Scrum Central: Hey Doug, There's A Letter For You

08 November 2008

Hey Doug, There's A Letter For You

Dear Doug:

Sorry I got chapped at you earlier today. But when you up and left so early without telling anyone, and didn't even take a cell phone or anything so we could find you, well, you know. I was really disappointed. You're so good on that cello, I was looking forward to some duets. I know you are a smart and level-headed guy and no doubt had your reasons for suddenly going AWOL like that. Someday you'll have to explain it to me, when we finally manage to get together for some Beethoven.

Hey, here's a small world story for you. Today I discovered that you are right across the street from my mom! No lie. Like not even a stone's throw away. I took her some flowers today, you know moms like that stuff. Visited with her for a while, then was just walking around a bit afterward and suddenly found your place. I had NO idea you were even there, let alone that you were so close. I felt like turning round and calling out Hey Mom, this is my bro Doug! I hope you didn't mind the basket, it was a little kitschy, but you don't have one of those permanent reversible steel things to put flowers in. So I just left them out front in the basket they came in. You'll see them. I wanted to let you know that I'm thinking of you and miss you a lot. So cool to know that whenever I come round to see Mom, I can stop by and see you too.

Things have been kind of rough here lately. It looks like not enough people have gotten Stuart's message yet. If you see him, Doug, tell him there's still a lot to do here, but also there are lots of people working hard to improve things. Nobody wants any more of what happened to you two. There's been too much of that. In time, with more of us doing what we can, we hope we can make sure no more stories end like yours. Both of you were so talented and smart and gave so much and so many people loved you, I hope you both realize what huge gaps you left behind. We could have had such great times if you'd stuck around. I know it was really tough for both of you. But I don't think I'm being completely selfish when I say that I really miss you both, a lot. And I'm not the only one. So with luck, the other as-yet unknown Stuarts and Dougs out there can be persuaded to stick around and help make things better.

Anyway, Doug, back to the neighborhood thing. I know Mom is always good about my visits, so she probably saw me walk over to see you. Heck, she may have already come to find you herself. If she hasn't, you should go look her up. I know your mom isn't with you right now, so if you ever need someone to give you some mothering, my Mom always treated my friends as if they were her own kids. So go find her. Tell her about yourself. She knows all about me, you'll have a great time talking to her. Believe me, she'll make you promise that someday we will play some music together for her. She was never bashful about command performances like that.

Hey I have to get ready for Sunday so will stop for now. I really miss you bro and really wish you hadn't done what you did. But I know it's only temporary, and I love you anyway. So keep that cello tuned up and one of these days we will knock a few million socks off with some amazing duets. I'll stop by to see you again as soon as I can.

Love
Your Bro
Alan

1 comment:

Unknown said...: I read this early sunday morning and have been thinking about it all day... I even went and "visited" my mom... but I didn't bring any flowers... I don't know who doug is but I'm guessing a friend... it made me think a lot about life, especially with all the prop 8 junk in the news.. I really don't know what to say, other then thanks for helping me to see what life is... and I think I can say I feel your pain (to a small degree..); November 9, 2008 at 9:31 PM

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"I never told my own religion, nor scrutinized that of another. I never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change another's creed. I have ever judged of the religion of others by their lives....For it is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be read."
--Thomas Jefferson

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come" -- Joseph Campbell

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The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.

- Gloria Steinem

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. - Bertrand Russell

If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books … We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. – John F. Kennedy

There is no room for self-expression in the priesthood.

- Elder David Bednar

My true religion, my simple faith is love and compassion. There is no need for complicated philosophy, doctrine, or dogma. Our own heart, our own mind, is the temple. The doctrine is compassion. Love for others and respect for their rights and dignity, no matter who or what they are--these are ultimately all we need.

-The Dalai Lama

Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours.

- Cesar Chavez

It is not the mind of heretics that are deteriorated most, by the ban placed on all inquiry which does not end in the orthodox conclusions. The greatest harm is done to those who are not heretics, and whose whole mental development is cramped, and their reason cowed, by the fear of heresy.

- John Stuart Mill

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
- Melody Beattie

This is the game that they're playing. They define marriage as a man and a woman. They call that the institution of marriage. So if you let a man marry a man and a woman marry a woman, it would de-institutionalize marriage. That is the same as saying you are deinstitutionalizing the right to vote when you let women have it. It's a game. It's a tautology. They're saying, 'this is the definition. You're going to change the definition by allowing people access that don't have it now, and that would change it so that people who currently have access won't want it any more because it's changed.' This is all nonsense. They are not proving that. This is a syllogism that falls apart. The major premise, minor premise and conclusion are empty.
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Fidelity, charity, generosity, humility and responsibility form the foundation of a Christian life and are the outward manifestation of the inner man.
- David Burton

if you give up what you want most for what you think you should want more, you'll just end up miserable.
- Brandon Sanderson

Straight Americans
need... an educationof the heart and soul. They must understand - to begin with - how it can feel to spend years denying your own deepest truths, to sit silently through classes, meals, and church services while people you love toss off remarks that brutalize your soul.
Bruce Bawer
The Advocate, 28 April 1998

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.
- Blaise Pascal

What we insistently desire, over time, is what we eventually become and receive in eternity.
- Neal Maxwell

Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others' opinions drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

There's nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
- Hamlet

I am oppressed by the uncertainty of my future, but I cherish the lively hope of seeing my dreams fulfilled, because the Lord cannot place thoughts and desires in a person's soul if He does not really intend to fulfill them, to gratify these longings which He alone has caused.

- Saint Padre Pio

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.

- e. e. cummings

But there are wanderers o'er Eternity
Whose boat drives on and on, and anchored ne'er shall be.
- George Gordon, Lord Byron

The Lord did not people the earth with a vibrant orchestra of personalities only to value the piccolos of the world. Every instrument is precious and adds to the complex beauty of the symphony.
- Joseph Wirthlin

I have always been unsatisfied with life as most people live it. Always I want to live more intensely and richly. Why muck and conceal one's true longings and loves, when by speaking of them one might find someone to understand them, and by acting on them one might discover oneself?
- Everett Ruess

It’s the loneliest feeling in the world. It’s like walking down an empty street, listening to your own footsteps. But all you have to do is to knock on any door and say ‘If you let me in, I’ll live the way you want me to live and I’ll think the way you want me to think’, and all the blinds will go up and all the doors will open, and you will never be lonely, ever again.
- Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind by Robert Lee

Marriage is a civil contract. You might as well make a law to say how many children a man shall have, as to make a law to say how many wives he shall have. It would be as sensible to make a law to say how many horses or oxen he shall possess, or how many cows his wife shall milk.
- Brigham Young

Only regret what you don't learn from.
- Chris Taylor

Others sing your life
But now is a chance to shine
And have the pleasure of
Saying what you mean
Have the pleasure of
Meaning what you sing
Oh, make no mistake my friend
All of this will end
So sing it now, sing your life
- Morrissey

"The worst sinners, according to Jesus, are not the harlots and publicans, but the religious leaders with their insistence on proper dress and grooming, their careful observance of all the rules, their precious concern for status symbols, their strict legality, their pious patriotism... the haircut becomes the test of virtue in a world where Satan deceives and rules by appearances." -Hugh Nibley

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use" - Galileo Galilei

"The moment we fail to recognize the good in those with whom we quarrel is the moment we've lost sight of who we are as a people." - President Obama, 3 June 09

"I never thought it was right to call up a man and try him because he erred in doctrine; it looks too much like Methodism and not like Latter-day Saintism. Methodists have a creed which a man must believe or be asked out of their church. I want the liberty of believing as I please, it feels so good not to be trammeled." - Joseph Smith

"I see their knavery, . . . to make an ass of me; to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir from this place, do what they can: I will walk up and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid." - Midsummer Night's Dream, Act III, Scene 1

"Be unafraid of new ideas for they are as steppingstones to progress. You will, of course, respect the opinions of others but be unafraid to dissent--if you are informed.... Only error needs to fear freedom of expression." - Hugh B. Brown

"Know Thyself." - Socrates, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and a bunch of other really smart people

"I'm starting to think that things aren't quite as cut and dried as I was led to believe." - Rob

Scrum Central

08 November 2008

Hey Doug, There's A Letter For You

1 comment:

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