Thoughts from My Personal Journal

THOUGHT: December 18, 2019

A voice that lacks reason must rule with an iron fist.


THOUGHT: January 11, 2020

You can bring more joy to others and be more likeable if you are willing to sincerely self-humiliate. Publicly revealing that you are the victim of your own stupidity will win friends and influence people.


THOUGHT: February 20, 2020

I like what I recently read about T. J. Haws, a star basketball player at BYU who has overcome much adversity in many forms—unreal expectations, coach and teammate changes, injuries, small stature, and more. I learned that he avoids social media, a breeding ground for naysayers. He’s careful about what he reads and who he listens to. He formulates his own opinions and has his own thoughts. Random people who really don’t know him have no influence over him, and that is good for his mental health. Insulating himself from outside voices has been a good formula that’s worked for him. He’s having a great season.


THOUGHT: November 18, 2020

It is easier to maintain a true principle against the threat of false logic than it is to resurrect that same true principle once a majority of the people have succumbed to the flattery of the false logic.


THOUGHT: December 3, 2020

Sports have played a major role in my life, and I am sure the lives of countless others. Leadership skills can be acquired through the playing of sports, even at the lowest levels. Growing up, we played a lot of pickup football games. It began for me in my neighbor’s backyard on Sunday afternoons. Billy Skinner was the neighbor and his son Bill would join in the play. Daddy and I, plus Jack Arant, our neighbor on the other side, would make up the nucleus of players. We have played with just us five, but we could usually find some others in Brookside Drive to join in the fun. I progressed from the neighborhood to the recess playgrounds at school. Now I return to the acquisition of leadership skills. At school I had to solicit participation, convince others, some not so athletically inclined, to join us in a pickup game of football. My skills of persuasion were honed. Then we had to divide into teams which usually meant the selection of two captains first. Since it was my idea to play, I was almost automatically a captain. That was followed by the captains’ choosing the players for each team. In addition to the method of alternating choices, I would often suggest what would be a fair division and allow the other captain to agree or comment and suggest changes. Tact and diplomacy were involved in arriving at the two sets of players. Next came the friendly debate and agreement on boundaries, followed by an equally friendly debate and agreement on the rules—like three positive-yard pass completions was a first down, regardless of distance covered (we had no first down chains), or instead of punting, the other team took over on downs each time. If things were not going well, we learned to adjust the rules or swap out players. I went on to play quarterback on one team or another from the fifth grade until I was into my mid-20’s. Unfortunately, recess has been eliminated in a majority of schools in the United States. What a significant loss!


THOUGHT: April 29, 2021

Strength is not in diversity itself. Strength is in the unification of diversity.


THOUGHT: September 16, 2021

Humans of good character combine faith and intellect in lifelong service to their fellowmen and fellow women.


October 24, 2021
 
Almost any hand can be on the rudder when the sea is calm.

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