Doing Assignments on Time

I have developed a bad habit of putting off blogging until late into the night. This is, as I've learned toward the beginning of this semester, not like me. When I get an assignment, I usually try to get it done as soon as possible, if only to get the task done with so I can relax and enjoy my weekend, the time when many assignments fall due. This also gives me a buffer. If something goes wrong or takes longer than I expect it to, I still have time to finish the assignment on time. At Boy Scout Camp, I heard a saying: "Early is on time, on time is late, and late is inexcusable." While I wouldn't go so far as to say that late blog posts are inexcusable, I agree that blogging earlier would be better than blogging later, if only because it would let me go to bed earlier and get more sleep.

When I started this blog, the idea was that I would blog (specifically about Conference talks, if I recall correctly) every morning. After 12pm, it's not "morning" anymore; it's literally "afternoon." I can't promise that I'll blog before noon every day from now on (and I won't promise to only blog about Conference talks), but I will promise to blog before noon tomorrow (if it is still "tomorrow" by the time I post this).

More Important Than Blogging

Some things are more important than blogging. Such things include showing compassion, giving service, fulfilling obligations, and getting sufficient sleep. So, I'm sorry that I didn't really blog tonight, but, if confronted with the same situation, I think I'd make the same decisions. I know that blogging is important for me, but what I did instead tonight was even more important.

Mammals Don't Lay Eggs

They say that mammals don't lay eggs, but that's not really true. There are some mammals that do, in fact, lay eggs, including echidnas and platypi. That said, most mammals don't lay eggs, and, as a general rule, "mammals don't lay eggs" is true enough that we can accept it at a general rule, even while acknowledging a few exceptions. Granted, I would personally prefer that we not over-generalize the abilities and inabilities of mammals, but I still must admit that it's true enough that, for most intents and purposes, we might as well say that mammals don't lay eggs, even if it's not strictly true. 

By the same token, they say that God is omnipotent, that there is nothing that God cannot do, but that's not completely true. Even going only by modern revelation, and discrediting all other sources as potential mistranslations  or misinterpretations, I can think of at least one thing God cannot do. He cannot create intelligence. D&C 93:29 says that "Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be." If intelligence cannot be created, then God cannot create it, and thus there is at least one thing that God cannot do, and thus, God is not truly omnipotent. That said, God is very powerful, so much so that, as a general rule, "God is omnipotent" is true enough that we can accept it as a general rule, even while acknowledging at least one exception. Granted, I would personally prefer if we stopped exaggerating the power of God by claiming complete omnipotence, but I still must admit that it's true enough that, for most intents and purposes, we might as well say that God is omnipotent, even if it's not completely true.

Serving as a Team

This evening, I had an opportunity to help with a church Christmas dinner party. Thankfully, I wasn't the only volunteer. There was a whole team of us, and we were lucky there were, since there were many different jobs that needed doing, and we all had to work together and support each other to get our jobs done. Thankfully, I like people being part of a team. While I don't love the idea of people depending on me, I do like helping other people, including both teammates and those whom the team serves, and I sometimes like not having to do a whole project on my own. While there are sometimes benefits to working alone, working as a team is nice, too, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to do so tonight. I like serving others, and I'm glad I got an opportunity to serve on a team tonight.

Prayer Rocks

In a game I'm playing, the player character, Link, periodically prays at stone statues of the goddess Hylia for blessings from the goddess. Part of me thinks that I should do something similar. I could use a physical reminder to pray more often. Naturally, I want to avoid breaking the second of the Ten Commandments. I don't want to accidentally create, buy, or use anything that could be considered an idol. Yet, I have heard of people within our church using and advocating the use of "Prayer Rocks," which are rocks that get placed on pillows to remind someone to pray before going to bed. The rocks aren't any particular shape, and it doesn't matter whether or not you hold the rock while you prayer or not. You're not praying to the rock. You're praying to God. It's just that the rock reminds you to do so. I, perhaps, could use a rock like that.

Not Perfect, But Good

I'm not a perfect person. Far from it. I have flaws, and I'm not consistent about striving to overcome them. But still, despite my flaws and imperfections, I believe myself to be a good person. At least, I try to be good. I try to help people rather than hurt them, and I try to be a support to others, rather than a burden. I hold myself to high standards, and while I don't always meet those standards, I almost always try. So, no, I'm not a perfect person, but I hope that I'm still good enough that I can honestly consider myself Good.

Rolling 1s

I play D&D with my friends once a week, and a big part of D&D is rolling dice. The dice have different numbers of sides, from the four-sided d4 to the twenty-sided d20, all with numbers ranging from 1 to whatever number of sides that die has. Typically, higher numbers are better. They represent better results on Ability Checks and Attack Rolls, and they mean greater damage and more healing. The higher numbers you roll, the better your luck was.

We rolled a lot of 1s tonight.

And yet, as the game went on, the number of 1s and other low rolls we got became fairly comical. We laughed at our characters' bad fortune, and we marveled the unlikelihood of such an impressive string of bad luck. And it helps that the bad luck ultimately didn't matter all that much. Our numbers were just barely high enough when it really mattered, and even if they weren't, it was only a game. In the long run, the bad luck we had tonight was more funny and impressively rare than it was unfortunate.

Thus it is, or can be, with life. We can learn to laugh at our own misfortune, at least after some time has passed. We can appreciate the novelty of especially bad luck. And we can choose not to get worked up about things that don't actually matter. Will getting a flat tire today or tomorrow really matter years later? Will almost anything that happens in mortality really matter millennia after we pass on? Granted, there will be a few things that matter, but only such things as are in our direct control. Our choices will matter. Our luck will not.

So, when we roll 1s and other low numbers on the dice of life, we should try not to let that upset us. Yes, the misfortune is, by definition, unfortunate, but it can also be funny, impressive, and ultimately unimportant. A few bad rolls, or even several in quick succession, cannot change our eternal  progress. As long as we keep trying to move forward, God will count that as progress, no matter what our actual results are.

Naturally, we would prefer to have better luck, but when we get back luck, we can laugh at it, marvel at it, shrug it off, and keep striving to move forward.