Meet the Jetsons

I was thinking about it this morning. I am Jane Jetson. OK. I don't live in a house in the clouds, or ride around in a vehicle that moves through the air. Nor do I have a treadmill to walk the dog. But the things which always made me excited about the Jetsons was their video phones. Their wrist watch TVs. I remember Elroy sneaking a peek at his TV when in school.

This morning, I was tending to a few tasks around the house with my ipod touch in my pocket. Playing on it was a video of a TV program that I missed yesterday and wanted to at least hear. My goodness, I have become Elroy, too!

I distinctly remember a show that found Jane running to answer her "phone" with a picture to hide behind that had her hair perfectly coiffed. She was still in curlers and a bathrobe. Well, this past weekend, and nearly every weekend, my husband and I set up our laptop in the living room (where the lighting is best) so that we can "skype" with our son and daughter-in-law with the ability to see our granddaughter as she is growing up. (They live in Louisiana.)

Heaven only knows what kind of technology we will see in the future. Perhaps we will be living among the clouds and driving vehicles that zip through the air. I just do not want a boss like George had at Spacely Sprockets.

And He shall direct my path

I have been giving a lot of thought to my feet of late. I injured my feet in a fall down the stairs about a month ago. It seems that this is the most common place for me to injure myself. I have, over the years, been afflicted with injury to my knees and my feet more than in any other place in my body. Perhaps it is because they are the foundation to so many of the things that I have been asked to do in my life. I believe that all people have tremendous use of their feet and legs.

Without our legs, how could we be propelled? We do have the modern convenience of cars and busses, but we need to get ourselves to them. Although there are some among us who need to propel themselves in wheelchairs because of injury or debilitating illness, the majority of us depend upon our lower extremities to move about.

What a great gift we have in our legs and feet. They are our foundation for movement and for service.

This morning, as I drove into work, I was listening to a CD called "Charity Never Faileth". In it there is a song that includes the phrase "My feet are the Lord's feet. Without them, how could He walk with the poor?"

As my feet and my legs are the foundation for my movement and my service, as I am grounded in truth and righteousness, I will have a sure fondation for my life and my service to others.

It is my daily prayer that I will be supported in my service to others and that I will be grounded in true principles.

Something Old

Years ago, we had an activity in our ward Relief Society in which we created a canning jar filled with questions designed to spark our memories regarding our past. I have decided that it is time to start answering them in this format so that I might be able to retrieve some of these memories.

Describe your first paying job. What were you paid?

My very first paying job was cleaning dental offices. I worked in the evening after they closed, and also on Saturdays. The main thing was to be sure that all of the waste baskets were empty and that all surfaces were clean. I was paid $1.60 per hour. I cannot say that it was my best job ever, but it was a start! I worked with another girl and I remember sitting in the hallway outside of the offices with the bag full of trash just talking about silly, girlish things.

Was there much music in your house? What kinds?

I lived in a home with 3 sisters and my brother. My sisters and I always did the dishes together in the evening after supper. (We never called it dinner.) The drier always got to sit on the counter top. That was actually my favorite job, but the thing that made doing dishes so much more enjoyable, was the singing that we did as we completed that task. My sisters and I sang harmony with each other. We also liked to sing "rounds".

Additionally, I and two of my sisters, played musical instruments. I was the first, and I chose to play the flute, because my friend Debbie Matsch played the flute. After my adventures in band, my sister Barb took up the coronet. She actually learned to play my flute as well. Finally, my sister Lynne took up the saxophone. Barb learned to play that as well. She was always able to excel at everything to which she put her hands.

Speaking of Barbie and music, she always longed for a piano. She asked for one for Christmas on multiple occasions, but the best that Santa could manage was a "Charlie Brown" type piano. I am certain that she had dreams of that little toy piano making the kind of sound that Schroeder made on his!

Wisconsin Under Siege

I am living through a period that may one day be written about in the history books.

I feel compelled to chronicle it in some small way.

My state, the State of Wisconsin, is in debt. Deeply in debt. There is a law that prohibits the state from running a deficit. They are required to have a balanced budget. Yet, here we are.

A new governor was elected last November. His name is Scott Walker. He is from Milwaukee and was the county executive there before running for governor. He promised to rid the state of unnecessary encumberance. He stopped a "high speed" train from being installed. The federal government (which is currently TRILLIONS of dollars in debt) was going to "provide" funding for this rail line that would connect a few of our major cities. Never mind that there was no data that indicated this type of transportation would be welcomed or used by the general population. In fact, studies showed that the project would run at a deficit and would, after its initial boost to the economy and jobs for the duration of the construction, cost the state a lot of money.

He also promised to bring the budget into balance. He has not blamed his predecessor, Gov. Doyle for the monetary woes of the state. He has just stepped up and looked for ways to cut the budget. Now.

He has come up with a plan that is called the budget repair bill. It would eliminate the "right" of public employee unions (except for police and fire fighters) to bargain collectively for anything but wages, and that those wages would be kept within reason. Public employees actually have enjoyed raises during tough economic times because of the power of the unions in these collective bargaining functions. Public employees have also enjoyed "Cadillac" health care plans and retirement plans that cost them very little. Needless to say, this costs the state a small fortune. The bill would require the public employees to pay 12.6% of these costs. The private sector requires their employees to pay substantially more, appr

oximately 25%.

Because of all of this, the public school teachers have begun to throw temper tantrums. They have called in sick at their schools to go to the capitol to throng the hallways there to make demands that the bill be killed. This has shut down entire school districts, leaving parents to scramble to change their schedules. They have likened the governor to Hitler. They have carried signs that say that he is the Mubarek (a recently ousted Egyptian dictator) of the midwest. According to a friend of ours, they have made it impossible for her to do her work for the Sergeant at Arms in the capitol. They have pulled her hair. They have grabbed her legs to stop her from going up the stairs to do her job. They have spit upon her.

These are civilized people who just "care about the children"? I don't think so.

The president of the United States, Barak Hussein Obama, has openly supported the unions. His campaign arm is organizing people to join the protest at the capitol. He is encouraging anarchy. It has been said that he was a part of a group of radicals from the 60's and 70's who wanted to bring about transformative change. He has been called a socialist by many. This is just the latest piece of evidence that he means the US harm. He is injecting the power of the presidency into the affairs of the state of Wisconsin.

Wars and rumors of wars.

These are the kinds of things that the Book of Mormon and the Bible have warned us about. Something wicked this way comes.

I am praying that our Republic will survive.

Holidays

I have never thought too much about Martin Luther King day. I am not even certain that I knew that it was considered a holiday. But here it is. How interesting that a preacher would be given a holiday. He was not a president. He was a martyr. Cut down in his prime for speaking the truth. For having a dream.

It is my prayer that all men and women will be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.

I love my country. I love my freedoms. I have my dreams, too. I am praying that this country and the "powers that be" will still allow them to come true.

" I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds." Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, jr., 16 April 1963