If you would not want it decorating your wedding hall, then please...

I love our beautiful country. I love the song of a bird, the blue, blue sky, the feel of the rain on my face and of the wind as it rushes by, the touch of a velvet rose, and the scent of the lilac tree, the eyes that I have been given so that I can see the color of butterfly wings, and ears that I can hear the magical sound of things. I love my life, my mind, my heart: I thank him reverently for all his creations, of which I’m a part. See My Heavenly Father Loves Me in Children's Songbook.

I have derived such delight from the things discussed in Doctrine and Covenants 59:16-20 -the fulness of the earth is ours, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which climbs upon the trees and walks upon the earth; and the herb, and the good things which come of the earth, whether for food or for raiment, or for houses, or for barns, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards; Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul. And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion.

My eye has indeed been pleased and my heart has indeed been gladdened by the wonderful world - especially in the Cape that is so outstandingly fair.

And so I am truly saddened to see the litter and abuse - the lack of judgement, the excess, the extortion evident in the way that too many people treat our beautiful natural heritage, and our places of residence.

 

Some young men were really excited when I offered to decorate the hall for their wedding reception - then not quite so excited when I said that I would decorate it with chip packets, sweet wrappers and things that they seem to like having around. We were walking up Lion's Head and they had dropped these things by the wayside as they walked excitedly in the magnificent fynbos.

 My mother would very often quote 'The world needs street-sweepers. But, more importantly, it needs excellent street-sweepers.' I think that she originated that quote, or may have heard her mother say it... I have reflected on that a lot as an ecologist - even if every single person were careful to prevent the countryside becoming littered through his or her carelessness - now would that not be a blissful world? - the trees would continue to drop their leaves, and so the streets would need to be swept. But, what my mother was saying is to be excellent in whatever we do. It seems as though other people such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Warren Peterson have discussed similar concepts, like sweeping the streets as though you were Beethoven composing music. I think my mother would agree with that...

As long as that piece of litter is in your hands, you have control over it - but once you release it, you have given up any control and cannot guess where it might land, what hazards it might present to wildlife, and how it will cause our beautiful world to look neglected.

I wish that every single person would love his or her country, love his or her world. As I have pointed out in a previous blog, our own South African Constitution states that every citizen has equal rights, followed by the statement that every citizen has equal responsibilities. Under  section 3 Citizenship of Chapter 1 (3.2.a, 3.2.b)

(2) All citizens are ­

a.       equally entitled to the rights, privileges and benefits of citizenship; and

b.      equally subject to the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. 

I recall a quote that my sister shared with me when I was young. 'Men, like rivers, become crooked when they follow the path of least resistance.' This concept might be attributable to Henry David Thoreau. It is wonderful to see our landscapes from satellite imagery such as in Google Earth Pro. The scale is too small to see litter...

It is fascinating to see how crooked some rivers become - like the Sangussi River in Muanza, Mozambique.

I hope that each person who reads this blog will take this call to heart, and encourage every other person to keep our beautiful world free of litter. If you would not want it decorating your wedding hall, then please don't decorate our countryside, our neighbourhood, our school, or any place with it. Take it home and add organic matter to a compost heap, recycle what can be recycled, or put it carefully into a bin where it will be handled properly by the authorities. Please keep our beautiful world beautiful...

Come, Follow Me: The righteous shall Prosper in the land

As I studied the Come, Follow Me material for the week 23 to 29 March 2020 I pondered the question 

What do you learn from these accounts that can help you “prosper in the land”?

As part of my tour and culture guide training that I have done recently, I have been reminded of the absolutely fantastic country in which we live in South Africa. It is suggested that the Khoisan who were encountered at the Cape by Jan van Riebeeck and other European explorers in the 1400s and 1500s are the oldest humans and that South Africa has many of the oldest mountains and life forms on Earth! I love living here.

I love the way that my father described how God, after finishing creating the Earth, emptied out His pockets and tipped out gold, diamonds and many other wonderful resources on this southern tip of Africa. Perhaps he was inspired to refer to Kirstenbosch as being part of the garden of Eden that remained intact. Maybe the four rivers mentioned in Genesis 2:10-14 that flowed from the garden and became into four heads divided what became Africa, Australia, Antarctica and America after the continents drifted... So perhaps Kirstenbosch was part of the Garden of Eden after all... It is such fun to hypothesise... But, I digress...

I suppose that the Khoisan people were prospering in the land in the Cape way back in 1653 - they had sufficient for their needs and were content. They lived in harmony with each other and with the land. 

The Khoisan were surrounded by great wealth of natural resources that include rivers, landscapes, resources such as gold, diamonds, iron and platinum, but they left these gifts or talents from their loving creator buried. However, they did live in harmony with each other and with nature, and that is highly commendable. I believe that they prospered in the land. 

Then other people came and set up a refreshment station for ships travelling between the Netherlands and their trading stations in Batavia. The Dutch and other settlers such as the French Huguenots, the British and others had grand ideas and they irrigated the landscape and extracted resources from the earth and developed infrastructure such as schools, universities, hospitals, cities and dams. They transformed the landscapes as they irrigated and developed vast tracts of land. This put pressure on the Khoisan that meant that they were no longer content and prospering in the land. Infectious diseases, philosophies, ideologies, pressures, dependencies (alcohol, tobacco), sexually transmitted diseases, all sorts of novelties were introduced. There were some definite advantages, but also some definite disadvantages. Similar impacts applied in the case of the Shoshone in northern Utah when the saints came and used the land as I read this past week in Saints Vol 2. Similarly, many other people have faced challenges as strangers entered their lands with novel customs and ideas. This has happened all over the Earth and throughout all of history.

Were the Khoisan better off without universities, hospitals, schools, agriculture, mines, technology?
The command was given to man as stated in the first chapter of Genesis, from verse 28:

 'And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth'.

Was it good or evil to transform and develop the land? Exploiting the people in the process was an evil, but does that make everything evil?

The Khoisan would hunt and take animals as they needed them, and would then use the meat, skin and everything that they could, but only what they needed. Many others came and exploited the animals for greed, status, pride, and there will never be enough to satisfy greed - the difference between sustainable and unsustainable utilisation. The Khoisan could enjoy equilibrium and prosper in the land as they utilised the resources in a sustainable manner and the land provided sufficient for their needs. 

The settlers prospered in the land because they used the abundance of natural resources to expand and develop - except that greed overcame them, and greed is never sustainable. Greed always makes one believe that there is not enough to prosper. The people who exploit the land do so in an unsustainable manner because they do not automatically make sustainable harvesting part of their mindset.

In terms of having children, the Khoisan were fruitful and multiplying, but were they being fruitful and multiplying the gifts that they had been given in the form of natural resources? A lot of people today are being fruitful and multiplying in terms of temporal things, but neglecting to have as many children as they might, and then training up those children to be the fruitful, multiplying, replenishing citizens that will exercise wise dominion over the wonderful world with which we have been blessed. Some people dearly wish that they could have children - think of Sarai, Rachel and Hannah in the Old Testament. Some, as one woman told me of her choice in 1973, choose to not bring children into this world that is filled with so much that is evil. Some choose to not have the inconvenience of children in their pursuit of worldly success. Some choose to not pass on problem genes. Some adopt or help others to nurture their children because they cannot have their own children. Being fruitful in leaving a great posterity is not the blessing that all will have.

The settlers who thoughtlessly or thanklessly exploited were being fruitful and multiplying, but failing to replenish with responsible dominion.

I believe that our Father in Heaven desires that we not just be consumers, subsisting on the land without being fruitful and multiplying - I believe that the Lord indicated that the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have the mission of being the blessing in the nations, which includes being fruitful, multiplying, replenishing citizens that will exercise wise dominion over this Earth and its resources.

I guess that each person needs to consider what he or she is doing to be, and to leave a posterity that will be, fruitful, multiply, replenish and have dominion, while being good to other people, living things, and the environment - living in harmony with nature, in harmony with each other - and in harmony with God.

-----------------------
After pondering this again three days later, my thoughts turned to the greater blessings that the Lord desires to pour out on us. I propose that He wants more than for us to simply exist well on the land. I think that His desire is for us to not just double two talents, but to find the other three talents and double those as well. He wants us to make the desert blossom as a rose. He wants to rebuke the devourer for our sakes and bless our harvest. He wants us to be fruitful, multiply, replenish and have dominion, while being good to other people, living things, and the environment because of our love for and commitment to Him. That is why He could send the Israelites to Israel and the Saints to the Salt Lake Valley - because they would make more out of the desert than simply existing on the land. This includes all that is encapsulated in the ten commandments: our having no other gods before Him; not getting distracted by other things and putting them before Him; lovingly and respectfully honouring His name; making the sabbath a holy day; honouring father and mother - with a promise that our days will be long upon the land that He gives to us; respecting life, respecting sexual purity; respecting the property and rights of others; being filled with integrity; and returning to the Lord and others thanks for the wonderful blessings that we have by not coveting or being greedy. I hope that I can become all that my Father in Heaven wants me to become.

Desire To Do Right

There was great excitement in the village one day. A handsome, rich young trader was coming to ask a father if he could marry his daughter.

The daughter was generally thought of as having a face like a stone that would break a looking glass, and she looked like she had missed too many meals. 

The father had said that he would be happy to be given a cow that gave sour milk because he would be happy to get his daughter off his hands.

The daughter did not want to come to the ceremony in which the husband to be would ask for her hand because she was sure that the villagers would laugh at her.

At the ceremony the women of the village talked among themselves boasting of how many cows their husbands had paid for them, and that this young girl was not worth more than two cows, and that the young man would drive a hard bargain and if asked for two cows would offer one, if asked for one would settle for the horns and tail. The father was advised by his counsellor to ask for three cows, and when proposing this the villagers laughed.

The young man, who you will likely guess is Johnny Lingo, silences the villagers and boldly states that three cows is a high price, but not enough for Mahana. He would offer eight cows. Everyone was stunned! The whispers immediately spread through the village that Johnny Lingo had offered eight cows for Mahana.

The following morning Mahana is sure that Johnny Lingo would not come with the eight cows. She was being mocked and feeling worthless. Johnny Lingo does come with the cows and graciously leads his bride to be from her father’s house, treating her like a woman who was worth eight cows.

Some months later, after Johnny Lingo and Mahana have been away at the honeymoon place, Mahana’s father is very displeased when he visits their home because he accuses Johnny Lingo of cheating him because Mahana is worth ten cows! And indeed, she has blossomed and is a delightful sight!

What made the difference?

Young men, the Father of the daughter that you will ask to marry you simply asks for three cows for his daughter. Those cows are love, honour and cherish, and to be given for as long as you both shall live. Do you bargain for less than that? A fashionable offering that I see today is not even one cow – in the ‘guise’ of ‘love’ all too many young men offer lust and seem to think that they are being generous, and all too many young women do not believe that they are worth more than that and leave the Father’s home with the lustful young man rather than waiting for one who will offer the three cows.

Do you come and offer eight cows to the Father? Do you offer to be honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and to seek after that which is virtuous, lovely, of good report and praiseworthy? Do you also throw in belief and hope to make it ten cows that you feel your bride to be is worth? If you are offering such then you would be insisting on taking your wife to the honeymoon place called the Temple of the most High, there to show the great love, honour and cherishing that will make your bride blossom as a Daughter of her Heavenly Father.

In my home we were constantly reminded that we were Princes and Princesses in Israel. Now, in case you think that is outlandish, think of the Lord’s Prayer that you have almost certainly quoted ‘Our Father who art in heaven...thy kingdom come...For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.’ Matt 6:9-13, 3 Ne 13:9-13. Think of Rom 8:16-17 in which we are declared to be joint-heirs with Christ.

May I remind you all that royalty may mistakenly think that they are there to be served, but Jesus Christ taught a much higher principle when he said in Mark 10:44 that he who would be chiefest shall be the servant of all. I was really impressed in the coronation of King Charles on 6 May 2023 that he said 'In his name and after his example I come not to be served but to serve.'

In Alma 32:27 we read the challenge to awake and arouse our faculties, even to an experiment upon Almas’ words. And I invite you to awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and 'exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words'. Give way to experiment upon the words that you are a son or a daughter of God, and that as such your heritage is worth all of the ‘cows’ of the thirteenth Article of Faith and you will find a growing desire to live worthy of being an ‘eight cow’ wife or husband. You will come to know in your heart that the worth of your soul, and that of your wife or husband, is great in the sight of God D&C 18:10.

You will become assured that you have the agency given you to choose liberty and eternal life or to choose captivity and death 2 Ne 2:27 or to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life 2 Ne 10:23.

Joseph Fielding Smith taught that if we love the Father and Jesus Christ then we will keep their commandments and if we want salvation in its fullest then we need to have a marriage in the Temple for time and for all eternity.

I always hope and pray that each of my children will remember what we have taught them, that they are Princes and Princesses in Israel, and that they will live the spirit of the thirteenth Article of Faith in full, being eight or ten cow children of God. I hope that they will be the salt of the earth, letting their lights shine before all men that as their good works are seen, then the Father in Heaven will be glorified by those who witness their good works. I hope that they will sow and nurture the seed of faith, letting it sprout, then nourishing it well to the point that they partake of the fruit ‘which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst’. That they will press forward earnestly, diligently, holding fast to the iron rod.

I have the same prayer for each person who reads this.

Tantrums and SDBs

(This is a repost of an earlier post. I could not sort out some issues with the labels, so I deleted the post and reposted it)

I remember my father and mother teaching me (I guess their frequent repetition meant that I needed to learn it) to drive five hundred metres ahead of myself on the road, anticipating what I would need to do rather than only reacting to the things right where I was, or being surprised by things further down the road when I got to them.

In 1981, when Sally and I went to Salt Lake City for our marriage, my brother asked me to buy him a copy of Eliminating your SDBs at the Brigham Young University Bookstore (Jonathan M Chamberlain, July 1978, ‘Are you a procrastinator? A compulsive eater? A perfectionist? Do you frequently experience feelings of inferiority? Depression? Withdrawal? Are you afraid of relationships? Of other people? Of failure? If you answered yes to any of these self-defeating behaviors so common in our society today, this book is for you.’).

I reflected a great deal on the thought of these Self-Defeating Behaviours (SDBs). For example, think of a couple who have a lovely family of four or five delightful children and how they are all looking forward to a bright future. This family is trying to follow common sense – letting common sense direct their life rather than the physical ‘here and now for me’. They are looking ahead and wanting to prepare for a brighter future, rather than being in the teenage mode where, as I am told, teenagers ‘cannot see beyond Friday night’, or the tantrum mode which is about ‘me and now’: ‘if it is in line with what I want here and now then that is right’. Common sense does not go down well with this childish ‘terrible twos’ mode. Tantrum mode is possibly the ultimate manifestation of SDBs.

Now picture the same family some years later, when their marriage has broken up and their children have grown apart, and one of the parents makes the comment that ‘I have never been happier than I am now’. Think of this situation and compare it with when the family had great capital and frugal ways. At the later time they may have exciting ways but they are eroding their capital. One could equally say ‘I have never been richer’ but the wealth is not sustainable because the capital is being eroded. Instead of a long and bright future in view, they have the ‘me and now’ in view and are happy. The happiness cannot last, however, because its base is eroding. They have lost sight of eliminating SDBs. Note that at the later time the comment ‘I have never been happier’ is not the same as saying ‘I am happier than I have ever been’.

Last Friday night, after again reading about the demise of a great civilization, which was probably the Mayan civilisation, I asked my wife, ‘Are you seeking the promptings of the spirit? Do you receive the promptings of the spirit? Do you follow the promptings of the spirit? Or has the spirit stopped striving with you?’ I think about these questions every time I read the accounts of the Mayans where an entire civilization was destroyed because they were in the throes of an ultimate ‘tantrum mode’. Common sense had completely deserted them and they were being driven purely by ‘me and now’ pride and anger, rather than being sensible and looking ‘five hundred metres down the road’ at their future and letting humility and common sense direct them. Well, I suppose that by the stage that they had reached, their future had been diminished to the lot of a bunch of grumpy old men existing with each other because their wives and children had been killed, and what kind of a future would that be? Well, let me tell their story.

The history recorded by a man called Ether and his predecessor historians indicates that this civilisation had numbered in the millions. After about 1900 years into their recorded history, during which they had had good times of happiness and prosperity, and bad times of war or famine, they reached a point where two factions – one led by a man named Coriantumr, and one led by a man named Shiz – were again at war. The historian Ether came and warned Coriantumr that he was on a path towards destruction if he continued in his war against Shiz. Coriantumr was the king over all the land. The king did not like what Ether was telling him, so Ether was cast out and had to live in exile in a cave. But he went frequently to observe unseen and record the goings-on of his people, and he witnessed and recorded their wars and eventual complete demise.

The demise of this civilisation occurred following a period when some people worked secretly to undermine the king Coriantumr. Coriantumr was cunning in warfare and fought force with force, violence with violence, but he did not employ common sense and wisdom. The death toll was high in the first year of the final period as a result of this guerrilla warfare as the enemies tried to obtain the kingdom.

Ether again warned the king to be guided by right and common sense, but the king persisted in his violent ways rather than teaching right ways. In the third and fourth years there were wars in which the kingdom was alternately taken from, and then retaken by Coriantumr. Rather than there being unity among the people, there were many bands fighting or robbing, and tyranny with people seeking their own gain. Battles prompted by anger raged in which either side prevailed, then lost ground again, and many, many lives were lost, and all the people were shedding blood and there was none to restrain them because the king was wounded and recuperating during a period of some five years.

Then, for some two years, there was a total lack of personal security as all were at risk of having their tools or weapons stolen. As tyranny prevailed, many thousands died as new contenders arose to try to take the kingdom. Families of killed leaders rose in vengeance trying to take the kingdom and, as usual, the general populace were the losers as a small minority of individuals sought for power. The last contender, who was trying to avenge his brother, was named Shiz, and the battles raged and the land was littered with dead bodies, the war being so much the order of the day that there was nobody to bury the dead. Now it was not only the warfare, but also the stench of rotting corpses that made life miserable. But Shiz persisted in his vengeance for his brother who had been killed by Coriantumr.

Shiz battled and pursued the king, but the battle turned and Coriantumr then pursued the armies of Shiz, who in their retreat killed any of the population who would not join their cause. Later, Coriantumr was in a position of advantage in a fortress, and maintained his position despite being seriously wounded. Shiz lost much ground and many people and withdrew.

At this point, Coriantumr was trying to follow common sense as more than two million of his people, in addition to their wives and children, had been killed, and he realised that he and Shiz were in a lose-lose situation. Although Coriantumr was prepared to give up his kingdom to spare the people, they were too angry and did not want to give in to Shiz. The people of Shiz were also angry and wanted to finish the war at all costs. The battle raged and progressed day by day, moving from place to place due to a continuous cycle of pursuit and retreat.

Finally, everyone was gathered into the two armies in one place for their final battle, except Ether who remained to chronicle the events. For four years each army gathered all the support that they could for this final battle, gathering men and their wives and children. Following the first day when there was no clear victor, there was great mourning and sorrow in the camps. Coriantumr again tried to make peace in order to spare the people, but Shiz and the people were blinded by rage and anger and would not accept any peace treaty. They fought day after day, out of control in their blinded state. This continued day after day until fifty two men remained to battle against sixty nine men. The next day it was down to thirty two against twenty seven.

Still they fought! I guess they had lost sight of any future because they were acting senselessly, and after all, what future was there? There were only a bunch of miserable men remaining as all of the soft targets, their wives and children had been killed. What was there left except to kill or be killed? Finally it was only Shiz and Coriantumr left, and Coriantumr killed Shiz. He was now left, a lone man, except for Ether, but he clearly was not about to welcome Ether back into his company. So Ether finished his record, and Coriantumr wandered and was eventually found by a people of another civilisation, probably either the Incas or Aztecs, forefathers of the American Indians who also discovered the record left by Ether.

But, as sad as this tale is, this other civilisation that took in the aged Coriantumr did not learn from it and they also had factions who battled with each other, until the entire destruction of one of those factions some five hundred years after Coriantumr and Shiz had their last battle. Thus were left the people who survived to be discovered by the explorers Pizarro, Cortez and Columbus some 11 centuries later.

But really – are there intelligent adults who give way to SDBs? Come now – don’t be melodramatic! Well, let me see...

We have just been all too aware of farm workers striking near De Doorns in the Western Cape in November 2012. I was among many people who had to divert their route of travel away from the N1 to bypass the action. Here are a group of labourers who want more income than they were getting. Now, that sounds reasonable, because inflation keeps on making any income become less than adequate, and labourers generally receive a pittance to start with. So, they express their wish for higher wages. But the SDBs involved are that they then burn down the vineyards of their employers. How can a farmer pay any worker if he has no vineyards from which to harvest grapes to sell in order to have any income with which to pay his workers? So, instead of higher wages, they now face no wages. Does this sound like the ridiculous story of the couple who killed the goose that laid golden eggs, or what?

And what about abused husbands or wives who remain in their abusive marriages because they lack the self esteem or confidence to leave the destructive situations?

What about the abusive partner? Marriage is between two people who, according to the marriage covenant, become one flesh. So the abuser is using self destructive behaviour because he or she is destroying that ‘one flesh’ of which he or she is an integral part of the whole.

It is unfortunate indeed that all too many people lose their perspective and lose focus on their future ‘five hundred metres ahead of them’ and just live for the ‘me and now’ and common sense leaves them. They cease seeking for common sense or guidance by their conscience, or following their conscience, or even become devoid of conscience. They do not seek or desire the guidance of the spirit, or if they receive it, they do not follow it, or even get to the point that the spirit ceases striving with them because they have become clearly opposed to that guidance.

Whatever your belief, in spirit or common sense, I hope that you can relate to these situations and can recognise the need to take a decision to not be guided by anger, despair or any Self-Defeating Behaviour and lose common sense, but to eliminate your SDBs and follow a course of common decency or common sense. Don’t get to the point where there is no future worth anything as in the case of Coriantumr and his grumpy old men. Life is worth living. There is a brighter future that is worth preparing for, and that should be our most earnest desire. This really can only come when we are in harmony with each other as opposed to when we are pursuing ‘me and now’ – being in tantrum mode. I hope that each of you may find the joy of love and harmony with a wonderful bright outlook for the future.