on the rim

A personal blog post on Chernobyl?  Well..... 30 years ago, April 26, 1986,  The Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Soviet Union melted down.  I am no scientist, so don't know the term.  Sorry.  They evacuated the area, and essentially built a huge concrete dome over the site, to keep the radiation in.  How many died doing this will probably never be known. It was also on that Saturday that I was married to Darleen Yvonne Glaspie.  This would have been 30 years today.  I thought it would last forever.  Not on that day, but a year and change later, we were sealed, and our son Brandon was sealed to us. in the Dallas Temple. Seventeen years later, after three job moves, five children, and all sorts of other stuff, it ended.  I guess that I should just leave it at that, and after passing our eighteenth anniversary, having already been separated for nearly a year, we were divorced.  She had already left the church, and the divorce was ...

I sat down today to write this post, having spent a week wrestling with the application of the talk given by Elder Kearon of the Seventy last Sunday afternoon in General Conference.  Flipping the channels for appropriate background noise, I came across BYU-TV, and the movie "17 Miracles" was just starting.  For those that haven't seen it, I encourage you to do so.  Have Kleenex, or other facial tissue handy.  It was the perfect background for what I am going to write. Let me start by saying that all the messages this year were wonderful.  I couldn't pick any talk as to which was best.  I will say that NONE of them moved me like Elder Kearon's talk.  He spoke of the refugee crisis, and what we can do to help.  NEVER have I felt such a witness to truths being taught as this talk.  Of course, this is a very highly charged, political issue, but ultimately, we have been called to save, to help, to provide.  And that is where my problem lay....

I am full, having watched, and more importantly, stayed awake, for all three sessions of conference today.  The music, and the comments on music were beautiful.  I look forward to tomorrow, and the closing two sessions. For those that don't know, twice a year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints holds a general conference, which started last week in the women's session.  It is conducted in Salt Lake City, and broadcast to church buildings around the world, as well as the internet, and television.  Of course by television, I mean either BYU-tv on Satellite, or cable, as well as some over air stations, where there is a market.  When I was young, I remember watching the Sunday morning session on Channel 9 in KC, as it was part of the broadcasting group affiliated with KSL in Salt Lake, and no one watched TV on Sunday morning anyway.  Otherwise, we would load up the car and go to the church for an audio broadcast.  Direct wire, I think it was...