Insights from My Readings

So for Christmas Tara and Dov gave me a book called The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs. It's a great book. A.J. Jacobs is a writer for Esquire magazine and also wrote a book called Know-It-All which I haven't read but which I gather is a book about him reading the entire encyclopedia.

When this book started A.J. was an avowed agnostic. For those of you like me that don't have a clear-cut definition of what an agnostic is this is how Merriam-Webster defines it. A person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and probably unknowable; broadly : one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god. So I would say that he started out this project as a neutral party. But the book is quite good, it's written as his journal and he records the experiences the frustrations and the epiphanies he undergoes. One of them struck me as something so simple and yet something that I and a lot of us forget and at which we fail. I'm going to include his entry. It's header is "Honor your father and your mother..." Exodus 20:12

'Tonight Julie (His wife) and I are going over to my parents' house, and I plan to make a conscious effort to be more honorable...Despite the embarrassingly early curfew they game me in high school, despite the daily guilt trips about not seeing them enough, despite the quibbles, they've been, on balance, very good parents. Just last week I figured out something about my dad. i realized that he checks my Amazon.com page every day, and if there's a bad review up there, he clicks on the "Not helpful" box. It makes me want to hug him - if we weren't both so repressed."

This experience with his father made me think. What do our parents do for us that we don't realize, or that we don't see. We always expect that we know everything. We feel that when our parents aren't perfect we have every right to criticize, or mock them and their decisions but the truth is that we don't know everything they do or have done for us. We don't realize, or comprehend everything that they have or will sacrifice for our benefit and it seems really childish for me to hold a grudge, or for me to think I know better. This extends not only to my parents but to those around me. I find that when I'm judging someone I'm doing so on such limited knowledge that it makes me appear arrogant, selfish and prideful. I know now why the scriptures teach us 'judge not lest ye be judged for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged." I would hate to be judged by anyone else on their limited knowledge and I would hate to think that if I judge someone in this manner that the Savior would use this same limited judgment on me as a punishment or as a lesson to me. We should be less arrogant, less prideful, less selfish and refuse to judge someone else by what we know of them because what we don't know is probably much more than what we do know. This is just one thing I realized from this part, but to continue with his entry:

"I don't treat them nearly well enough. I honor them only in a lip-service way. I call them every weekend, but I spend the twenty minutes of the phone call playing hearts on my PowerBook or cleaning the closet while tossing out the occasional "mm-hmmm. " I delete without reading my mom's emailed jokes about vacuous blondes or wacky etymology."

This reminded me of Isaiah 29:13. "Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote" Not only do we do this with the God, but we do it with our parents as well. We think that we can honor them in body but not in spirit. We don't truly honor them we just make a show, or pretend to honor them. I think this commandment wasn't meant for outward show but like so many that God has given us it was meant to change the way we think, and feel. We are meant to change our hearts, to soften them towards our parents so that we feel that we honor them, deep down in our hearts. Because no matter how good of an actor we are we can't lie to ourselves and we can't lie to God. Both know whether we truly honor our parents or not. I guess I digressed there but the point is that we should not just show honor to our parents but to truly change our hearts, and our outlooks. Further speaking of the night he and his wife were having with his parents, A.J. said:

"Tonight is dinner and a DVD...About forty-five minutes in, during another musket loading scene, I look over and notice my mom asleep in her chair. And not just light dozing. We're talking mouth-agape, head-slumped-on-the-chest deep slumber. I nudge Julie. At this point, I am planning to whisper something clever along the lines of 'Looks like my mom is really enjoying the movie.' Or perhaps I would have gone with a sight gag - an impression of my mom with her jaw slack. But I stop myself. This isn't good-natured jesting. It has a tinge of mockery to it....I just smile vacantly at Julie, who then goes back to watching Jeff Daniels."

This las paragraph was what really moved me. My family and I like to joke around and I like to think that most of the time it is good-natured jesting, but more often then not what I saw has that tinge of mockery to it. Isn't it better when confronted with this dilemma just not to say anything. Especially when directed to someone we are supposed to honor. I think that I can hold my tongue more often when some jest comes to my mind and I will place this filter most seriously on my conversation and dialog with my parents and I would recommend that to everyone.

I really enjoy this book and I think that I will continue to post insights that I have from all my readings and my everyday life. If I bore you I'm sorry but I'm still going to do it. Hopefully this may start some talk amongst us all but if not I still feel that it was a good entry.

Chris Steele

More Law Schools

So I thought that I should keep you all updated on the law school front. I have been accepted to the University of Richmond, the University of South Carolina, and DePaul University in Chicago. DePaul is offering me a merit scholarship that will cover full tuition and it will apply all three years as long as I keep a 3.5 or higher. I think that's about it. Have a good day.

Law School Update

It's been a long time since I last wrote so I thought I would get you all up to date. I have finished sending in all my law school applications and I have to say there are a lot of them. I'm going to go ahead and list them:

Baylor University
Boston College
Boston University
The University of Chicago
DePaul University
George Mason University
University of Georgia
Harvard - That one was just for fun...
Lewis and Clark
University of Maryland
Michigan State
New York University
Notre Dame
University of Richmond
St. Thomas University-Miami
University of St. Thomas-Minneapolis
Seton Hall
University of South Carolina
Temple University
University of Utah
University of Washington
Washington University
William and Mary

I told you there were a lot. I have heard back from St. Thomas University-Miami and they accepted me and are willing to give me a scholarship. Temple has accepted me as well. St. Thomas is a tier 2 school where as Temple is a tier one. I am going to wait to hear back from everybody so I haven't made a decision. I will naturally keep you up to date as I hear more. Take care.

Graduation

Alright, so it's been a little while since I last wrote something so I thought I should try to catch you all up. Yesterday was USU's 118 commencement and I was finally able to graduate. It took me three years to do it but I finally made it.
The commencement ceremony was actually really good. F. Ross Peterson the Vice President of the university was the speaker and I thought that he gave some really good advice. He talked about how often we've been told by others that we should look to the future, and cherish the past. He said that we should spend our time in the present, dealing with the hear and now. We should learn from the past and plan for the future but it all is worthless if we fail to live in the present. I've been thinking about how I can change my outlook on life to reflect this advice, I haven't come up with anything specific yet but I'm sure I will.
After the commencement I got together with my family. Tara, Dov, Matan and Sienna were there along with Jana, Mom, and Dad. It was a blast to get together with them all, it was the highlight of the day to just sit around the house and chill with them all. The only thing that could've made it better would be if Brooks, Bonny, Nate, Malory, and Landon could've been there; but they all had good excuses. Plus I've still got my law school graduation so they can totally redeem themselves.
It feels a little strange that I don't have to worry about school next semester. I know I'm not done with my education just yet but it certainly is a relief to have my undergraduate degree behind me. It was an important step and I look forward to my final destination - law school. I don't know where I'm going, though I do have my information together for the applications. I just am waiting on some more forms so that I can send all the applications out and not have to worry about it. Don't worry I'll be sure to keep you all up to date on the whole process cause I know you're all waiting with bated breath.

Presidential Nominees and Past Transgressions

There has been some publicity lately of Barack Obama's 'youthful' transgressions in regards to drugs. He spoke to a high school in New Hampshire and discussed his drug use when he was a teenager and a lot of people have gotten on his case because of it. They say that he is telling the kids that it is ok to do drugs that they can always quit. They say that because he has done well that he is telling kids that they can do drugs and it won't ruin their lives. Mitt Romney has stated that he doesn't think Obama used very good judgment and that he knows no one is perfect but that he shouldn't have been so candid with the kids.

Personally I feel it refreshing to hear that a presidential nominee would be so open, honest, and candid while running for president. I read the quotes that news agencies gave on their websites and what Obama seems to be saying is that he made a mistake in high school to do drugs and he realized that he wasted a lot of time in high school which he could've put to better use. I do think that past problems are an indication of a president's abilities but it depends on the situation. For example President Bush during his first campaign, not sure about the second, had allegations of cocaine use and drinking. I wouldn't hold this against him if he had been willing to accept his mistake and deal with it. I think it has been quite indicative of his presidency, he has made mistakes and has not been willing to admit it and deal with it. Not only is that irresponsible it is dishonest and as the president that's not a good mix. That's not a good mix in anybody. Thus I see Obama's candidness as a sweet breeze of fresh air that I think we should expect and demand from our leaders.

What are your opinions? Should we hold a nominees past transgressions against them? Should Obama's drug use be an issue in the presidential race? Let me know what you think.

Letter to the Editor: Faith v. Religion

This is a letter that I wrote to the editor of the Utah Statesmen in response to an column written by their political opinions writer. The article basically stated that religion is on a crash course with reality. That science proves religion is wrong and to prove this he points out the fact that the LDS church changed the introduction to the Book of Mormon to read that the Lamanites are some of the ancestors of modern Native Americans. Before it said that they were the principle ancestors. I have plenty of arguments for that, but I thought rather than starting an argument in the paper over the church that I would attack the idea that religion and science battle each other as polar opposites. Anyways here is the letter, I would love to hear comments whether they agree with my thesis or not. And leave any comments about the whole Lamanites thing as well.

So in a no holds-bar fight, you know a steel cage death match where two people enter and only one leaves, who would win, religion or science? Personally I would have to say religion, it seems to have had most of the muscle and political clout in world history, but unfortunately we will never know for sure because there is no mystical duel between religion and science as many people believe there is today. The truth is that this argument is promulgated by the two extremes; the antagonizing scientist, and the religious fanatic. The former supports science as the sole source of truth, and the latter supports their own misconstrued ideas of God as absolute reality. The truth is that science and religion have worked together to further our knowledge of the universe and to broaden our understanding of God and the way He works. Take the ideas of the Big Bang and the Creation as told in the Bible. Before science postulated the general age of the Earth many thought that it took God literally seven days to create the Earth. Now we know that when the Bible says seven days it is using figurative speech and that it would be better to say seven separate periods of time. Science and Faith aren’t in a showdown. For those who are religious, science is one more way to better understand the Bible, and to further cultivate knowledge of the way in which God operates. If you, as a religious person, decide to neglect science because it scares you, you are blinding yourself to an important tool in your pursuit of spiritual wisdom.

Thus to say that faith and science are at odds with each other in a legendary clash of might is quite imprudent. The objective individual will find that the argument isn’t black and white as portrayed by the extremists but rather reality is a colorful combination of both sides. For once you can have your cake and eat it too.

Brief Intro

So I thought that I would start out with a little intro about my life in general right now. I'm in Logan still and I'm going to Utah State University, the best school in Utah. I'm studying Law and Constitutional Studies and I'm graduating in December, finally. I'm super excited for it to be over, but I will definitely miss Utah State, especially the basketball games but I guess you have to move on sometime. Right now I'm starting the application process for law school and man is it fun...that was sarcasm. I'm applying mostly to schools out East, and my top four picks are New York University, University of Chicago Law, William and Mary, and Boston University/College. I'm going to apply to a dozen other schools as well but those are the ones at which I would really like to be accepted.

My family and I just went to Hawaii on a family trip and it was a blast. Honestly I want to go back as soon as possible, and next time I'm going to learn how to surf. We went to visit Pearl Harbor, we went snorkeling, and I went para sailing. It was a really fun trip.

I also went out to Georgia this last weekend to visit my brother and sister-in-law. He completing his MBA and really enjoying it. He got me a ticket to the football game between Georgia and Kentucky, it was a blast. There is a huge difference between football out there and here. You don't know tail-gating until you see Georgia. We started at 9 and went till 12:30 and people didn't stop until early the next morning. I had the opportunity to check out the law school while I was there too. They took me on a tour and just kind of told me about their law school, but the best part was that I was able to sit in on a class. It seems like a really nice school with a good environment, not too cut throat like other schools.

Well that's about it. It's college basketball season again which means that it's like Christmas until March. Aggie basketball will keep me entertained for months! Take care of yourselves and I'll try to keep you up to date on everything else. I'd love to hear from you all so write me and let me know how you're doing.

Chris