President Gordon B. Hinckley
I can't remember ever having felt a sense of loss at someone's passing, whom I have never actually met before, the way I have this week after President Hinckley passed away. I will miss him! I guess it's because there are probably no other public figures whom I admire, respect, and love as much as I do Gordon B. Hinckley. He has been the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for well over a decade now, and I have grown to love listening to him speak and trusting in his guidance. Even at 97 years of age, his words were always infused with wit, great optimism (not a hint of grumpy-old-man syndrome), and wisdom. His pure life of service made him a trusted leader and exemplar.
I was reading in my journal and found a couple of my favorite quotes from him.

On Charity...
"One of the greatest challenges we face in our hurried, self-centered lives is to follow this counsel of the master - to take the time and make the effort to care for others, to develop and exercise the one quality that would enable us to change the lives of others - what the scriptures call charity. We tend to think of charity as donations to a homeless shelter or a check written to a favorite institution that dispenses funds to those in need. But best defined, charity is that pure love exemplified by Jesus Christ."

Things Work Out...
"It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don't worry. I say that to myself every morning. It will all work out. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us if we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings. He will hear our prayers."

Here is a nice article in The Washington Post.

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It's On (and poppin')

Let's take a small step back in time...when the Warriors were coached by Nellie and had a rookie named Chris Webber. This was before 'Spre choked out PJ. Before the 12 year playoff drought. In fact some prognosticators claim that when the Warriors traded Webber for ...Tom Goggliota and three first round-picks, that was when their decline began. But now things have come full circle and the Warriors have signed C.Dub. Maybe this will be just the acquisition the Warriors need to add to their three world championships (two in Philly, and one in the City). That would be three more then the Jazz have.

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Counterpoint: DC does have it figured out - well, at least snow
Picture this -you're rudely awakened very early one morning from your wife's cell phone ringing with the message that she gets to sleep in and enjoy a day off work, and yet you look outside and there is not even a hint of bad weather. You still have to wake up (again) in an hour and go to work. Okay, so Rob perhaps has a little snow day envy. I don't blame him. But I still feel compelled to counter what he wrote in his previous post (read below), because it does not properly pay respect to the beauty of the way people here know how to work a snow day. He accuses Washingtonians of being "out of touch with reality" on the basis that schools all over the place were canceled because of the threat of snow that day. I see it as just the opposite. The truth is, no one could be more in touch with reality than those very people who have figured out that they can cancel school, and more importantly, their own work day, on the basis that they are looking out for the safety of the community. Somehow, the community around DC has collectively discovered a genius way of creating surprise holidays and half days of work - while doing it in the name of safety. What other place in the U.S. could pull this off better than a place crawling with government workers? The way I see, it was too difficult to get congress to add any more national holidays to the calendar, and this is our underhanded way of evening the score with other nations that get hoards of holidays.
I can't blame Rob for feeling a little ripped off that I have gotten as much time off of school due to snow in the last couple months than he got his entire life growing up in Salt Lake - where our big storms would barely make the evening news - but I still can't help but revel in the beauty of snow days here. It's like the universe's way of making up for the fact that I don't get to live in southern California anymore. It gives me a reason to take enjoy the beauty of snow, instead of just being annoyed that I'm stuck to riding my bike indoors for the next week until it all melts off. I mean, if I get a day and a half off from work from a few hours of snow, I'll gladly take that as adequate payment for the inconvenience. Thanks D.C. - at least you have ONE thing figured out!

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SNOW?

Lorena's phone rang at 6:00 am this morning. It was her school calling to say that school had been cancelled in anticipation of snow! What?!? I mean it ended up snowing, but maybe three to four inches. Not enough to cancel school (in my never humble opinion). In fact just about every school around here ended up being canceled or closing early.

For those of you that think people in Washington are out of touch with reality, maybe they are. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for snow days. But three, maybe four inches? Growing up on the mean streets of the SLC I think we had school cancelled twice. And I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I think Salt Lake gets more snow then D.C. Anyway, unfortunately the Federal Govt. didn't shut down merely on the threat of snow, but they did let us go home about an hour early, because the "roads might be dangerous." Rumor has it we will be able to go to work late tomorrow to allow for the roads to de-ice or something. This kind of reminds me of Los Angeles when it rains. Everyone freaks out, no one knows how to drive, and no one knows what to do. The funny thing is that it happens every year. You think they would figure it out sometime.

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