We had fun handing out candy to all of the kids. My favorite costumes included a dad dressed up as the man with a yellow hat and his son was Curious George the monkey. Another dad was wearing a sheet type get up with the Chrysler building drawn on it and then he was carrying his baby who was dressed up as King Kong. Very clever and very cute. As my nephew used to say, HAPPY ‘WEEN!
Sometime during the summer, Sean and I thought that our autumn looked pretty open. So we decided to take a trip to San Francisco. I'd never been before and Sean and I really wanted to fly on Virgin Air and we could do that relatively cheaply by going from Seattle to San Francisco. Since then, our Autumn has been anything but free. Work has booked me to Arizona and Texas so I'll be traveling for 6 weekends in a row; I am little over half way through that now.
Anyway, Virgin Air has pretty cool planes. There are no fluorescent overhead lights, instead it is this pink and purple mood lighting that makes the whole place look like a dance club. The seats are all black leather and everyone has an individual touch screen. It was pretty swanky. You even place your drink and snack orders through your touch screen. We were well entertained. We arrived a bit late due to a weather delay (San Francisco fog), but we were still able to go SWIMMING! I was so excited. I've wanted to swim all summer long. It was great to get in the water and splash around.
The next morning we headed into the city and rode a TROLLEY! They call them streetcars but I am going to ignore that because I enjoyed singing/listening to the Trolley Song from meet me in St. Lois while we rode through the city. Hanging off the side is definitely the best way to go. We walked a couple blocks from the last stop and checked into our second hotel. About that time it started to rain and proceeded to rain for the next two days straight. That didn’t slow us down too much. Our first historic stop was Ghirardelli Square. We shared a super yummy Ice Cream Sunday with Fudge and bought a cute tin (that looks good in our chocolate themed kitchen) filled with Chocolate. They also give out free samples. Yum!
We passed this funny store... only in California.
We headed over to Lombard Street; it is the curviest road in the country. It’s beautifully landscaped but I don’t know that I would want to drive it.
We also hit China town and looked at all of the kitschy shop windows. Enjoyed the street decorations and visited a fortune cookie factory. Sean and I felt like we were in China again, so we didn’t exactly stick around forever. This shot is by B &W with color accent of red. I think my ones from actual China turned out better.
Then it was off to wait for a trolley, to then wait FOREVER for an electric bus. Dear San Francisco, your public transportation system timing STINKS. We waited for over 30 minutes in the pouring rain. Watching multiple people give up and start walking. The stop was packed with people. Finally Sean and I were shaking from the cold and determined that we’d better just walk back to our hotel and dinner reservation because we were loosing too much body heat. We were soaked through pretty much, but still had an amazing dinner at this sourdough bread factory. I had clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. It was delicious. We had a gorgeous view overlooking the wharf area and Alcatraz. Oh that’s right we, went ahead and forfeited our Alcatraz trip because we had already had more than enough outside in the rain time. When we got back to the hotel I dried my jeans and tennis shoes in the dryer. We were so wet.
The next morning we went to sacrament meeting pretty close to our hotel and then we set out to enjoy a day at the Exploratorium. We got a little soaked getting there but they had hand dryers in the bathroom so hooray for them and hooray for drying your clothes with a hand dryer.
They had lots of cool exhibits but I am going to make Sean, our family science expert elaborate on that.
This picture is Sean and I in the video display they have as you walk in the museum. Sean is in a blue shirt and khakis I’m in a brown sweater and jeans.
We also took pictures with the color exhibit. I'm on the right, Sean is taller on the left.
This is my best impression of finger puppets. I was never super good at them.
We rode the trolley back to the train station to get to the airport. It was finally decent out, so we took a few pictures.
For the past four years I’ve had the opportunity to do graduate work here in Seattle studying how our brains develop and work. Each of our brains contains hundreds of billions of neurons that are woven in a fine meshwork of pathways and connections, allowing us to learn, think, move, and feel. However, these pathways and connections are highly plastic, meaning they can change and re-form depending on the reinforcement we give them. Learn to play the piano, for example, and the pathways involved in hearing musical notes and coordinating your fingers will become stronger and more efficient. Stop playing, and eventually those pathways will start to atrophy. At a basic level, these changes happen in the connections between individual neurons. If one neuron sends more messages, or signals, to another, the receiver will become more capable of and efficient in receiving those signals. Something interesting happens, however, if the neuron sending signals starts sending stronger and stronger signals. Eventually the receiver will adapt, or in biology-speak, desensitize, to the strong signals, making it less likely, if not impossible, that it will respond to a subsequent signal unless the sender sends a much stronger signal the next time. At a basic level, this is how an addiction works, whether to drugs, pornography, or gambling. Our neurons begin to desensitize, requiring stronger and stronger stimuli.
However, for today’s talk I’m less interested in the desensitization that neurons show to the strong signals they might receive, than about the collateral damage that this adaptation causes. You see, if a neuron starts desensitizing to the loud signals of one neuron, that means that all other signals that are being sent its way, including those from other neurons, need to come in louder and louder volleys if they are to be perceived. Quiet, soft, or still, small signals will be completely lost, imperceptible under the loud noise of the more dominant signals, or missed in the expectation of something of greater magnitude.
By now I imagine you can see where I’m going with this analogy. Like individual neurons, we’re surrounded by signals, stimuli, and sounds that influence us, and in many ways determine our behavior. Our world is one of advertisement and admonition, instant gratification and information overload. Our senses are almost constantly taking in some sort of media, whether on the radio, TV, or Internet. These signals are raucous and rapid, complex and cluttered, always clambering for our attention. We’re accustomed to pop-up ads intruding into our consciousness, or having our attention diverted in 15 second spurts for commercials. We seem to have become a society that is, if not afraid of, at the very least unaccustomed to, silence, and that finds it increasingly difficult to focus our attention for extended periods of time. It’s not surprising, then, that we may feel that it is hard to perceive the still, small signals of the Spirit. If everything around us is noisy and loud, that’s what our brains, bodies, and spirits have become accustomed to. We may very well have become desensitized, making it more difficult for us to perceive the whisperings of the Spirit.
In a talk given nearly 20 years ago, President Boyd K. Packer stated:
“The world grows increasingly noisy. Clothing and grooming and conduct are looser and sloppier and more disheveled. Raucous music, with obscene lyrics blasted through amplifiers while lights flash psychedelic colors, characterizes the drug culture. Variations of these things are gaining wide acceptance and influence over our youth.
“Doctors even say that our physical sense of hearing can be permanently damaged by all of this noise.
“This trend to more noise, more excitement, more contention, less restraint, less dignity, less formality is not coincidental nor innocent nor harmless.
“The first order issued by a commander mounting a military invasion is the jamming of the channels of communication of those he intends to conquer.
“Irreverence suits the purposes of the adversary by obstructing the delicate channels of revelation in both mind and spirit.”
I think President Packer’s statements on reverence are even more relevant today than they were in 1991 when he first gave them. While it’s unlikely that the adversary has control over all the media on all the cable channels, radio stations, and websites in the world, in the end, we do. We can choose what media we allow into our home and minds, and we can choose the volume level of that media, both in a physical and spiritual sense. We can furthermore set aside quiet, peaceful time in our schedules, and in this way give the Spirit His equal share of time, and hopefully his equal share of influence. It may be difficult if we are not accustomed to it.
Desensitization means that our minds and spirits may prefer a noisy, cluttered environment to a soft, peaceful one. We may be easily distracted when searching our scriptures, pondering, or praying. That’s why it’s so important to eliminate all other signals when we are trying to be reverent. We should seek a place devoid of distractions, or choose a time when the world is quiet, so that the predominant signals our spirit receives are those sent by God. Facebook statuses, stock quotes, and sports scores will try to sidetrack us because they constantly change. In contrast, it is those things that are constant and unchanging- the Holy Scriptures and the principles of the Gospel, that we must be constantly studying so that they change us.
Desensitization is not irreversible. Our minds and spirits are plastic and adaptable. If we make an effort to find time to be reverent, we’ll become more accustomed to it, and find the Spirit’s influence more often in our lives. We already have three hours each week set aside for spiritual things in the form of our Church meetings. How effectively are we using these hours? Are our Church meetings a reverent worshipful refuge from the noisy world around us, or are we allowing ourselves to be distracted from the Spirit even here, in a building wholly dedicated to the Lord?
President Packer admonishes:
“Our sacrament and other meetings need renewed attention to assure that they are truly worship services in which members may be spiritually nourished and have their testimonies replenished and in which investigators may feel the inspiration essential to spiritual conversion.
“Our meetinghouses are designed so that we may enjoy socials, dancing, drama, even sports. All of these are important. But these auxiliary activities should be subdued when compared with what the world is doing. Music, dress, and conduct associated with them are quite different from what is appropriate in the chapel or classroom on the Sabbath day.
“When we return for Sunday meetings, the music, dress, and conduct should be appropriate for worship. Foyers are built into our chapels to allow for the greeting and chatter that are typical of people who love one another. However, when we step into the chapel, we must!—each of us must—watch ourselves lest we be guilty of intruding when someone is struggling to feel delicate spiritual communications…
“Irreverent conduct in our chapels is worthy of a reminder, if not reproof. Leaders should teach that reverence invites revelation.
“The reverence we speak of does not equate with absolute silence. We must be tolerant of little babies, even an occasional outburst from a toddler being ushered out to keep him from disturbing the peace. Unless the father is on the stand, he should do the ushering…
“No one of us can survive in the world of today, much less in what it soon will become, without personal inspiration. The spirit of reverence can and should be evident in every organization in the Church and in the lives of every member.”
Reverence, however, is more than just the noise level in our surroundings. It means actively seeking revelation by focusing on spiritual things; it means behaving, and even dressing, in a manner that shows respect for God and a desire to commune with Him. It means showing Him deference and prioritization at that particular time, and in that place, and in that thing we are doing.
In a CES Fireside given in 2002, Elder Ballard stated the following:
“As leaders, we see some patterns related to reverence that, if not corrected, may open up chinks in your spiritual armor. For example, we have noticed a growing trend in the Church… to arrive late at sacrament meeting, priesthood, and other meetings. Bishops and stake presidents report some members coming in as late as half an hour after the meeting has started.
Occasionally, there may be a legitimate excuse for not arriving on time… but in most cases it is because you simply plan poorly or do not care enough. The ideal would be to arrive five or ten minutes early so you can sit in the chapel quietly listening to the prelude music and preparing yourselves to worship. Our sacrament meetings belong to the Savior. When you arrive late, it not only interrupts the reverence of others, but it is a sign of your own disrespect and apathy.
“Far too often we see [those] who persist in whispering during the administration of the sacrament. Their minds and hearts are obviously not focused on the emblems of which we partake. It is hard for me to comprehend how anyone who has an understanding and an appreciation for the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ could allow this to happen.”
Elder Christofferson said something similar in a 2004 CES Fireside:
“We used to use the phrase “Sunday best.” People understood that to mean the nicest clothes they had. The specific clothing would vary according to different cultures and economic circumstances, but it would be their best.
“It is an affront to God to come into His house, especially on His holy day, not groomed and dressed in the most careful and modest manner that our circumstances permit. Where a poor member from the hills of Peru must ford a river to get to church, the Lord surely will not be offended by the stain of muddy water on his white shirt.
“But how can God not be pained at the sight of one who, with all the clothes he needs and more and with easy access to the chapel, nevertheless appears in church in rumpled cargo pants and a T-shirt? Ironically, it has been my experience as I travel around the world that members of the Church with the least means somehow find a way to arrive at Sabbath meetings neatly dressed in clean, nice clothes, the best they have, while those who have more than enough are the ones who may appear in casual, even slovenly clothing.
“Some say dress and hair don’t matter—it’s what’s inside that counts. I believe that truly it is what’s inside a person that counts, but that’s what worries me. Casual dress at holy places and events is a message about what is inside a person. It may be pride or rebellion or something else, but at a minimum it says, “I don’t get it. I don’t understand the difference between the sacred and the profane.” In that condition they are easily drawn away from the Lord. They do not appreciate the value of what they have. I worry about them. Unless they can gain some understanding and capture some feeling for sacred things, they are at risk of eventually losing all that matters most. You are Saints of the great latter-day dispensation—look the part.”
As you may have been, I was somewhat shocked at how direct and pointed these apostles were on the role of behavior and dress as related to reverence. I think their candor simply reflects the importance of reverence in the spiritual lives of each of us. As President Packer stated in 1991, “Reverence invites revelation” and “No one of us can survive in the world of today, much less in what it soon will become, without personal inspiration.” More recently, in this past April General Conference, President Packer stated, “Now, fathers, I would remind you of the sacred nature of your calling. You have the power of the priesthood directly from the Lord to protect your home. There will be times when all that stands as a shield between your family and the adversary’s mischief will be that power. You will receive direction from the Lord by way of the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
These apostles recognize that if we are to receive the guidance of the Spirit, an essential element of our spiritual defense and progression, we must be reverent. We must create an environment around us in which we minimize distractions, focus on the Lord, and set ourselves apart from the rest of the world and the rest of our week through our behavior, words, and dress. If we put time and effort into making our Sundays reverent, we are more likely to treasure them as precious opportunities to commune with God and recognize them as something distinctly different from our typical daily lives. Speaking of the requirements of the Jewish Sabbath, the author Herman Wouk writes that by keeping the Sabbath holy it “turns twenty-four hours of every week into a separated time, apart in mood, texture, acts, and events from daily existence.” How better to break free from the loud, overpowering signals of our week than to create a time in which we remove them altogether from our daily routine by ritually creating a different way of living?
Because the Spirit communes with us in quiet whisperings, we must be constantly wary of the noise of the environment surrounding us. We must set aside reverent time, on Sunday and during the week, wholly dedicated to the Lord, where we seek to make His voice the only one we listen to. If we do this, we are promised His guidance and protection. We are promised personal revelation, and a closer relationship with Him. That we may do this is my humble prayer….
