week, I was prescribed penicillin to fight the likelihood of bacterial infection. I can't remember the last time I was given that medicine - seems like there are many other alternative antibiotics these days. But it's been interesting to ponder the history of this medicine, and how many lives it has saved. Penicillin was first discovered by a Scottish scientist named Alexander Fleming in 1928. There were occasional uses in treating disease in the years that followed, but scientists were unable to produce it in large enough quantities to make it practical, and it didn't attract a lot of attention. Purified penicillin and the means to mass-produce it didn't happen until the 1940s. Historically, more injured men died in wartime from post-injury infections than from the injury itself. In the later years of World War II, penicillin became a critical medicine in treating wounded soldiers and saved countless lives. Fleming finally received a No...

The Yad Vashem memorial complex in Jerusalem When I read that today was "International Holocaust Remembrance Day," I had a flood of emotions and memories return. I learned the facts about the Holocaust in my youth, like most people; but didn't really grasp the magnitude of it until I was in Israel when I was 22. While in Jerusalem, I visited "Yad Vashem," the World Holocaust Remembrance Center - a large memorial complex dedicated to preserving the memory of the events of the Nazi massacres during World War II, and to ensure future genocides do not occur. I'd never had an experience like that in my life. It was the most solemn, reverent, but yet disturbing thing I'd ever experienced. For the first time, I truly grasped the meaning of what happened to an entire people during World War II - 6 million deaths, and countless more lives shattered, a whole culture plundered and humiliated. I remember being subdued for days afterward as I processed the experienc...

When we finished our current home, we were able to take advantage of some federal tax incentives and other benefits to install solar panels. It has proved to be a very worthwhile investment for us, almost completely covering our electric bills each year. However, we quickly learned a fact that should be pretty obvious: the panels don't generate power when the sunlight isn't actually shining on them! Clouds lower the production dramatically (a little bit of light still gets through); but snow on the panels cuts it to zero. If I wait long enough, the snow will melt and they will start functioning again. But meanwhile I will have lost the benefit of hours or days of generating electricity. So with a little research, I found a tool (a "snow rake") that allows me to removes the snow without damaging the panels. As soon as the snow lets up, I can clear the panels and restore the power generation quickly. Sometimes we have things blocking our productivity. We're hampered...

I got my first "calculator watch" when I was in high school, back in the 1970s. It was big, bulky, hard to operate, and super nerdy. I think it cost something like $50 for the ability to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. I was so proud! Recently I bought a new watch. I had a few reasons for choosing this specific watch, and so far am quite pleased with it. It's NOT big and bulky, doesn't appear super nerdy. But its abilities are astonishing to me, especially as I compare it with that 1970s wonder. A few examples of what my new watch can do, besides tell the date and time with exceptional accuracy: - count how many steps I walk each day - display photos and play music - deliver weather reports and forecasts for my local area - connect to my phone to give notification of incoming phone calls, text messages, emails, etc. and actually all me to reply to them using voice-to-text messaging - detect when I sleep and analyze my sleep pattern (REM, light vs deep sleep) - pe...

Yesterday I wrote about a spelling error I found in a children's book, and lamented the trend towards laxity in grammar and language. I ended by expressing appreciation for good editors and for my own good education that makes me annoyed at things like misspellings. I've been thinking about what I wrote since then, and pondering the implications of my message. I think I need to apologize and emphasize a secondary point. I've known some exceptional people who were pretty lousy writers. That is certainly the case in much of the third world, where perhaps the opportunity for education is lacking. For example, some young US missionaries serving in foreign countries are surprised to learn that they have better spelling and grammar in their new language than many of the native speakers. But yet, many of those local people are successful in their professions, are excellent parents and involved citizens, and are serving effectively and often powerfully. I've even known people i...

I was reading a library book to my grandchildren earlier today and came to this page. I was appalled and horrified! How does this happen? In a children's book, no less, where young impressionable minds are being exposed? How many people must have read this text before it went to print, and they all let it pass? What is this world coming to, when things like this appear in print?? OK, so it's not a huge infraction. Mistakes happen. We certainly make them in our casual writing, especially when writing on our phones. But I think it's illustrative when we see things like this in printed material (and this is certainly not the first I've seen). Perhaps in the past, we cared more about "proper" spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Could it be that the explosion of interaction through social media, where our writing is generally quick and casual, made us generally less concerned about things like spelling and grammar? Perhaps editors don't matter as much because w...

Today I returned to one of my favorite nearby trails for some exercise. I mentioned Dry Canyon in a previous reminisence - it's a trail I've hiked countless times. But I had a sudden idea. Instead of taking the trail up the main canyon, like I normally do, I cut off up a steep hillside on a smaller trail I've noticed before but never taken. It seemed to have had some traffic, and I did see an occasional human footprint; but before long I was just exploring a maze of game trails as the steep climb leveled out on top of a ridge. It was fun to be in a new area, very rarely visited by hikers. In fact, I came across a dozen or more deer who were, I assumed, avoiding the human incursion into the more popular areas (I hope I didn't ruin it for them). My primary motivation was to see Dry Canyon from a new perspective, one I've never seen before. I was high above the canyon on the ridge to the south. It was fascinating to see the trail and the rock formations from there, and...

This graphic popped up in my memory feed today and made me smile. Then it made me want dessert. It's an interesting attitude, isn't it? It brings to mind the old proverb that encourages, "Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die." Generally that's an attitude that is discouraged, not encouraged. It's viewed as short-sighted or fatalistic. In fact, the apostle Paul used the expression in that context: "If the dead are not raised, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." (1 Cor 15:32) So without hope of an afterlife, you may as well just "party" through this one. However, the original context of the phrase seems to be more positive. "So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun." (Eccl 8:15, NKJV) There's a positive sense of wanting to find happiness and pleasu...

I was in an office building today and got a bit misdirected as I was finishing, and ended up leaving by a different door than the one I came in. I didn't realize it until I was outside, and then suddenly was looking at a strange parking lot. But after glancing around for a second, I noticed the position of the mountains and immediately was re-oriented, and was able to walk directly to my car. The power of our mountains in this situation is their extreme visibility. However, that only works when combined with familiarity. I know the mountains of Utah Valley so well, after living here most of my life and climbing them all multiple times, that I can tell pretty close to my actual location just by the view of the mountains. However, drop me somewhere else where I'm not familiar and the mountains wouldn't be much help to me. As I got in my car this morning, a great application of that principle occurred to me. Having some standards or ideals in our lives can help in orienting ou...

During my archaeological excavation in Israel, I had a unique and very memorable experience that taught me some valuable lessons. I was working on the steep, sea-facing side of the tel or hill, digging a vertical trench to expose the underlying layers. At one point, one of the cute coeds working with me dropped a bucket and it rolled down towards the beach. I gallantly volunteered to retrieve it. I made my way carefully down the steep slope that was covered with shale and potsherds. At one point, as I was checking for where to step, I saw what appeared to be a fragment of deep black glazed pottery. This type of finish is very distinctive to pottery made in Greece from about 600-400 BCE. Finding a piece of it here would be a great clue that there had been trade between our site and the advanced civilization of the upper Mediterranean. As I bent down to pick it up, I felt my feet slip out from under me. I quickly slid down the steep slope and over the cliff. I had managed to go feet-firs...

People in almost all parts of the world have been making vessels from clay for thousands of years; pottery is considered one of the oldest of human inventions. When I studied archaeology in Israel, I learned that each group of people tends to have their own distinctive pottery design, based not only on the purpose of the container but also on aesthetics and artistry: size, shape, thickness, curvature, handles, type of clay, glazing, adornments, etc. Because of that, pottery is one of the most useful keys to archaeology, particularly to dating the inhabitants of an excavated site and sometimes their origins or commercial interactions. However, ancient pottery isn't often discovered in complete, identifiable form. People discard pottery because it breaks, or it gets broken as a city is invaded and destroyed. Then a few hundred or thousand years later, archaeologists come along and find the pieces (called sherds or shards). If they are lucky, most of the pieces are found close togethe...

Aerial view of Tel Michal looking west to the Mediterranean In 1979, a year after completing my mission, I spent a summer with a BYU archaeological expedition in Israel. It was a fascinating time, filled with heady young scholarship, adventurous experiences, and spiritual discovery. We worked under the direction of Tel Aviv University experts, along with students from several major US universities and one from Australia. As an eager young college student, I was absolutely fascinated by the science of archaeology. The site we were excavating, called Tel Michal, was relatively small, just a few hills and some surrounding area; but the setting was spectacular and strategic (right on the Mediterranean coast, between larger ancient cities of Jaffa and Caesarea). Excavations would eventually reveal 17 distinct layers of civilization dating back to about 1800 BCE. Each civilization over the centuries would either abandon the site, or have it destroyed by natural forces or enemy attack. The r...