Passing on what I learned from Special K

This has been an interesting week; I've been doing some good solid thinking beyond my normal fare of bike and cars. Today for example, I was made the 2nd counselor in the young men's presidency. In the LDS church, there is no paid clergy so everyone helps out. I'm now in charge of leading the young men in our ward from 12-13; we only have one right now, so I'll get to spend all of my time molding him just how I want him. We're going to have some good lessons about the gospel and cars. I'll get to help out with all of the young men though. I'm actually really excited about this opportunity.

I remember back to when I was a kid and my best friend Arthur and I used to go to young men's together. I know my leaders had a very big impact on me. One in particular (we used to refer to him as 'Special K') really made me think for the first time about why I was coming to church every Sunday and what I really believed. Beyond that, he really gave me a role model that I could see myself becoming in the near future because he was close to our age. In fact, I still, to this day remember the one of the first lessons he gave us when we were 14. It was a commercial for the 1997 911 Carrera. It was narrated by Patrick Stewart and was about 8 minutes of Porsche propaganda. He skillfully tied it into the Gospel of Jesus Christ and from that point forward, he owned us. Because we respected him so much, it was easy to take advice from him that we probably would have resented had it come from our parents. Don't get me wrong, I love my dad, but when your thought processes are irrational, your hormones are unbalanced, and your feet are too big for your body, sometimes, your dad isn't the person you want to hear it from.

1997 Porsche 911 996

Today, unfortunately, was more exciting than I would care for though. Nicole and I were sitting in the front room talking when about 4:00 there was a loud knock at our door. It was our neighbor to tell us her husband who's an older man had fallen. When we went in to check, he was on the floor and wasn't breathing. I called the paramedics and the ambulance came. Then two fire trucks arrived. As time went on our neighbor became more and more distraught at the situation. There were 6 men in the room all fighting to save one man's life. I felt pretty much helpless as I just sat there and watched and prayed he would be ok. The good news is that by the time the ambulance left for the hospital, they had a pulse. We're waiting to hear news and praying that everything goes well for him. He's such a kind, caring man. It made me think though about how fast life can change. It was certainly not something we expected. It also made me think about how much we value life. It was the first time in my life that I have been that close to tragedy and it was interesting how small I felt. There was really not much I could do change the course of what was happening. Even though we like to think we are in control of our lives and making our own decisions, we really have so little control over so many things in our lives. I'm optimistic he will be alright, but this is where the blessings of faith come in--I have faith in God who does have complete control over what happens.

On a much lighter note; on Wednesday, also while seated and talking in our front room, we had the biggest daddy long legs I have ever seen in my life on our wall. As a man and defender of our domain, it is my responsibility to kill anything that is unwanted that enters our home--I'm still hoping that a grizzly bear with a crow bar breaks open our door and moseys through one day. But as for this daddy long legs, I smashed him with a steel ruler. He completely exploded. We found various legs all over the place. One of them was still moving around.

Daddy Long Legs (shown with murder weapon for reference)

Other than that, that has been most of our news. Some of you who know me well may be getting phone calls and/or letters from the U.S. government this week asking personal questions about me. Don't worry, I haven't been arrested yet. This is just standard procedure for getting access to military bases. I just thought I'd give you all the heads up.