"I need your grace" (picture below)

isn't it beautiful?

so how does one start a blog? i picked a theme, and below are my current "finer things in life."

some cool art to start with. particularly textile related. i almost went to art school for textiles. this is the kind of stuff i'm into. perhaps i'll put some of my own textile work up one of these days. :)

(click on the pictures to view them bigger. i think it gives them more justice, especially the one above.)







i want music to be a regular thing i post. someone very close to me once said that there is a spirit found in music that can't be traced anywhere else. this song i'm going to post is by Ray LaMontagne (picture below), who i am becoming more of a fan of every day. i especially like this song, which is called "within you." it inspires me. it makes me reflect on the fact that even though i fall short of virtues i'm trying to cultivate, i have the capability within me to be better. (right click and press "play media." it should open in your computer's media player.)



Ray LaMontagne - Within you



next on the list: authentic foreign foods!



(so i really hate worrying about caps lock. sorry guys.) friday night, i was delighted with my first taste of korean food. yum. some friends and i went to the best place in town called Sam Hawk, which was rumored to have only 1 chef. i somewhat rudely asked the waitress if it was true, and oddly enough it is. for those of you interested: plan on a 1 hour wait, and 2 hours for eating. the portions they serve are tiny, but it's more or less all you can eat. meg, who is korean by birth, american raised, also had her first taste of her native dish as well. that was enjoyable to witness. we tried teaching her how to use chopsticks for 15 minutes, but alas, t'was not to be. here is a picture of how you're suppose to hold it. :) give it a try!


so honestly my weekends and my daily routines are not the primary focus of my blog. as i was saying, i was very inspired by the two gentlemen who accompanied us to Sam Hawk, who said they started blogging because it was a good way to get The Word out. (Andy and Quinn - check out their blogs too!) so today at sacrament, a kid named adam spoke on virtue. he is a natural speaker and for once, it was really enjoyable AND entertaining to listen to him, as he would use large animated gestures, postures and expressions that just left me feeling like i had just watched a movie. he actually teaches italian and i feel like if i had any capabilities of learning a second language, i'd be all over that class for two reasons. italian is well, dead sexy, and adam teaches it. so what made his talk so great? not only did he quote prophets and scripture, he also quoted a french play write, Moliere, Benjamin Franklin and other well-knowns. i really feel like talks would benefit from adding outside church sources such as these. i'm going to make sure i do that next time. tell me what you think about this:

"I prefer an accommodating vice to an obstinate virtue."
--Jean-Baptiste Moliere (picture, right).

"Pedagogues, pedants and preachers now noisily exhort us to new heights of virtue when, in fact, the problem with modern society is that it has too much virtue, not too little..."

"There is no problem with vices; it is just that we never cultivate them properly, having gone haywire with virtues. The Aristotelian Mean Principle works better. We need a healthy mix of both virtues and vices to control the other running loose. Let us examine all of these vices in detail and see if can develop a lifestyle full of useful vices..."

--Robert J Hutchinson

Is this not sick?


Let me contrast.

"My fear is that we choose to speak about a vice which seems more interesting over a virtue that would appear more boring."
--Adam

isn't that so true? is that not what hollywood is based on? sex and violence sells, right? i was pondering on this quote trying to prove it wrong, and i was immediately grateful for tv shows like Extreme Home Makeover, where they take a very needy family and give them a brand new house, tailored their special needs. i tear up every episode, not kidding.

Here is what others have said about the issue.

"There is a lie—a vicious lie—circulating...and taking its toll among the young. It is that a ‘balanced man’ is one who deliberately guards against becoming too righteous. This lie would have you believe that it is possible to live happily and successfully with one foot in Babylon and one foot in Zion."
--Elder Carlos Asay

nI believe what Elder Oaks has to say.

"We serve God and our fellowmen in order to become the kind of children who can return to live with our Heavenly Parents." --Dallin H. Oaks

I believe vices are called vices for a reason, and we are suppose to replace them with virtues that we learn by serving one another. There are obviously people out there that don't believe that, and although i uphold their right to believe such, it still makes me sad.

anyway, i love that people like adam exist. people who can quote french play writes and our forefathers of this country. people who have lost skills of talking in front of large groups, and eloquently and simply putting together sentences, drenched in intelligence. yum.


actually, another one of my finer things right now is Carl Jung (picture below.) i'm learning about Carl Jung (isn't that a goofy pic of him? he's swiss!) in my personality class, who believes in oppositional thinking. meaning, in order to be good you have to know what it means to be bad. someone who is extremely well-mannered knows how to be extremely rude.
what do you think about that?
if you apply that concept, you have to assume 3 things.
1) humans are rational beings.
2) humans have agency.
3) humans are not determined by their past.
therefore, if someone has equivalent knowledge of good and evil, they can choose to be good or evil at any moment. someone who is very evil can choose to be very righteous if they desired. my professor gave the example of when he would teach a class at the local prison. he loved teaching this concept to the men there because it would give them hope that they can change their lives around, and that they weren't determined to be gangsters all their lives. similarly, men who are virtuous all their lives who suddenly "fall from grace" aren't doomed forever either.
this leads us to more ideas.
1) that our actions define who we truly are.
Ex. righteous people know more about temptation than do those who succumb to it, because they are constantly rejecting temptation for something greater.
does this make sense?
2) if our actions matter, to the point that they define us, than holy cow, that opens up a whole new can of worms that i don't feel like going into depth. I do want to relate this back to God. If i'm not mistaken, most of protestant Christianity believes that we are saved through God's grace no matter how we act on earth. we just have to proclaim Christ as our Savior and we're good to go. But if God cares about how we act, as perhaps Jung indirectly suggests, how does the idea "no matter what, we are saved in the end through God's grace" hold water? it just doesn't.

"...for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." -2 Nephi 25:23.

there's some food for thought.
- g'nite