Year end report

Three words highlight the year 2008: visits, education and health.
Visits: In January and February, I commuted to and from Long Beach, preparing Montair Manor for sale. In March, we went to Southern Utah with our friend Manor, who was traveling from China.
In April, we flew to China. While Janet visited with students and old friends, I went to Weifang to photograph the annual Kite Festival. It rained the three days of the Festival. In June, I flew to Texas, and drove back with Timmie and Laurie, after she closed up her San Angelo house in preparation for a move to Saudi Arabia. In September we drove through Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore and The Badlands, while visiting former students from Xi'an, China. In November it was back to Texas, via Houston and San Antonio, where we had Thanksgiving with Wayne, Phal, Jeffrey,Michael And Catherine, plus four of our former students and teacher friends from China. Last week, it was a trip to California, where we stayed with Connie and visited our parents and Families, and on Friday, we're off to Mexico and Guatemala with Mark and Traci.
Education: Mom and I both took classes, mom's focused on religion and literature, mine on Photography, We enrolled in classes through BYU, Utah Valley University, and the Orem Senior Center.
Health: In February, my new doctor found my PSA levels to be dangerously elevated, which commenced a course of visits to specialists and resulted in two prostate procedures called "brachytherapy" with overnight stays in the hospital in July and August. We were very blessed that, except for a period of loss of energy, none of the other possible side effects have manifested themselves, and my PSA levels have become ridiculously low. We also found a Korean made massage table that has been a great help in reducing chronic back pain in both of us, and we became better friends with dentists than either of us would have desired.

In balance, it has been a great year. Our kids and grandkids are healthy and thriving, some of the consequences of the economic downturn notwithstanding. The elections, although not ending in the way I would have hoped, nevertheless will have a positive effect on the way the World looks at race in America, for which I am grateful.
We wonder what 2009 will bring, but we're optomistic.

Back in the whitewashed world of Orem

The past four days were spent in mostly sunny weather in Southern California.
While there we were treated to a performance of Annie, with two of our grandchildren, Ben and Suzie, in the cast. We were thrilled to see the quality of the performance of which they were a part, and most excited that our grandson Ben was able to ad-lib with humorous aplomb when two of the other actors missed their cues.
We also saw and enjoyed time with our respective families. The most memorable part of the days was the relaxed, unhurried atmosphere, attributable to what might be called small group gatherings. With the exception of the Annie episode, all of our other gatherings were limited to only a few people, with unhurried conversation and no time or activity constraints upon us. It made for a pleasant several days.
A remarkable coincidence occurred late last night. Our Saturday plans consisted of packing for the return to Utah, picking up Mark and Traci at Long Beach Airport, having breakfast at my sister Pam's home in Buena Park, then taking Mark and Traci for a brief visit with Connie and Darrell, before driving on to Moreno Valley, where they will spend Christmas with Traci's family; and finally a return to Connie and Darrell's to pick up our bags, return to the Long Beach Airport, turn in the rental car and fly back to Salt Lake, where we would catch an airport shuttle home to Orem. Phase two of the story is that Connie and Darrell left in their kid-packed van, sometime before noon, headed for 1 650 mile road trip to our home in Orem, where they will spend Christmas with us. So we flew, they drove. Almost precisely at Midnight, our Shuttle van pulled up in front of our home. As we stopped, we observed a set of headlights approaching from the opposite direction. Lo, behold, and coincidentally, the van contained none other than Connie, Darrell and the kids, arriving at precisely the same time from their road trip from California!.
Writing this is taking a few moments from preparation for the Priesthood Lesson I must teach today, the theme of which is "Unity." The lesson material is good and it will be easy to teach.
I intend to add only two or three short items to the material.
1) My friend and former Bishop, Gordon Mauss, once gave a lesson in which he reviewed an excerpt from lessons he had received as a young seminary student. It contained a quote by John Greenleaf Wiittier: "Thee lift me, I'll lift thee, and we'll ascend together."
2) The infamous Rodney King, a victim of a police beating, but otherwise a person who lived a life constantly in turmoil, made famous the post Watt's riot phrase: " Can't we just get along?"
3) The Chinese have no single word for the English word "unity." Their nearest approximation is the combination "Tuan Jie" which essentially means "working together." We learned that one of the great distinctions between Asian and western thought is the importance of the group or "working unit." To the eastern mind, the group has precedence. It occurred to me that "unity" and "unit" are both derived from the root "uni." one.
Enough of that, The sun is shining beautifully on the snow, the grandkids have already dressed in their warmest clothes and cavorted in the powdery white, and the Christmas spirit is palbable.
I hope you are feeling it.
Enjoy!

Jolly Old.....

We are "keeping Christmas" this year. Mom has endeared herself to the local merchants, hopefully to the satisfaction of our kith and kin. Decorations adorn our home, inside and out,
visits have been and continue to be made to family and friends, accompanied by wishes of Christmas Cheer.
So far, we have attended a Kiwanis Christmas Party, watched "Christmas Story", "Santa Clause 2" and "Miracle on 34th Street (The original version), Attended a Christmas Musical Celebration, seen a fine performance of "A Christmas Carol", and I have exuded jollity to the munchkins at our Church by donning Red and Beard, and accepting their holiday want list.
Yet to come are a trip next week to California to see family and friends, with a quick return to Utah for Christmas with the kids who are here.
One of our dear friends from years past, who has now moved on to the hereafter, used to regale us each year with a "Christmas Lettter," wherein she gave us an extended and detailed accounting of the year in the lives of each member of her large family. We enjoyed her effort on two levels: First, of course, we loved her family, and were interested in their life progress, but second, and of equal enjoyment, was the motivation it gave us for our annual "over the top" letter, usually reserved only for family. In our version we would take an instance from the pages of each of our six children, and...er....Magnify it to beyond the limits of credibility.
As an example of what you might expect, lets take the fact that our son Wayne has just received a Fullbright award to teach in Cambodia for six months. Now that is true. Our family letter would, however, read something like:
WAYNE TO REEDUCATE WAR-RAVAGED NATION
Dr. Wayne Earl Wright, BA, MA, PhD, Associate Professor of Bicultural Education at the University of Texas at San Antonio, has been called upon to take his vast foundation of educatioal skills into the third world for the next several months., in which time he dine on the traditional Cambodian delicacies Durian and Brahout, while using his advanced teaching techniques and put into place a complete educational program for the entire Kingdom of Cambodia. "I do not expect that the classrooms at the National University of Cambodia will be an impediment to my efforts," Said Wright. "The temperate climate of that nation will permit the students to enjoy an unimpaired view of the campus through the missing outer wall of the building., and palm fronds make excellent fans, eliminating the need for air conditioning. He will plan class times around the daily power outages that occasionally impair the use of audio visual materials.
Wayne's goal is to leave Cambodia in July 2009, having eliminated ignorance, poverty and public corruption in that nation. In his free time, he will travel to Thailand, where he will bring peaceful resolution to end the civil war now raging there.

You get the idea. We're really happy with our kids and the life they lead. We love to laugh, so maybe our little exercise in puffery is a gentle way to help us keep our heads on straight.
Well, a little straight, at least.

Educating Ren Tong

Yesterday, we received exciting and intimidating news. We were asked to teach at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing for the spring semester. We are told it is a small institution, with a student population of 1,500 in training for diplomatic service.

This is exciting because we have both felt we would be returning to teach in China, and Beijing is an incredible city. We have traveled there two or three times, but only scratched the surface of all there is to do and see. There are almost 400 expatriate members of our Church in Beijing, so our faith issues will be well-met.

The intimidating part comes from the nature of the assignment. The Foreign Affairs University is where all Chinese Diplomats receive their training. The former president of the school is now Vice Premiere of China. The Premiere was the featured speaker at last year's graduation exercises.

I recently read a work of fiction featuring an American professor who was scheduled to deliver a series of lectures at Oxford University in Great Britain. He worried that he would be looked down upon as not having the polish and pomp of a proper Oxfordian, and was concerned that he would "fall on his face." After a couple of lectures had been given, he relaxed, having found that the students and faculty at Oxford had the same issues and same foibles as students and teachers everywhere. I am taking some comfort in the thought that we will find a similar experience. Even acknowledging that the students may be a cut above the average college student, they still have a lot of room to be human, and, hey, they are being trained to be diplomatic, aren't they?

20 years ago, we participated in a Sister City Friendship program between Long Beach California and Qingdao, China. We had the privilege of meeting quite a few members of China's diplomatic corps. They were memorable for their charm and grace.

We leave for China toward the end of February. Maybe I'll even learn some manners!

Enjoy!

Snuggles and Hugs

We're still in Texas, thoroughly enjoying our Wayne and Phal and our grandchildren, Jeffrey, Michael and Catherine.

We came to Texas for Thanksgiving.  Part of the time was spent traveling between San Antonio and Houston, about 200 miles each way, but for a very pleasant purpose.  Four of our friends from China joined us for Thursday and Friday, and our Thanksgiving feast. Xu Hong Mei and Mao Mei, teachers from Xi'an, He Yan, a lovely student, and Li Tong, a guy with a Fender Les Paul Guitar.  

We toured San Antonio and the River Walk, and had a good time with them. 

I am not so sure all of our grandchildren are thoroughly enjoying us being here.  The boys have been exiled onto the futon in their dad's office so that grandma and grandpa would have beds.   One of the boys was overheard to say "I will sure be glad to have my bed back."  His comment caused me to have one of those weird memory flashes:  I remembered a song popular to young children that contains the line "I'm so glad when daddy comes home."  My mind immediately transposed that to "I'm so glad when granny goes home..."  Tomorrow they get their beds back.

One of the nicer of a very large number of nice experiences came last night.  I had just finished a game of Yahtzee with my son and Jeffrey, and was still sprawled across the floor, when Catherine came over to me and said "I want a snuggle," whereupon she sidled up against my side, laid her head on my chest, patted my prominent midsection, and settled comfortably in my arm.   I got a "happy hit" from that.  

I woke up this morning thinking about that experience, and others, involving human touching.

One of the warmest personal experiences I had in China was on the last day of our teaching assignment there, when we took pictures of me giving each student a hug.  I have looked at the resulting photos often.  Many of the hugs were "photo hugs" with appropriate mugging for the camera.   But there were a few that were "different."  

Specifically, I recall one student, who was well known on our 25000 student campus for a dramatic and very moving solo performance she gave of a girl begging her father for love.  The monologue contained references to alcoholism, physical and verbal abuse, and family suffering.   In the photo of our "hug" there is little that suggests a warm contact, though both of us were smiling.  Her body language was all about independence and personal strength.

Another girl, who had campus prominence  because of her  outgoing nature and great communication skills, seemed to literally melt into the hug, with warmth and comfort fully evident.    Even the few male students in the class participated,  with hugs becoming almost a contest of manliness.   One student in particular was an ardent Communist, and we would have long discussions about our political differences.  To me,  his hug on that last day was one of the warmest and most uniting of my China experience.   

There were none who refused to participate.

More recently, back in America,  I was talking to a boy of about 14, whom I thought I knew well. During our conversation, to make a point, I reached up (he was taller than I) to put my hand on his shoulder.  He quickly flinched away from me, with a look of irritability on his face.

I have since watched him.  I have never seen him touched by anyone, including members of his family.  

Before I was in college, some sociologists had done a study of orphan monkeys.  They had one group raised alone in a cage, while others had in their cage a rag doll, about the size of what a parent monkey would be.  The lone monkeys did not thrive physically.   Those with the surrogate, cuddled against the doll and developed into much more healthy specimens.  

A more recent study reported by a writer on Wikipedia, suggests that there are in fact positive chemical reactions in the body that result from human touch.   

I am, unabashedly, a toucher, have been most of my adult life.   Most of our friends or family members seem to expect a hug or two at a meeting or departure.  Less often, the touch is limited to a handshake or just a friendly smile, and that's ok too.

Oh, I got nice hugs from our Chinese friends when we dropped them off in Houston on Friday.

"

Lone Star Turkey

We're off today to Texas... San Antonio to be precise, to spend Thanksgiving with Wayne and his family.
In a probably ill-conceived act of vanity, we chose to fly from Salt Lake City to Houston, with a stopover in Minneapolis, Minnesota. You may wonder why. Well, we have visited 48 of the fifty states. Only Minnesota and Alaska remain to be seen. With apologies to anyone whose roots extend into Minnesota, we have found no compelling reason to make it a point of destination in our travels, but the vanity (the one I talked about last week) in me still wanted to be able to say: "been there." In order to stop over at Minneapolis, our final Texas destination had to be Houston, a 3 to 4 hour drive from San Antonio. But, I rationalized, this is a mini vacation, and besides, maybe I can get a few pictures of the hurricane devestation that hit that city. We'll see.

Houston will actually play another role in our little jaunt: Two of my students, He Yan and Li Tong, from Xi'an, China are studying at the University of Houston. We have invited them to join the family Thanksgiving Feast, which means a Thanksgiving morning drive to and from Houston to pick them up, They will spend the night. On Friday the whole family in two cars will take them,back to Houston. That's when we'll probably take pictures. Another of our friends from Xi'an, Xu Hong Mei, is studying with Wayne at the University of Texas, San Antonio. She will not only join us for turkey day, she will also house He Yan for the evening before our return to Houston. We will keep Li Tong at Waynes overnight.

There's a third, and really most important purpose for going to Waynes: Our granddaughter Catherine has recently celebrated her eighth birthday, and will be Baptised on the Saturday following Thanksgiving.

Family, Faith, Friends.... Lots to be thankful for.

Enjoy!

At the Beginning...

Who knows who reads this stuff?
When we were teaching in Xi'an China, I pretty well knew who read the postings we did at www.wrightclan.net, but that site, having been long neglected, is also long-forgotten.
So, with three kids now blogging with regularity, perhaps it is time to start up again.

Moments ago, my hand was resting by the keyboard of my laptop. My finger touched an object which stuck momentarily to my skin. As I lifted the finger, the object fell to the floor. It was a small black sheet metal screw, not more than 4 mm long. No such screw seem to be missing from the laptop. There was nothing else on the desk that apeared to have such a screw missing. It is likely that I will spend some amount of time today trying to figure out where that little screw belongs.

On the wall immediately to the right of my desk hangs a calendar featuring art by the LDS artist Greg Olsen. The November Photo depicts a late afternoon sky, Jesus sitting on a hillside, thoughtfully overlooking a mist shrouded Jerusalem. The title of the piece is "O Jerusalem" The scripture in Jeremiah continues: "... How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?"

Now, the little screw and the calendar image are both kicking around in my head. Is the screw really important? Should I take (waste) time trying to solve this little mini-mystery? Is there not a better use for the "little grey matter" of the brain than this?

So, what are "vain thoughts?' Did Jesus not teach the second commandment is to "love thy neighbor as thyself?" Are we not then supposed to Love ourselves? I think the answer must be "yes." Shakespeare thought the same thing when he had Hamlet advise "to thine own self be true...for then thou canst not be false to any man." So thoughts of and about ourself must be a siginificant part of what we are. The grief Jesus expresses is for vain thoughts.

Mark Twain has done some writing that seem applicable. He talked of men who pray in public to bless the msssionaries, while in their hearts they "damn the missionaries and their money begging." Why do they do this? because their minds tell them others will commend them for their piety if they say the expected. Jesus talked of those who parade their offerings to the temple, who have the public's approval, and compared them to the widow, whose mite, humbly offered, is the greater eternal gift.

Charles Reacher penned a couplet which is both counsel and warning:
We sow a thought, we reap an action
We sow an action, we reap a habit
We sow a habit, we reap a way of life,
We sow a way of life, we reap an eternal destiny.

The law recognizes the importance of the mind in grading degrees of criminal conduct.
Malice is the product of an "evil and malignant heart"
One element of serious criminal conduct is "malice aforethought"
Conspiracy (planning a criminal act) is a serious crime of itself.

Scripture speaks of those who by rank in their community, in turn ascended a prayer platform and gave thanks that they were "not like the poor." Their acts were a prelude to abandoning the faith of their fathers.

Vain thoughts allow people to succumb to temptations....Sexual, financial, ethical...
"What if" is a powerful mental tool, for good or evil.
What if I sacrificed a meal out, and gave the money to help a family in another part of the world?
What if I bought another expensive lens instead of helping someone in need?
What if I don't list my true financial status in applying for a loan?

Perhaps there are better things to think about than the proper place for a 4 mm metal screw.
If it is important, I will find out soon enough, anyway.

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A brief calendar:
Nov 25- December 1: To Texas - Thanksgiving and Catherine's Baptism.
December 16 -20: To California - Early Christmas with Connie, Jim and Families
December 20-25: Christmas in Orem -With Jon and Annelise, and hopefully , Connie, Darrell and the Grand munchkins.
December 26 - Jan 4: To Mexico and Guatemala: Tour Mayan sites with Mark and Traci
Enjoy!