Category: Surviving
The Great War Against the Virus: Maybe It’s Time We Give Peace a Chance
I was saddened to hear the views online of some of the college students partying in Florida during spring break. Not just because they seemed so oblivious to the health…
Dealing with the Wuhan Coronavirus: Some Thoughts for Those Traveling or Living in Asia
What some people may have viewed as just a normal outbreak of flu is beginning to cause alarm on a global scale, especially here in Asia. For those who recall…
Food for Thought: A 911 Dispatcher Hears the Hidden Plea for Help When a Woman Orders Pizza
The secret to effective communication is a widely overlooked action that few of us seriously try and even fewer do well: listening. Not just closing your mouth periodically to politely…
Tender Mercies: How the BYU Management Society and a China Moment Turned Gloom into Contentment
Monday morning was gloomy. Perhaps my most depressing day over my 8 wonderful years of ups and downs in China. This was a day of confronting some painful suspected realities….
To Rule with Blood and Horror: Shouldn’t We Be Paying More Attention?
This morning I awoke with a chilling dream. I was a technical advisor helping in the deployment of a bomb. I was on the airplane carrying the first bomb as…
The Secret Combination That Saved China
One of the important parts of the Book of Mormon that many Mormons try hard to overlook or downplay is the content regarding secret combinations and their destructive role in…
Yes, Cookies Can Matter
I want to share a story that might be helpful the next time you wonder if your little acts of kindness, like baking cookies for someone else, really make a…
Adventures in China
There are miracles on every street corner here in China. At least that’s the only way I can figure out how 200 people can cross a street in the 20…
How Quickly Freedom is Lost: Remembering FDR’s NRA
Were any of you around in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s day? I am amazed at how he is praised in our modern textbooks, with little critical discussion of what he did to Japanese Americans or to the Constitution of this land. While the precedent he set of massive executive power grabs continues unabated in our day, there are some lessons from his reign that should be remembered by those who seem eager to trust a President with power far beyond the intent of our Founding Fathers. For example, consider FDR’s National Recovery Administration (NRA)…