Introduction to Family Processes

I was having a difficult time thinking of what I was going to talk about in this blog. Then i remembered devotional from yesterday. It just so happens that the speaker was the author of my Introduction to Family Processes book, Randal D. Day. In class, we've been learning about how to do family research, conflicts in families, personality, change in families, and many other concepts pertaining to family life. It has all been very interesting so, of course, I was excted to hear what Randal D. Day had to say. In his talk, he covered many ideas, not all of which connected with my class discussions, but the ones that did really stuck out to me. First of all, he said that genuine love, patience, and long-suffering are needed to create good relationships with others. Relationships in a family are one of the central focuses of all family research. Having a healthy relationship with all members of the family is so important for strengthening the family and helping to achieve the goals they make as a family. It's also important to attempt to fix any unhealthy relationsihp or dilemmas in the family. Randal D. Day instructed us to "see dilemmas through sacred lenses." I really liked this idea. Whenever there is conflict within a family unit, it's important to resolve the conflict with Christ in mind-thinking of what he would do in similar situations. Also, think of these dilemmas as opportunities to grow and be strengthened rather than a burdens and misfortunes. I've always been interested in studying family processes and I've been really enjoying the class. I was so glad to have the opportunity to listen to Randal D. Day at this devotional. I learned a lot from him about family life, and having him relate different concepts of family life to spiritual concepts provided some new insights as well.

Plato and Man's Search for Truth

The modern world would like to tell us that the truth is ambiguous. And unfortunately, it's true.

In junior high physics, we learned that Newton's Three Laws place certain parameters on the motion of objects. They're true. Objects will retain their motion unless acted upon by another force. Force equals the product of mass and acceleration. For every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Or are the laws false? As objects approach the subatomic level, Newton's Laws don't hold. Near massive objects, where the space-time continuum is warped, the Laws fail to explain what is observed.

What is truth, then? May truth change with time? Is truth determinable by the individual; meaning, can I decide what is and isn't true for myself? The answer is no.

In Plato's Republic, he presents the allegory of the cave. In his allegory, prisoners are born and raised in a cave where their heads are locked in place, forcing them to stare at a wall in front of them. The only observation they have of reality is the shadows on the wall cast by the light. "To the prisoners," Plato wrote, "the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images on the wall."

This is what we call relative truth. Thus, man's search for truth is often confounded by his own perspective--or lack thereof. We are but prisoners in darkness (See Isaiah 49:9).

While man may set parameters to explain observable phenomena, our parameters are rarely perfect. Truth is never relative to context.

Truth is eternal. It is light. It manages to persevere even through long periods of falsities and ignorance. Man ought not to define truth for himself, but rather to seek understanding of it. It is what is past, what is present, and what is to come. Vivat veritas!

Tennis and Biology

Walking to my tennis class today, I was thinking what on earth am I going to write on this weeks blog. I was trying to think of recent connections I had made and, although there were some, they were usually just a word. As I walked onto the tennis court I bounced the ball up and down. I began hitting back and forth with my partner and then I began thinking about the homework that is due tomorrow for my biology class and how, yesterday, we had just talked about Kinetic Energy. As I continued to play with my partner(I won of course), I started to think how hitting this tennis ball related to kinetic energy. Ah hah! A connection!

The definition of Kinetic Energy is the energy of motion. Simple enough. Tennis is motion. Every time I hit that tennis ball, I used kinetic energy to get it over the net. Everything that is involved in tennis requires some sort of energy. Throwing the ball up for the toss, hitting it, running up to retrieve a ball, and jumping up and down to celebrate the win. It's ironic how a class that I hate so much and a class that I love so much can, in fact, be interrelated.

The Ultimate College Class

College has been really good to me so far. I've been making great friends and learning a lot of very interesting concepts. The biggest revelation I have had this year is that everything relates to Archaeology. No joke! This class has included at least one idea from every single other class I have! It related to biology through genetics and evolution, to accoustics through seismic data collection, to writing through logical fallacies, and to folk dance through the topic of how many different factors influence a people's culture.
But the best connection ever was the one I made between my Book of Mormon class and Archaeology. Recently in my religion class, we discussed how Lehi's familly was able to survive in the wilderness on raw meat. The Lord blessed the meat that it tasted sweet to them and gave them strength to continue their journey. The very next Archaeology class was all about the cooking theory. In this lecture, the professor stated that research has shown that our bodies are unable to survive well on a strictly raw food diet. We simply cannot get enough energy out of raw foods! This testified to me that Heavenly Father had a huge part in making sure Lehi's family made it to the Americas safely.
So really, instead of taking six different classes, I could have just taken Archaeology this semester!

Goal of education

I just read this quote after reading a blog that discussed the documentary, Waiting for Superman, which is about schooling in the US.  I liked this quotation so much, I thought I'd share it with you.
 
Psychologist, Jean Piaget said: The principal goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done; men and women who are creative, inventive and discoverers, who can be critical and verify, and not accept, everything they are offered.”

An article in the newspaper, The Chronicles of Higher Education about the case for books in our digital world reminded me of what we are doing in our blog: making connections, making new forms of knowledge:

Even if a book is published or disseminated in digital form, freed from its materiality, that shaping case of the codex is the ghost in the knowledge-machine. We are the case for books. Our bodies hold the capacity to generate thousands of ideas, perhaps even a couple of full-length monographs, and maybe a trade book or two. If we can get them right, books are luminous versions of our ideas, bound by narrative structure so that others can encounter those better, smarter versions of us on the page or screen. Books make the case for us, for the identity of the individual as an embodiment of thinking in the world. The heart of what even scholars do is the endless task of making that world visible again and again by telling stories, complicated, nuanced, subtle stories that reshape us daily so that new forms of knowledge can shine out.

William Germano is dean of the faculty of humanities and social sciences at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. A longer version of this essay was presented as a talk at the annual meeting of the Association of American University Presses this summer.

Mr. Independent

Freshman year is something I consider to be a transitional period, or even a temporary home. I leave a home of 18 years, for less than a year, before I go on an adventure for 2 years, then move from place to place until I finally settle in a home of my own.

I came up to BYU for this past summer semester, and had no idea what to expect. I lived in the same home, in the same bedroom for 18 years. I went to a small private K-8 school and a small private high school. I was sure that I was going to be shocked and homesick as soon as I left to attend a massive public college; however it was quite the contrary: the more I remembered home, the less homesick I was.

I love being on my own. I can drive, sleep, eat, wake up, do homework, not do homework, go out, stay in, and do anything at my own leisure. I thought I might crash and burn, and I thought I would miss the order and form I had in my life previously, but I didn't, and I still don't.

In fact, I developed a whole schedule and already have certain habits here in this 'temporary home'. For example, I wake up the same time on certain days, take a nap on Mondays and Wednesdays, go to Taco Bell on Tuesdays and Thursdays, sleep in until lunch on Fridays, and do laundry every other saturday morning. Its something I thought I would never be able to get used to.

Now, I do miss home, sometimes. But not the things I would expect. I don't miss many of my friends, and I don't miss my bed or bedroom. I don't miss high school and I (forgive me mom) barely even miss my mom. I do miss certain restaurants, and the weather, and the beach. I miss my cat and I miss my car. These things are trivial and will be displaced.

I should really focus on how I am really free of any rules or responsibilities, and this is the first dip I have into the real world. Its a prime set up for a learning experience everyday, and I'm taking advantage of it.