I have had various odd jobs in my life (particularly in the years before graduating from college). One of the most interesting jobs I had was related to the position I had teaching Anatomy labs (using cadavers) to undergraduates while in graduate school. Cadavers were typically used for one academic year (two semesters), then they were cremated and the ashes returned with a heartfelt thanks to the family for allowing students to learn over the previous year. At the end of the school year, one of the grad students would be offered the job of cremating the cadavers.

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I have a friend who was telling me about his family. He happens to be an active member of the Church. His family has some problems and there are certain members of his family whom he does not really like very much. He has little in common with them and disagrees on nearly everything with these family members.

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According to a recent survey, 57 percent of American said God could save a patient even if doctors said it was futile. Also nearly 20 percent of doctors and other medical workers said God could reverse a hopeless outcome. I am amazed (and glad) that the numbers are this high.

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Every Summer my wife and I do our pilgrimage to Utah to visit family, attend family reunions, etc. We just returned from our annual visit. Usually I am convinced that I could never live in Utah after each visit and more than happy to go back to Boston. However, this visit, for the first time I thought “I could live there”. Here’s why I could live there:

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I thought the US inflation rate was high- Zimbabwe’s is so bad that they are knocking 10 zeros off of their currency tomorrow - that means that what is worth 10 billion dollars today is worth 1 dollar tomorrow.

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A few years ago, I was helping a family in our ward. The wife had broken her leg and had three young children while the husband was very busy with work. I had a short break in my schedule as I had just finished my PhD before starting a new job so I pitched in to help them a few times.

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Some people say they have no regrets or never argue with their spouses, I think they are liars. I have regrets and, yes, my spouse and I have argued over the last 13 years. It seems to me that to say one has no regrets or that you never argued with your spouse shows that either you are not very reflective/introspective about your life or that either you or your spouse is so passive they never push back on anything, which means one person likely dominates the relationship. Neither option is particularly healthy in my mind. I think that having regrets is helpful as it can facilitate behavioral change in us, while minor/moderate disagreements with our spouse are also helpful in that these too can facilitate change and enable us to grow together as a couple. Of course, I could also be trying to justify my own imperfections in a positive light…

The headlines may have died down in recent months, but bird flu experts say that the threat of a global pandemic has actually been growing. The World Health Organization outlined the spread of the bird flu virus around the world to 150 experts drawn together to discuss protective measures.

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My wife has had two children. One of the many things that has amazed me about this process has been the uterus. Here is a muscle that is usually the size of a fist that can expand over nine months to the size of a hollow watermelon. During childbirth it is powerful enough to expel an infant while at the same time cause excruciating pain due to the power of its contractions (at least it sure looked excruciating). Then it magically shrinks back to its former size in a few weeks time. Now men who think they are strong must take note - it takes years of exercise and supplements (not the Barry Bonds kind) to build up your biceps or other muscles to noticably expand them, while the uterus can do this in 9 months without the supplements and regardless of the exercise fitness of its owner.

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Last week, my son and I were coming out of the YMCA in Marblehead and my son wanted to go to the park nearby. We went there where there were several large monuments to those who died in wars. The Civil War monument had 135 names on it - this for a town of 5-10,000 at the time. Many of the names had the same surnames suggesting some families lost 3 or 4 members in the Civil War. They also had 50 names from World War II and 10 or so from Vietnam. It struck me how much has been sacrificed for the freedoms we have. Freedom that allows us to argue about politics, religion, and anything else. Freedom to worship how, where or what we may. Happy Memorial Day!

The recent Earthquake in China has been a terrible tragedy. I have read several articles from CNN, AP and others that speak about China’s One Child Policy making parent’s pain and suffering worse when their only child was killed in the quake. To me that is one of the stupidest things I have read in awhile. I found this from the Shanghai Daily which was very interesting.

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Mother’s Day Sacrament Meetings are always filled with many interesting experiences for me.
The "Mother’s Day Massacre" was one of the most memorable for me. The term was coined by our Bishop at the time - a 50 something engineering professor who was big on getting things done, but not so warm and cuddly - his wife was a stay at home wife and a wonderful warm woman who could pick up the pieces from his can do, "damn the torpedoes" attitude. The two counselors in the Bishopric had wives who were fairly liberal - one kept her maiden name and worked as a professor at a University (she was also the Relief Society President at the time). I was HP GL and observed a lot of this from the peanut gallery (also the counselors were both my great friends).

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There was a recent Wall Street Journal article discussing the number of friends one can have in one’s circle. Robin Dunbar, an Oxford anthropologist whose 1993 research gave rise to the magical count of 150, which was generated by observing social groups in nonhuman primates, then giving humans a multiplier for our larger cortex (brain).

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On Saturday, I had to go to a managment retreat for my work. While there, my wife talked me into getting a massage (paid for by my work). When asked if I preferred either a male or female therapist, I asked for a female, but there were none available, so I had a male therapist give me a massage.

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On Saturday, my wife and I went to a Chocolate Buffet at a restaurant in Boston. The entire buffet was chocolate based - a mix of white, milk and dark. There were tables heaped with different chocolate desserts, toppings, etc. It was amazing. There were at least 100 different items to taste including: freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, different chocolate fruit tarts, a chocolate fountain with fruit for dipping to ice cream, chocolate crepes, chocolate cotton candy and assorted other tasty desserts. It was pure indulgence and worth the $30 each my wife and I paid - a splurge we rarely make.

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As a native of Utah who has lived on the East Coast for the last 13 years, I love to play “find that Utahn” based on the accent. While most Utahns think they don’t have an accent, there is a very discernible Utah twang - very different from the rural Idaho drawl. While not all Utahns or Idahoans have it, it is present in many. If the twang is present, it is easy to pinpoint someone from Utah (even without hearing the “oh my heck”). Of course, I am amazed at how much your environment can alter your language. I know that my language is much faster and similar to a New Englander speech pattern (without the hideous accent - I hope) than a Utah accent after 13 years. I have a brother who moved to Idaho ten years ago and now has a definite Idaho drawl.

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Polygamy has been discussed numerous times in various blog settings - here, here, here, for example. I have read a few books about the subject and have an ok understanding of the history of polygamy in the Church (the good - if there is any, the bad and the ugly, primarily from reading Richard Van Wagoner’s book). Last week my sister-in-law (recently sealed) asked me a question for which I could not give a “good” answer. Her question was “We know that historically in the Church, a man could be married/sealed to more than one living woman at the same time, but that now you will be excommunicated if you are married to more than one living woman at the same time. However, a living man can be sealed to more than one woman today (as long as only one of the women is living). This seems contradictory - either we believe in polygamy or we do not.”

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I don’t know how many of you have been following the financial markets recently. The mortgage mess has been hanging over many banks for awhile. On Friday, Bear Stearns noted it was having the equivalent of a bank run (which essentially means people pull their money out and the company cannot pay bills/loans due, etc). Over the weekend, Bear was purchased by JP Morgan for $2 a share - the stock had been over $170/share in 2007.

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I just finished reading “Last Flag Down” which is a book about the last Confederate ship to surrender during the Civil War. These poor guys were out at sea sinking New Bedford Mass whaling ships in the Bering Sea into June/July 1865 despite the fact that the war was over several months earlier. Once they found out the war was over, they sailed to Liverpool to surrender which took them until November. The most interesting aspect of the book to me was a profile of the different sailors. The officers had served in the US Navy before the war and most had been to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Yet, despite the fact that most of these officers were anti-slavery, they all chose to serve in the Confederate Navy because their loyalties were to their states (many from Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia).

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I fly too much for work - sadly I achieved platinum status on two airlines last year. I like to observe people who are in the plane and try to figure out why and where they are going. Some are easy to figure out - the vacationers. Others are clearly students headed somewhere, while there are also a significant number of business travelers, particularly on flights going to New York City. And then there are those for whom I have no idea why they are traveling - they seem a bit nervous and out of sorts - maybe for a wedding or a funeral or some other family event? Traveling is much more pleasant in the Spring and Fall than in the Winter or Summer. In the Winter and Summer there are so many storms combined with large numbers of vacationers both of which make flying unpleasant.

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