Pappa Hardy’s Musings on Life.

As I am getting older, I take more pleasure in the simple things of life. Of course, some of these simple things have changed since I was a kid. Tonight is Halloween. When I was a “youngster”, which my children will say never occurred, I remember getting dressed up in our rather simple costumes (I always went as Freddy the Freeloader) and we would run around the neighborhood, getting our trick or treat candy.

Now, we do it differently. In our neighborhood here in the land of Payson, we have a cul de sac near our home. The whole neighborhood gathers and we have what is affectionally called our Cul De Sac A Treat. The parents, who are usually dressed much more than the kids, come and then hand out the goodies to all the kids (and some of the bigger kids, aka adults). You sometimes have the same people come around three of four times, but what the heck. It is so fun seeing all of the kids all dressed up, it takes about an hour, and everyone enjoys the chance to get together and chat.

Later on, we don’t have many kids come to the door, but it is so fun to just see the little ones enjoy themselves. It helps to defray that gnawing that comes from knowing that we are missing the Halloweens four our own grandkids. I would have loved to visit with them.

Tonight I was driving home at around dusk. I was dodging in and out of traffic, paying attention to nothing but the car lights and the quickly moving shapes automobiles when the beauty of it all took my breath away. It wasn’t the cars, though even they had a beauty of their own.

I looked south down Utah Valley and saw the darkening hues of red as the sun was beginning to set behind the western mountains. It was surreal, the realization that I have this one chance in my life to appreciate the beauty of the setting sun, the deeply red colored hills, and the fact that I, as one soul, have the opportunity to travel through and appreciate it all.

The lights were beginning to come on, the homes in the distant taking on the shape of a twinkling star in the evening. It was quiet in my car, without much noise from the freeway making it’s way in to break my revelry. Each day is a special gift, to be enjoyed, savored, to be appreciated. It is so easy to dwell on all that is wrong in this world, the injustice, the challenges, the heartache that many of us feel. However, as the old saying goes, we need to stop and smell the roses. It only comes our way once.

One of the talks given at the recent Semi-Annual General Conference of my church discussed the idea that “We Don’t Know Everything But We Know Enough”. The idea is, we can push forward even if we don’t have all of the answers. I find that idea mildly comforting when considering our current economic situation. We need to move forward and solve problems, rather than quivering in a mode of indecision because we don’t have all of the answers. Our current problems demand action, some kind of action in order for us to at least start to move forward in solving our problems. Not only can we move forward with regard to our faith in the Lord and his plan, but we also can move forward in solving the problems of our country.

Well, a recent trip on I-80 lead me to believe that perhaps the Semi-Truck isn’t as dead as I might have thought. With the price of fuel jumping over $4.00 a gallon, the temptation was to think that they semi-truck may no longer be economical as a form of transportation to move goods around the country. I can remember times when I-80 was just crowded with truck after truck after truck. Sometimes the road was so heavily traveled that you could not move over say, 80 miles per hour.

Well, I do think that perhaps there are less trucks on the road. I saw a train last night, seemed like it was miles long and of course, I immediately jumped to the conclusion that my theory was true. Of course, the lower number of trucks was probably related to the fact that the economy is slowing down and there was bad weather. Regardless, I think the semi-truck’s future is probably in limbo now.

One of the announcements mysteriously missing recently from announcements at the Semi-Annual Conference of the LDS Church was the building of the new Payson Utah Temple. Well, at least that would be the case for a lot of people in Payson. There have been rumors rampant in Payson for the last 9 months that there was going to be a new temple in Payson. Actually, there is a “prophecy”, at least the legend of a prophecy of a local Payson Bishop and Stake President that they had, in vision, seen a temple on the ridge above our home in Payson.

Earlier this year a builder, who wants to build homes on the rocky ridge above our home, had tried to encourage that rumor so he could get approval, without going through the actual process of getting approval, to build a housing development on the ridge. While one wonders why anyone would want to invest money in such a program right now because of the financial crisis in our country, there was still an effort by that builder to paint the Payson City Council and Planning Commission as bad people because we had not fawned over him when he presented the plan to us.

Instead, he has gone to a Stake in our area, and after talking about the “Payson Utah Temple” has painted us as the bad guys and put our name in print as the people who are obstacles to this dream. Maybe someday we will get a temple, and I would have loved to hear that announcement in General Conference, but for right now it doesn’t appear that dream is to be.

Back in the ancient times, they supposedly worshipped the sun. We have tablets, and ruins of ancient civilizations where the sun was the center of their worship. I wonder if they had skin cancer then?

Today we have people who worship the sun. They are called people who go to a lake during the middle of the summer, burn their skins to a crisp through getting sun burns, all in the name of getting a little recreation. Recently we sat on the shore of one of our large lakes. I was sitting under a tent, hoping not to get burnt and I got burnt anyway. I worry about skin cancer, but I guess that wasn’t enough to make sure that I kept from getting burnt.

As always, the recent General Conference provided timely counsel to the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints regarding the problems we face in the world today. It would be well for the world if they listened what is said from the pulpit in the Conference Center. Every six months we hear timely counsel, and October of 2008 has been no different.

I honestly don’t know the answer to this question. I am one of those that seem to be locked into a lot of those critters, and a lot every day. I guess they are good in that they help us to cope with health problems. However, the sad thing is that they are an indication of just how much older I am getting and the resulting health challenges that I face as a man.

The drugs help my diabetes. They also help my heart condition. They also cost a heck of a lot of money. It just seems like they could be the savior of mankind, but they also can break the bank. Being a banker, I don’t always find that exciting.

I have the blessing to serve as a counselor to Bishop Wayne Pullan of the Page Ward. I have served as a counselor to two other Bishops, Bishop H.P. “Ted” Cardon of the Southfield Ward in the Bloomfield Hills Michigan Stake and Bishop David G. Ditto, of the Cheyenne 3rd Ward of the Cheyenne Wyoming Stake. I have had the opportunity to watch these Bishops serve and see the impact it has on their lives.

They are truly great men who serve with the interests of their members at heart. They are blessed by the Lord. However, I have also concluded that if you aspire to this office you must be nuts. Why? Bishops have great demands on their time. They sometimes put in 30 hours a week over the time their full time job takes, and I am sure that they are thinking, dreaming, or experiencing the calling the rest of the time. I am told that they receive great blessings for their service and sacrifice and certainly I have been a first hand witness of those blessings. However, I don’t believe that I have the ability to handle the kinds of stress that they experience. They are truly great men. I know the Lord blesses them. I would be nuts to want to take on their responsibilities.

Good Ole Cheyenne, the home of Frontier Days. We are in town this week visiting with the kids in Cheyenne. We lived here for a long time, and the kids, most of them, consider this town as home. For me, it will be a place I fondly remember because of the family associations and the friends that I have here, but it will never be the home that Utah is.

That aside, Cheyenne has changed a lot over the years, and yet, it is also the same. It has grown. The streets are more crowded, and there have been improvements and other such things occur. However, I think the thing, outside of family, that I will always remember Cheyenne the most for is Frontier Days and the image that the city has. It is a symbol of the old west. That spirit, and the spirit of friendliness, will always be something that I remember Cheyenne for.