Prayer of Faith

Heavenly Father,

If thou wouldst have me suffer this thorn,

If there be no other way,

If this cup cannot be passed

And I must drink it all,

Please, make out if this bitterness a lesson,

That this fire might refine and not only scorch.

Bless my muscles as they bear this heavy load,

That they may grow and forever be improved.

Help me use this hardship as the native uses a beast,

That I might not miss a thing from what I am to learn.

And that it might continue until I have been entirely shaped by it.

Amen.

Is there no balm in Gilead?

“Mortality is a period of testing, a time to prove ourselves worthy to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. In order to be tested, we must sometimes face challenges and difficulties. At times there appears to be no light at the tunnel’s end—no dawn to break the night’s darkness. We feel surrounded by the pain of broken hearts, the disappointment of shattered dreams, and the despair of vanished hopes. We join in uttering the biblical plea “Is there no balm in Gilead?” We are inclined to view our own personal misfortunes through the distorted prism of pessimism. We feel abandoned, heartbroken, alone. If you find yourself in such a situation, I plead with you to turn to our Heavenly Father in faith. He will lift you and guide you. He will not always take your afflictions from you, but He will comfort and lead you with love through whatever storm you face.”

-President Thomas S. Monson, “Looking Back and Moving Forward”

Why is it so wonderful to love? For when relationships end.

It is wonderful to love, and is wonderful to be in love, and it is wonderful to fall in love, and it is wonderful to feel the love radiating from another person, especially if you happen to be in love with that other person. There just is nothing sweeter or more fulfilling of which I am aware.

Elder Russell M. Nelson said, “Marriage brings greater possibilities for happiness than does any other human relationship.”

The question I have today is, what makes love so wonderful? I suppose I won’t get to all of the feelings, so please point out the ones I missed (I love comments).

• It is wonderful to learn important truths, and especially ones that can only be taught in that way.
• It is wonderful to think that another person has strong feelings for you, that bring them to you.
• It is wonderful to express affection.
• It is wonderful, so wonderful, the promise that in the future, this love and all these wonderful things will continue, maybe forever.
• It is wonderful to not know how it will work out, and still invest in the other person.
• It is wonderful to see a smile that you created.
• It is wonderful to remember fun times.
• It is wonderful to laugh when things don’t go as planned, like when leaning in for a kiss can mean falling off of a chair.
• It is wonderful to feel more prepared for the future, being more familiar now with how to act.
• It is wonderful to be excited.

So when it ends, one has to think about what really is ending. My point in all of this is that, really, much less ends than has been achieved when relationships end. Certainly the greatest casualty of an ended relationship is that sweet promise of future love, or at the very least that promise drastically changes, to the point that it may as well be called a casualty because it has lost so much of its security. And certainly the physical expressions of love end when relationships do.

But look at how much of what is wonderful remains. It still is wonderful to think that another person has had strong feelings for you. It still is true, all that you learned. If the strongest feeling of love was simply in the futuristic hope that the love would continue, then yes, all may be lost when it ends. But if the love shared at the time was independent of the future and real, it remains fully alive and real. In the past, perhaps, but still wholly intact.

And about that ever-so-sweet sense of promise coming from another person whom you love. That sense of promise doesn’t die, but just changes. It becomes a promise from a loving God, whom Nephi trusted and about whom Nephi said (when he himself was sad with painful memories), “O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm. Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I bask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God” (2 Nephi 4: 34-35).

Of course, it is a little bit sad to realize that when relationships end, our dreams become better than being awake once again (especially when we don’t get very much sleep!) But now I know that dreams do come true. If anything has taught me that, it is falling in love.

The dreamer in me has been awakened.

A Letter to the President-elect

December 4, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President-elect:

I would like to express my concern regarding the way the Internet is regulated in the United States. I hope that during your presidency you can push for new breakthroughs in technology and for the means of communication to become even more convenient, and especially that a way can be found to adequately protect our children from material that would be harmful to them.

Technology played a large role in your being elected, and in reaching out to young people like me. I am a college student, and rely on my laptop and the Internet to do just about all of my daily tasks. And because it is such a part of our lives, I believe it requires the same careful attention we give TV, radio, magazines, and film—older means of mass communication that all can easily be rated, previewed, or otherwise restricted before reaching their intended audiences. The laws that require ratings on these media are not being applied to the Internet, which is a breech on the generality of the laws.

The Internet makes more media available all at once, and can have an equal or greater effect on our children as any other medium. It is not an impossible task to properly restrict the Internet—and should not be dismissed as such. It was once thought impossible to stop the illegal downloading of music, and we saw that with the availability of iTunes, thousands of people stopped downloading illegally.

It may impossible to restrict the entire Internet, but why not offer a government rating to any website who wishes to increase popularity or legitimacy? The rating can be seen on search engines like Google before the user clicks the link, and can be similar to the MPAA’s rating of films. I know that thousands of Internet users would appreciate a safer way to surf, having options that are reviewed for content.

Sincerely,

Derrick Clements

A Letter to the Provo City Council

December 4, 2008

Provo City of, City Council
351 West Center Street
Provo, UT 84601-4338

Dear Provo City Council:

I am saddened to discover a city law that prohibits me to throw snowballs with my friends. Provo city ordinance 9-14-101 states, “every person who shall . . . throw stock, stick, snowball or other missile whereby any person shall be hit . . . is guilty of a misdemeanor.” I find this law to seriously interfere with my pursuit of happiness.

I am a BYU student from California, never having lived in snow until my freshman year. I still remember the very first time I looked out my window to see the world covered by a beautiful blanket of white. It was wonderful. Part of that memory includes a playful snowball fight with my friends. The outlawing of any part of that experience is sad indeed.

But beyond the sadness, this law is unjust in the way it is (or is not) publicized. I happened to hear about this absurd law from a friend, but most people I know are not aware of it. No one will naturally assume it is illegal to throw a snowball, so proper publicity of this law is needed if the law if this law is going to be enforced, if it is not going to be changed.

I refuse to break the law over this matter. However I wish to do everything in my power to change any law that interferes with what I believe is my right to enjoy nature and have clean fun with my friends.

Why not rework the law to allow snowball fights by two or more consenting parties, or to allow the gentle throwing of anything with a net weight of less than a few ounces? Let me enjoy this wonderful gift of snow that has never before been a part of my life.

Sincerely,

Derrick Clements

 

A Letter to the Governor

December 4, 2008

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:

I am deeply troubled by your recent attempts to persuade the California Supreme Court to overturn the recently-passed Proposition 8 from last month’s ballot. I am a proud California resident, currently away from home attending college. My interest in Proposition 8 was great, and my feelings on the issue are strong, rooted in both rational and moral thought.

We do not live as the Greeks, in a direct democracy, and thus you have a job. Your job is to represent us. We, who are too busy running the state’s families and businesses, cannot make all the important decisions necessary for the political well-being of our government, and so we elect representatives to do just that—represent us. My opinion is that marriage should be only between a man and a woman, though I would never take the right of any “normal” citizen to do all within his or her power to persuade in any direction he felt best.

Abraham Lincoln had high moral ideals and strong opinions, but he refused to use his position to illegally push for his personal agenda.

Instead of using your power of influence to exceed your position as my representative, I urge you to call for unity and peace within our state. Instead of speaking out against the will of the people you govern, I suggest that you speak out against those who aggressively attack those ideals that many citizens on both sides of the issue hold dear. Throughout the contentious campaign for Prop 8, I witnessed many ugly things done and said on both sides of the debate—as governor, you could help to dissuade that practice by calling for unity. Rejecting the decision of those same voters who gave you office—even many in your very office.

As one who was too young to put you in office, I can tell you that you shall never have it, for I only cast my vote for those who will use it to truly represent me.

Sincerely,

Derrick Clements

Morality in America

“Most of us grew up thinking that the United States was a great and humble nation that only involved itself in the affairs of other countries reluctantly and as a last and final resort. But now the war in Vietnam has provided the incredibly sharp razor that has finely separated thousands and thousands of people from their illusions about the morality and integrity of this country’s purposes internationally. Never again will this self-righteous saccharine moralism of promising a billion dollars of economic aid while we spend billions and billions of dollars to destroy them, never again will that moralism have the power to persuade people of the essential decency of this country’s aims.”

That was Paul Potter, President of SDS, on “Vietnam Day” May 1965. He expresses well one of the reasons I have disagreed with the decision to go to war with Iraq. Advocates of the war claimed a moral superiority that we have as a free state, compared to the dictator Saddam Hussein. As far as the Constitution is concerned, I agree with them, but the problem comes in the practicality of it. The task of winning over a nation to another’s morality is greatly hindered if there is legitimate concern about the sincerity of that country. Hypocrisy can turn to corruption quickly. I would love to spread democracy to the world, but until we can reconcile ourselves with the mistakes of the past, we won’t have a moral leg to stand on.

That’s why I feel like November 4^th was quite a day for America. We elected an African American president in a place where mere decades ago his own parents and grandparents were treated as second-class citizens. California passed Proposition 8, which was a narrow victory that showed the effects of grass-roots efforts as well as the general position on gay marriage in California.

In all, it was a pretty good day for the morality in America, if you ask me. I’d like to know your thoughts.

Merry Christmas!!

It is now officially the Christmas season, and I am very excited. Everyone else excited?

Hate, no matter how you spell it

Whoever may read this, please hear me. If there has ever been a time to love our neighbor, it is now. Since coming back to the US in July after two years in Brazil, I have seen some crazy things happening.

My fellow heterosexual Christians: I plead with you to try to understand people with same-gender attraction. They are not sinful freaks, any more than we are. We all have sinned. Remember, it was hypocrisy that Christ is recorded to have shunned the most. I know you don’t really mean the jokes that you say. You do it without thinking. That doesn’t make it not wrong. It is not sinful to love your gay peers. Compassion is the only way to perpetuate morality in our society.

My religion has been inappropriately attacked as a perpetrator of hate. To any who may hate my LDS church, I cannot take away your pain or our voice, but I can say that I love you and my church teaches me to love you. And again, to those who are part of my church, please take some responsibility for the perpetuation of these anti-Mormon ideas by your ignorant jokes and closed-mindedness. You don’t represent the prophet, the church, or the Savior when you say or do cruel things.

I know with all my heart that marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman. To all who voted against prop 8, not out of moral position but out of a desire for fairness, please reconsider your position. Gay marriage would legally eliminate the validity of my sense of morality. Love and commitment are not the only necessary ingredients for a marriage to be good for society. The downfall of traditional marriage will be damaging to our state. As this fight goes on, please reconsider your views and support causes that protect morality.

Solution to today’s economic troubles

79 years ago today, October 29, was a day we now remember as “Black Tuesday.” On that day, the stock market crashed. Kind of like a few weeks ago, when the real estate…um…when the money crashed…when…you know. Something bad happened to the economy. As a college student in the iTunes/YouTube/Sesame Street/mp3/Obama-loving/think-on-our-own generation, I didn’t know how to react until I emailed my family and asked them what I should think. They told me. It was good. I turned to the Ultimate Source of my generation’s knowledge to dig deep into this horrible state of American money. What I read there disturbed me: our wonderful generation is getting mixed up in an era many are calling a second Great Depression. I don’t know much about what that means, although I’m pretty sure it’s scarier than when they change the terror color. If they had a color scale for the economy, right now the color would be a Disney’s Technical Parade Extravaganza. Blues! Reds! Flashes of brilliant orange! Who knows what color it will be tomorrow? Yes, it’s a difficult time. But America, all hope is not yet lost. I have, with all the creativity of my generation, concocted a plan that, if I do say so myself, is as brilliant as the flashing yellow on the Economy Terror Scale. I hope Obama and McCain both read this. My plan is patriotic. It uses America’s strengths to overcome its weaknesses. I call my plan: World War 3. After all, most historians say that the Great Depression only ended upon our entry into the war in 1941 (though most also agree it was still Greatly Depressing). But I say, let’s do it. I am positive we could do this. I mean, there are a lot of easy choices to start off with—Iran, Russia, the evil Korea (I forget which one that is), etc. In fact, it doesn’t really matter which place we take out next. But mark my words: War will prove to be the end of this nation. I mean this nation’s economic troubles. The third Rocky was the best one. The third Indiana Jones was the best one. The third Toy Story is going to be sweet! (I hope we make it to 2010!) The third World War will be so awesome. Now I know that some of you may be opposed to this plan. “Cruel” you may say. “Evil” you may say. Well, I say, let’s let history be judge of that. History is where I am taking my cues in this idea—or do you prefer paying off billions of lost dollars with billions of imaginary government dollars? At least my idea comes from history, not steals from the future. It’s time for a Nuke Deal.