Pappa Hardy's Musings on Life.

Anyone who has seen Alfred Hitchcocks movie the Birds might be afraid of any grouping of birds where none have been before. We however, have our own birds that have been overrunning the Hardy residence.

It all started in Bonnies vain attempt to get some wildlife other than our cat and the pesky wasps/yellow jackets/black widows that seem to inhabit these parts. She had always wanted a hummingbird feeder, and last year bought the first one, that never even got posted outside. Then this year she bought an additional feeder and I then knew I was in trouble.

Earlier this summer I finally broke down and put up the pole on our deck that the feeders were supposed to be on. Having done so, she looked on the internet, found a solution to make up and voila, instant birds. Well, maybe not instant. First, nothing came. She changed the color of the solution. Then, finally, one bird. Not too long and we had a whole gaggle of hummingbirds flying around the deck in the backyard. At one time this week we counted a total of nine at one time, darting around the feeders, making themselves at home. Of course, our cat, aka Snowball, aka HIF, is so old and weak that he is no longer in hunting mode so they are safe. What has made it really nice so far is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of bird droppings accompanying the birds. Maybe Tippi Hendron would be safe here.

One of the basic differences between most men and most women is how we go about shopping. A woman, by her nature is a gatherer, checking, holding, looking, and then checking everything else in the mall. A man, like me, wants to go in and nail the kill. In the Las Vegas Outlet Malls, I sat on benches while my wife did the gathering simply because I couldn’t find the kill and kill it. I was bored, my wife was in her element. I think she loved the day, which was also her birthday. Me, well I tolerated it by sitting and thinking and taking notes.

I heard a quote today that was made by a member of the US Olympic team yesterday or today at the Olympic Games in Beijing. It was Dara Torres, a member of the team who at age 41 is the oldest swimmer to be swimming at the games. She said, after winning a silver medal, Do not put an Age Limit on Your Dreams.

There is so much truth and wisdom in those remarks. So often, we allow ourselves to give up on cherished dreams or goals because time has passed us by. We no longer keep trying to accomplish our dreams and instead settle for second best. Yesterday I just turned 57, and I am on my way to being 60. One might believe (particularly me) that my dreams are no longer something that I can accomplish and that I should settle for second best. I have decided that I will no longer settle for second best, but that I will accomplish my dreams. I hope that my children and friends also obtain their dreams, and never give up, never give in.

Recently our youngest son Michael gave us a brand new piece of news that he had just received. He told us that the last companion/District Leader that knew him had come home from his mission. I told him that the “Legend of Elder Hardy” would now begin to slowly disappear from the corporate consciousness of the Raleigh North Carolina Mission.

The same thing happened to me when I was a missionary in Taiwan. First, you come to be known as you were in the mission field longer, and then soon you were creating your own legend through the things that you had done while a missionary in your areas. Soon, you went home and as your juniors came on home, the legend of you was first enhanced, then disappeared as there was no one to hear the stories.

Bonnie and I went back to Taiwan four years later. We inevitably ran into Elders and Sisters out doing missionary work and the question would come up as to what we were doing there. We would explain that I had been a missionary, and then a cloud would come over there face, and then a sense of amazement and wonder as they would first think of the fact that you had “been here so long ago (actually on 4 years) and they would have never have heard of you.

I had a different experience as an Elder because I had been a Branch President and Concern Coordinator and had seen lots of old Elders names on membership records. That practice was long dead in the mission (having been able to get local leadership) and thus they had no idea of who I was. The legend of that Elder Hardy was dead.

I told Michael that the same thing was now going to happen to him. When Michael went back to North Carolina earlier this year, his legend was starting to die as Elders didn’t know who he was, but now the death of his legend will begin in earnest. It is an interesting experience to become a legend and then see it die. The Legend of Elder Hardy will die.

My experience recently in a mall in Las Vegas made me think of Barbara Streisand, a 60’s icon the radical left who was also a star of stage, screen, and song. How in the heck would I be thinking of Barbara in a mall in Las Vegas? Well, it wasn’t because she was walking the mall with her husband, or because I heard her songs blaring over some loud speaker.

Rather, it was because I sat there watching people in the mall, and realized that people don’t need other people nearly as much any more, rather, we spend more time watching each other hoping that others won’t interfere with our lifestyles and our trips out to the outside of our homes. We are becoming a much more private people, people not interested in much anything else than what is on their particular schedule for that particular day. We are cut off from each other. We are not people, People Who Need People.

I have been noticing something that really is bothering me right now. This specifically I notice in family, but society has the same general problem. We just aren’t being tolerant of each other. We are too worried about whether we are right, rather than having compassion to each other. My recent foray into politics lead me into the same trap. I sometimes worry that I am getting to settled into one position or another and then believing that I am right and the other wrong, and never shall I compromise.

You see it in Washington. Our national government has come to a gridlock, with each side posturing and trying to convince the public they are right, all for the purpose of political expediency and not in behalf of the people. Both the President and Congress most recently have received all times lows in their approval ratings by the populace. The national media doesn’t help the matter either and we all take sides, shouting at each other, sure that we aren’t right, but not willing to compromise and get the people’s business done. This year, it will be probably the 5th or 6th year in a row that most of the national government funding will continue to be run on a continuing resolution rather than through the appropriate appropriation process. This has got to change.

Whether it is in a family where we might be intolerant of or make fun of another’s views, in a city where we stake out positions for ourselves and don’t back off, or whether we don’t get the people’s business done because we are ideologues more determined to be right and yell and scream, rather than work in behalf of the people we elect. I am just getting sick of this, and we are setting ourselves up as a family to fracture, or as a nation to elect someone (a devious man or a man like the German’s elected in the 1930’s to solve their problems, and see where that lead them) who will promise to solve our frustrations, just if we give him the power. Things have got to change, and we the people have got to demand the change, or as the Book of Mormon says, if the greater number of the people shall not choose the good, we will ripe for the fall of the government that we have cherished for all of these 230 years.

It is amazing just how hot it is in Las Vegas. It gets hot in Utah too. I guess because of the grass and the water that you see there, that you think that it is an Oasis, but it is really just a part of the desert, and man it gets hot. 115-120 in the middle of the summer is nothing for this place, and the asphalt, concrete, steel, and people just add to the heat. A record was set on the first full day that we were there of 114. After dark it is still way hot and way miserable for people. I don’t know how people can stand living there, but then people stand to live in Utah, and that is part of the desert too. The big difference I guess is the fact that Utah is 2500 feet higher than Las Vegas, and 400 miles further north.

A lot of years ago we lived in student housing at the University of Utah. It was our second encounter with student housing, in a place called the East University Village. While living in that student housing complex we lived in a branch of our church called the University 2nd Branch. It was a branch consisting of primarily graduate students and their families. We were all young, all pretty much in the same boat, and we pretty much were all poor.

Well, approximately 2 months ago I was contacted by a member of that branch about attending a Branch reunion, 30 years after the Branch President, George Pingree, was released. Being the curious sort, I convinced Bonnie we should go. Man, what an experience. First, we were the only ones from the years 1977 to 1978 at the reunion. Second, most of the people who were there were long time members of the branch, us being there only one year.

It was a different experience. We knew no one, and no one knew us. The one thing that was interesting was one lady came up to us, called us friends, and then realized that she never knew us. There was some interesting backpedaling going on. I thought we would know somebody, but we knew no one. This was the first time since we have gone to reunions that we came up with a big zero. It was good seeing our old Branch President (they had no clue who we were) but that was it.

I sat and watched last night, all 4.5 hours, the opening ceremonies of the 29th Summer Olympiad known as the Beijing Olympic Games. I normally would never sit and watch one TV show or event for an hour, let alone 4.5. It was a fabulous show. However, what really affected me was the special place that I have in my heart for the Chinese people, and the obvious pride that they must be feeling at this moment. I longed to be there, sharing this moment with them.

No one can live with or know the Chinese people and not be profoundly affected. I lived for 3 years in Taiwan and love this people like my own. My second family lives in Beijing and Taiwan now. They are a wonderful people who have a unique history and past. We must cherish them, yet know and understand them.

Bonnie and I had planned to be in Beijing next month. Then, a heart operation for me has changed our plans. I had given up on going to Beijing to see our friends there, but now want so much to go there and spend some time amongst these wonderful Chinese. I feel the pull of Beijing, and the pull of the Orient. I hope we can figure out how to go there.

While in Las Vegas recently I saw a very interesting documentary on TV about of all things, how the Mob got involved in making Las Vegas what it is today. We of course all pretty much know how much organized crime contributed to the evolution of the gambling Mecca known as Las Vegas. What I didn’t expect to experience was seeing that in my hotel room in Las Vegas.

One statistic I found incredible is that at one point in the United States, the business created and controlled by the mob was 10% of the GNP (Gross National Product). These secret societies are much larger than most Americans ever expect. For someone as simple minded as me, who believes in the basic goodness of all people, finds that this is a hard concept to accept. Such a small, without principled minority can have such a huge influence and impact on the morality and the politics of this nation.

We cannot remain a truly great nation and allow this kind of thing to be the mainstay of our society. As is indicated in one of my religious faith’s primary scriptural canons, these secret societies will bring about the downfall of this great nation. Of that concept, I truly believe and feel that somehow we must do something about it. I am not quite sure how to make that happen though, as they way are politicians raise money for campaigns seems impossible to correct and remove from the influence of questionable people.