All The Things ... 10 November 2026

    I could, and should, write about all the things that I see and know. But this is impossible. That is possibly why poetry is used, because it can convey things that we cannot address and capture in prose.

    Prose cannot do it all. I tried reading some of Marcel Proust; it seemed a messed up jumble of thoughts and people and ideas. A blogger centuries before our world wide web was composed.

    Yet, he is hailed a great writer, and his works have import. To some.

    For history, context, intellectual journeys that matter. To some.

    I am here typing at the end of the work day, for which I earned Paid Time Off. I had so many hours that I chose to take this day to utilize for me. The day before the federal holiday where we celebrate veterans, but the school system does not use it but recognized yesterday, a longer weekend, yes, coinciding with Diwali, the festival of lights for the Hindus. 

    Okay, this is Loudoun County, this is America. The United States.

    Where we in the shadows of the nation's capital, which recently has been affected by mid-term elections, see some diffferences in political moods, and a higher recent jobs growth indicator (165,000 in October), and slightly lower gas prices from reduced oil costs, per barrel.

    Money is important. My son arranged some things for he and his brother and us, electronically so that we can benefit from some conventions of accounts and interests and investments. Important, all of it. Credit, and bills, and incomes, and liquid funds to do things, like send people to Spain, and go back to the land where I visited with the family of Ricardo and Daniela back in the late 1980s.

    I spoke with my ex-brother-in-law, a lifetime friend, who is confederate with John Dehlin, a famous or infamous podcaster, who has serious issues with my faith. Dehlin. He has his place. Meanwhile, one son is doing his things in Arabic with Arabs and others, and another goes to interact with the people of Brazil and the associates of those that have lived there.

    I missed the fireside of the former mission president and his wife, who served in Maputo, Mozambique. A country with two temples now!

    Tyler, Hyrum, Sam, and Mike, as well as a slightly distant Eric live in the farther valley of Virginia, to the west, where a newer temple will be built. New to our Commonwealth. We will have more options.

    We went to the temple with our son, for his first time, his initiation. His friend Garrett came, so we met with his friend and parents from Lyon, France. That was tre jolie, I believe. We paid for our guests from Europe. We will host Emily from Spain soon.

    Too many real names? Nah, I think we are safe.

    Unless, the threats are real. Could Artificial Super Intelligence be plotting and constructing our downfall, our enslavement in the new age of bondage and dystopian lunacy?

    Perhaps.

    Could China be the menacing threat, combined with AI or Machine Learning? Could cyber actors bring us to ruin, steal all our valuables and fungible assets from us?

    Can I read the books that I have checked from the library? Lee Child, Robyn Young, Robert Pulasky... I am finishing Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man". The epilogue is more meaningful, or perhaps sensible to me than the first 500 plus pages. I find a lot of drivel and schlock, but worst of all misogyny and opacity.

    That was not the whole point of Ellison, but perhaps much of it?

    I will write the teacher of my son who was compelled to read it, and receive a grade for it. Better than his peers, he scored, but he, even the one with the best score from some paper, did not bother to read all the words.

    Ah, okay. Fiduciaries await.

    Some of my writings, if not most, seem rambling and even stodgy, or another pjorative that an education profession said of my family history profile. No, he said stilted. Thanks, Wheaton College guy. To me, the Brigham Young Spanish major.

    Yes, I know what it is for people who do not believe in me. They lie behind every corner, to include those of my own home. How to drive, how not to be in danger on the roads. Sure, that is helpful advice. We need A-drivers, truck commanders. In HUMVEES, if not all moving vehicles.

    Did I say enough? No, there is more, always.

    These are not all the things, just a portion. I texted my oldest about "controlled timeouts". Wondering where that kind of parenting comes from.

    Not easy, I admitted.

    Seeing out boy move on, move out, going to speak another language. He will always be ours, I tell her. My beloved wife.

    She passed here test, we are sure of it. A load taken care of, for now. Preparing for the future.

    What will it bring. Some think I will not make much more than I do now. Maybe so.

    If I stay on course, on track, I have a chance to pay all the bills, and do many of the things necessary to be fulfilled. In this process we trust.

    In God and all the Saints.