For some time now J. Max Wilson has been one of my favorite LDS bloggers. He’s quite the computer coder and an many occasions he’s been willing to answer my questions in regards to coding and technical issues.

J. Max is also a talented puppeteer and with some of his comrades-in-arms has set up a site called “Maxed Out Puppetry” that offers videos of their work. It’s worth checking out.

He’s written a bit about it here at his blog Sixteen Small Stones.

A few days ago I was waiting outside an elevator that would take me down to the subway. I was standing behind a woman who had two little children with her - one in a stroller and one who was walking alongside her. I waited a little bit impatiently for the elevator to arrive and open. Then when it opened, the woman seemed to have some kind of problem moving herself and the stroller forward into the elevator.

Since I was already feeling impatient for having to wait for the doors to open, I began to feel irritated with this woman’s addition to the delay. “How smart do you have to be to walk a few steps forward into an elevator?!” I thought to myself. It only took her a few extra moments to get the stroller into the elevator - but I couldn’t understand why she was having a problem at all and that was plenty of time for several sarcastic thoughts to flit through my mind.

I walked to the back of the elevator (it’s a big one - this is part of a trip I take every work day), turned around and then I was able to see this woman from a different angle - and then I knew that the woman was missing one arm - her left arm ended in a stump right above where the elbow should have been.

I immediately felt pretty bad about the sarcastic thoughts and pigheaded resentment I had been feeling towards this woman. I began to imagine the difficulties she must encounter on a daily basis, trying to truck two children around while having only one arm. For her, pushing a stroller forward in a straight line (over any uneven or bumpy surface) is probably a challenge sometimes.

This was just another reminder that I should be slower to judge, slower to anger. If I can learn to be a little more patient in life, then maybe I’ll have time to understand what is happening before I evaluate a given situation or person.

A co-worker of mine had this book and the title “Speak Peace In A World of Conflict” intrigued me. It became even more interesting when I opened it up and saw this quote at the top of the Introduction:

“We need a more peaceful world, growing out of more peaceful families and neighborhoods and communities. To secure and cultivate such peace, we must love others, even our enemies as well as our friends.” - Howard W. Hunter

That may be the only time in my life that I’ve opened up a book by a non-LDS author and discovered a reference to something said by an LDS prophet. It only says the name “Howard W. Hunter … it doesn’t identify who he is.

I wonder how the author chose that quote - if he knows much about President Hunter or maybe knew him personally? I just don’t know.

The book itself is a challenge to my internal values. Some of the points Dr. Marshall B. Rosenberg makes here don’t fall into line with my understanding of justice or common sense - there are points he makes that just don’t sit very easily with me. I also feel the author makes some points or takes some approaches that are contradictory to each other.

But it is still an interesting read and I’m impressed by the fact that the author is very much aware of the ugliest realities in this world - mass killing, rape, etc. and that some people who are embroiled in these kinds of problems are taking the time to listen to this author. If what he has to offer has applications in the more horrific world contexts, then maybe I need to be a little more open-minded to what he has to say.

Let’s just say I’m still leaving ample room for skepticism, without having lost interest in what the author is writing.

We watched this movie last night.

It’s about Sudanese refugee boys who flee for their lives to Ethiopia and then to Kenya. In Kenya they live in a refugee camp until some of them are given the opportunity to start a new life in the United States. It’s a powerful movie about some of the harsh realities in this world and how some very resilient people courageously make their way through the variety of challenges they face.

Those people you see in the films are not actors. They are actual participants in the events being described. It’s a wonderful film.