Day 7: The book of Ether to the tune of "Lean on Me."

I am not a particularly religious man. I just wanted to preface this, in case I have more readers than I thought and somehow spark a religious debate. I have no interest in discussing religion with anybody in any great depth, I feel every persons perception of religion is sacred to them and them alone and should generally be let be.

That being said, I am going to share something today: my favorite scripture. It's a passage not too many people will be terribly familiar with, and I apologize. It is from the book of Ether, the 13th (or 14th, depending on whether you count the Words of Mormon as a book) section of the Book of Mormon. It is from the 12th chapter, the 27th verse, and I owe my understanding of it to Sister Bowers, a seminary teacher and remarkable woman who actually got me to listen to something at 5AM. It goes as such (and YES, from memory, sue me if it's wrong but please don't tell Sister Bowers or she'll retroactively take away my only scripture mastery sticker)

"And if men come unto me, I will show them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble, and my grace is sufficient for all men who humble themselves before me. For if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me; then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

Ether 12:27

I don't think this has to be interpreted in the context of Christ (even though I love this verse so much it's one of the few instances where I'll permit it : P ). I really think this verse has something for everybody. The last few days I've been planning to see my father and a few good friends on the 14th of January, to go to the hockey game with them, catch up, all that jazz. Today I realized I'm anxiously awaiting it. I cannot wait to see my friends, how different they must be, what stories they'll have to tell me. You could say I've been a bit of a hermit the last year or so and I really miss having that in my life. And then this verse hit me like a ton of bricks, completely out of the blue. Then it hit me.

Ether 12:27 is about leaning on others. Sure, it's in the grand context of the Savior, in all his splendor. But you know what he's saying? If you make the effort to help yourself and others, others are more likely to help you. If you make yourself humble, people won't mind helping you be strong. In a lot of ways, I realized this applied to me: I've been making an effort to change my life, and suddenly...all my friends are back. I abandoned them, shut myself away. But when you open up, when you come back down to their level, they're always going to be there....much like Christ, actually, but that's a different story for a different day.

You know what's funny? I could've said I smiled today because of achieving some kind of greater understanding. I really could've, and you'd believe me, too. But you know what I really smiled about? You'll never guess.

After I realized the scripture could apply to the people around you I thought out loud: "It's too bad those "God is other people" hippies don't read the Book of Mormon." It would really make their case, you know?!

Then I went back to work with a wicked grin on my face.

-Eli

Day Six: Smiling because I'm free.

Life isn't bad right now. At least it's not for me. I have a friend who is going through some huge issues right now, though, and we've been talking a lot about it. He's miserable, but tied down to his situation by some major responsibilities and kind of stuck. Actually I'm pretty sure he did the opposite of what I discussed yesterday: he waited far too long to cut bait, sanity is a thing of the past and now he has to wallow in it, lest he deal with the rather extreme ramifications of booking it.

I realize now that you need to overreact to be free sometimes. Did Colonial Americans really need to revolt against the crown because of a tax on tea? (And yes, brilliant readers, I know the American Revolution was over more than tea. It's called exaggeration.) No, they didn't: but they did, and hey, it sure seems to have worked out. Did Mandela have to starve himself, spending the majority of his life in prison to end Apartheid? Probably not, but the guy sure made his point.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this: impatience is a sign of freedom, not bondage. As smart as it is to think everything through to the end about 99% of the time, in matters of the heart* I find it smartest to just go with what makes you happy. Sometimes it's irrational. OK, it's almost ALWAYS irrational...but sometimes that irrational decision is the best one. I look at my friend, and realize I don't envy his situation, but I hope he makes the decision to be happy, however he goes about it.

As for me, my grin today is simple: I, just like anybody else, am free to break the chains that bind me. No man, no act of God, no circumstance can keep me down if I really want to be happy.

...and the more I think about it, the more I realize that's where I want to be.

-Brett

*unless of course your matters of the heart are of the medical persuasion. In that case, I'd recommend the advice of your doctor/witch doctor/tribal shaman. You should think those through. Yeah.

And on the fifth day, I smiled about cutting bait.

So I've recently realized that some things in your life exist entirely to drag you down. I've also been intelligent enough to realize that if things exist in your life entirely to drag you down, then you should probably get rid of them. I've also been intelligent AND blessed enough to be able to start doing that.

I think one of the foundations of being a happy, functioning person is having the ability to let things go. Sometimes, things are just entirely out of your control, and you need to get out while you can save your sanity. I am a person who gets incredibly hung up on tiny things: things people say and do, what they want and need. I'm generally the kind of person who lets these things eat him up. And in reality, I still am, but today had some special circumstances where I was able to finally say "Eh, I don't need this. I'm done." I won't bore you with the specifics, but I was proud of myself.

This is massively important to me, and I hope to try and repeat it more often.

As for the official tally, 360 smiles to go, and I'm already trying to squeeze out metaphorical reasons to grin ;0

You know what's funny, though? I started doing this as a way of mentally training myself: if I inundated myself with happiness, there's no way I could still be sad, right? It was reconditioning that Big Brother would've admired. The funny thing is, though, that the more I focus on being happy, the less I have to worry about picking specific happy moments: they all seem to be running together, now...almost like I'm happy most of the time. Sweet.

Big smiles tonight, people. It appears I'm learning something.

-Eli

Smile number 4: Liver and Onions

I'm not sure how well some of you know me, but anybody with any inkling of who I am will understand one thing: I hate my job.

Well, hate is such a weak word. I megaloathe it. Better? Who knows. Anyway, today was the most dreaded day of work possible. Today...was the liver and onions special.

FREAKING LIVER AND ONIONS. I absolutely hate the stuff. Smells like a rotten animal, tastes like a thousand pennies screaming their bloody last as they drown in gravy. For the uninitiated, liver and onions is (are?) completely disgusting.

Unless you happen to be a gomer. An old person. A resident at "Next Stop Heaven" old folks home, even. You know, like the one I work at. I've provided a handy chart to help understand the situation better.

As you can see, I was totally screwed, sentenced to a crime worse than death: serving this zombie-drug to hundreds of elderly folk, drowning in a sea of food tickets, constantly being nitpicked for my service while I simaltaneously drown in the three days of prep I'm STILL expected to put out. It usually goes like this?

And that's with about seven hours to go. Except today, it didn't really do that.

It just didn't.

...your guess is as good as mine. Orders piled to the ceiling seemed miniscule. Pitfalls I would usually explode in we're easily stepped over. Small tasks that usually seemed herculean on liver day were just that, small tasks. It was incredible. I don't know if I finally conquered my white whale, or if a different outlook on life is really starting to change things for me, but I do know one thing: when I was done, I actually tried the liver. Not half bad.

And that's definitely worth a grin.

-Eli

PS: "Eli Says: When did you conquer YOUR "liver and onions." Figuratively speaking, of course. If liver and onions was also your white whale, I would like to point out you are not as interesting as me and should probably give up.

PSS: If your white whale is actually a white whale, can we hunt it together?

The third smile is the charm, right? Day 3, folks: I absolutely love to sleep.

Yeah, that's right. Sleep. It's a pretty easy thing to love. If you're doing it right, it's 1/3 of your life, that's pretty important stuff we're talking about, here. I slept in today.

You know, that was after I took a nap last night. Nothing on Earth cannot be fixed by a decent night of rest. That is absolutely worth smiling about.

Sorry for the short writeup today, I've been really busy. So I'll leave some of the content up to you. Tell me, do you love naps? Where is your napping spot? Let me know what you're thinking.

Smile on,

Eli

PS here are cute kittens taking a nap

They were all too lazy to write new content, too! : D

Day 2, Smile 2, Post 2, Catch 22, Blue 22 set hike: Why I love playing hooky.

*SPOILERS* : I left work "sick" today. Lock up your daughters, alert the authorities, whatever it is you do. I'm a terrible person. Then again, if it's good enough for Ferris Bueller, it's damn sure good enough for me.

There's something inherently fanciful about not having to work when you're supposed to. Seriously, do you ever call off work/call in to school/decide to skip class? Isn't it absolutely liberating? Don't get me wrong, I'm not recommending losing your job/failing out of school for attendance problems. That's not fun. I'm just saying that fun had while you're supposed to be working is just BETTER than normal fun. How much fun do you have playing hooky?

To me, it seems like the answer is "a lot." You've more than likely heard that the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. This is why, as a principle, I don't ever lay my plans down in strange places unattended. It's got multiple purposes, obviously.

1. I never have to actually plan anything. Unplanned actions have more potential, and therefore are more likely to be fun.

2. My plans usually involve neither men or mice this way

3. Lord knows you can't lay something down unattended and get it through airport security. Last thing I need is the NSA impounding my brain.

The other benefit? If all of your actions are spontaneous, then what part of your life could possibly become mundane? What if everything is a surprise, if everything was an adventure? What if everything had just a little bit of panache? Life would be a hell of a lot more exciting, wouldn't it?

Of course, we're all a little too smart here. We realize that can't happen. We make routines, we keep schedules, we know that we eat dinner at six and go to bed at ten and wake up for work the next morning. Humans really are creatures of habit. Seriously, extrapolate that a little bit. Breakfast/Work/Lunch/Home/Dinner/Bed/Breakfast.../eventually death. We can be the most boring creatures in the universe when we let ourselves. If we allow ourselves to become that idea, that concept...then we really change from creatures of habit to creatures of wasted potential.

Sometimes, I call off work just to not become my creature of habit. Today, I left work early (OH NO) and it felt like I had absolutely limitless potential. I know that because of my being "sick" I won't have to work tomorrow. The thought alone makes me think I could fly tomorrow, if I tried hard enough. Think about it: Monday morning now has eight entire hours of limitless potential that I hadn't planned for. Anything I do, now, is going to be new and exciting. If I walk to the park, if I go to the chinese place down the road and write on my laptop; hell, if I sit at home playing Warcraft I'll know I did something completely unexpected. That's worth something! If I know I have time to do something, anything that I'll really enjoy, there's no chance to walk out of that feeling sad.

In the end, I suppose that's worth a grin (and 15 minutes of your time.) Maybe I'll find my next smile playing hooky tomorrow.

Anyway, my question for you (go ahead and leave a comment, if you wish) is simple: Do you like playing hooky, and do you have a fantastic hooky story to share with the class? Let me know what you think. Until then, smile: at least Y211+1 didn't come today.

-Eli

Day 1, Smile 1: Thankfully, there was no Y211.

...or not. Again. Remember when this used to be a big deal? I would really hate to have been one of those people who celebrated the turn of a century, let alone an entire millenium* in their basement huddled around cans of beans and filtered water. I remember 2000. I was 11, going on 12, knew everything, and had a completely uncontrollable urge to dash outside. There were fireworks and drunken reveling in my neighborhood**, much as their always was. Nothing special. And now I can't help but think that if a plane had crashed out of the sky right then, I'd have been toast because I went outside. I've always been a curious one. People consistently have a habit of not rewarding my curiosity, whether by being boring or via flaming jet...though I suppose that wouldn't really be boring***.

* I remember the people on TV making a huge deal out of a woman who was going to have lived in three centuries. She was born in the latelatelate 1800's, managed to not get polio, shove off Hitler, the Great Depression and more than likely several bears in order to survive until the year 2000. This was an absolutely huge deal, that she lived in portions of three centuries. Think of the incredibly small amount of people who have likely done that. Now remember that all of us are going to need to live 981 more years to see the year 3000. My point? You'd have been a grand fool to not celebrate 2000. You'll never see anything like it again.

**So I know everybody has a special memory pertaining to the bus stop. Each and every one of you probably used a bus stop traveling to school for a really ridiculously long time. You remember something special. In my case, I remember being able to lay there on the concrete and be absolutely certain I could see the curvature of the Earth. Absolutely ridiculous? Yes. But I spent a lot of time alone at the bus stop.

*** You know what's NEVER boring? Footnotes. You will giggle at them.

Anyway, I think you should have a fabulous new year and show people my blog so you aren't the only crazy man on the internet reading it. As for me, you can put it on record: I smiled today because the world didn't come to an end. I'm starting small.

-Eli