Perspective is Everywhere

College has a way of making things occur to you in powerful ways. Prime example: I haven't read for more than 8 hours of a day for years, especially textbooks. That's college, friends, lots and lots of reading. And I love it! The books that are assigned are textbooks, but they're written with the intent of educating the reader; they want to make you better for reading their book. Perspective is everything. In my first week here, a talk was given by the BYUSA president. He quoted from a poem written by Carol Tuttle that goes like this:

HOW I FINALLY TAUGHT THE BIG GUY A LESSON

I did not provoke the fight so I feel no remorse for what I was
forced to do. We were arguing, and seeing that I was right and he
was wrong, he decided to fight to cover for his stupidity.

He swang at me first, but being in the top of condition, I was able
to act quickly and block the punch neatly with my head.

Whereupon I jumped to the ground knocking him down on top of me.
Then I placed my ear in his mouth and poked his finger several times
with my eye.

His teeth hurt from the strength of my ear, and he became irrate and
tried to kick me, but I cleverly blocked the onslaught with my ribs
and face.

I scrambled to my feet and ran to my car in hopes that I would get
away and save this man from my deadly hands. Before I could start
the car he pulled me from the still open door. I then proceeded to
swing at him, but only managed to hit myself in the head. I
said: "Whats this? Two against one?" That was the final straw-I
lost all control. There will be no mercy!

Taking him in my death grip, I pounded him in the knee with my
stomach-then I hit him two or three times hard in the fist with my
teeth! He had had it! I could tell. After that he didn't even try
to pick me up off the ground. He was too chicken!

I love the perspective Tuttle introduces to our lives simply from looking at the situation from another angle. What if everyone had that kind of unbeatable attitude? This poem actually reminded me of the Captain America movie that came out last spring. I watched it last night with a group of friends (moving outside after visiting hours were over of course!). The message of the movie is so much different from what the world wants us to believe about ourselves. It's empowering to know that there are still believers out there, people who know that being a hero isn't about being strong, or having special powers. Being a hero is all about knowing who you are inside, knowing what's right and standing up for it.

In church today, I noticed that the girl sitting next to me was writing quotes in sacrament/testimony meeting. Things people had said inspired her enough to be written down. The first one came from a man in my ward, recently returned from his mission. He has cerebral palsy and has a hard time controlling his physical body, including speech. He came up first to the pulpit and bore his testimony so strongly that I couldn't help being reminded of the love for Christ that many with disabilities have. He said that trials are a blessing, and that he always looks on his major trials that we all can see as a blessing in his life. She wrote down that quote, and I commented on it after sacrament meeting. I've always wanted to be the person that writes notes in church, but I couldn't do it consistantly enough. Here's for another attempt after being so inspired as she was.

It occured to me at church that no other church on earth, to my knowledge, has such a dedicated corps of young adults. We wake up in time to go to church at 8:30 AM on a Sunday. We go to church and actually participate. We run our ward because it is a YSA ward. And we fill the chapel with the same Spirit that all of us feel in our home wards. Next to our chapel, we can hear the other ward singing their hymns offset from ours so that the sweet Spirit that music brings is present throughout the whole meeting. I love this Gospel and the joy it brings to all who partake in it.

I know this post seems a little random and kind of long, I just suppose there was a lot on my mind today :)