No Reciprocity Needed

When we receive a gift, we feel indebted to the giver. We want to give something back of equal value. Yet, most friends, family members, and other givers of gifts don't expect that of us. They don't give us gifts with the expectation of receiving something in return. That's not how "giving" works. Sure, it's nice to give back to the people who give gifts to us, but when we can't repay the gift, whether because we didn't bring a gift to the party or because we can't afford the same quality of gift we've received or for any other reason, the best thing to do is to thank the giver, make good use of the gift, and move on, no reciprocity needed.

This is especially true with the Atonement. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the greatest gift we've ever been given and could ever be given. As such, there's no way that we could ever repay that gift, and Christ doesn't expect us to. He just expects us to thank Him and make good use of His gift by repenting and becoming pure. The best and only way to "pay Jesus back" is to use His gift to become like Him.

We don't need to worry about repaying Jesus or anyone else who gives us a good gift. It's natural to want to reciprocate, and it's probably good to do so when we can, but we don't need to worry about it, especially in the case of Christ's Atonement. Reciprocation is nice, and it feels fair, but it isn't needed.

Sharing a Single-Player Game

I got a new game as an early Christmas present, and I really love it. The only issue is that it's a single-player game, meaning that it's harder to share the experience of the game with others. Yet, my brother and I have found a way. For a while, he watched me play. Right now, I'm watching him play. At some point, we might try splitting the controller between us, so we each have half of the controls. However we share the game, I'm glad we can both have fun with it and share the experience of playing the game. As with most other things I've done this last week, sharing this game with my family makes it more fun, even if it was only meant to be a single-player game.

Putting Family (or Schoolwork) First

That week went by too fast, and now it's back to the same old routine of tying to do homework as early as possible and hopefully having time for other things afterward. I know my homework is important and urgent and I really need to do it, but still, it was nice to have a week when I was able to put family first.

Yet, the more I think about it, the more I think I should put family first. Looking at the long-term consequences of various choices, it's fairly plain to realize that the few assignments I have left aren't likely to drastically adjust my grades in these classes, and even if they do, my grades in these classes aren't likely to drastically change my GPA overall, and even if they do adjust the average slightly, that isn't likely to diminish my prospects of getting a decent job. These last few assignments aren't very important. I'll still do them, but I don't necessarily need to devote much time to them, with the exceptions of the finals.

In contrast, family matters, eternally. My family relationships are important and will continue to remain important long after no one cares what my grades, GPA, or occupation were in mortality. Perhaps I can afford to continuing to prioritize spending time with family. Perhaps, despite the end of Thanksgiving week, I should continue the practice of putting family first.

More Fun with Family

I did a lot of fun things today. I watched a few YouTube videos, played Breath of the Wild and Disc Golf, and ate pizza at Round Table. And all of those things were more fun because I did them with family. It was fun to chat about the videos, to solve puzzles together, compare our luck and skill at throwing discs, and hang out at a large, conglomerated dinner table. I could have done any of those things alone. Watching videos, playing games, and eating pizza can all be done alone, and one can enjoy the solitude of doing such things on one's own, but today I was reminded that such things can also be even more fun when they're done together.

A Tradition of Family Time

I don't normally put much stock in tradition. Normally, I don't see much value in doing things the way others have done them, just because others have done them that way. However, I do see the value in some traditions, including the tradition of bringing families together at least once per year to share meals, games, and quality time with each other. This week has been lovely, and that has been largely because I've been able to spend much of it with family. Naturally, introvert that I am, I can get overwhelmed by the presence of too many people or too much noise, but we have thankfully been able to avoid that this year, and I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for the amount of time I've been able to spend with my family this week, and I'm grateful for the tradition that gives us an excuse to get together.

Family and a Friend

I had a wonderful day today, and what made it so wonderful was that I was able to spend it with a small circle of my closest family members and my closest friend, who had been welcomed into our home to share Thanksgiving with us. Being with them, chatting with them, playing with them, eating with them, and just spending time with them, was an absolutely wonderful experience.

I hope heaven is as heavenly as today was. I know that, in eternity, we will be able to be with our faithful family members. My hope is that our heavenly home will also be open to a handful of our closest friends.

Bringing Families Together

Today, I had an opportunity to get together with family members that I hadn't seen in person in quite some time, but first, I had an opportunity to bring together family members that I have never seen at all. This morning, I went to the Temple with some family members, and we did some sealings, linking together families that I have never met. It was a nice experience, and it's wonderful to think that, because of what we did today, those families will be able to be together for Thanksgiving, for Christmas, and Forever. There's never a bad time to bring families together, but there are few better times to do so than the holidays.

Share Happiness

Some of the brightest parts of my day/week are when I get to share happiness with others. Sometimes, they tell or show me something that made them happy, and sometimes I tell or show them something that made me happy. Either way, we get to share some happiness with each other, and we're both happier as a result.

Naturally, it's possible (and common) to do the opposite. We grumble. We complain. We talk about our problems. And yes, it's important to discuss problems as a necessary step to finding and honing our solutions. But we should share happiness, too. And I dare say that we should share happiness more frequently than we share misery.

So, that's something I'm going to work on. I'm going to try to share happiness with others in hopes that they;ll have more happiness to both enjoy and share in turn. Perhaps they'll reciprocate, but even if they don't, I want to experience and share happiness more than misery. I'm going to look for ways to find happiness, and then I'm going to share them.

The Most Important Rule(s)

There are many rules, probably too many to keep track of them all, and sometimes they come into conflict with one another. When obedience to two or more rules becomes mutually exclusive, it's most important to obey the most important rule. For example, I'm supposed to blog every day, before midnight, but something more important came up, so my blog got put on the back burner. I suppose, then, that it's important to know what the most important law(s) is/are. Fortunately, Jesus Christ was very clear on that front. 

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. - Matthew 22:37-39

Basically, love God and love your neighbors. Everything else is secondary. As long as we continue following those first and greatest two commandments, we're obeying the most important rules. So, whenever there's a conflict, we can always fall back of those core principles and know that our morals are in the right place.

Planning Around Family

I spent some of the afternoon trying to plan out the next few weeks worth of assignments and responsibilities, and the first items that went on the schedule were multiple days of spending time with family. It's important to make time for important things first, and few things are more important than family. Of course, there are other things that need doing, and I scheduled time for those things, but I'm working around my family time as much as possible. The holidays are a time for family, so when I scheduled how I'm spending my time these next few weeks, I accounted for family time first.

The Hero Who Didn't Fight

Near the end of Marvel's Eternals, one of the main characters willingly withdraws from the central conflict of the film, because while he has strong beliefs about the conflict, he admits to being unwilling to kill others for his beliefs. This can be viewed as a form of cowardice, but I think that this is a valid stance to take. 

My personal philosophy is "Live and Let Live," so unless lives are being threatened in a way that is clearly morally egregious, I don't think I'd be willing to risk anyone's lives to step in. As I said back when I blogged about Quasimodo's Cries, I can't judge those who are forced to make a decision in any Trolley Problem-esque moral quandary. So, if some people want to flip the switch, and other people want to stop them, I can't confidently say that I'd pick a side and join the fight, either. 

Frankly, I can relate to the character who chose to abstain from the conflict, and if I were in their shoes, I think I might have made the same choice. I can hope I'd have the courage to kill someone to save others' lives, but unless lives are already on the line, I don't think I'd fight anyone over a difference of beliefs.

Warmth

As Summer turns to Fall, and Fall turns to Winter, the weather gets colder, but we can still feel warm. Granted, that's mostly because of warm clothing, heaters, and decent insulation, but it's also because of the people I care about and the time I get to spend with them. Spending time with loved ones can warm the heart, no matter how cold it is outside. So, while we all try to stay out of the cold as much as possible (or play in the snow, for the people who enjoy that), let's also be sure to spend time with those who make us feel warm.

On Not Killing Everyone

SPOILERS FOR MARVEL'S ETERNALS!

They're trying to save the world.

Of course, that's particularly new to the realm of superhero fiction, but what's (relatively) unique is what they're saving the world from: the birth of a god (or, more accurately, a "Celestial"). Apparently, in this Marvel universe, a Celestial named Arishem planted a "Celestial Seed" into the Earth (possibly having created the Earth first) so that the Earth could serve as a womb/cocoon/egg for the planted Celestial (named Tiamat) until it was ready to emerge. When the Eternals learn of Tiamat's pending emergence, some of them try to figure out how to stop the emergence, because the emergence of Tiamat would result in the destruction of the planet. Yet, Tiamat's emergence would also result in the birth of a Celestial, who would, following the pattern, go on to create more worlds and more life (which would then probably also end with the births of Celestials). Some of the Eternals argue that they shouldn't interfere with Tiamat's emergence, Earth's destruction, and the creation of other worlds. It's the classic Trolley Problem, but with entire worlds on the line, instead of individual people, and the many worlds for which the one world would be sacrificed haven't been created yet.

It's a surprisingly interesting moral question to grapple with (or gloss over, in the case of the film itself). Should one person (or world) be allowed to die so that others could live? On the surface, it's simple moral mathematics. Two lives (let alone many) are better than one. Then again, we're talking about the future. A bird in the hand is worth two (or many?) in the bush. It's also worth noting that we know nothing of the nature of Marvel's Tiamat (at least, not based on the knowledge that I picked up in the film). Perhaps Tiamat would create countless utopian worlds and not destroy them. Or perhaps they would destroy and/or terrorize worlds that already exist. Tiamat's nature is an important, but unknown factor in whatever moral equation we may try to calculate.

Yet, of course, morality is never so simple as punching the numbers. It's one thing to say that two lives carry more moral weight than one, but it's another thing entirely to be willing to kill one innocent person in order to save two others. I don't know if I could do it. It may or may not be the right thing to do, but I don't know if I'd have it in me to do it. I blogged about this years ago, talking about the gypsies in The Hunchback of Notre Dame needing to quiet an infant Quasimodo in order to avoid capture by torturers. I didn't know how I'd handle such a situation then, and I don't know now. I believe, on paper, that killing one person to save multiple others is, at least in a Utilitarian sense, the right thing to do, but I don't know if I could, in practice, bring myself to do it.

But Utilitarianism isn't the only moral code to consider. There's another, highly weighted moral rule with few exceptions: Thou Shalt Not Kill. That seems fairly clear to me. Yet, couldn't it be argued that to not save a life you could have saved is a sin of omission? Is it worse to murder one person or to fail to save two? I don't know. As before, I think that only God can judge cases such as these, and so I ultimately leave all judgment up to Him.

I don't know whether the Eternals were right to try to save the world, and I don't know if it's good that they succeeded. I'm mostly just glad that I'm not the one who has to judge difficult moral cases like these.

On Not Killing "Monsters"

Tonight, my D&D character let some traditionally "monstrous" and "evil" creatures live. One of them was a lizardfolk who made no attempt to harm us, and the other was a necromancer who only cast a harmful spell to help him cover his escape when he was attacked. Neither of them was observed doing anything evil, but both admitted to serving a black dragon, which are almost always evil. Granted, the same can be said of normal lizardfolk are necromancers. Lizardfolk are typically evil because they eat people, and necromancers are typically evil because they use dark magic and undeath. Yet, I saw no evidence that either of these "monstrous" individuals had ever harmed anyone. So, my character chose not to harm them.

Granted, this may come back to bite them. We will encounter the black dragon at some point, and when we do, that conversation may not end well. If we end up fighting the black dragon, we may end up fighting the dragon's allies. The necromancer, at least, is probably going to show up again, probably as an attacker, probably with some undead allies. But I suppose we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there. So far, my character has judge people by their actions, not their race or profession, and I prefer it that way. My character will fight anyone who attacks her, her allies, or any other innocent person, but if they're leaving others alone, she'll likely leave them alone, too. Unless people cause harm, they shouldn't receive harm, either, no matter who or what they are.

Importance

I recently wrote an essay about importance and about how art portrays certain things, people, places, and ideas as important. But I'm not sure there is an objective measurement of "importance." In fact I think that things are only important if they're important to someone.

For example, Rocket League isn't important. It's a computer game where rocket-powered cars play soccer. It's a simple game with a silly premise. It's also an E-Sport. There are tournaments. There's prize money. There are sponsorship deals. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of professional Rocket League players. And because it's their main source of income, Rocket League is very important to them.

The same thing could be said for anything that most people consider unimportant. There are people to whom that thing is one of the most important things in the world. Of course, the inverse is also true. There are things that are important to most people, but that aren't important at all to others. Many people consider religion infinitely, eternally important, and other people just don't bother with it. It may not be accurate to say that something is or is not important. I may be more accurate to say that something is more or less important to someone.

But what if that "someone" is God? There are things that God considers important, and He can make those things important to other people, too, assuming they care at all about their eternal destiny. For example, I don't really care about coffee, one way or the other, but it's important to God that I don't drink it, so I don't. Does that make not drinking coffee objectively important? I don't know. Maybe. Our eternal destinies seem pretty important. If God doomed to eternal damnation anyone who ties their shoes the wrong way, then it would suddenly become very important how one ties their shoes.

So, I would guess that importance is subjective, based on what is important to whom, except in the far more consequential case of what is and is not important to God.

People Need Love

People have needs. People need air, food, and water to survive, and they need adequate clothing, shelter, and safety to help them stay alive. But according to a psychologist named Abraham Maslow, once those needs have been met, the most important human need is love. People need love. And perhaps more importantly, they need to feel loved. And once their other needs are met, they are going to seek love, or substitutes for love, wherever they can get it.

Ideally, people would receive and feel love from their own families. That is part of the reason why God created families in the first place, to create a space where we, from infancy, can learn to feel, recognize, and express love.

People can also, hopefully, receive and feel love from God and members of His church. God's love, though sometimes disguised as trials and/or natural phenomena, is all around us, and God teaches His children to love everyone as well.

Between God and families, people should feel showered with an abundance of love.

But sometimes they don't. Sometimes people's families aren't as loving as they could be. Sometimes, God seems distant or nonexistent. Sometimes, people have a hard time recognizing the love that God and their families have for them. At those times, people often feel impelled to seek for love elsewhere.

Sometimes they find love in friendships and communities. Sometimes they form "found families" with close friends and/or people like them. Sometimes, when they don't feel love from family, God, or even friends or communities, they'll look for love in less-likely places. A person who feels desperately short on love may end up searching for any poor imitation of love wherever they can find it.

The sad part is that the ideal source of love is also the default source of love, and people generally only look for love in worse places when they feel that all of the better sources have failed them. By divine design, people are usually born into families, born to two parents who love each other and their children. Ideally, these parents also love God and teach their children how much God loves them. 

Sadly, this doesn't always happen, but we can do our best to make sure it happens in our own families. We can make sure our family members know we love them by expressing love for them in every way we can. We can talk to them, listen to them, care about their problems, offer comfort and (when appropriate) advice. We can give each other gifts and hugs and words of encouragement. We can apologize, and we can forgive. There are many ways to show love for each other, and the most important way to show love is in whatever way our loved ones need.

Similarly, we can try to recognize and share evidence of God's love for all His children.

This is important, because people need love. People need to both be and feel loved. And if the people we love don't feel the love we have for them, they will look for love elsewhere. If that happens, then, whether they ultimately find love or not, they won't have gotten it from us.

My Own Sacred Grove

Earlier today, in the Primary Presentation, the children sang a song that I had never heard before, and it had a strong effect on me. The song is titled "I Will Find My Own Sacred Grove," and it, naturally, starts with a short summary of the story of the First Vision, but then it goes on to explain how we need prayer, too.

So many choices with so much at stake.

Life's full of pathways, but which should I take?

If I lift up in prayer in the name of the Son,

Through the pow'r of the Holy Ghost, answers will come.

Heavenly Father is there,

Ready to answer my prayer.

I think that this is an important lesson. God has a plan for everyone, and the details of that plan are different for each person. The only way to really know what path God wants you to follow is to ask Him.

I would like to have my own Sacred Grove experience. I would like to know, for myself, what path God wants me to follow. Sure, I could simply follow the path laid out before me, and I'd probably do well enough for myself, just as Joseph Smith could have just joined whichever church seemed best to him and done well enough, at least for his own soul. But God had directions for Joseph Smith that couldn't have come from any church or church leader at the time. Joseph Smith needed to get those directions from God directly. I'd like to know if God has any such directions for me. And if not, I'd like to know that, too. I'd like to know, directly from God, which path He'd like me to follow.

Each person should seek a personal testimony and personal revelation. There is guidance that comes from God that can only come directly from God, and I would like to receive it. 

I will find my own Sacred Grove,

Away from all of the noise of the world.

I will turn to prayer,

For I know He's there.

I will find my own Sacred Grove.

How Important is the Earth?

It's interesting how one's perspective on death and the end of the world can change a person's opinion on the best course of action. Naturally, if one believes that there is no afterlife and that this life is all they get, then they won't spend much time storing up "treasures in heaven," because they believe that no such place exists. Similarly, if a person believes that the soul is eternal and mortality is temporary, they might not bother building up their life in mortality because they believe mortality isn't going to last.

By the same token, if a person doesn't believe in the Second Coming, Rapture, or any other God-induced end of the world, they may be more likely to try to sustain the planet almost indefinitely, believing that the world is only going to end if we let it. In contrast, if a person assumes that the Second Coming and subsequent Millennium are likely to happen any day now, they may not worry so much about the sustainability of the planet, since God is going to remake the planet soon anyway.

Shifting one's perspective shifts one's priorities, either to a present that may not matter or to a future that may not exist. All of this begs the question: How important is life on Earth? For some people, Earth is everything. For others, Earth is just a temporary stepping stone on their way to a better place. 

My opinion, as usual, lies somewhere between the extremes. We should not neglect heaven, but we shouldn't neglect Earth either. Yes, the Second Coming is coming, but we have no idea when. Just to be on the safe side, we should try to maintain the planet as though we don't expect the Savior to return for a very long time, because He might not. At the same time, we shouldn't live only for the mortal present because there is an eternal future, and we would do well to prepare for that.

So, for my answer, we should take care of this world and also prepare to pass on to the next one. Earth is important, but it isn't everything.

I Like My Job

I like my job. I like helping people with their essays. I like teaching them cool formatting tricks. I like sharing my opinions with like-minded individuals, considering new ideas I hadn't considered before, and playing devil's advocate for the sake of (helping people support their) argument. It's fun. Even today, when the work wasn't as fun or as satisfying as most days, I still like my job because I still like helping people with their essays. I'm a writing tutor, and I enjoy tutoring.

Facts and Judgment

There's a fairly high-profile case going on right now, and there are certain facts of the case that can lead to different conclusions based on which facts are included or excluded from the narrative and how those facts are interpreted. Additionally, there are potentially relevant facts that are presently unknown to me, which might change my current feelings about the trial and about the person on it. Therefore, I will reserve judgment until I know more about the situation or am forced to pass some amount of judgment prematurely. I believe that people shouldn't judge others without all the relevant facts, and since we don't know all the facts about anything, it's probably best not to judge.

Yet, there are times when judgment is necessary. In such cases, we should obtain as much knowledge and information as we can and base our judgment on whatever info and knowledge we have, hoping that it's enough to bring us to sound conclusions. It won't be a perfect judgment, since our knowledge is imperfect, but it'll be the best we can do.

When we must judge others, we should base our judgment on whatever knowledge we have and can gain, but outside of those cases, it's probably best to not judge at all.

Communication

As I played D&D tonight and talked about a show with a friend earlier today, it struck me how important communication is. People need to be able to talk with each other, and people need to be willing to listen to each other, or cooperation between them becomes extremely difficult. The characters in the show my friend and I were talking about barely communicate at all, and that lack of communication leads to some unnecessary conflict. In contrast, our characters in the D&D game communicated fairly well, and I believe that that led, and will continue to lead, to some good cooperation between that characters.

Similarly, we need to be able to communicate, both to talk and to listen, or we will experience more conflict than cooperation. I believe that people can learn to get along and work together, but only if all parties involved are willing to communicate.

Difficulty Settings

Many video games have difficulty settings, allowing you to choose how difficult the game is. If you want to challenge yourself, as I sometimes do, you can select harder difficulties to test and challenge your skill at playing the game. Or, if you don't want a challenge, you can select the easier modes and more easily explore the game world and enjoy the story, without having to hone your button-pressing skills.

Life doesn't really have that. It seems that life is easier for some people and harder for others through no fault or choice of their own. Granted, there are choices we can make to make life harder or easier for ourselves going forward, but we can't choose the difficulty we start with, and life sometimes changes the difficulty on us for reasons completely outside our control.

Perhaps, instead of bemoaning the lack of choice we have over the difficulty of life, we should acknowledge that everyone has their own set of difficulties and that those difficulties are meant to help us grow. When life gets hard, God doesn't want us to sulk or wish that life was easier; He wants us to become wiser, stronger, and better people.

So, while I plan to continue to enjoy the optional ease and difficulty of games, I'll try to remember that, while life can be game-like in some ways, that doesn't mean that we're the ones who get to adjust the settings. Some games don't have difficulty settings anyway. Rather, I should try to accept life and get good at playing it as it is, no matter what the difficulty settings are set to.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations

We're currently learning about motivation in my Business class, and one of the topics we covered is Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivators. Extrinsic motivators are motivating factors from outside the self. For example, if you do the work just to cash the paycheck or to be told you did a good job, that's an extrinsic motivation. However, if you're doing the work because you want to, you enjoy it, or you find personal satisfaction in seeing to it that the job gets done, that's an intrinsic motivation, a motivation that comes from inside the self.

So far, religiously, I've been seeking extrinsic motivation. I've been in it for the blessings, for God's approval, and for the finish line at the end. But extrinsic motivations aren't always the strongest or the most sustaining. Lately, I've been finding intrinsic motivations, like personal satisfaction and inner peace (plus a little bit of extrinsic validation from others). I'm a lot happier this way. I don't have to feel cheated if God's blessings are "blessings in disguise" or IOUs for future blessings, when I'm really just making good choices for personal reasons, and any blessings I get out of it are icing on the cake. Granted, some approval and validation from others are nice, but what really matters is whether I approve of myself. If I'm satisfied with my decisions, then I'm satisfied, and I don't need extrinsic blessings to help me sustain my motivation.

When I relied on blessings to motivate me, I would sometimes get upset if those blessings didn't come in the form or at the time I wanted them to, but now that I'm relying on my personal motivations, it no longer matters to me how, when, or even if those blessings come. Extrinsic blessings are nice, and I'll take them, so long as God's offering, but my intrinsic motivations have proven to be more effective at keeping me going.

"Wherever You Are"

When Mom and I were choosing where to sit at church this afternoon, we were about to be temporarily separated, so Mom would have to pick out a spot for us. She asked me where I would like to sit, and I, not having much of a preference, said "Wherever you are."

As I thought about it, I think that that answer might have held true, even if I did have a preference. For example, if I had wanted to sit near the back, but Mom sat in the front, I think I would have chosen to sit in the front with her, rather than in the back, where I would otherwise prefer to be. People sometimes prefer to be where the people they love are, even if they wouldn't normally prefer to be in that place. For another example, Mom loves the Pacific Northwest, but she would never move there so long as so much of our family lives here. No matter how much she would prefer to live in the Pacific Northwest, her stronger preference is to live near family.

This principle can hold true in the figurative sense as well. We'd rather live in comfort than in discomfort, generally, but it's often preferable to go through discomfort together with someone you love than to be comfortable but alone. That's not the best example for me, because I really like comfort and I often like being alone, but even I can see the fun and camaraderie of going through difficulty together with the right person. And if a friend of mine were going through a hard time, I'd rather go through it with them than stay comfortable while they go through it alone. Even an introvert like me can see that it's sometimes better to be with other people, even if the other circumstances are less than the best.

Maybe that's part of what makes heaven so good. It's already a decent place, and we get to be there together. But even if heaven wasn't so great, being there with the right person or people would be enough to make it heavenly.

Growing Hope

This evening, I went for a walk, and on this walk, I passed a small tree. This tree was planted in a spot where another small tree had been, but a fierce storm had taken down the first small tree, which was then replaced with the second small tree. This tree, even more so than other small trees, gives me hope for the future.

Planting any tree is an expression of hope in the future. Trees take a long time to grow, so it only makes sense to plant a tree if you expect it to be there for a long time. Yet, that's not what happened to the small tree that used to be in that spot. It was planted with hope for the future, but its future was cut short. Yet, another tree was planted there, expressing a renewed and continuing hope in the future. We acknowledge the tragedies of the past and the possibility that they may happen again, But we also continue to have hope that a tree will live long enough to grow strong enough to withstand the storms of life.

The world is filled with trees that grew strong enough to withstand storms. We just need to have enough faith and hope in the future to keep planting and replanting them.

Focusing on the Future

One of the students I've tutored today talked about his journaling habits. Previously, he had journaled about the past. At the end of the day or week, he would write about what had happened and how he felt about it. This prompted me to tell him that, when I journaled, I wrote mostly about the present, focusing on what had just happened and/or what would happen that day or in the very near future. But the student told me that, lately, he has started journaling about the more distant future, recording his hopes and dreams as well as his plans and goals.

This seemed, to both of us, to be a good idea. Thinking ahead like that can help someone develop a plan that can inform their actions in the present. If one takes the right actions, they can lead themselves toward almost any future they want, which is something one can't do when they focus only on the present or the past. Perhaps I should learn to look father ahead and try to figure out where I want to go and how I'm going to get there. I need to learn to focus on the future, because if I don't, who knows where my future will take me?

Earning Points

Two days ago, I blogged about how I prefer games' challenges over life's challenges, but two weeks ago, I blogged about how life and its challenges can be viewed as some kind of game. So I wonder, how can I "gamify" life to make its challenges more fun to face?

The concept of "gamification" already exists, and it's accomplished mostly through applying point scores and win conditions to various tasks and challenges. By performing tasks well, the "players" earn "points," which can eventually lead to rewards, either real or imaginary. All I really have to do to "gamify" life is to give myself "points" for doing things well. I don't even have to figure out exactly how many points I earn, so long as better performance leads to more points and worse performance leads to fewer points. Granted, I will always get at least a few points for trying.

I gamified my life tonight by challenging myself to fit as many dishes as possible into the dishwasher efficiently, and I scored a great deal of points by managing to fit in every item except for the two biggest, which I washed by hand.

I wonder if "earning points" is really going to be enough to get me to start enjoying life's challenges. I suppose the only way to find out is to try it out for a while and see how it goes.

No Need for Eternal Rest

As much as I'm looking forward to some find of eternal rest, it occurs to me that I might not need it. Right now, I crazy tired, and I want to go to bed, but in the next life, I won't get tired, at least not physically, and maybe not mentally, either. Eternal progression sounds exhausting, but my eternal self won't be able to get exhausted. So, while my mortal self sees the appeal in resting in peace, I might not feel the same way about it when I move on to actually doing it.

Challenges

You know, it's funny. In real life, I like things to be easy. I like consistently doing well on tests, exams, and writing assignments. I like getting my work done without too much trouble. I like having my tasks be simple and straightforward. In real life, I don't like challenges much at all. But in games, it's a different story. In games, I enjoy an occasional challenge. And if a game is too easy, I sometimes make up extra rules and handicaps to challenge myself more. I wonder why that is. I wonder why I enjoy challenges in games, but not in real life.

One reason might be the lower stakes. If you lose a game, it's no big deal. None of it was real anyway. The failure doesn't matter. It's like losing your balance on a tightrope and falling into a net. Real life doesn't have many safety nets, and even when there are, there are consequences for falling into them. When things go wrong in real life, bad things happen, and there is real-world suffering as a result.

Another possible reason is that failure in games doesn't feel personal. Often, in games, the player is controlling a character, who is the one who succeeds or fails. If Mia fails a Stealth check or a Medicine check, that's not because I'm not stealthy enough, wasn't careful enough, or didn't spend enough time studying medicine. It's because Mia's skill modifiers (and her luck, as revealed by dice rolls) were too low. Also, in games, it's easier to acknowledge the role of luck, rather than skill (or the lack thereof), blessings, or curses. If the dice are against me, I can blame the inanimate dice. If fate (as controlled by God) is against me... I'd rather not think about that possibility.

Another reasons to prefer a game's challenges over real-world challenges is that game's challenges are meant to be overcome. Players are supposed to win games. The games are supposed to be beatable. That's not always true in real life. Some of life's challenges are obstacles to be overcome, but others are afflictions to be endured, and it can be painful and frustrating to confuse the two. Trying to "solve" an affliction will get one nowhere and only waste their time and energy, and merely "enduring" an obstacle leads to the perpetuation of needless suffering. Hence, the Serenity prayer asks for the Wisdom to know what can be changed and what can't.

All in all, games' challenges are greatly preferable to life's challenges. Games' challenges are easier, less important, and less personal than life's challenges. Yet, life has plenty of challenges, whether we want them or not. Maybe I can try to worry less about the stakes of failure and stop taking it so personally when I fail. Maybe then I can chill out about life's challenges and learn to enjoy them almost as much as the challenges in games.

Ordinances for the Dead

Tonight, for family scripture study, we read a few sections in the Doctrine and Covenants that made reference to baptisms for the dead, and we talked about what a unique and uplifting doctrine that is. We, like other Christian churches, know that saving ordinances are essential, but we, unlike other Christian churches, know that one's mortal life isn't one's only chance to get them. Those who die without being baptized, endowed, or sealed can still be baptized, endowed, and sealed to their families, if those ordinances are performed for them in the temple. This way, through temple work, everyone can have a chance to be saved in the kingdom of God.

I'm grateful that God gives everyone a fair chance to choose eternal life and exaltation. It would truly be terrible if those who died before baptism were damned for eternity. I'm glad that God's plan is more forgiving than that. I'm glad that everyone can get the essential, saving, and exalting ordinances, even those who couldn't get them in this life.