Fact vs. Fiction

This past week I read Homer’s The Iliad for my Western Humanities class. It was my first time reading it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved reading about Achilles, Hector, and the Greek Gods and Goddesses. While I was reading, I thought of it like a story passed down from one generation to the next. To me, it seemed as though it was only a legend, and not based upon factual events. As we discussed the epic during class, I came to realize that most of the story contained true pieces of Greek history during the time of the Trojan War.

As I was reading The Iliad, I was also studying The Book of Mormon for my religion class. Like The Iliad, I fell into the pattern of thinking of the stories of The Book of Mormon as only stories. By reading my Book of Mormon Manual, listening to my Professor, and praying, I know that they are not merely stories made up to teach lessons, but are factual events that truly happened.

With the world as it is today, with millions of books in print, and information so readily available on the web, it is vital that we are able to differentiate between fact and fiction. I am grateful for the information that is available to me, and even more grateful for the knowledge that not everything out there is true and that I need to be cautious.

Workers in the American Mosaic

Today I volunteered at Deseret Industries here in Provo. Deseret Industries is a branch of the LDS Humanitarian Services. The well-known aspect of Deseret Industries mission is collecting goods for poor people throughout the world. The lesser known, but just as impactful side of Deseret Industries’ operation is the people it hires. Instead of looking for employees who will produce a lot and add to their bottom line, Deseret Industries hires people who can’t get much of a job anywhere else. This often includes people with mental handicaps, social difficulties, and recent immigrants who need help assimilating into American life. Deseret Industries hires these people not because it wants growth for itself, but because it wants these people to be able to grow for themselves. The employees I worked alongside today gave me a unique view at how D. I. is able to do this.

An example is Josias, a recent immigrant from Peru. He has lived in the United States for just ten months. He doesn’t speak English, but he told me he is learning. I could see the evidence of that. He can ask donors what goods they want taken, whether they want a receipt and can even tell a green volunteer like me where to stack old television sets. I could tell that Josias had a long way to go to become integrated into the United States, but I could see that Deseret Industries would help him to make it happen.

I went to D. I. expecting to be put to work, and I was. But what I didn’t expect was the training I received in helping people become thriving members of the cultural mosaic we call America.

"Stop! Don't Step on the Carpet!"

"Stop! Don't Step on the Carpet!" My friend Joonyung forcefully shouted this to me as I casually began to walk into the living room of his home. This exclamation greatly startled me and I was utterly perplexed as to why merely walking on the carpet would provoke such an aggressive response. I was dumbfounded. I said nothing and blankly stared at him in search of an explanation for this outburst. He clearly sensed my confusion and then defiantly pointed at my shoes as if that answered the question. Seeing that I was still confused, he then began to explain to me that in his family they always removed their shoes before stepping on the carpet and that his mother would be very upset if stepped on her carpet with my shoes. I spent the day at Joonyung's house and as the day progressed, I continued to learn new things about the culture and customs of Joonyung's family that were greatly different from my the culture and customs of my own family.

In my Comparative Political Science class our teacher explained that comparing two countries political systems is very similar to comparing two families' cultures and customs. We all have a primary instinct for comparison. To observe is to compare. We all compare. In every aspect of our lives we compare one thing to another. Whether it's comparing America's political system to China's political system, comparing our family customs to other family customs, comparing fried chicken to baby back ribs, or comparing your cute neighbor from home to all the good looking people here on campus. We all compare. As a young boy playing with my friend Joonyung I began to compare the customs of his family to the customs of my family. I observed that they took their shoes off before walking on carpet, they ate different foods, his parents spoke with a different accent than my parents, and there were countless other things that when compared to my family made Joonyung's family seem different and strange. In my class, the political systems of other countries that we're studying will seem different and strange to me.

Despite the differences we notice as we compare, it is important that we use righteous judgment and have an open mind to other cultures. Through my experience with Joonyung and my Comparative Politcal Science class I've learned to appreciate other cultures while still appreciating my own culture. As I go through life, I will continue to observe, compare, and learn. I'm grateful for the knowledge I've gained through these experiences and I will seek to continue learning from other people and further my learning of other cultures.

Walk Alone

I went walking last Thursday evening, alone, with my mp3player. I walked around campus and watched the colors from the sunset fade to black and the dance of shadow and light across the walkways and plant life. There were other people around, but all of them focused on their destinations or in the middle of a conversation, none of them thinking this time was any different than the daylight beside for the dearth of people crowding them. It made me think of my Humanities class which is all about beauty and its effect on the human soul. Here, the pathways are lit and lined with all manner of trees, flowers, and in some places, art and in the darkness, one can stop and admire the beauty all around in the stone and the life of the environment.
  I turned my mp3player to "A Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" by Debussy and soaked in all the sights of the life in the stillness. My biology 100 professor rattles on about the wonder of life in all of his lectures but it's not something that can be spoken but something to be experienced and felt. If ever you want to feel of God's love, go walking alone in the darkness and breath in the beauty around you and know that He created it.  

Ancient Globalization

I am currently in Honors Civilization Music 201, which is a review of past cultures, their music and art, and the impact that they caused in both their future and in our modern day. Earlier, we talked about the Roman Empire and the time when it was at its height. But, when they moved the capital from Rome to Constantinople, the entire Western side of Europe was overrun by barbarians, and the area became lawless. This allowed germanic tribes to come down much later, and establish themselves there. The remaining empire around Constantinople is now known as the Byzantine Empire, and their culture was entirely different from that of Western Europe. This made me realize the large impact that different cultures have over one another. If the capital had not been moved, today we would be a different people. Entire nations would have developed differently, and in different areas. In a more personal perspective, I could be speaking a different language, listening to different music, looking at different art, all because of something that happened across the oceans. The same applies to changes that are happening in China, because they are the strongest economic force right now in the world, and technological advances in even little countries can lead to an all-out nuclear war. We not only have to think about ourselves, but also our children and their children, because everything that happens in the world now, will impact them in ways that we will not be able to foresee, just as changing the location of a capital changed history.

YES! First Post!

A few day ago, my economics teacher made an interesting comment. He said, "I don't understand the fear over turning to free trade." For those of you unfamiliar with "free trade," it is the system of trade that allows anyone to exchange anything with anyone they like (no taxes, no tariffs, just pure trade). He went on to use areas such as Shanghai and Hong Kong (both areas have few resources, but incredibly high living standards) to exemplify the effects of free trade.

From this discussion, I devised the thesis that free trade is the market of Globalization. That is to say, globalization occurs at a greater extent when an economy shifts closer to the attractive prospects of free trade.

Allow me to put it into a story. Say I am the happy owner of a cow. I want to use this small amount of wealth to my benefit, so I begin testing out different governments and markets. First, I join a monarchal society. I live happily with my cow, selling its milk to pay my taxes, till one day my country goes to war, and my cow is taken from me in the name of the King. I work hard to buy a new cow, and leave the monarchal society and its regulated market for a more "people-friendly market." I therefore travel with my new cow till I reach a country under a communist regime. Here I work hard all day and all night with my cow. I plow fields and produce milk for my comrades until the government discovers my cow, takes it from me, shoots it, then brings me the hooves and tail (the rest is divided up and given to others). Unsatisfied, I leave town yet again. As I travel, I discover a stray cow that has no owner. I take it as my own, and continue on my merry way (praising God for my good fortune). Finally, I step inside the boundaries of a fascist nation. I am instantly shot, hung, drawn and quartered, and my remains burned. My cow suffers the same fate, and is then served as dinner to the lords of the land. Luckily, I am a practicing Hindu, and I am soon reincarnated as a boy in the home of a trader in a capitalist market practicing free trade. The life is fantastic! Everyone benefits, all have the opportunity to grow and expand, and the market is powered by the self-interest of all who engage in it (which is practically everybody). I immediately go back to the other nations to tell them the good news. Soon, though not everyone has totally adopted the principle yet, the world is trading, outsourcing, building factories in jungles, felling entire forests, and pumping oil out of foreign oceans. AND WE LOVE IT.

This is the world's globalization history in a nutshell. From this, it can be understood why we as a nation are moving more towards a free-trade market, which, in turn, explains our outsourcing (A principle of globalization).

Welcome to the Wrtg 150H Genetic Journal

I hope you were able to go to the Marriott Center to hear Sister and President Samuelson's talks. They had some inspiring things to say. And, of course, a couple of things jumped out at me in relationship to our class: building bridges and patience in achieving perfection. I hope our class will help you build bridges to international issues. President Samuelson interpreted the scripture "continue in patience until ye are prefected" (D&C 67:13) that patience implies multiple efforts. Although I don't expect perfect papers, you will be making multiple efforts to perfect them as you do multiple drafts. You can only do your best for each paper in the time allotted as we run through the curriculum for the class. I can tell already that you are an accomplished group of students.