Every Epic Love Story, Chapter Six; The Next Day After

I know, lots of time has passed since I last told a chapter of how I met my beautiful wife. But I feel the need to start telling it again. If you need to review, feel free to click back through some previous chapters, linked below.

I had been emotionally shot in the heart.

Months I had been longing to be with Jenni, was with her for not-even-ONE-day, and had lost her.

I went back to my room, and moped.

I know, that's not very epic-sounding, but I was a teenager in love. A teenaged boy in love. Moping was pretty much the extent of my emotional range.

But something remarkable stirred in my heart. I *knew* she was wrong. Wrong about me not being ready for the relationship she wanted.

I knew I could make her happy. And I wanted the chance to do it.

I'm not trying to aggrandize my relationship with Jenni by putting the picture of Adam and Eve up top. There is a reason it is there.

Last month, we were at the Washington DC temple, and I considered the story of Adam and Eve. I learned something important about marriage as I thought about their choices.

Eve made a choice in the Garden, one that she knew would lead to her expulsion and eventual death. In the temple this time, My mind was filled with a bloom of sentiments that Adam might have experienced in that moment.

He could have been filled with anger or disappointment that Eve had made a choice to disobey God. A choice to leave Adam.

He could have lectured her. Given her the silent treatment.

He could have been self-righteous.

But Adam, faced with the reality, that Eve was leaving, followed her.

Every relationship is filled with break points; moments where the relationship fails or survives. It is not mine to ever judge why someone else's relationship breaks. There are surely good reasons for that. I imagine being faced with your partner's bald disobedience of God (a disobedience that would now result in your partner leaving you) is one good reason to let the relationship end.

But I knew, considering Father Adam's choice, I knew with brilliant certainty that he chose Eve over every other possibility. What an act of humility and devotion.

He loved her more than he wanted to be right in the moment. Such a mundane sentence to capture what turned out to be such a profound choice. And in every successful relationship, in ever successful marriage, that same choice is made. Often more than once. In some marriages, perhaps over and over again. Rather than saying, "Fine!" when confronted with some grievance and turning away, someone chooses to stay. Stay and fight with hope for the future.

When Jennilyn broke up with me, I could not possibly know what our future held. But my young heart made a leap far beyond its age; I resolved to get her back. It is a choice I have never regreted.

Remind yourself how we got here by reading chapter 5.

Chapter seven is right here.

Peanut Butter Taste Test!

I love taste tests. I love preparing them for others. The chance to experiment in a real study, to glean knowledge of self, of what you really like best. Whether you are brand loyal.

Whether price paid matters.

To choose free from hype or commercial influence is a rare thing in our world.

This was something a friend suggested when we ran into her at the grocery store.


That's ten different bottles of peanut butter. Five smooth, five creamy. Three were the "honey" blends. Two were store brands.



We ate them with graham and ritz crackers, celery, twisty honey pretzels, and then hershey bars for dessert.

The kids had clear preferences to NOT eat the store brands. But almost everybody disliked the honey blends also (they were too "thick", not creamy enough).

Choice is a great blessing, even in little things, we can be grateful for it.

Sometimes you have to stop and watch the coins be counted

I haven't seen a kiosk for tolls that takes pennies in a long time.

So naturally, I needed to collect enough to pay the toll.

Politics!

My number one son went off to college a couple of weeks ago. He asked as he was finishing his absentee ballot application, "What political party am I?"

Wow. Where do I start?

I explained that Maryland has closed primary elections, so you can only vote for candidates in the party you join; if you aren't with a party, you cannot vote in the primary election. So it's worth joining to be able to vote in the primary.

But which party? Sorry, you have to figure that out on your own.

For what it's worth, I've always taken the trusty guide approach to politics (just like with music!). I listen to what trusted friends tell me, and usually just do what they suggest. That might sound lazy, but I prefer to think of myself as just really busy doing other important things.

My folks are very active in the community, so I often ask them for their advice.

So I can tell you what I will do, who I will vote for in a given election, but I am not sure I know much more than you do, kids.

I do know how to be informed. Look things up when someone gives you information. Especially look things up when a partisan gives you information.

Read FactCheck.org once in a while. I have to do it in small doses, because it is depressing to realize how inaccurate most of the things are that you see reported in the news or spoken by politicians.

For specific info on specific candidates for some higher profile elections, check OntheIssues.com.

Even though it's based at a Florida Newspaper, http://politifact.com/ has a good selection of nationwide information.

Most Conservatives assert a wide liberal bias on the part of the media (except for Fox; most liberals assert a strong conservative bias on the part of Fox News). I try to be cautious in what I believe.

Tell you what, though, if you find something interesting out there, something compelling, an issue worth fighting for, and candidate worth talking about? You call me and tell me about it. I take recommendations, you know.

Max singing at the MSB festival in May

I don't know why I waited so long to post these. From a concert several months ago, this is one of my favorites that the MSB sings. They have a series of great choreographed movements They have a series of parts sang by different groups of boys, and the rest of the choir waves their hands when not singing. Max is on the top row, far to the right as you look at it.


Here, the older boys are doing the singing and the young boys turn around and wave to/at them. Can you see how shiny Max's head is? This is only about a month after he finished singing the Daddy Warbucks part in "Annie".


And this is my favorite part, when the groups each take turns, singing in kind of a round


It was so much fun listening to these guys sing!