My 500 Words

  More than two decades before I was born, a pheasant hunting trip turned deadly for one of the most recognized military leaders in United States’ history. Weeks earlier General George S. Patton’s long-time driver left Army service and a new driver was assigned to handle the General’s transportation. En route to the hunting site, Patton’s limousine collided with an army truck and while other passengers suffered mild injuries, Patton hit his head hard enough that it left a bloody gash and paralyzed him from the neck down. The subsequent complications from this accident led to Patton’s death twelve days later. I was three years old when the movie “Patton” premiered in theaters and six when it was first released on television. Like “The Ten Commandments,” “Patton” became one of those films that ABC aired around Easter annually. I was probably eight or nine when I first remember watching “Patton” but I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw that first television broadcast.  As an impressi...

2026 represents the final year for the Utah Grizzlies in my town because an NHL team has come to Salt Lake. When the Grizzlies moved to Utah in 1995 they had just won a championship, but the Avalanche had come to Colorado and it was time to move. The Grizzlies originally competed at the Delta Center, though current owners want to remove the word the. In its first season in Utah, the Grizzlies brought a home-grown hockey championship back to Utah, something that hadn’t been done since the Golden Eagles won the Turner Cup in 1988, while playing in the Salt Palace.  At the same time the Grizzlies moved to Utah, Salt Lake City won the rights to host the 2002 Winter Olympic games. Organizers partnered with West Valley City to build a new hockey arena that would host the Olympic and Paralympic hockey events. When the city first tried to name the arena, it found little interest. Without a sponsor, the facility became known as the “E Center.”  I unsuccessfully promoted an alternative ...

I experience a particular disconnect when it comes to images of the plates of food that people will post on social media platforms. My problem is I enjoy seeing them in my feeds, especially when they are accompanied by a story. I appreciate when the poster includes details about the quality of the food beyond its obvious presentation and when they point out flavors that came as a surprise and that you could not ascertain from the image alone.  I also experience a small level of annoyance when people are taking these photos. I am not so annoyed that I would ever ask someone to not take a photo of their food. If I tried, I would have to start with my own family. But when the photograph of the meal becomes more important than the meal itself, I sometimes wish restaurant owners would just take photos of everything on their menu and make images available for posting.  Emotional disconnect aside, I hope you all will keep sharing your images and offering tips of new and fun dishes to...

In his final year of high school, Jonah appeared in “Puffs.” He was cast as two very different characters. He first portrayed Cedric Diggory. In the original canon, J.K. Rowling describes Cedric as someone who is exceptionally handsome, modest, fair-minded and brave. I admit that my view could be skewed, but it would seem that Jonah checked all of these boxes. In addition, Jonah exceeds six feet and most consider him tall. With the exception of sporting blond, rather than dark, hair, it was a part that did not appear much of a stretch.  In the second half, Jonah took on the role of Voldy. This snake-like character embodies evil, and his for power threatens what should be a peaceful and orderly school of magic. Jonah developed a particularly cold and high-pitched voice to match the nature of Voldy, a voice he said was based on the tone and phrasing  his mother would use when reading the original Harry Potter series at bedtime and on road trips. Jonah’s capacity to adopt a role...

I learned My Favorite Things while attending elementary school. I loved its imagery of raindrops on roses as it reminded me of my mother’s and grandmother’s flowers. And getting snowflakes to land and stay on my nose and eyelashes became a just out-of-reach goal as they always seemed to melt on contact. Yet, the most exciting part of the song occurred when it turned very briefly dangerous and melancholy with the dog bite and the bee sting.  Turns out that last Friday I was putting final touches on a legal brief that needed to be filed when I received an animated, yet succinct, message from my dear wife informing me that she had just been bitten by a dog while walking by the tennis courts near our neighborhood. After a couple of exchanges, I knew she had been attacked hard enough that she required medical attention, but not so bad that she couldn’t transport herself there.  While relieved, the gnawing concern for rabies and potential scarring nagged at me and felt deep concern ...

After telling His disciples that he would die and leave them, Jesus said:  “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Can you imagine the fear they must have felt upon receiving the news that the Messiah was going to leave? As a people they had waited for this Messiah for millennia for a savior to bring them liberation. Instead He brought them salvation.  And while they had been taught what they needed to know His disciples did not fully understand. Thomas said he knew not the way to go where Jesus was going. Philip asked to see the Father as though he believed that would finally be enough knowledge and teaching to carry them through.  These disciples had accompanied Jesus throughout his three-year ministry. They had been witnesses to miracles, ministered to by angels, and they testified of Jesus’ divinity. Yet the unknown left them with the uneasiness of the unkno...

1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Be careful of the sources you read and who you choose to believe. Seek truth. 2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: Those who confess Jesus Christ will honestly express what they know. Others will say things for their own gain, to deceive, or simply because they don’t know better. We need to honor and look for those who speak truth. When you find lasting peace and comfort you will know you have found the truth you were seeking. 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world...

I live under the flight path of the Salt Lake International Airport and have become very accustomed to seeing airplanes overhead. In fact, a couple of nights ago I was looking at five planes as they made their approach to land. On September 11, 2001 and the days that followed, the air went silent. Except for Hill Air Force Base. At the time, my commute provided the chance to drive by the base a couple of times per day. But, the Air Force was  running so many drills, you could see the fighter jets all over the sky. But commercial airline traffic stopped and I noted the absence. In the face of the tragedy and all the different things that came to define our new normal, we also experienced a unifying spirit of resolve and community. In the days and weeks after September 11, our society made a concerted effort to support the people around us who would be negatively affected by the attack on our country and the disruption to air travel. People said, if we stop living the attackers...

One night I was driving through fog that was so dense I couldn’t see but a few feet in front of my car. It was so bad that I stayed at a friend's home instead of driving the few miles to get home. I have been in rainstorms that have forced me to pull over and hope that all of the cars behind me have done the same. I’ve also experienced blowing dirt that forced me to take cover and simply wait before I could proceed. Today’s political climate reminds me of the fog, rain, and dirt combined together in a torment so dark that any path forward is unknown and seems uncharted. For many, these circumstances seem paralyzing and people just want to wait until the storm passes over so that they can see their way and continue on their journey. Others who are so convinced of their positions sit in the eye of the storm and wonder why there is so much commotion when everything seems so clear. Unlike the fear while driving blind I have experienced an overwhelming calm in the midst of a very...

When I was eleven years old I began to deliver newspapers. For the first couple of months I delivered a morning paper after my older brother got a real job and so I got up early and helped his twin. Then he got a real job. Fortunately, I was offered an afternoon newspaper route. For me, it was as close to perfect as a job could be. I did it after school, it took a little over an hour and I made a couple of dollars per month for every subscriber. In my mind I was rich. I opened my own savings account and with every deposit I was able to see my bank account balance grow. One funny thing was that almost every day as I would fold the newspaper I would see the report on the Dow Jones like a flipping comic strip that never changed. Yes, I’m old enough to say that I remember when the Dow was below 1000 points. I’m pretty sure I remember it in the 600s. That early exposure led me to research the stock market and how to invest. When I was thirteen or fourteen, I had accumulated a few thous...

My 92 year-old dad isn’t doing so well. He’s more quiet, and confined to a hospital bed in his living room. But when I saw him a few days ago, he remembered who I was and he told me stories about his childhood, his church mission, and even recent events. Some of them might even be true. I asked whether he ever owned his own bicycle. Growing up in southern Alberta during a time of general economic scarcity he never had his own bicycle. He said, “The bicycle was given to the girls.” He would ride the bicycle on occasion, but he never had one of his own. My dad loved to golf. I wondered whether he had played golf in the early 1950’s when he labored as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Samoa. My dad created a beautiful story about a tee shot along the shoreline. The day was beautiful and the water was clear and blue as the sky. The trees were green and still, as no wind blew. He hit the ball square and it sailed on a line with a perfect arc as far as...

I opened  my Facebook app and was greeted with the following message:. If you are going to make a meme, can you please stick to the same font? The combination of serif and san serif made me question whether the creator had any grasp of the fundamental nature of the human condition. When you stop and think about it, wisdom demands greater attention to detail when dealing with intrinsic practices like the worship of God and the limits on how to do it. Perhaps a much less interesting meme, but the period should really go after garbage. I could get behind any movement that endorses not treating people like garbage. Unfortunately, people do treat others, at different moments in time, like garbage. So it isn’t so much that we cannot treat people like garbage and more like we shouldn’t. This meme caught my attention because it linked the bad behavior of treating people poorly with the ability to worship God while treating people like garbage. If that’s the case, I’m in big tro...

 Once I started to practice law my reading for pleasure plummeted like a lead ball. But I knew that I could escape. Even during law school I made reading for pleasure a priority and it helped me enjoy the law school experience. I took time away from the serious studies and imperative learning, and reading kept me grounded and gave my mind the space to relax. Many of the tasks I did for work I could do on the bus and because my office was right by the courthouse, I didn’t need to drive myself. What fortune to discover that  a route that stopped a mere ten houses from my home and dropped me off less than a block from my office. At first, I spent my commute accomplishing tasks that I used to do behind my desk. But, I soon noticed that many of my fellow travelers were reading for pleasure or personal fulfillment. Soon, I followed the example of my peers. I used the time to eliminate the stack of books that I intended to read; someday. My love of reading returned and I experi...

I love the movie A Beautiful Mind because it introduced me to the work of John Nash. I will be the first to admit that I lack the capacity to work out the equations that express his theories on equilibrium. John’s subset of the larger umbrella that is game theory goes far beyond the scope of what we would consider games. The prisoner’s dilemma helps explore wars and international conflict. Nash’s theories and their applications have extended to botany, economics, anti-trust regulation and, perhaps most naturally, sports. John Nash had the capacity of devising an original idea, a way of seeing the world anew so that the world could become a richer and more dynamic place. His theories went beyond explanation as they provided opportunity for decision makers to consider paths that they would have otherwise missed because of unknowing ignorance. John’s Equilibrium’s Theory was his original idea, his Eureka moment. For similar reasons, I enjoyed the NOVA series The Fabric of the Cosmo...

Sometimes when you only want to put your toe in the water, you end up getting in so far that it takes everything to keep from drowning. I need to remind myself, that even in the deep end, you can usually find someone to rescue you, unless you ventured alone. As a poor swimmer, I try to stay in the shallows and even then I’ll occasionally panic and thrash about until I remember that I can actually touch the bottom with my head above water. Give me a life jacket and I’ll brave even the deepest lake. But without safety equipment I resign myself to watch from the edge.  The pool in which I dip my toe today concerns questions of political discourse. With all the rage that surrounds candidates and policies, anyone wanting to dip in their toe will find sharp rocks, riptides, sharks and piranhas, and sudden dropoffs that will leave the uninitiated thrashing about with no firm ground below. The water’s edge provides a sense of security as the pool appears as inviting as a spent fuel po...

I join with friends from around the world who remember the tragic events of September 11, 2001. We remember the sadness and shock we felt as we began to contemplate the unfathomable costs in the form of lost lives, collapsed buildings, destroyed businesses, and we mourned the loss of safety and security. Every television and radio station spewed images and details of each horrific act. One plane, then another; one tower and then the next. We had no idea about what was to come next. But we knew there was more to come, and it did. The Pentagon, Flight 93 went down when passengers revolt against the hijacker, and then we heard reports that its target was most likely the White House or the Capitol. Air space was completely shut down to all commercial traffic as we wondered if our ordinary lives could ever be normal again.  Thousands of families bore the intimate loss of loved ones and shared their loss with billions of people from around the globe. Amid the stories of the lost an...