GETTING THE CHICKS/DUDES

Not sure why I am writing this piece - other than I am so destroyed that I cannot do any real work other than type while sitting down.  Maybe it is about my 20th HS reunion coming up and thinking about choices of those I grew up with.  Where different lives have led different people.

I grew up in the 80's.  In my world, it was all about being the coolest.  Having the coolest car, the best clothes, the best body, the most cash.  Very selfish - self-centric.  It was all about the "me" - we were the "me generation" fueled by movies, music and so much else in the pop culture that drove the lemmings over the cliffs of insanity.  It produced the 30-40 year olds of today that fill the gyms, the plastic surgery tables, the fake tanning booths, the malls and boutiques, the back-yards at bbqs all looking for something that is always fleeting; the outward stuff.  With the emptiness that comes with all that, comes emptiness and feelings of never measuring up to the standards of comparing self to others.

What was lost on our generation, was that we were to compare ourselves to God's standards - not to that of our fellow-man.  This was the essence of President Benson's talk on Pride (click link).  He was the last Prophet to preach a warning against the sin of the day (that of not heeding the message of the Book of Mormon; of pride).

Most of this prideful living (fast car, nice clothes, hard body, easy money) was to attract the members of the opposite sex in a bid to basically (boiling it all down), break the law of chastity with as many people as was possible.  That is the 1980's in a nutshell.  For those in my graduating class, you were even more cool if you were the consummate partier - the life of the party and could hold your alcohol.  If you had all of the above, you could command the most beautiful woman in your class.  That was your premium.  Of course, most of that ended washed up and spun out on the race course of life.  Most of the hearty drinkers turned into slobbering drunks, the serial womanizers are sporting a nice case of herpes or worse, the perennial visitor to the mall is in never-ending sessions with the shrink trying to figure out why they cannot find happiness after their third or fourth marriage and endless credit card debt and so much else.  All of that destructive chasing after the Joneses produced nothing of import and worth.

And then there were the quiet geeks and religious ones who did not meet the popularity of the crowd.  They quietly went about their lives, loving God, maintaining chastity, getting married, living honorable lives.  Those are the ones who do not fill the couches of counselors - who have peace in their lives.  They missed all the hullaballoo of the rat race - and they have an inner peace not found in popping pills, filling a need with the swipe of the plastic or at the painful prick of the botox needle.  They have found true inner peace.

None of the stuff of this telestial existence will make it through the filter that separates this life from a terrestrial existence.  Over there - in that world - we will be thrilled with spiritual accomplishments of others; things of the Spirit; the intangibles; things of peace/of quiet/of no boasting of itself.  The things that will get the chicks or dudes over there are not the flashy things, but the things of an inner nature.  Things that cannot be bought with gold or silver.

Things will be different there than they are here.  There - your glory will be measured by your spiritual stature.  Money or title will have no bearing over there.  At the beginning of a talk - no amount of time will be given talking of degrees, nor of wealth, nor of business accomplishments; the giants who teach simply will be known for what they are; by what is projected from themselves.

I was in a meeting for the 737 elevator retrofit program.  We were having flutter issues on our tail feathers on that bird.  The 737 has an elevator tab.  The tab controls the action of the elevator in the event of manual reversion (no power in the airplane) which allows for a dead-stick landing.  Laminar flow coming off the trailing edge of the wing would come back and sweep over the tail feathers causing this flutter condition.  In a few "on the edge" instances, we lost an elevator tab and some structure on the elevator.  This affects the nose up/nose down attitude of the airplane.  It was not critical - but it was serious nonetheless.  In this meeting, where we had most of the flight control SMEs we were all waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive and one particular person walked in.  I could sense a presence - someone of greatness.  They had a spirit about them - not an air - but a spirit about them.  I turned to the engineer next to me and asked what their role was and found out that they were very high level.  I could sense that in him - even though he was not dressed differently than the average person in the room, nor did he have an entourage as some muckey-mucks might have.

This is how the Savior will be.  He will command no presence by dictate - He simply will exude that presence.  There will be those who will shrink from it (who are filled with sin and hate what is good and right), there will be those recognize Him - yet choose not to follow (even the devils believe....), those who simply seek Him yet cannot bear His presence because they feel unworthy - but want to be worthy of Him, and those who are just men/women made holy who have sought Him most of their lives and see Him as He is (in other words, they can look Him in the eye, because their confidence waxes strong in His presence).   These are the ones who are spiritually confident.  These are the ones who will "get the chicks/dudes" in the eternities.

There were those who wanted to kill Joseph Smith because of what he stood for.  There were others (generally women) who simply wanted to be sealed to him (largely post-humously) because of his greatness.  They wanted to hitch their wagon to this star.  Jesus also had a large following - for the identical reasons.  Spiritually, they were/are at the top of their games.  Those with spiritual acumen seek after them.  Wise men and women still seek after the Savior today.

In the eternities, it will not be the wealth or base things of the world that will get you ahead with people - it will be the currency of spiritual power that matters.  If you are imbued with power - you will enter a room and people will notice.  Not people consumed with lust - but people consumed with the Spirit of God that burns like a fire within them.  Their fires will resonate with yours.  The currency will not necessarily be a physical beauty, but a spiritual one.  It is quite possible that the person who still bears the scars of a difficult mortal journey (maybe with a body twisted by deformities - but who bore those trials well), will be deemed the most attractive.  I remember when I was dating my wife who is quite attractive (but she had severe acne at the time that was only fixed with large doses of Vitamin A), my brother and I were talking after he first met her and saw her without makeup and he said, "Dude, what is up with the pizza face!?!".  I remember thinking about the short-sightedness of his comment - even as a 23 year old.  I was in it for more than just the glamour shot, barbie experience.  All of that stuff fades as the facades fall away - and our character outshines the shell of who we are.

The tables will have been turned on all that people seek in this life.  It will confuse and anger many - this change of venue.  Those who have spent their lives in the pursuit of the base, will simply feel out of place and will seek a more base world.  We will all come into our own.  Those who have sown base, will reap base.  Those who have sown things that money cannot buy, will reap that very thing.

So, right now is the time to make our decisions of today, in order to effect the things of tomorrow.  What really matters to us?  What has long-term worth?  What will not fade over time?  Every day we make this decision and face the consequences of our actions.  Soon, the night will come in which no more labors can be performed in this mortal journey - and we will be left with the eternities and the thoughts of our life's actions.  Have we chosen good or evil?  Have we chosen to repent?  Or live a life of procrastination as "All is well in Zion" is chanted by those around us?

We have some time available.  Use it wisely - while it is still day.  Seek for that which cannot canker the soul - while you still can.  Humility and repentance is the only path to true happiness.