Sarah: My Eight-Year Old Perspective Changer

The semester ended. Finals are all finalized. Projects are punctuated. As great as it was, in some ways it kind of leaves me wondering what it was all for. What does it really matter if I now know how to calculate a Reynold’s Number or if you can _______________ (fill in something from your major or job) or what my grade was in ___________? Now, after it’s over, so what? 

It took an eight year old to bring it all into perspective again for me. I got to be part of a small program this semester where college students are partnered up to be mentors for children in the community. Once a week my partner and I got to meet up with Sarah* and take her to do something fun. I signed up thinking this would be a good way to give back to the community. But, despite the cliche-ness of the phrase, I got back so much more than I ever gave. 

Sarah, and the weekly activities we did with her were oases of perspective for me. Just forcing myself to remember what kinds of things are fun for an eight-year-old when my partner and I brainstormed what to do each week got me far outside the mindset of my research lab. 

We did things I never would have done by myself - played soccer in a park and then tag on the jungle gym, got ice-cream cones that were way too big (ok, I might have done that by myself...), visited a dinosaur museum, and watched “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!”. These outings refreshed my mind and soul and reminded me of the simple joys of childhood. 

But more than just diverting my mind away from my school-work for a while, Sarah reminded me why what I, or any other person does at their job is really important. From a scientific perspective, here’s the abstract of what she taught me:

• Galvanized steel pipe and weather resistant plastics are important because they make playgrounds and soccer goals for girls like Sarah. 
• Refrigeration cycles and copper forming techniques are meaningful because little girls like Sarah can eat a lot of soft-serve ice-cream. 
• Discovering a new species of sauropod is vital so Sarah can be fascinated when she sees it. 
• Lasers and optics have significance because Sarah needs to laugh when she watches Linus, Pigpen, and Snoopy on DVD. 

All the different things we study and work daily at, even when we enjoy them, have to be linked to a greater purpose if they are to really have any true meaning after we’re done doing them. That greater purpose almost always has to do with the people we love and the relationships we have with them. 

So thanks, Sarah. I don’t know if it would make any sense to you if I tried to explain what getting to know you this semester did for me. But in the end, I think it was me that needed to understand things a little better anyway. 

*name changed

A Different Kind of Political Discussion

A Different Kind of Political Discussion

The upcoming election is a big deal. Not just because it's all over Facebook, TV, and YouTube, but because for us, people in or close to our twenties, whoever ends up being the next president will affect the rest of our lives in very big ways. That only increases the irony that so few of us, including myself, like to pay much attention to it. 

Despite the fact that politics can be unpleasant (with all the shrill, accusing voices), and the fact that the media rarely speaks directly to our generation about politics, it's important for us to give each candidate in this presidential race a fair evaluation and then go vote. I tried doing this on my own and quickly found out just how hard it is to cut through all the half-truths and propaganda. So, I decided that instead of spending hours and hours trying to figure it all out myself, that I would be lazy and get someone else to do it for me. 

I promised a couple politically savvy friends of mine that if they would do all the leg-work, I would make them rich and famous (by posting their work here on my blog). It was a campaign promise, so they can't really be too disappointed, right? The least I can do is share their hard work with all of you. 

Really though, Grady Nye and Edgar Perez have both put in a lot of work to come up with all the info they present in the articles below. I respect these friends of mine immensely and hope you will too, whatever your political leanings may be. They've provided links to all their sources so that you can figure out more for yourself if you want.

My hope with this post is that after reading both articles you'll all leave insightful, thought provoking comments that can help us to have a different kind of political discussion than is the norm now. Let's leave name-calling and rude remarks out and talk about how we can make the future better for ourselves, and maybe even whoever comes after us. Thanks,

- Brett

Coin toss to see whose article goes first: 

Nye (for Romney)

Grady Nye is from Pittsburgh, PA, and is currently a second-year law student at Stanford Law School. As a member of the LDS Church, faith is important in Grady's life. He says, "My faith teaches me how to preserve the liberty I fight for in politics." Apart from his interest in politics, Grady loves college football (he cheers for BYU), major league baseball, art, and music. One thing he does not love is spaghetti. 

Why you should vote,

and why you should vote for Mitt Romney

At Brett’s request, I am writing to explain why I’m voting for Mitt Romney and why other young Americans should have the courage to do the same.  This election represents more than just a debate over which policies work and which ones don’t—although that is a part of it.  This election is a choice about what kind of country we want to be—a nation of freedom and opportunity, or a nation of division and entitlement.  The problems of our generation are serious, and the solutions cross party lines.  In 1964, Ronald Reagan said, “You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right.  Well I’d like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right—there is only an up or down” (Republican Convention Speech). 

Our national debt approaches $16 trillion, eclipsing our annual GDP (the amount of money made by the country as a whole) of just above $15 trillion.  In 2012, Americans will pay over $4 trillion in taxes.  That is about $152 billion more than what we will spend on housing, food, and clothing combined.  Increased government spending and our current tax burden are like ankle weights on an economy that is already struggling to swim.  And the longer we ignore our national debt, the longer we have to stay in deep water.

The choice between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama is not a choice between right or left, but a choice between up or down.  For almost fifty years, ever since Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society,” liberal Democrats have promised that their government programs would alleviate poverty and hand a better future to struggling Americans. But now, with the poverty rate above 15%, unemployment hovering around 8%, and at least 46 million Americans on food stamps, liberals claim that we just haven’t taxed and spent enough.  To garner support for their programs, they divide people into groups and pit them against each other.  President Obama resorts to the argument that the rich don’t pay their “fair share” of taxes while the rest of Americans struggle.  We have reached a state of political discourse where, as Ronald Reagan said, people “can’t see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion that the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one”.  If liberal government programs really worked, shouldn’t we have seen better results by now?  

Mitt Romney can accomplish in four years what President Obama never will in eight.  Instead of taking a larger cut of small business payrolls, like President Obama—instead of saying “you didn’t build that!” —Mitt Romney promises to cut the taxes of small business owners, allowing them to grow and hire more people.  While four more years of President Obama will bring the same economic stagnation that we have seen for the last four years, Mitt Romney will turn this economy around and get people working again.

To be clear, no single president can wipe out the national debt and completely fix our entitlement programs.  But you have to start by creating a strong economy.  Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have a 5-point plan for creating jobs and increasing take-home pay: 

1. establishing energy independence, 
2. increasing access to education and job-training, 
3. supporting free enterprise and fair trade practices, 
4. cutting the budget deficit, and 
5.  bolstering small business 

What do these 5 points do for you?  As a package, they are a prescription for an ailing economy.  I am a 26-year old law student with debts to pay off and a career to begin, and there is nothing more important to me than living in an economy that is strong enough for me to find a job and support myself.  Rather than asking, “But what does cutting the budget deficit do for me?”  I ask, “What will make the economy strong so that I can do things for myself?”  Part of our generation’s challenge is to stop seeing the federal government as a vending machine for political favors.  Just like the greatest generation sacrificed their lives to defeat the tyranny of fascism, we must sacrifice our culture of entitlement to defeat poverty and economic stagnation.

For a more detailed explanation of how Mitt Romney’s plan will grow the economy, I encourage you to read more about it directly from the source.

Let’s change the course of our country this November by choosing up instead of down.  No economic or political system in the history of the world has done more to create prosperity than a free America.  Let’s choose freedom and responsibility instead of blame and coercion.  Let’s be a nation of “haves” and “soon-to-haves” instead of a nation of “haves” and “have-nots.”  Whatever our individual economic successes or struggles, let us always be good citizens, preserving by our willing moral conduct the freedom to determine our own destiny.

~ ~ ~

Perez (for Obama)










 

Edgar Perez was born in Mexico City, but now calls Portola, a small town in Northern California, home. He's a senior studying Political Science at BYU-Idaho and is currently serving as president of the BYU-I Democrats. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, faith is an integral part of Edgar's life, and something he says has strengthened his views as a Democrat and a liberal. Edgar enjoys defying stereotypes, being out in nature, movie soundtracks, and learning how to dance. "Yes," Edgar says, "Real men dance!"

“Go Left, Young Man!” 

By Edgar Perez

As a political science student and you study the political process in depth, you become more aware of the power that citizens, young and old, have in shaping our country. That is why you’ll find us out in front of stores with clipboards or canvassing door to door.  Every vote, regardless for whom or for what party, ultimately decides the direction in which the country goes.

Both candidates in this race recognize the role that we young adults play in this election. They know we are the engines of the American future. According to data from the latest census, people ranging from the ages of 18-24 make up nearly 10% of the total population.

 Should everyone in our age group vote this November, we could have the ability to decide the entire election! 

I am a liberal Democrat and I support President Barack Obama. In these past three and a half years, he has made it possible for more students to attain a college education, lowered taxes on poor and middle class families, and has given more Americans the ability to obtain healthcare.  The President is moving this country forward and with that in mind, I want to give you 5 reasons why President Barack Obama is the better choice this November.

#1.  President Obama has put college education within reach for millions more young Americans and their families by putting an end to wasteful subsidies to banks acting as middlemen in the federal student loan process. Much of the savings has been used to double funding for Pell Grants. Thanks to this, the maximum Pell Grant will rise from $5,350, which is the current maximum, up to an estimated $6, 900 in 2019.

#2.  Under this administration, responsible borrowers and people who enter public service fields like teaching, nursing, or public safety will see their federal student loans forgiven after 10 years. Income-based repayments on federal student loans will be capped at 10% of dispensable income as soon as this year, any debt after 20 years will be forgiven.

#3. This administration has overseen 29 straight months of job growth during which more than 4.5 million private sector jobs have been added to the economy (Link1, Link2, Link3, Link4). Although there is more work to do in this regard, this is a step in the right direction for the United States toward a stronger economy. In addition to this, President Obama is strengthening the middle class by providing tax cuts to 98% of working Americans.
 Therefore, by putting more money in the hands of more Americans (Link5, Link6, Link7, Link8, Link9), our economy and our country will prosper. 

#4. In the three and a half years since he assumed the presidency, Barack Obama brought our troops back from Iraq, and troops from Afghanistan are beginning to come back to their families here at home with a complete withdrawal by 2014 (Link10, Link11). In a form equal to the service and sacrifice given by these veterans, President Obama stands with our men and women in uniform by ensuring that they do not fight for a job in the country they fought to protect. As part of his jobs bill, President Obama has allowed for an increase in tax credits for employers who hire veterans (Link12, Link13, Link14). 

#5. Under the Affordable Care Act, young adults up until the age of 26 will be able to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans. This is particularly important for young Americans as they enter the workforce and cannot afford full health insurance, or lose coverage as they leave school or change jobs. As many as 2.5 million more young people have been insured thanks to health care reform, and millions more will be covered once this law goes fully into effect (Link15, Link16, Link17).

Since he assumed the White House, President Obama has been committed to the welfare of the American people, particularly the young and the elderly, and will continue to do so over the next four years. Through the policies enacted in this administration, Barack Obama is determined to give young Americans the best fighting chance in an increasingly competitive economy and to ensure that the elderly are able to retire with dignity and safety. As you decide whether or not to vote this November, remember that in exercising your vote, you are deciding the future course of the country. More than that, you are choosing your own future. Now go out there, Vote!

Climbing in "The City" and "The Castle"

Leaning backwards off the tiny ledge into the open air, 100 feet up on a vertical granite wall, there was only one thought running through my mind. “This is gonna make a great blog entry.” 

There are a LOT of rocks to climb here. All the rocks in this picture are less than half of the rocks in the park. 

The sun blazed down on me that afternoon as my long-time adventure companion Geoff and I worked through the two-pitch sport climb known as, “Between Heaven and Earth” in the Hostess Gully at Castle Rock in South Central Idaho. 

Geoff and I started our adventures together by joining each other’s Boy Scout troops on snowmobiling and snow-cave camping trips into the Island Park, Idaho area when we were both about 12. As time went on, we gravitated towards backpacking, and managed to pull off some fantastic trips, each worth their own blow entry. We summitted the Grand Teton, Mt. Borah, and too many other places to mention right now.

So, when Geoff suggested that this summer, instead of our traditional purist, intense backpacking quest for a mountain peak, we try spending a few days at the rock climbing Mecca known as “City of Rocks” I was skeptical.

There were tons of little crags and places to boulder and play around on.

He explained that instead of taking everything we needed in on our backs, we would simply put stuff in a vehicle, drive to a pre-arranged campsite, unpack, and then drive to different rock formations and climb to our hearts’ content. 

“You mean car-camp?” I asked, my voice obviously tinged with skepticism. RV’s, KOA campgrounds, and the like don’t normally qualify as “real camping” with Geoff or I, and I was worrying just a bit about the friend with whom I had logged so many miles on the trail. 

Geoff. Good guy. 

But, I admit, the idea of having a cooler (which meant we could take a huge variety of backpacking-prohibited foods), a big tent, foot-thick air-mattresses, a sun-shelter, a big propane cooker, and various other normally contraband commodities eventually started appealing to me. Maybe I’m starting to get old. 

Sometimes though, you really can have your cake and eat it too. Adventure was never in short supply on this trip, and adrenaline rushes went arm-in-arm with warm showers and drinking water we didn’t have to filter from a remote mountain stream. 

When we arrived at Almo, Idaho, the tiny one gas-pump town that caters to visiting climbers, it was night. Despite the nearly full moon, it was hard to distinguish anything out of the ordinary in the fields beyond the barbed-wire fences. Then, after a couple of miles driving down a dirt road, the first one crashed into view. The size of a three story mansion, Camp Rock, where hundreds of passing pioneers signed their names, loomed imminently in the suddenly eery moonlight. 

The next quarter mile of driving made us feel as though we had been entered the world of “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” as dozens of rocks, some larger, some smaller than Camp Rock, engulfed the black and white view of our new existence. And it wasn’t just the sheer size of the rocks, but their shape and character that made our jaws drop. Some rocks jutted defiantly at odd angles into the air, others looked like giant pancakes stacked high and waiting for their colossus makers to come eat them. Others were pocked and smoothed like swiss cheese. Our campsite itself was cordoned off on one side with a granite wall that could have been designed by a whimsically dreaming Fernand Petzl himself. 

The rocks next to our campsite. Yeah, they were pretty fun. Maybe too fun...

Back to the tiny ledge where I stood a hundred feet up, working hard at concentrating my abundant adrenaline on belaying Geoff as he started up the face while the sun worked hard at trying to get through the SPF 50 sunblock all over our necks and arms. On this, the third climb of day two of our adventure to City of Rocks and Castle Rock, I was trying to avoid thoughts of what might happen if my anchor, a couple bolts epoxied into the granite wall, were to suffer an unlikely catastrophic failure and pull loose. Soon though, Geoff let me know he had anchored into the top and I was too busy remembering my knots and adjusting clips to think about anything else.

At several points on the way up to where Geoff now waited, it honestly looked like it would be impossible to keep moving up. But with some lay-backs, heel hooks, fingertip holds and the occasional faith-filled lunge and grab toward a hoped for hold, I found myself emerging onto a small, scoop shaped repository where Geoff and the top of our climb waited. The view from the top vindicated the climb’s name for me. Earth, or the base of our climb, was a jumbled, narrow, chasm full of trees and bushes. Heaven, or the top of our ascent, gave us an elevated view of the entire landscape on either side of the narrow stone spine, and the feeling at having reached the peak was exhilarating. 

Looking back, it was during that climb that I started trusting the rock, my climbing partner, my equipment, and especially myself. There is a lot to learn from those silent, unforgiving, but steady rocks. For example, if there is no possibility of complete failure, can there be any true chance of genuine success? Facing that possibility made learning how to use our tools, partnership, and faith, essential. 

Another key element of managing that risk and reaching the top was learning how to look at the circumstances presented in the environment one finds oneself in as opportunities instead of impediments. I was amazed at how much physical energy seemed to melt away when I allowed myself to entertain thoughts such as, “Well that’s a horrible arrangement for those rocks...” or “How am I supposed to get up there without a solid hold?”  When instead, I commandeered my reactions and dictatorially proclaimed to myself that I would not stop until I reached the chains at the top, I was surprised at my increase in energy and the boldness of my moves on the rock. 

Geoff had me lead my first climb. This was a 5.8/9 and was a blast.

Rappelling down off my philosophical perch, the rest of the trip was better than I had expected in a couple ways. City of Rocks and Castle Rock are technically two separate parks and a five dollar per vehicle entrance fee is charged for Castle Rock (no charge for City of Rocks). Despite the entrance fee and being geographically smaller, Castle Rock features a greater concentration of bolted “sport” climbs than City of Rocks, and the entrance fee also gives the occupants of your vehicle exclusive potty privileges at the nearby RV campground with its shower facilities. Nothing feels as nice after a scorching day of climbing as showering off the dirt, sweat, and sunscreen in a real, hot shower. 

Driving from place to place (our longest hike was probably around 2 miles one way), access to running water, hot showers, and cooler chilled Powerades may not be my idea of a purist backpacking adventure. But, going to City of Rocks and Castle Rock was sure a great guilty outdoor pleasure that I now heartily recommend.

Happy 3rd of September! Oh, wait...

Yes, I know, I'm late on posting this. But, since this is still kind of the Fourth of July weekend and I really didn't want to wait a year to post it, here it is. 

The fourth of July is a strange holiday in many ways if you stop to think about it. In a Cinderella style upset worthy of any NCAA Final Four series, a loosely knit, mostly untrained alliance of small nation states challenged the most powerful nation on earth, pulled off the win, and we’ve celebrated ever since. You might imagine that the date remembered for generations would be the date of the final victory, or maybe the date the loser officially conceded defeat. This holiday, however, is as exceptional as America itself. 

There probably is not one reason everyone would agree on as to why we celebrate our Independence in early July; after all, the subject here is history, not math. But why not early September instead, when the British gave up by signing the Treaty of Paris, or October when Washington won the last major battle of the Revolution at Yorktown?

One reason is the Declaration of Independence, whose eloquent wording has inspired generations, and still causes awe today. “People don’t talk like that anymore,” quips the character Ben Gates in Disney’s National Treasure. And it’s true. 

But Independence Day is for more than paying homage to a bygone era of promulgatory excellence. In America content has often trumped form, and that is certainly the case here, despite the noble embodiment of the Declaration’s ideals. 

Some might say celebrating the fourth of July instead of some other significant date is kind of like Babe Ruth’s famous calling his own shot. With two strikes and a booing opposition, what’s remembered isn’t so much the amazingly long home run hit, but the fact that he called it. The Founders were bold enough to declare their intentions to a world that justifiably had its doubts.

In the end, the pessimists may have a point. None of those reasons quite seem to justify blowing up millions of dollars worth of colorful explosives every summer. And it’s still true that there would be no celebration on the 4th of July if Washington had not taken Yorktown, which would have been unlikely if the French had not come, or if a thousand other things hadn’t happened just so. 

But there could have been no end without a beginning - a beginning where men and women put incredible faith and effort behind ideals and a God that may have seemed then to only exist on paper and in their hearts. And that’s where the Declaration and the fourth of July get their staying power. 

People in tough situations, and that could be many of us nowadays, want to believe that despite the odds they can come out on top, that despite the depravity around them that God and good exist, and that their sacrifices can make a difference for their children. And so, the Fourth of July is a celebration of the future as much as of the past. To celebrate those ideas is to express faith and hope for what can be and how we are a part of it, not simply commemorate what already took place. 

It would be hard to find a better reason to celebrate. 

Falling with Style: How to handle finals and life

(originally a column in BYU-I's Scroll newspaper)

Pixar has given us some pretty memorable lines, including, “I can speak whale!” and “With this GPS we’ll never get lost!” But, the most memorable for me just might have to be Woody’s exasperated exclamation that Buzz Lightyear can’t really fly, he’s just, “falling with style.”

That phrase, and Buzz’s endorsement of it at the end of the movie, has made me think a lot about how much the idea of “falling with style” applies to real, everyday, non-animated, non fairy-tale life. 

All that goes up must come down. Except for those few satellites that get exiled into outer-space forever, gravity rules. Cars that are new today, will eventually be rust buckets, buildings crumble like sandcastles. 

This lack of perfection shows up in stuff before it’s even finished too. Any first semester engineering or chemistry student can tell you that you that all measurements made on anything (other than whole number counting) are, at best, guesses that are “close enough”.

Or, for the more artistic, the closer you get to a painting, the more you realize that even the Mona Lisa is just a bunch of swathed brush-strokes plastered onto a canvas that is slowly aging and degrading - think of the song, “dust in the wind.” 

Even biologically, our bodies are in a slow, losing battle against the entropy of disease, slight cellular mutations, oxidation and other “aging” effects. Added stress from things like finals week and breakups only intensifies these processes. So, if it’s all going down-hill from here, what are we supposed to do?

Fall with style my friends. Fall with style.

Take a break from concentrating so much on the next case-study and help your neighbor with the papers she dropped. Get up and go on a hike at 5:30 AM to see the sun rise over someplace you’ve never been. Learn how to cook something Italian or say, “I love you” in Italian, (both could come in handy). Go all out on your humanities presentation even though you had never even heard of a “harpsichord” before. See what it feels like to go an entire day without complaining about a single thing, just for fun. Bake a cake with some friends, knock on a random door, sing Happy Birthday, and walk away without offering an explanation to the recipients.  

Even though “Falling with style,” may just sound like a nice way to state the inevitable, I’ve come to believe what Buzz realized. Contrary to popular opinion, pessimism does not denote intelligence. Just because life isn’t a scripted fairy-tale, that’s no reason not to shoot for the stars. And who said that this life was everything anyways? “To infinity, and beyond!” 

The Potential of Idaho High School Sports

A current radio ad extolls the virtues that high school sports play in the lives of students and our local communities. It states that sports create future community leaders and teach values such as teamwork and discipline, all while bringing the community together. The ad got it right - mostly. 

High school sports do all these things and more, for those able to participate. However, unnecessarily high participation fees and a misguided application of the vision of what high school sports are all about nearly ensures that these goals never make it past first base for far too many would be high school athletes. In turn, our communities miss out on citizens with better training and teamwork skills, and even on better developed athletic talent. 

With a few bold but simple innovations, many times the number of students who are currently able to participate can have these opportunities. Our communities can be strengthened, while costs can be maintained or reduced. The current system is good, but the potential and responsibility to accomplish much more is eminent. 

It’s easy to see that our communities need more high quality leaders to guide the future. However, opportunities for students to become leaders who can face difficult odds, work with their peers, and overcome physical, emotional, and mental challenges are severely limited because openings to play on school sports teams are so restricted. At nearly every major high school sport team tryout such as basketball, football, volleyball, and more, students are cut because only one Varsity and J.V. team are offered. Others never even try out or stop after just one year because they feel the teams are already decided on before tryouts are even held.

It’s time for a new system. Depending on the number of students who try out, each school should be permitted and encouraged to have multiple teams per sport, at least for J.V. Benefits would range across the board. The most talented players would be given more exposure and playing time to hone their skills. Those with less-developed skills would get the chance to discover their talent level (eliminating the conundrum of ‘needing experience to get playing time’). As well, opportunities for hundreds of area university students eager to volunteer and enhance their resumes with coaching and referee positions would be opened. 

To put the issue in another light, if 50 students were to show up to an educator’s office and state that they were willing to pay extra money and put in time after school to develop leadership skills, healthy physical habits, and represent their community, it’s hard to imagine anyone telling them, “Sorry, we’ll only take 12 of you...” 

Now, cost. As the radio ad claims, high school sports make up a small part of the Idaho education budget. However, much of that likely has to do with the hundreds of dollars in direct and indirect fees paid per student per sport. Expensive uniforms, warm-ups, and equipment are only a few items on a long list for each season. Facilities and other items add to the equation.

If the goals of the program really are to build the values already discussed, then, safety equipment aside, maybe items such as a new hooded sweatshirt for each sport or new uniforms every other season ought to be reconsidered. Perhaps instead, student athletes could be asked to purchase one jacket for all sports and add a simple insignia for each additional sport. Instead of bussing students to various locations at various times during the week, multi-game events on Saturdays could be used. These events would  bring together teams from multiple schools to play two or three games each in a central location over several hours, thereby lowering transportation and other “overhead” costs. Other innovative ideas and adaptations can surely be developed.

The biggest challenge such positive changes could face will likely not come from lack of funding or facilities, but from a condition known as Uncle Rico syndrome. Uncle Rico, for those who haven’t seen the movie Napoleon Dynamite, is a character who constantly bemoans how, “back in ’85, if coach just woulda put me in during the fourth quarter, we coulda gone to state! We coulda won! Back in the day, I could throw this ball over them mountains Napoleon...” 

Infected parents, coaches, and others display symptoms such as putting something like winning the state tournament above helping as many students as possible gain values like shared sacrifice, hard work, respect, and building character. If untreated, it can result in a total loss of vision and even spread to young athletes. Remember the radio ad. It didn’t say the goal was to win college athletic scholarships (less than two percent of high school athletes receive even partial athletic scholarships), nor did it even mention winning games. Sometimes, our logic on this subject is completely backwards. Coach and teach first things first, give more students more chances to play and grow, and the rest of what’s truly important will fall into place. In the words of another famous movie, “If you build it, they [wins, and other incidentals] will come.” 

This approach does not imply that winning is not important. It simply states that how we win and what we really win are too. Nor would such a system necessarily degrade the level of competition. In fact, as more previously untapped talent is exploited, competition could exceed current levels.

In the effort to build a high school sports system that truly reaches its stated goals, we must first know and believe what our goals for high school sports really are. Then, we’ve got to act boldly, and work as a team to achieve them. If we follow this same advice we give our student athletes, we can take a system that is good, and make it great while strengthening the entire community for generations to come. 

My Life as a Celebrity Chef 

(aka Uncoo Bwett)

“On today’s show, we’ll be making the celebrated delicacy known in my college apartment as, ‘Brett’s amazing breakfast scrambled eggs for stuffing into a tortilla and then in your mouth’.” 

The studio audience, wide eyed with mouth slightly agape, was all mine. It was going to be a good show. 

Ok, fine, so I’m not really a celebrity chef, and I was in my sister’s kitchen. But, my audience was paying complete and total attention as I poised the cracked egg above the frying pan and with a flick sent the yoke and white plopping onto the skillet to sizzle. It worked! My two year old niece Oaklee, bibbed and strapped into her seat at the bar was delighted. 

The show went on, with the addition of shredded cheese sprinkled on like yellow and white confetti, peppers, and diced lunch meat. My explanation of the admittedly complex and painstaking process clearly left her amazed and in awe that she should be born into a family of such stratospheric talent. Why else would she be scratching her head with her fork? 

After the show was over, we enjoyed the fruits of our labor. Oaklee tried at first to fare in a dignified manner on the sumptuous cuisine, but the sensations aroused by my work proved too much for her still developing table manners. Soon she gave in and just attacked it until what I had set aside for her was gone. So, I gave her some of mine. 

I didn’t realize until she was strangely silent and her whole face started quivering that she wasn’t quite used to Jalisco’s Mexican Extra Hot Sauce. She recovered quickly though, and has actually developed a refined taste for the finer (read ‘spicier’) things in life.  

Being an uncle may be the closest I’ll ever get to being a celebrity chef, but that’s ok. The experience is far better than any episode of ‘Iron Chef’. Sharing the fascination of watching water boil for the first time as my niece grips my hair tightly while sitting on my shoulders, or mixing the cheese powder in with the macaroni, and learning how to use a fork to eat the macaroni blows them all out of the water. For me, that’s the best rating a guy could get. 

BYU-Idaho's Big Problem

BYU-I’s Big Problem

Brett Stone Looking for Trouble

BYU-Idaho has a big problem. It’s not the dozens of professors who have quietly given up higher paying, higher prestige positions to teach here. It’s not the plethora of new state of the art buildings and facilities constructed in less than a decade. It’s not even steeply discounted tuition. 

Our big problem is that we don’t have a big problem. Although we might not like to admit it, we humans crave opposition. We need it. How else can you explain passionate rivalry sports games, mountain climbing, putting a man on the moon, or even (gasp) complaining about things that, when we honestly stop to think about them, really don’t matter much?

So it is with BYU-I. In all reality, we’ve got it about as good as it gets. Yet that is precisely the challenge we face. A common opponent or problem unites people, minimizes differences, and helps people stretch personally and collectively to achieve extremely difficult objectives. 

BYU-I students face almost none of that. This isn’t to say there’s no room to improve or that we shouldn’t honestly identify and strive to overcome more routine problems. But any honest assessment would show our problems are, if not very small, at least very different. There’s no rivalry with the University of Utah, no Communist Russia to beat to the moon, no frozen wilderness to cross in hand-carts. In response, we often complain about things that, relative to our situation, are as big as we can inflate them to be. 

How can you overcome a problem that doesn’t seem to exist, you might ask? Looking outside ourselves is a good place to start. Once we realize how many real challenges other groups and individuals face, it becomes easier to see how small our own problems really are. 

“Losing” ourselves, individually and collectively in serving others and helping them overcome their difficulties is one sure way to win the fight against inflated problems. Whether it’s teaching English in Peru, donating blood, or just offering to help a roommate or spouse with their homework, the challenges we need, and the solutions, are all around us. 

Besides feeling “warm-fuzzies”, recognizing this big problem and learning how to fight the good fight now builds us in another important way. The world as a whole is experiencing truly “big” problems. Once we graduate, those problems will be ours by inheritance and it will be our task to face and help solve them. 

Some may question the ability or destiny of “simple” BYU-I grads to help change the world. But, to paraphrase a very wise man, “The work of the world is not done by geniuses...”

We have a God-given responsibility and opportunity to help develop solutions to the world’s biggest problems. BYU-I’s big problem is also its most amazing opportunity and is anything but non-existent. We’ve just got to see it for what it really is and then go to work. 

TV Melodrama

I’m a member of some groups that, although fairly common-place here, in most places outside BYU-Idaho would be considered fairly unique: Eagle Scout, returned missionary, pumpkin pie eating contest participant (yeah, I lost), blond-haired but near-fluent Spanish speaker, etc. There is one group that I’m a member of though that I’ve found to be in a very small, interesting minority: I grew up in a house without cable TV. 

I know, right? Just to prevent any undue judgements, yes, we did have running water and electricity, a toaster and we drove a horseless carriage. We even lived in a pretty normal neighborhood. But, my parents just never saw the logic behind paying $30 each month for us kids to stay inside and watch stuff they didn’t think would help us in the long or short run, anyway. “That’s enough money in a year to buy a new bike!” my mom would say, trying to put it into perspective for me.

Our neighbors’ examples failed to change their misguided behavior as my younger sister and I had hoped. So, she and I were exposed to exotic 90’s gems such as “Saved by the Bell” and “Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire” when we visited friends’ houses. “How wonderful it would be”, we thought, upon returning to our 3-channel 19 inch living room TV, “to have 50 whole channels!”

Then I went to college. Now, on the extremely rare occasion when I start flipping through channels while eating dinner, I wonder, sometimes out loud, “How can you have almost 100 channels with absolutely nothing to watch?” Ok fine, so I love watching MythBusters when I get the chance. What guy doesn’t like seeing things blow up? 

But, overall, I guess that old habits die hard. Even though now I have a full array of Cable One’s finest available to me 24/7 right in my apartment living room, I still watch more T.V. when I go to give plasma than I do at my apartment. 

Once, after a particularly unproductive search for something to watch, in exasperation I told my roommates it would be better if we didn’t even have a TV. Boy did I hear it then. In that apartment, the TV usually got switched on before the lights did, leading me to complain that it seemed like we hardly ever even had real conversations. 

One Sunday, as we were headed out to church, I happened to be the last one out. I pulled the TV’s cord from the wall socket and tossed it behind the TV. I figured it would be about five minutes before my roommates figured it out. I had to stay for an interview after church and when I got home, the apartment was in crisis mode. “The TV is broke!” my roommates lamented.

I stood silent in the doorway for a moment, considering my options. The fact that I had just come from church made me feel like I needed to make at least a half-hearted attempt at honesty. “Are you sure it’s not just unplugged?” I asked. “No, we checked that!” they insisted. Nervous now that I somehow really had broken the TV, I went back to my room where I confessed my actions to my roommate Jared. “Should I tell them?” I asked. He considered for a brief moment before a sneaky grin grew across his face as he shook his head no. 

Days went by and the living room began a slow transformation. “Actually, I’m really liking  it this way,” one of my roommates said. “I’m getting so much more homework done!” said another. This went on for nearly the whole week, with their conviction and praise of the no-TV idea growing all the time. 

Then, towards the end of the week, I opened the door to a strange noise - ESPN. “So, Brett,” my roommates on the couch said, “We have a story to tell you.” “Oh?” I replied, already nervous at their faux-cool tones. “We put in a work request for the TV and the maintenance man came today.” The tension was building as steeply as in any CSI interrogation scene. “Oh, so he fixed the TV?” I said with veiled cheeriness. “He fixed it alright,” the roommate replied with a similar veil of cheeriness. 

“He plugged it back in, laughed, and said, ‘That’ll be $500!’” The roommate’s glare increased in intensity. 

“Hey, you guys said you liked it,” I reminded them defensively while retreating quickly towards my bedroom. A chorus of, “So it WAS you!” along with a few empty pop bottles and other easily reached throwing items flew after me as I ducked into the room. 

So, here’s to you; the few, the proud, whose childhood homes didn’t have cable. And here’s to that unashamed, singular group of those who still don’t know how many episodes of Seinfeld, Sports Center, or Doug  we missed out on, to those who silently shake our heads when we don’t understand another Office addict insider joke. “We know better,” we tell ourselves. 

Bell Mountain

It was said that Robert Bell, a sixteen year-old English immigrant, rose, “from a modest beginning to a high rank among the most useful citizens of Idaho.”

 The same could be said of the mountain in central Idaho that is named after one of the state’s first and most popular mine inspectors. 

Bell Mountain rises from the inconspicuous foothills of the desert. It ends with an exhilarating climb to the peak that tested our group of aspiring amateur climbers with its near vertical scrambles on exposed faces with more than 500 feet of air at our backs. 

  

There are two approaches to climb Bell Mtn., (East and West). We took the eastern approach. Turning off of the North Salmon Hwy (see map for complete directions) we followed the Forest Service road until we arrived at Bell Mountain Canyon.  Although the signage in the area is sparse, you can feel confident you’re headed in the right direction because of Bell Mountain’s convenient “bell” shaped peak. If it looks like it’s the right general direction, it probably is. 

We left our two-wheel drive van at this point because of deep ruts, but our four-wheel drive truck easily took us all the way to the trailhead farther up the canyon. In the canyon the terrain quickly turns from desert to mountain forest. At least in mid to late summer, when we went, there is no water available in the area. Make sure to bring enough for all your needs in this arid terrain.

Gravel turns to dirt, and eventually the road is just two light wheel tracks and ends at the trailhead. Cattle occasionally graze the area. Our group had a dozen people in it and there was plenty of room to camp overnight. Groups could also camp at several locations within a mile of the trailhead.  No permits are known to be required. Probably due to its remote location, not many climbers or hikers frequent the area.

The eight-mile round-trip “trail” to the mountain is only loosely defined. We headed south out from the trailhead leaving at about 5:15 AM. The reason we started so early was to avoid afternoon thunderstorms. We made it back to the trailhead by a little after 6 PM.  There’s a path that leads in the general direction of the peak but eventually tapers off and you can just pick your way through the woods. 

After the forest we scrambled up several fairly steep rock and shale slides. These were followed by going along ridges and crossing more slides (we followed the mountain goat / footpaths across) until we arrived at the base of the side of the bell shaped tip. Good boots are a must. 

The trailhead sits at about 8,000 ft. To the base of the peak is a roughly 3,000-foot gain in elevation. To the peak, our GPS showed we’d add an additional 600+ feet to top out at 11,612 ft. The peak’s GPS coordinates are N 44.236 and W -113.1945.  

This relatively low altitude peak might sound deceiving, but the last bit of climb is pretty intense. For perspective, it’s slightly less difficult than the Owen-Spalding route on the Grand Teton, or significantly harder than Chicken Out Ridge on Mt. Borah. 

I wouldn’t recommend trying it without at least some previous rock-climbing experience or a trained guide.  If you have either of these (in our case we had both) this part is a lot of fun. Without them, it could be deadly. Check your holds for loose rocks. Lots of rocks that appear stable or solid are actually loose or broken.  Ropes can be used for descending.

The view from the top is everything you’d hope for after a good climb. Mt. Borah, Idaho’s tallest mountain is visible to the west across the valley. Diamond Peak is also visible to the southeast. 

Even with the area as dry as it is, you can still run into some wildlife. We had a noisy bunch of elk run through our camp after we went to bed. Once we started approaching the high ridges we spotted a few white mountain goats as well. 

The Luv Docta

Advice for dating at BYU-I

Brett Stone

The Luv Docta is in

It really wouldn’t be “another great day at BYU-I” if love wasn’t wafting through through the air. To help you warm up your skills for the new semester, I’ve put together a quick summary of the best advice I have to offer on the subject. Taking advice from a currently single guy (that’s right ladies) may be like trusting a skinny cook, but it can pay to learn from someone else’s experience. 

For Guys

Don’t wait. It really is all about timing. Being an early bird in most cases is much better than being late. If you think she’s cute ask her out because most of the other 6,000+ guys on campus aren’t blind. Claiming that you don’t go on dates with people you don’t know is roughly equivalent to the logic of never leaving the county you were born in because you’re not sure if it’s safe. If you don’t know if you really like her yet there really  is only one way to find out.

Plan something You don’t have to serve her filet mignon in a cardboard version of the Taj Majal in Porter Park (although, that actually might be kinda cool...), but planning something to do, at least on a first date, is always a good idea. That something should almost never be a movie, and probably never anything to do with a screen in general. A few humble suggestions: mini-golfing at 7N Ranch near Heise Hot Springs, cooking a pizza from scratch at your apartment (stash a Digornio in the freezer just in case that doesn’t go so well) or tie-dyeing t-shirts. 

Act like you don’t care. Always be a gentleman, but once you’ve asked her out, if you think there’s a chance you might actually like her, act nonchalant. Why? Girls, in general, read way too much into things. In fact, there are probably girls I’ve taken out who are reading this column at this very moment who are reading way too much into it (no, that was not about you...). The point is, just because you get a nibble on the line (she said yes) doesn’t mean you’ve landed the fish in the net, and jerking emphatically on the pole isn’t going to help. 

For Girls

Just Say No! It may be fine to go out with a guy you’re completely uninterested in once, but if the first try doesn’t kindle even a casual interest, don’t keep saying yes. Far from being mean, a clear, unequivocal ‘no’ after one date may be the most charitable thing you could do in most of these cases. Guys’ logic is that the more a girl says yes the more likely it is that she’s interested too. Some guys may scowl at you for being frank, but the great majority of self respecting guys will thank you in the long run (about 15 minutes later, standard guy time) for not leading them on. 

If you’re happy and you know it... You guessed right! Most guys are actually somewhat clueless. Those guys who think they’re not? Well, have you ever seen a kid in a dizzy bat race who thinks  he’s running in the right direction? Yeah. So, if you think you may be interested, it’s sure nice to have some sort of a signal, like say, smoke signals. That being said, moderation in all things is good. Some of you (you may or may not know who you are) may want to ease up on the signaling. A forest fire may send the wrong smoke signal for most guys. 

For all

Breakups are like frostbite Having personally had frostbite on all ten fingers at once, I can honestly say, despite what you may have heard, it’s not fun. Breakups can be like sitting out in the middle of a freezing Rexburg blizzard without gloves. Sometimes after being outside you come inside and feel better in about five minutes. Literally. In others, when the exposure is more severe and deep, you can have alternating sensations of burning and then stinging for weeks and the full effects may not go away for months. Asi es el amor. The good news is, unlike frostbite, which can leave human flesh permanently weaker, breakups, if you choose, can make you stronger and more capable. It’s up to you. 

Know yourself A date, at almost any stage, should ideally be mostly about finding out who the other person really is. That can be tough if you’re spending all the time on the date figuring out who you are. Even at BYU-Idaho, an immense variety of people, standards, ideas, and family values exist. Be open to new ideas and concepts, but know what your personal thoughts are on different subjects before hand. Then you can spend more time asking and answering eternally important questions like, “So, how many cows do you think you’ll pay for your wife?”