Going to the source

Going to the source

When I was young we used to go to visit my Uncle Howard and Aunt Evelyn at the ranch that my uncle managed at Eight Mile outside of Soda Springs.  They had a spring on the property.  That is where they got their culinary water.  The spring water was artesian.  That means that it flowed freely without a pump all year long.  Down the slight hill there was a pipe that carried the flowing water into what they called a spring box.  The cold water flowed from the pipe into a box where they kept the butter, milk and other things they wanted to keep cold.  This water was pure.  It came from deep in the earth where melting snow had percolated thru layers of rock into an aquifer.  When we wanted uncontaminated pure water we would rely on this spring.

The overflow water then flowed into an irrigation ditch that ran just below and across the road from the spring.  There was plenty of water in the ditch.  It looked clear just like the spring water.  We were cautioned, “Don’t drink out of the ditch!”  At the time we were young and did not understand the danger of drinking out of the ditch. Now, at a more mature age with an understanding of the germ theory, I know why the warning; ”Don’t drink out of the ditch!” We needed to go to the source of the pure water.

Upstream the ditch ran through a farmyard where there were cows and sheep and other farm animals deposited their bodily waste on the ground that drained into the irrigation ditch when it rained. Further up the source of the water that was in the irrigation ditch deer and other animals came to drink out of the flowing water.  The water flowed through beaver dams where beaver swam and dispensed bodily fluids into the water.  One of the parasites that the beaver carried was Giardia Lamblia.  We used to call the disease of this parasite in humans “Beaver Fever”. If you want more information click on the link.

Would you want to drink out of the ditch?

Later our family moved to Lander, Wyoming. The culinary water in Lander came from the Popo Agie River.  This water was cold and clear and tasted really good to a boy who came from Denver, Colorado.  There was a chlorinating plant that was installed to help with bacterial contamination.  There was a problem with the water.  We called it spring runoff. In the spring the snows that accumulated in the mountains surrounding Lander melted and the river, which was usually clear water, turned muddy and at the height of the runoff the water in the pipes in the city was more than turbid.  Some people even reported seeing small minnows coming out of the taps at this time. During Spring runoff there were people who got sick.  They called it “Landeritis”. It was an intestinal infection.  Some even got Giardia and had to be treated. Moose were often reported wading in the collecting basin where the city water came from.  While we were living there, the city decided to put in a water treatment facility and filter all the impurities and upgrade the chlorinating equipment.  My friend Wayne Nelson, the pharmacist, said that if they did that he would lose a lot of business selling Pepto Bismol during the spring runoff. Eventually Lander had pure water during the spring runoff.

Would you want to drink the Lander water during spring runoff?

I have one more example from the distant past.  In the history of the church there was a group of saints that went from Kirtland to Missouri called “Zion’s Camp”.  During their trek to Missouri members of this army developed Cholera.  Cholera is caused by a bacterium called Cholera Vibrio.  It was in the water that some of the members drank and then they got ill.  The symptoms were rice water diarrhea and a sudden loss of serum electrolytes and seizures and death.  This was caused by contaminated water.  The people at that time knew the disease, but did not know the cause. They did not know it was caused by contaminated water.  Our ancestor Lysander Gee was driven out of Nauvoo and went to St. Louis, Missouri with his wife Amanda Melvin Sagers and her son Orlando Lysander.  While living there, prior to traveling to Utah, Amanda died.  There was at that time an epidemic of Cholera among the saints and many died.  Perhaps Amanda died of Cholera too. 

There are lessons that we can learn from this.

Always go to the unadulterated source.

When we are looking for information about the church or the doctrine of Christ we need to go to the source.  These sources are not found in Google or on the Internet or in Wikipedia. Google and the Internet and Wikipedia are not unadulterated sources. They have many errors and many contaminated articles containing the opinions of men.

Adulterated sources can infect innocent people by perpetuating contamination. Just as the beaver may not become ill from Giardia, the parasite can be transmitted to humans from water contaminated by the beaver. A human infected with the parasite may not be symptomatic, but can transmit it to someone else and that person may become ill.  This is what is known as a carrier state.  In a similar manner Cholera can be transmitted in water from a person that is ill or one who is an asymptomatic carrier. 

The classic example that was taught us in medical school was that of Typhoid Mary.

Mary Mallon (September 23, 1869 – November 11, 1938), better known as Typhoid Mary, was the first person in the United States identified as an asymptomatic carrier of the pathogen associated with typhoid fever. She was presumed to have infected 22 people, three of whom died, over the course of her career as a cook. She was twice forcibly isolated by public health authorities and died after a total of nearly three decades in isolation. Just as Mary, those who publish articles on the Internet may not have their faith challenged, there are those who read their articles who die spiritually, because they drank from contaminated, adulterated sources for their information. 

Would you want Mary Mallon to cook for you?

Where can we find the unadulterated source?

The scriptures contain the word of God.  We believe that as far as the Bible is translated correctly we can hear the voice of God and his son Jesus Christ as if they were speaking directly to us.

The Book of Mormon contains the word of God.  The translation was given by the gift and power of God. We have direct quotations from Christ and from the prophets. For my experience Clickhere.

Latter-Day scriptures, such as; the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price.

Contemporary documents from reliable sources; such as the History of the Church, The Documentary History of the Church, the Joseph Smith Papers. The teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the reports of General Conference.

The voice of the Lord through the ministration of the Holy Ghost; Joseph Smith is not the only person that can hear the voice of the Lord.  He is your father as well as mine.

Do not expect to receive the word of the Lord with out sincere effort on your part by going to the unadulterated sources. Do not give it what my mother used to say “a lick and a promise”.  And “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.”

Drink from the pure source.

Love,

Grandpa

Bombs Away

 A Denver adventure of the brothers Gee

We lived in Denver at 433 Corona Street.  The House was a duplex and in the back there was a rather large tree.  We built a treehouse.  We had to climb the tree in order to get to the treehouse.  To facilitate getting things up to our treehouse we decided to install a method so that we would not have to climb the tree and carry the material up to the treehouse.  Being the inventive boys that we were, we attached a pulley to one of the limbs.  Through the pulley we strung a sash cord rope.  This was a cotton rope that was woven and approximately 3/8 of an inch thick.  This worked well and we could attach whatever we wanted to the end of the rope and pull it up and thus build our treehouse.

One of us thought of the idea to attach a cast iron window weight to one end of the rope.  Thus we could haul it up to the top where the pulley was attached and then let go of the rope and it would fall to the ground.  Thus we became bombardiers and had fun raising the window weight and then letting it drop.

We found that we could cause the window weight to drop but not hit the ground by stepping on the rope and thus impeding it in its flight downward.  Now comes the interesting part.  Martell decided to see how our window weight bomb looked as it dropped from its perch next to the pulley.  We measured exactly the position the weight would be as it dropped and was impeded in its progress by one of us holding our foot on the end of the rope.  In the foggy recesses of my memory I do not remember whose foot was supposed to be on the end of the rope.  Nevertheless, the window weight dropped as we yelled “bombs away”.  Martell was directly under the area where the window weight would reach its final destination.  Unfortunately, the foot was not placed properly on the end of the rope and our window weight bomb hit Martell squarely in the face just under his eye.  Of course this was not pleasing to Martell and he started to bleed.  We ran quickly into tell mother about the accident.  She was upset and rightly so.  So being the Boy Scout that I was, I put a pressure bandage on Martell's laceration and mother made me take him on the streetcar to downtown Denver to the doctors office where Martell was attended to. 

Fortunately Martell did not suffer a blow-out fracture of the orbit or a fracture of the zygoma.  As far as I am able to ascertain Martell did not have any deleterious effects from his heroic effort to observe the falling bomb.  We were wise enough never to try that again.

 A window weight is a 14 inch long 2 inch in diameter piece of cast iron with a hole in one end.

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[1] A window weight is a 14 inch long 2 inch in diameter piece of cast iron with a hole in one end.

Thoughts on being released as stake president

September 15,1978

Today is the last day that I will be the Stake President and I would like to take the time to write down my feelings and thoughts in the time that I have now.

For ten years almost I have tried to balance my life with the medical practice demands on one hand and the spiritual demands and administrative requirements of the stake on the other. I have not had any clearly defined guidelines, and I don^’t think that the Lord expects any one to give them to me. I have grown in the decision making process and I have learned by making the mis­takes that one makes when he exercises his agency and does not listen to the Spirit.

I have learned that this is not my Stake nor members, but that they are the Lord^’s and that he has a great and abiding concern for each and every one of his children. I have learned to share in that concern and to be interested in all of Father's children. I do not think that I could leave that behind with my release. There are certain things and ways of doing things that one should acquire in working in the Lord's vineyard, which cannot be stripped off as you would and old shoe. They have become part of my life, and I hope that they will continue with me.

I have no desire to return to the kind of a person that I was before this calling came to me. No, I was not and evil person, but I have improved and developed attributes, which if I am diligent will help me in my life. I have indeed found my life by loosing it in the service of my fellow men. I am grateful for the opportunity I have had of serving with great and good men. The Councilors that I have had over the years and the members of the High Council and the bishoprics have been kind to me and indulgent of my weaknesses and my inability to speak.

I do not desire position or prestige in the church nor in the world. I desire only to be of service to my fellowmen. There are those who would heap upon me more honor than I deserve. They do not know the true facts and do not appreciate real greatness. I have no ambition and would feel honored to serve in any capacity to which the bishop called me. The work is great and the laborers in the field doing the work are few.

There are many lessons that I have learned as a Stake President and I could not write them all down. I will try and apply them to my life that I may perhaps in some small way influence others to come to Christ and to the true and living church and the living water of which He spoke, I wish that I were better at writing that I might pour out my soul that my posterity that reads this may know that I love the Lord and will serve him until my sprit and body are separated and then will praise him and his name forevermore.

Amen

A tale of two people

This is not a Charles Dickens novel. But I could start out with,:"It Was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair." This pretty well describes our time in history.  The two people in this tale were in the news this week. I will not introduce them by name. 

The first is a woman. She saw a problem in her society. It had to do with the inequality in the status of some individuals. They seemed to be the poor and downtrodden without the advantages of some of their neighbors. She spent her life trying to build up and strengthen those around her. She organized a group of women who dedicated their lives to changing their circumstances and improved greatly the living of those that she served. Her motto was, [give];"wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor". She remained out of the limelight for most of her life. 

Now we will introduce the second individual. 
He probably makes more money in one year than the first individual made in her entire life even after she was internationally recognized for her achievements.  He, rather than doing anything personally, chooses to protest the treatment of the poor and downtrodden and disadvantaged in a nationally televised arena. 

Anyone can make their views known on national TV or on social media. They can draw attention to themselves and invite sympathy and criticism, but it does nothing to solve the problem. There are those who defend his stand as his right to freely express his views, but the outcome of this protest will never bring about an equitable solution. More than likely it will polarize into inaction any who are affected. Thus this is a tale of two people. One died a Saint the  other lives a selfish fool. Who will "strut and fret his hour upon the stage” of life and like many will be like Ozymandias and fade into obscurity.

Do not protest my grandchildren.  Be proactive and work to better the environment that you find yourselves in.

Love,

Grandpa

Just say no

Just say no[1]

Sometimes we are put in a position where we have to make a decision with a definitive yes or no answer. For most people it is easier to acquiesce than to say no. More often than not we are ‘wankelmütig’ or ambivalent. We may really want to say no, but we are then influenced by peer pressure or what some may call situation ethics. 

Each of us must learn to distinguish between principle and preference   The gospel of Jesus Christ and his commandments give to us the basic principles of life. We are free to add others of our own, for we are agents unto ourselves. If we make them a part of our internal fabric we will then have a set of principles upon which to base our yes or no answers. 

In the biography of president Spencer W. Kimball he relates that while milking cows he would say to himself, "I Spencer Kimball will never drink coffee. " He then would repeat this and insert the other commandments and principles of the gospel until he had covered them all. He would do this every time he milked the cow. Eventually they became such a part of his fabric that when he came to a situation where principles we involved there was no hesitation as to his response. 

If it is a decision of preference it really doesn't matter what our responses are, it will not in any way affect our happiness or eternal salvation. 

As a simple example of preference I have used the trip to the candy store. One has many choices. You may choose to purchase a Snickers with Almonds or a Lindor bar. This a preference.  Your companion my try to get you to buy a box of licorice instead and be very insist and persuasive. You might give in and buy the licorice even though you would prefer the Lindor bar just to keep him off your back. There is no harm in this, because it is just a preference and does not have eternal consequences. But given the same scenario with the choice to obey or disobey one of God's commandments, the same pressure may be applied and if we choose not to say no we may hurt ourselves or others or both. 

I was listening to a rebroadcast of a BYU devotional this same morning that I wrote this.  It fits nicely into this theme. You can read or listen to it.
Click Here

Learn to say no. It will save you much heartache and grief. 

Love, 

Grandpa

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[1] Written while waiting in a doctor’s office.

A rose to the living

We recently attended a funeral of a good friend in Riverton,Wyoming. There were many flowers in the church and the casket was covered with flowers.  The speakers gave the deceased many compliments and extolled her virtues. You may ask if we sent flowers as well. Although we were very good friends and had traveled Europe together, we did not send flowers.

We have done the flower sending in the past. This time we took into account the the saying that my grandmother Gee was fond of quoting. "A rose to the living is worth sumptuous wreaths to the dead "

Our friend was in the terminal stages of cancer. We called her and talked to her. She wanted some support and asked for some suggestions of books to read that might help her through the process of dying. 

We did send her a book and some suggestions. She was appreciative and when we talked to her later, she said that it helped. 

What she needed at that time was our figurative rose while she was living. She could not appreciate flowers after her death. 

People need to be appreciated while they are living, not after they are gone. 

Too often we miss the opportunity to connect with people. There are many people who would appreciate a small token of affection or word of kindness. We often miss the opportunity to give deserved specific praise to those who have unexpressed needs. 
If we are sensitive to the spirit, we will be a messenger to comfort and elevate the souls of God's children. 

Please read the words of the hymn "Have I done any good in the world today? "

Can you think of someone you can give a rose to today?

Love,

Grandpa 

Ain't ya got no smarts?

No, I haven’t gone off my rocker and forgotten about using double negatives and colloquialisms.

My brothers and I used to tease one another with the above phrase.  When one of us would do something rather stupid the other would say. “Ain't ya got no smarts?” Then the reply was. “ I got a lotta know, but no smarts.”

I thought this might be a good subject for a Blog to my grandchildren. 

My parents used to quote scripture to us occasionally and particularly this quote from Proverbs chapter 4 verse 7 “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”

There is a difference between wisdom and knowledge.  Wisdom is the correct use of the knowledge that we have acquired.  There is a lot of useless knowledge floating around these days. Also not all of us have the same store of knowledge that we have acquired.
 
Our first parents gave us the opportunity to learn the most important thing we are here on earth to experience.  They partook of the fruit of the tree and became as the gods, knowing how to discern between good and evil.  Now to quote a TV commercial from Chuckarama, “The choice is yours”. The choice really is ours.

To further address this topic I recently read this quote from president Joseph F. Smith. 

“Christ inherited his intelligence from his Father. There is a difference between knowledge and pure intelligence. Satan possesses knowledge, far more than we have, but he has not intelligence or he would render obedience to the principles of truth and right. I know men who have knowledge, who understand the principles of the Gospel, perhaps as well as you do, who are brilliant, but who lack the essential qualification of pure intelligence. They will not accept and render obedience thereto. Pure intelligence comprises not only knowledge, but also the power to properly apply that knowledge.”

So, just the acquisition of the pool of knowledge that is available to us is not enough.  We have to have pure intelligence or “smarts” to be able to properly live our lives to the full potential.

We have to be able properly use the knowledge we acquire in this life.  We can be members of Christ’s church and have gospel knowledge, but if we are not wise and use pure intelligence or "smarts" we will fall short of our true potential.  Eventually we will be with those who are “weeping and wailing and gnashing our teeth”.  

I recently listened to a father’s blessing given to me when I went into the Navy.  My father had never given a father’s blessing to any of his children that I knew of.  I think that I was the first of his children to ask him. He was a patriarch in the church at that time, but was not familiar with father’s blessings.  It was not well known throughout the church at that time, nor was it frequently practiced.  We learned about it from our bishop Oscar McConkie when we were in his ward my first year of medical school. In the father’s blessing I was told that I would be wise in my generation. 

I do not know if I have lived up to that promise.  Most of us do not live up to our potential, but we should never stop acquiring knowledge, wisdom and understanding.

There is a German poem, “Lirum Laurum Löffelstiel”, which I will not reproduce here, but the essence is that small children ask a lot of questions. “Why is the rain wet? Why is the grass green” etc.  We need to be like the small children and ask a lot of questions. There is not a day that should pass that we do not learn something new or improve our life.

So with Jacob chapter 6 verse 12, I say,” O be wise; what can I say more?”

Love,

Grandpa