Rising from the Ashes

My senior year of high school, I decided that I would actually do all the assigned reading. I had squeezed a 90% A out of my junior English class, but it was a miserable A. Besides the summer reading, the first book we read was The Quiet American by Graham Greene.

There are three main characters in The Quiet American, one symbolizing U.S. involvement in Vietnam, another symbolizing European involvement, and a third symbolizing Vietnam, named Phuong. One of the first lines in the book caught my attention and has stayed in my memory.

" 'Phuong,' I said — which means Phoenix, but nothing nowadays is fabulous and nothing rises from its ashes."

Upon reading this, I thought of the phrase, "a voice of one crying from the dust," a metaphor for how the Book of Mormon would come in the final days. We recently read Jacob 5 in Rel A 121 (and will review it today) and some of us may have paused upon reading this line:

"Counsel me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit." Is this not analogous to the Phoenix, rising from the ashes?

I spoke with a friend yesterday as a bit of a complaint; I ranted about people who "had it easier." How wrong that is. The greatest leaders and men of the world forsook wealth and luxury to serve the world, that through their efforts, life is not as bad now. Lincoln had many sleepless nights in his two years as president; Washington spent years without seeing his wife or family; Abraham was asked to sacrifice to God what he had prayed for for decades; Moses watched his people turn to wickedness in spite of miracles; Joseph Smith was seen as a madman; Christ was followed by many who were not there to see his miracles and believe on his name, but catch him in his words and find a way to have him executed. And they succeeded! He was executed in a most painful manner. How can we call him a hero, if we do not wish to follow in his footsteps?

"We...hope to be able to endure all things."

There are many among us who believe they are given "poor ground." That will never fully determine your level of achievement in life. There are many ways to rise, as a phoenix from the ashes; we need not be bound by social norms and assumed levels of achievement. There will always be something magnificent we can do, that through our efforts now, life can be a little bit better later. And what do we live for, but to ease the burden of another?