Past and Future

Elder L. Tom Perry, in his conference talk in October, quoted Pres. Reagan: "I do not want to go back to the past; I want to go back to the past way of facing the future." I wonder about that as I think of the people of Haiti. How can they ever go back to the past way of facing the future? Everything in their world has changed--the geography, the city parks and buildings, the people they knew and loved and just passed in the streets. All gone or changed, mutilated. Familiar sights now strange, bent, twisted, collapsed. Their future has shortened to hour by hour--food, water, sleep without tremors? I wonder if this complete upheaval of life and surroundings erases a past to draw comfort from?

112,000 official death toll. Burning bodies in the streets because there is nothing else to do. One more man saved after 14 days in a collapsed hotel. And we rejoice for him, the one, because life is so precious. One life is so precious.

A 2nd Grader. That's 7 years old.

My niece brought her daughter's school journal with her to our New Year's Day get-together. She had written, for example, "This day is flawless." When my sister asked her what "flawless" meant, she knew, of course. Perfect. Alex and I went for a walk New Year's Day. On the way back, two large boxer-like dogs raced up a driveway and across the road, one leapt up on Alex, then turned on Banjo--on his leash--and attacked him savagely. I shouted, yelled as fiercely as I could, and they backed off. Alex said she wasn't afraid of the dog--just the suddenness of his attack. Today, two days later, as Kelly, Alex, and I were returning from our walk, we told Kelly about the incident. Alex said to her mother, "I just disassociated myself from him." New Year's Eve: Alex, playing around with a fabric remnant—"Isn’t this absolutely dazzling, eye-popping?" She liked the sound of it, repeating it several times. Karen: "I don’t want my eyes to pop." Alex: "They won’t—it’s just a figure of speech." A bit later, Karen sent Alex to her room to calm down. When she came out she said to Karen, "You have subdued me." Today, we had the Quarter Ceremony. Actually, the Guam Quarter Ceremony. Alex, on a small stool draped with a bright pink shawl, read from her little black diary: "We are here to celebrate the Guam Quarter. I will now place it [on the state quarters map]." She, under Karen's apt tutelage, sewed a pink tablecloth with two-inch lace around the edges, and four napkins. This to use with the porcelain tea set she got for Christmas. Isn't she great?