Derek Smeds: A Heck of a Guy

My wife and three of our children and I attended a poignant outdoor vigil to the life of a really impactful guy in our community who died Monday (21 September 2020). This tribute happened Thursday, last night, and it was conducted at a local little league park. His name is Derek; I will explain why I want to write this. 

This man was inspirational to me and many others, I cannot count how many he touched. A thousand? Five thousand? Maybe more. All who knew him, assuredly. Of course his family and close friends are impressively affected by him the most, and now his passing at the precious age of 45 leaves a tremendous loss... But there are many more who will miss him, and are inspired by him.

Derek impacted me because he took time to coach and train my son, in a specialty and passion that he lived and loved, baseball. He was always friendly and kind in passing thereafter. My son, who was then maybe twelve, does not specifically recall how Derek took time to show him some techniques and give pointers on how to hit a baseball, swing a bat, but I will never forget it. 

 

Think of all the people who ever play baseball or tried to compete in this game. Reflecting on my own prospects, I was okay at it and somewhat enjoyed baseball, but I was pretty much done as a serious competitor by the time I was twelve years-old. I did not have the opportunities to compete at the level requisite to move on. Other people play until they are 14, or 18, or even 21, and at each level they continue to thrive. If you make it in competitive baseball when you are 21, you have a real chance at making some good money at a higher level in the pros, or simply playing in a game that provides a pleasurable existence in a world of money makers and some cutthroat frenzy of finances, or as some see it postponing the inevitable "real life" of the work force. No matter the outcome of the player and when he or she stops playing, many consider it a beautiful thing.

 

If anyone has a chance to do this, they need quite a bit of help, coaching, and expertise along the way.

 

There are those who embody the principles of excellence and effort, and Derek was a shining star of this principle.

Certainly Derek was this type of person. He loved the sport and gave of himself, much of his time and energy, to promote and learn and teach the sport to those of his generation, like me and other adults, and dozens and dozens of youth who have had a chance to go beyond the present mere games of this sport. He did things behind the scenes to improve the baseball fields and diamonds, to improve the physical environment of the baseball atmosphere to help the boys and girls, and then he tirelessly worked in helping the kids and other adults, like me, who would help the kids directly and indirectly.

My sons are still competitive at the sport at ages 14 and 12. They may or may not go on in it for many more years. But they might. And if they do, Derek has been a part of them. He contributed to all of us.

Derek was kind, energetic, giving, driven, enthusiastic, he had an infectious, memorable laugh and a sweet character. He simply cared and showed it everywhere possible, but especially behind the scenes.

He will be sorely missed by many; I was shocked to learn that he was gone so soon. Many of us, other coaches and parents who knew him, did not know that he was sick.

Cancer. Not sure what type yet, I will find out maybe this last week of September, now deep into the season. I have talked to a few of the other coaches and parents in this past week, asking questions and sharing a couple stories.

Not to be forgotten, not to be dismissed. 

Derek will live on through many games and fun filled days and nights into the distant future.

We commend you and thank you, sir. 

The nine innings of your life have been cut short, but the game is better, richer, more vibrant, more alive, more accessible and real, because of you.

And, as was said at the vigil, you did not lose to cancer, but you were beaten by it. You fought and lived the right way, and you are a champion on and off the field.

I thank God for people like you.

Thanks for caring and sharing.

 Independence and its Victories

 Yesterday I spoke with a financial planner whose son is learning Spanish. I noted at the end of the conversation that I had lived in Chile, and that yesterday the 18th of September was Chilean Independence Day. He said, spontaneously and rather appropriately, "Muy bien."

I believe that there is reason to celebrate the independent birth of a country like Chile in 2020, year of many popular protests and issues; I will try to explain why.

Henry Kissinger, a German-born U.S. immigrant who would return to a vanquished homeland as an American Army soldier and ended up interrogating his old countrymen at the end of World War Two in Europe, after that devastating turn of events, later became one of the most powerful men in the United States under President Nixon. In my opinion Kissinger wound up being one of the most powerful influencing Americans or human beings of all time, beyond that presidency. His adopted doctrine of the "balance of powers" and realpolitik has been the general strategy of U.S. foreign policy ever since, especially when recognizing that he as a Jewish person held Israel and the Middle East as part of the world view of peace and balance.

Thus we have arrived half a century later. We observe the balance of power theory still. Deep into the 21st century.

Kissinger, in all my readings and studies of Chile, famously said in 1973, in light of the turmoils of Chile and its fight for survival from the September 1973 coup d' etat and its aftermath, that this rather little nation was small and of little consequence. I am not sure that he totally meant that, and if he did he was wrong. Perhaps he was trying to downplay the struggle of its identity as a sovereign country and its meaning to the world. Chile, while a small country in comparison to some of its bigger and more populated neighbors of South America, mattered and matters more than the sum of its parts. All of us around the world look to clues and tells from our neighbors and how they govern. We look for allies, enemies, trading partners, associates and members of our own way of behaving and acting. We help each other and sometimes spite each other, whichever the strategy at the time dictates. Or we as nations receive signals and consciously or unconsciously take the cues and more or less accept, adopt, or eschew, whatever seems logical to those who interact with said place. This happens individually and collectively to our entities and institutions, we constantly look for heroes and pariahs, examples and exceptions, in international governance, economic policy, social maturation, any number of methods and practices to be emulated or avoided.

We are all neighbors and we all send and receive signals that affect the international neighborhood.

 

I had a UCLA professor who wrote a book called "Why Nations Get Along". Why, indeed.

Chile was key to the United States and the world in the fight against socialism and Communism. It was integral, and by the mid 1970s had become another example of tough capitalism and its rule, its monetary and labor of the fittest fight against all brands of Godless Marxism. Contrast Chile's plight with that of Cambodia, a worst case scenario of the government of the proletariat. Or simply look to Brazil, or Argentina, or Colombia.

50 years later we celebrate the freedoms enjoyed by Chileans, without the imprisonment and torture, without the deaths and disappearances of its free citizens that had occurred in its painful transition back to a liberal democracy. The victims caught up by soldiers and police and General Pinochet's draconian regime, some mistakenly, who supported a rather radical version of economic policy and control from the central government, those who were in favor of the strong handed Salvador Allende,  who was ignominiously deposed in 1973.

In 2020 we see Chile as a bastion of freedom, in its Latin American context, an economic success story. Perhaps in this Chile the average citizen does not enjoy as many advantages of income and disposable wealth as the average American or Canadian or those of the economic powers in other parts of the world, like Europe and East Asia, but Chile is held up as fiscally sound and a place for people to be what they want to be. Free, able to choose their life and work to a certain degree, to be educated. Education has come under scrutiny and a large microscope in recent years, protests during the Bachillet presidency as well as general protests under Pinera, the president more to the right. Both figures have taken turns leading the country in the time since I last lived there in 2005.

I know a young lady who served her mission there from 2017 to 2019, witnessing a time of new prosperity and perhaps the more globalized Chile. Between my mission in the early 1990s and my return with my small family in the early 21st century (2005), Chile had attracted its share of some neighbors as immigrants for economic reasons, like Bolivians and Peruvians, even some Argentines and Uruguayans.

But by the late 2010s there was found a newer class of economic refugee, now from Haiti and Venezuela. The literal neighbors of Chile have their sociological, cultural, and linguistic differences, but Venezuelans and Haitians are a new brand of different for Chile, a country that apparently had removed any African descended inhabitants back in the early 1800s, when most countries of South America were forging their respective identities from the overseas ruler of Spain.

Chile, like much of Latin America, is a racial melting pot, with fair skinned blondes and redheads with European backgrounds as strong as "white" North America, while most Chileans are considered "mixed", or mestizo. Still a smaller minority of the country are native Americans, like in the United States or Canada. First nation people with their ancient languages and customs, if you will.

The Afro-descended peoples of the Caribbean are a new world and flavor for Chile, a land long and varied geographically but quite homogeneous as a culture and a way of speaking and understanding their own identity, their own lexicon, even across the breadth of their 2700 miles from north to south.

But prosperity and economic power brings its unique challenges and virtues, and diversity is one of them. Many people would see this as positive, to have the working poor of the tropics alight on land that has enjoyed opportunity.

But don't get me wrong, Chile has plenty of poverty and economic struggle and malaise like any other part of Latin America, like Mexico or Dominican Republic, or Guatemala or Ecuador. It is not a land of milk and honey as some may think of it, nor is the United States the great land of free opportunity and wealth, for that matter. We all have our sectors of poor and wrong founded public education, we have our ghettos and decrepit living conditions, our streets and even rural back roads of unemployed, fatherless, hungry, living pay check to pay check. Jesus did say we will always have the impoverished, right? He told the truth, don't you know.

 

Chile has had hundreds of thousands of its own leave the country for political and economic reasons, like so many other countries in the world in the last century and before. But Chile, unlike so many of these other lands, has a few more advantages than most. The government is stable, the policies of prosperity are well founded and continually bear sway to the majority of those who live there.

Chile is joined in the world by those looking for freedom and power to earn and live in a decent way. No different than Australia or Indonesia, the greater continents of Asia and Africa. Every people choose to find independence as a sovereign republic or monarchy, to find within its government and armed forces and working communities the stable chances to grow and enjoy life and its better qualities.

Asian tigers have found much of this formula to success and growth; the rest of the world wishes to emulate the power and dynamic opportunism of Japan and South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, and hark back to the original economic free powers of Western Europe. Those nations that made our world the colonized and post-colonized planet that we now understand as a Western model of living, all ascribed by the United Nations and a hundred other international organizations under the Western paradigm of "how to succeed and prosper". 

Even many Arab nations seek to follow the pattern, despite political or other cultural differences with the West.

Chile is one of the beacons to the world that sound financial policy and governance can and should work. The "pueblo de esfuerzo" (people of effort, i.e. work, a mantra on T-shirts with the Chilean flag)  do work and get ahead. Chileans do all right, compared to much of the rest of the planet. Free elections are the norm, peaceful presidencies and more peaceful protests for more economic rights and privileges are expected, even though some ugly incidents have marred the world of congregations and public demonstrations in the streets in the last year. (A public transportation increase of price resulted in severe protests in many Chilean cities, injuring and traumatizing many).

The United States understands this phenomenon a lot more in 2020, thank you.

Peaceful protests in public can be anything but, we realize here the great big US of A.

But back to Chilean Independence in the time of pandemic and social outrage post George Floyd, this perhaps less than momentous September of this uniquely destined year: we are grateful that Chile is there.

Smaller than most of its neighbors, nothing too big in the scheme of world geo-politics or culture, Chile is a light and a beacon, we are a better world for its presence, the existence of its people and present constitution and formation, and its signal to us that life and liberty can be a real result of many coming together to agree that we can survive and succeed.

 

Chile, I salute thee. Live long and prosper, continue in the path towards freedom and opportunity.

 

Happy Independence today and forever.

Prison Time in a World of Freedom 

Addictions and obsessions, physical limitations and maladies may turn our otherwise free reigns and independent sovereignty into a place of enslavement or "locked up" time,  as it were.

Most of us were supposed to be be born free but there are obvious physical and social limitations in our lives. Literal slavery and bondage have always existed, poverty and destitution exist, death and infirmity have their imprint, oppression and suppression are around in all times and climes. We are subject to the natural laws of the universe as well as the physical, financial, and mental limitations of what we have inherited in nature and later through our respective nurtures.

Then there are the mental and emotional cages and prisons that we either choose to be enrolled in or are involuntarily thrust into. Drugs, to include tobacco and alcohol, or too much sugar, to become obese or diabetic, gambling and its excesses, sexual appetites, sports fetishes or addictions, any number of psychological, sociological, emotional, spiritual traps, addictions, obsessions, vices, unruly habits...

 

We get ourselves into intellectual and religious habits and perhaps vices, if destructive enough, and we also can become addicted to and prisoner to work, to power, to control, to the money and its powers and excesses, to fame or fortune or whatever type of endorphin rise that we derive from out supposed actions and wills. 

Meant to publish in September (18) of 2020. Did not until September 29, 2023.

 Advice for a Happy and Calm Life

I have my ways of dealing with stress and obstacles, impediments and challenges. What works for me may not work for you or anybody else. However, I do make a claim, publicly and privately, to a Source of strength and stability and continual hope that I do believe works for me and surely will work for everyone who uses it. I know thousands of people personally, and millions of others indirectly, that use this same method and it works for them too.

 

Trust God and ask Him for help.  

Is it that simple? In most ways, yes. There are details that follow, for each person...

 

Many people dismiss this simple mantra and formula for various reasons. Like, for example:

 

1. We cannot prove that God exists. Why trust a being that is not there?

2. Too many people claim His power and authority and misuse and abuse that privilege.

3.  Religions claiming an authority or power of God exploit and oppress people.

4. If God exists, He allows too much misery and pain to be considered a trusted or loving God.

5. God does not care about me.

6. God has no power to help me.

7. God may be She. Why does God have to be a male, if He even exists?

 I think that there are hundreds of other variants of the above arguments and statements in view of many different opinions and reasoning out there throughout current and human history.

I understand. So, we have to weigh out the pros and cons. Does worshiping, praying to, and trusting an unseen God have benefits for us? Or is that process of submitting to Him detrimental to us?

Here is my point of view: From my life and who I am, I have personally known between 10 to 20 thousand people of my faith alone who have tried to submit their lives to God and do His will. I have known thousands of others who have done similarly. I believe that the grand majority were indeed benefited by this process. I have also known thousands who have rejected or refused this way, and I feel that they have missed out, ended up losing out on benefits of practicing a lifestyle and attitude of submission to an all-powerful being. This is my bias, sure.

You can decide whether my biased observance is valid or not.

 

I am not sure how many other examples that I have studied, reviewed, and observed through indirect means: television, radio, film, cassette, record, CD, newspaper, magazine, journal, encyclopedia, book, blog, article, paper, thesis, dissertation, and the multi-splenderous ways of the Internet and social media this deep into the 21st century. Thousands.  Some admittedly refer to God and their dependence or inter-dependence with Him. Others do not. 

Take their testimonies for what they are, what they reflect, what they indicate. Sometimes not much, hard to tell. The character Han Solo, who is dubious to the faith of the force, as a fictional character wondering about realities of his fictional world, comes to be a believer. Harrison Ford, on the other hand... Maybe not so much. I have seen him interviewed, multiple times over the years.

Authors, leaders, thinkers, artists. They all have their say.

Go with your gut. Who is happy and calm? Many of them are.

I trust the ones that I have seen and lived with up close. 

I have worshiped and served with thousands of them, none of them perfect or all-knowing. But all of them happy and calm enough for me.

They worship God. They pray to Him. They receive those answers.

I do, too.

That's my advice. Not a perfect formula, but it's the best that I know.

I cannot share anything better. It's that simple.

Trust God and ask Him for help. 

 You will receive answers and help, because that is what He does when asked sincerely.

 

Ask for what you really need and it will be there.

He is there. He will be there for you.

 

 Mr. Harper Up to 287 All time while 27 

Second year Phillie Bryce Harper has eight home runs in a pandemic shortened season.

He is tied with 287 dingers all time with productive Cub Anthony Rizzo, who is three years his senior. Also tied with Grissom, who I enjoyed watching when he played with the post Tim Raines Montreal Expos in the 1990s.

Donaldson is still mashing this season with the Twins at age 34, but watch out for fellow 27 year-old Machado with the somewhat hot San Diego Padres. Manny might overtake Harper for good this season and beyond, keep an eye on that.

I am still waiting for my boy Juan La Verdad Soto to hit the top 1,000 list. He has been hot in his 2020 games while healthy, but has been dinged up too much this truncated season of COVID-19. And the Nats have underwhelmed, overall.

 

Other notables, Oliver played a lot with Montreal, and Mattingly, i.e. "Donny Baseball", some consider a Hall of Famer in 14 years of playing. He is a manager now and may make the Hall someday based on a cumulative contribution to the baseball world. 

Oh, yeah: Bobby Doerr was a Hall of Fame guy, as was Bottomley; I knew a few other of these players as fine ball players, some of whom helped their teams win World Series during my lifetime...

287.	Marquis Grissom (17)	227	R	HR Log
	Bryce Harper (9, 27)	227	L	HR Log
	Anthony Rizzo (10, 30)	227	L	HR Log
290.	Johnny Callison (16)	226	L	HR Log
291.	Troy Tulowitzki (13)	225	R	HR Log
292.	Bobby Grich (17)	224	R	HR Log
293.	Bobby Doerr+ (14)	223	R	HR Log
	Josh Donaldson (10, 34)	223	R	HR Log
	Travis Fryman (13)	223	R	HR Log
	Mike Lowell (13)	223	R	HR Log
297.	Jason Bay (11)	222	R	HR Log
	Don Mattingly (14)	222	L	HR Log
299.	Tony Batista (11)	221	R	HR Log
	Geoff Jenkins (11)	221	L	HR Log
Rank	Player (yrs, age)	Home Runs	Bats	HR Log
301.	Manny Machado (9, 27)	220	R	HR Log
	Tony Oliva (15)	220	L	HR Log
303.	Jim Bottomley+ (16)	219	L	HR Log
	Al Oliver (18)	219	L	HR Log
	Joe Pepitone (12)	219	L	HR Log

 100 Crazy Things My People Believe Are Real (Part 1 of 3)

And: My people are a real Minority, based on Cultural Factors

     After living on the planet for the better part of fifty years, and following and believing, and for the most part trying to practice the faith of my religious denomination, I think I have earned the right or privilege of saying that these people who belong to it are "my" people. I belong to them, in many ways, and they belong to me. I am still my own person, of course, but I am also part of a community that I identify with by belief and custom, therefore I am part of a people, distinct from others. We are a religious minority of believers, which most religious people are, but there are factors that make us unique and peculiar. While people have argued that I am not part of a "minority", like a racial or ethnic one, I certainly have felt that by speech, lifestyle, preferences, and underlying values that I am as much a minority as those that have different skin colors, ethnic backgrounds, unique identity orientations, and such external factors that set people apart, because the things that I wind up saying, doing and believing, i.e. actions and behaviors, are as much a part of my identity and persona as anything else that the external or other cultural factors or preferences or strong factors that make other people who they are as people their respective distinctive minority statuses. You may not see me as different when you see me drive by, or give a presentation, but over time you will note that I am different than others, and therefore my people are unique. 

    I will not participate in the alcoholic toast at the company party, but I might hoist my water or juice, nor will I share beers at the weekend game or get together; I will be the one opting for hot chocolate rather than coffee for the early morning coffee run, declining the fresh coffee from the large breakfast box that someone was kind enough to bring. There are these dietary and consumption differences, yes. But there are more differences that make me and my people different. I will be the one trying to avoid the overtly sexual and dirty jokes, or the "adult" entertainment proffered at social or even some professional occasions. I will be the one declining invitations for Sunday brunches or picnics or games, because Sunday is different for us. We do Church and family stuff on most Sundays, avoiding most "normal day", i.e. Monday through Saturday activities. I am the one who does not throw out the course or crude, or, to many people normal language of the street and film of the 21th century. There are other practical differences among active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but most have to do with beliefs and doctrine, therefore:

1. Which comes first, God or human institution? Chicken or egg? We must go with in the beginning starting with God, the Father.  

 

We believe that God is our Father, the Creator of our spirits, that we as individuals have existed for untold eternities, and we have known each other before this life.

2. We believe that God is Omniscient, Omnipotent, all loving and just. He wants us to live with Him and follow His commands.

3. We believe that God the Father has a wife, and she is our Heavenly Mother.

4. We believe that God, the Omnipotent and All-loving Sovereign of the Universe, (as do most Christian faiths), sent His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior.

5. We believe that Adam and Eve were our first parents, and that they needed to fall from a type of innocent grace, as they transgressed (disobeyed a command of God), in order for the human family to begin, and our God-created spirits to fill the Earth.

6. We believe that Adam became a witness and prophet of God, and that a birthright and inheritance of priesthood power from God and Jesus were imbued into him and his posterity, and that includes us today, some six thousand years later.

7. We believe that this continuity of priesthood and authority among God's children has had interruptions and difficulties over the centuries and millennia, therefore there has been necessities to restore it at times, which explains Joseph Smith, Jr.

 

8. We believe that Joseph Smith, born in 1805 in Vermont in the early United States, was a Chosen prophet of God, like many prophets before Him and a few since. His name was prophesied in an ancient record that He translated.

9. Joseph Smith was given works to do by God and Jesus, as some prophets of old were directed and inspired; He wanted to know what Church was true as a young man, if there was one Christian denomination that embodied what the Bible referred to singularly.

10. Smith helped restore what what we believe is the Restored priesthoods of God, namely the Aaronic and Melchizedek. Worthy men, including minors, are permitted to wield these priesthood authorities. These roles are generally unpaid. Also, somewhat not shared or spoken enough, all worthy women and children share the priesthood powers and authorities through the holy temples. (I will get to temples more in part 2, hopefully.)

11. The Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and the more modern Doctrine and Covenants became additional canon to the Bible in this newly restored God mandated restored Church of Jesus, the Son of God directed faith, reconstituted in the United States but meant as a global faith  to all the world.

12. We believe that Joseph Smith, Junior, had revelations that reconstituted ancient truths that had been forgotten, abolished, or neglected since ancient times, which existed to bless people and bring us children closer to Him. Some of those truths included washing and anointing, receiving covenants called endowments in the temple, and being sealing to spouses and family in the altars of the holy temple.

13. We believe that the people of God need to follow God's commands individually, but that collectively we need to sacrifice and pull together in order to be happy, overcome, and fulfill God's plans, which is all built for us to prosper and bless others.

14. We believe that Smith instituted polygamy as a practice among some men and women in the early days of the Church, in the last years of life before he was killed by a mob while jailed in Carthage, Missouri.

15. We believe that the priesthood leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who subsequent to the martyrdom of the Prophet and his brother Hyrum in 1844 lead the persecuted faith for three years before the next Prophet came along, are made up as Jesus assigned, with a Quorum of Twelve apostles. They have been a consistent body of holy appointed special witnesses of Jesus and His Church, which we believe is chosen of God, since the 1830s.

16. We believe that the Church of Jesus Christ should be lead by priesthood leaders, starting with a Prophet of God who presides over the whole Church across the earth, and that a major part of the priesthood of God is to be married to a woman in the temple of God, sealing oneself and their children to her as a divine and pure mother in the patriarchal priesthood, all sanctioned by God.

17. We believe that marriage between a man and a woman is one of the holiest and highest sacraments attainable, and having and raising children righteously is one of the largest mandates and responsibilities given to us by our Heavenly Father.

18. We believe that we should regularly attend Church and meet together as Saints, co-followers of Christ, and the most important part of the Sunday meetings and classes is the holy supper that we refer to as sacrament, where we renew our covenants of baptism and we repent and receive foregiveness of our sins.

19. We believe that we should be baptized at the proper age of  accountability by a person who wields the proper authority of God to do so, like John the Baptist. This covenant and ordinance of baptism signifies that we are committed to follow Jesus and His teachings through thick and thin, and that we are to become members of His fold. We become brothers and sisters more officially and formally to each other, since we have chosen to become part of the family of Jesus Christ.

20. We believe that soon after baptism we are to be confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ and receive the Holy Ghost, the guidance and inspiration for all members of His Church.

 

21. We believe that members of the church, old and young, should teach each other from the holy scriptures, should come together in groups and quorums and families and specially assigned missionary lessons and commissions, which hearkens to the New Testament Commission of the Savior Himself.

22. As a German Air Force officer once told me as I explained to him many of the commands and rules of my faith, "You have many rules!". Yes, Mike, we do.

 

23. We believe that it was revealed to our prophets by God that certain drugs and chemicals are not meant to be ingested or consumed by us for everyday or recreational use. They include some products and drugs that are common to many of the general public are good and fine, like alcohol, caffeinated coffees and teas, and marijuana. The ones more agreed as taboo in the 21st century are tobacco and harder illicit drugs. From slighter to heavier chemicals, this Word of Wisdom health law is a cultural delimiter for most active Latter-day Saints.

24. We believe that God will bless us physically and spiritually for following His laws, which include laws about sexuality and morals, known as the Law of Chastity, and other vital laws of how we think, behave, and act in Godly proscribed ways. Marriage is the ultimate goal of being like God, and we need to respect the laws of family and the divine power of procreation.

25. We have in Church doctrine that plural marriage is a part of God's plan on earth and heaven for some men and women; the practice was done away with in 1890 until now, 130 years later. I personally find it very ironic that in the 21st century, by and large, the practicing members of the Church of Jesus Christ practice the most celibacy, or have one intimate married partner status more often, compared to most other American demographic cohorts. This comparison may be hard to prove, but there are surveys taken on how many partners people have in life which favor the LDS. In other words, regular Americans who are not living religious principles of intimacy end up having plural partners a lot more than the average church goer, or in specific members of the Church of Jesus Christ, aka Mormons. (The ones many modern plural partners accuse Mormons of polygamy historically, an evil practice in many of their eyes ever since the 1800s). We believe God intended one man for one woman, and we try to live that way more than most, if I may be so blunt.

26. Again, God will bless and curse us for our good sexual choices or to maintain chastity or commit sins against His Law of Chastity; these laws are very serious, to include how we speak, to include fowl language and humor of a sexual nature and disrespecting our bodies and the purity of them in word and deed.

27. We believe that cursing and using strong or "adult" language is offensive to God and His children. I have broken down cuss words into four categories: each has its own type of offense, all ultimately insulting God and His creations. A) Swear words invoking God and holy things are profane and break the first of the ten commandments, B) curse words using sexually explicit language demeans ourselves and our own purity of body, C) dirty words referring to bodily functions and crass references to body parts are offensive towards disrespecting our natural bodies, and D) racial epithets and gender-based slurs are offensive to who we are ethnically and biologically.

28. We believe that the way we think and speak makes a difference to God and each other. Actions are derived from much of the former, so we actively try to avoid the profane, lewd, and bigoted speech that is openly available in all forms of entertainment and communication.

29. We believe in following the Ten Commandments, the ones given to Moses on Mount Sinai as recounted in the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament, which are encapsulated in the Great Two Commandments of the New Testament: Love God and Love Your Neighbor. Love is at the heart of the matter, but there are nuts and bolts of keeping the commandments that are specific and valuable, like not coveting, lying, stealing, committing adultery...

30. We believe in believing and caring, in loving and giving and sharing, and repenting and redeeming. Much of it lies in the heart and mind, as faith, but more of it is demonstrated in the acts and outward postures of worship and reverence.

More on that in the next installment.

 The Spiritual Life of Bryce Harper

I just heard on the radio about an Indian cricketer who may be the best of his country of all time. Indian, Pakistani ...I cannot recall his name, but to many millions of the sub-continent and the cricket sports world he is a big deal and deserves praise for his skills, talents, art of the game, contribution to the sport.

In the United States we have baseball.

[I stopped here a couple weeks ago; I had my thoughts about what to say and share. Maybe I have some better things now?]

Some of our American heroes are the great and greater baseball players, like a cricketer in the sub-continent. Millions watch him, millions pay attention to his actions on the field, regular people and fans both heed his comments and observe his emotions and attitudes, they (we) take signals from him as to his postures, his daily travails and triumphs, his smirks and smiles and groans and curses... Something about this intimate tracking of a guy on the world stage where he faces the big arms and crazy speeds and dips and curves of the elusive spheroid... Life in metaphor. What curve ball or hurtling projectile is coming our way?

On top of the emotional and physical embodiment of his plight, Bryce is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is a signal to a few of us in those ways. Membership has its privileges and its perks, and its pitfalls and drawbacks. Some of us look to him as a hero of our faith, which is not something that he really ever volunteered to do or be, but by association this happens.

It happened for many of us with Dale Murphy in the 1980s, a man and athlete that was known as a gentleman's gentleman, a Christian and a Mormon, proving to those of us bystanders, observers, and near worshipers that he/we were both following Christ and believing in the Book of Mormon and such things in good standing. Murphy embodied a lot of virtue and supreme baseball ability.

Maybe a generation or two before it occurred with Harmon Killebrew, renowned slugger of the Minnesota Twins for people of the same faith (the one my parents joined in 1968, back when that man was well known). I think that another religious minority, the Jewish people, have cherished their baseball stars over the decades, and this is natural, it is part of our humanity. Why? Because each group of people or minority, to include race and nationality, likes to see the person of their background that represents them on the bigger stage of public sport. Hank Greenburg was a great of his day and I have seen evidence that he mattered to Jewish Americans. Ball players of all nationalities, ethnic backgrounds, like Roberto Clemente of Puerto Rico, Ichiro Suzuki of Japan, the early Latin greats of Dominican Republic, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Central America, or even a great player from Canada or South Korea or Taiwan...

But for a person of a religious minority in the United States, certain people of our faith cling to or bask in the successes of fellow members in baseball or other sports. I know this happened with Dale Murphy, and then later Wally Joyner, and a few others, like a couple with the San Francisco Giants... Don't get me wrong, many active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could care less about baseball, and if they did care they may have no idea that Dale Murphy in the 1980s or Bryce Harper in the 2000s is a member of the faith... But there are a few of us, and therefore this is a thing.

Bryce did get married in the San Diego temple a couple years ago, so I believe he is a faithful member of our faith, which is cool to me and a few others. We like successful people as examples. We all he is no Dale Murphy, but who is? Murphy was a Saint's Saint. An angel of a human being, everyone knew him for his virtue and piety, and a few years of baseball awesomeness.

Bryce should end up with a bigger career than the Murph (who is not in the Hall of Fame, despite some arguments for his inclusion)... Harper is on his way, although no one is as good as his contemporary Mike Trout. Trout is in as of maybe two years ago (2018).

And we love to see it, this Bryce wunderkind since his teens, and we care about his and many other peoples' spiritual well beings, public figures and lesser known private ones tucked away across our respective neighborhoods and communities...

Long live Bryce Harper, even though he left our Nats.

We want to see him in the Hall of Fame, and someday at a Church of Jesus Christ temple near you... Maybe he will not be a Mission President as Brother Murphy later became, but how many of us faithful ever become a mission president? Not many. As long as Harper stays married and is a good family man, that is all we can ask for as a public and religious fans.

Go Bryce, do your thing. You have brought a lot of interest to the game, and many are very thankful for it.