Grandpa Smith from the Belgian Front, World War 1

Elizabeth found a letter from Grandpa to his father in Mom's basement. When we think that we have it rough, it may be time to read through it again. This is one of Elizabeth's favorite parts of the letter:

I am happy to say that peace seems to have come. I was slightly wounded in the right arm in the offensive we took part in on the Belgian front. I felt happy to be alive and safe and I look forward to coming home.

My sympathy goes out to those who will never go home and for those who expect to see friends and relatives who will never come back. I have come to the conclusion that life is a precious gift and is worth living, no matter what the difficulty, but we are so helpless to save it or preserve it that it is not worth while to consider our health and happiness and comfort about that of others. It is worth while sometimes to die, if death will serve to help others. When we think too much of our comfort we expose ourselves to more danger by disintegration than we do when we make a brave fight and face every danger and exposure.

I hope I come home from this war more of a man then I went into it. If I don't I'll feel that I have not played my part.

-Calvin S. Smith, in a letter to his father written from the Belgian Front, late 1918

This letter does not come close to reflecting all the hardships he faced. I know that he was once shot in the back and bit into the bullet in his "bully beef", the corned beef strapped to his back in a little frying pan. He carried shrapnel in his body until he died.

Things are heating up now

We got a surprise VIP conference phone call a couple of days ago from Sacramento. It went much better than the more bureaucratic call we got on Monday. Not confident the bigwigs are really able to civilize their organization, though. Challenging illegal activities within a State agency can be a wild ride full of inanities. And it's a whole lot of work. But on to the rest of life.

The weather has turned hotter. Forecasts are for around 106 to 107 degrees for a few days. It only goes below room temperature for a few hours in the early morning. So that's the time you want to be up for baking, laundry, dishwashing, etc.

I've put up two recipes from my high school cooking teacher. Tomato Flowers (for all the tomatoes we have coming on right now). No cooking required. We also have fruit on the trees. So even though it requires heating up the oven, I've posted a recipe for Fruit Cobbler. Have to check the weather report before baking, then finish before about 6:30 a.m. with the windows open and the exhaust fans going. Then morning rounds to check on the garden and feed the critters before it gets too hot.

We've had lots of dog hair in the house with the hot weather. There was dog hair on the floor and a pile of paperwork on the table when we had an emergency overnight guest last night (locked out of her apartment). Embarrassing. Oh, well. I guess it's sort of embarrassing to be locked out of your apartment, too.

Interesting short history of imperialism in China linked here.

The Patience of Hope

The title of this post is from Charles Wesley's hymn, Come Let Us Anew. "The Patience of Hope and the Labor of Love" are both important for our success, I think. We've been grappling more with the "Patience of Hope" part of this phrase recently.

The health problems among family and friends are less dramatic now. Debbie's husband is out surgery but still at risk. Cousin Kim's son took a shower recently for the first time after nearly dying of swine flu. Things are looking up for the branch members who were recently so ill. We had a lot of people at the "Munch and Mingle" Sunday.

We've been dealing with maddening bureaucracy pretty steadily for the last couple of weeks. But we've also gotten some help from people who know what they're doing. The kinds of bureaucratic laziness, aggressiveness and arrogance we have encountered are predictable. Especially in California at this time. But things are looking somewhat more positive. The elders gave David a blessing not long ago, and he now seems to have an increased ability to bounce back after encounters with hostile bureaucracy. His brother has retired and is relieved to have largely put similar problems behind him. He's coming to the Valley to pick up some corn and watermelons.

In other family news, "the other Carolyn" has produced a wonderful (according to Mom) retrospective program on the history of Ogden and the old Fox Egyptian theater. I didn't know she was involved in that sort of thing. Our Swiss friends Yvonne and Attila have a new granddaughter.

A couple of weeks ago in church, while the Stake Presidenty was visiting, we heard a a message on hope which stuck with me. Neal A. Maxwell in 1994:

. . . In the geometry of restored theology, hope has a greater circumference than faith. If faith increases, the perimeter of hope stretches correspondingly.

Just as doubt, despair, and desensitization go together, so do faith, hope, and charity. The latter, however, must be carefully and constantly nurtured, whereas despair, like dandelions, needs so little encouragement to sprout and spread. Despair comes so naturally to the natural man!

And again in 1998, during the time he was undergoing treatments for cancer:

Life’s disappointments often represent the debris of our failed, proximate hopes. Instead, however, I speak of the crucial need for ultimate hope.

Ultimate hope is a different matter. It is tied to Jesus and the blessings of the great Atonement, blessings resulting in the universal Resurrection and the precious opportunity provided thereby for us to practice emancipating repentance, making possible what the scriptures call “a perfect brightness of hope”

This week, we heard a message from the scriptures reminding us that sometimes we must be willing to leave behind some material things (and by analogy, misplaced emotional attachments, assumptions about the future and false hopes) in order to save our emotional, temporal and/or spiritual lives, We also had a great reminder that sometimes we should try prayers during which we only express thanks. Gratitude may be the antidote to grumpiness.

Good things to remember right now - a correct perspective on hope, with an emphasis on patience, and gratitude.

The weather has been fairly moderate for July here. I'm putting up some new tomato information and recipes, some with short cooking lessons, here.

There are posts on the 4th of July plus a week here and the "Glorious Revolution" more than 300 years ago in England here, if you're interested.

I discovered today which dog had been chewing the cord to the vacuum cleaner into short chunks. It's Maggie. She was scolded, given a lecture by David, then re-directed. So far, no recividism. Old Dottie today got some extra love for being such a perfect embodiment of patient hope - sitting quietly, looking up into my eyes with a steady gaze, waiting to be petted. Endearing.

Happy Independence Day

The "safe and sane" fireworks sales have been going on for a few days. "Free vacation package with every $300 purchase". Wow. And people have also been getting some fireworks which are not so "safe and sane", as usual for our rural area. If you're going to have a party, might as well make some noise.

Our two biggest dogs, Sparky and Troy, are the most afraid of fireworks. But Sparky's starting to lose his hearing. He came in Thursday night but stayed out last night. He'll probably need to come in again tonight. Troy gets frantic at the first booms. He doesn't try to get in the bathtub like Sparky used to do, though.

We've been dealing with ennervating heat and even more ennervating bureaucracy this week. Independence starts to sound good.

And so many of our friends and family have had health and personal challenges in the last two or three of weeks. In our little church branch, we haven't really had enough people to rally 'round those with emergencies. But we've done a lot of tag-teaming. Time to take a break to observe the 4th of July.

I've put up a Fourth of July post on history (good links on Lincoln and the Founders), also touching on current political themes, here.

Recipes and garden updates are here. Lots of tomatoes and squash in the garden right now. We've got Santa Rosa and Burgundy plums, and the July Elberta peaches are coming on. Even with all the problems in life, there remain a lot of things to celebrate. Have a great Fourth.