February 5, 2012

I read Snow Angel by Glenn Beck over the last couple of days and was touched beyond belief to find a story of life that closely matched what I believe was meant by a definition of life; namely, that life is eighty years of survival, intermingled with fifteen minutes of stark terror. I have seen so many beautiful people live this quiet life of desperation that when I saw the plausible resolution this novel brought into the lives of the actors in this drama my day was complete. No, they didn’t live happily ever after, but they did confront the monster in the room and move forward in achieving their destiny.

One of the characters in the cast was a husband and father that regularly pounded on his wife. He did this physically and verbally. After I got into the book and realized that this character was brash, egotistical, hurtful and duplicitous, I came in and asked Jean if I did things to hurt her as this fellow did in the book. Being the kind wonderful sweetheart she is, she simply said no. Thinking back over a life-time of incidents, I cringe to think of some of the things I have said that have hurt my bride. Little things that have no particular meaning beyond the moment were stretched into drama that should never have blossomed into arguments. My blessed mother lived through some of the most spirit wrenching experiences known to man. She was orphaned, tortured, married to a man so that he wouldn’t have to go back to prison, and yet she remained solid as a rock in her dedication to God, love of her family, and  serving others all her 93 years.

I have been blessed way beyond my capacity to understand. What I ask of each of you is that you look deeply into the eyes of eternity and see the vision of the tree of life. Realize that the tree of life is the love of God and that He wants each of us to follow the law and the prophets. The Ten Commands were given because we as humans are weak. In Christ’s teachings we learn that we need to love God, love our fellowmen, and (the most denied) love ourselves. He also notes that on these fall the commandments of old. If you look each of the Ten Commandments refer to either loving God, or loving each other. We cannot love each in the special way God asks of us if we belittle, demean, deride, conflict, overlord, or do anything other than hold our spouse, our children, and the rest of our posterity high above the fray.

Snow Angel actors found their own routes to peace. We must each find our own personal route to following the commandments. We must each love God, love our fellow beings, and yes love ourselves enough to find and follow paths that will lead us to quiet the monsters within and without us. There is a fancy term, Self-Actualization, which in my never to be humble understanding, means that when we have done all that we can to serve and all that we can to be forgiven for our trespasses, we will know and find great joy and peace in God’s kingdom.

God bless you as you search out your inner strengths, call on God, and do those things which you need to do to return to the presence of God tied eternally with your loved ones.

D. Duane Jacobs, Grampa, father, uncle, cousin, and friend

January 8, 2012

I sat with my grandson, James, tonight as he shared his version of life, of goodness, family, and forgiveness. I must confess that his insights were about 100 times what mine were at that time in life. Remember! He is five. When I was five, we lived in Cashion, a Northwest Phoenix rural farming town where my father worked twenty four/seven watering a farm that produced very little but frustration. Mother said he was very ill and in very foreign territory. He was always prone to the cattle side of agriculture; thus, he and Cashion only lasted one year and we went back to Concho and the white house on main the main highway (well, the only highway) in Concho where he returned to cattle ranching and restoring his health.

I can’t remember thinking much about anything other than running, playing, and doing everything my older brother, and his older friends did. I was in a league of my own. I would get banged up running around trying to keep up with them. On one occasion Glenn, Alfred Padilla, and some of the other big guys decided to get an old car frame that was at the top of a hill just west of the school, put me on it and push it down a very steep hill. We actually live through that one, and yes it was fun. Not bright, far sighted, or even productive, but we did it.

Next, we decided that a slide was in order. A culvert full of mud was in the yard and demanding that someone do something with it. My brother, Glenn, being somewhat of a genius in getting us into deep doo doo, determined that we would clean out the mud by sliding through this culvert over and over again until it was sufficiently lightened to be lifted up to the crotch of a nearby fruit tree. How, you say? We would simply use great engineering and technology. By raising the culvert using a pry and fulcrum over and over, putting wedges under it each raise, we eventually got it up high enough to go into the crotch of the tree. Memory escapes me as to how we moved it to the tree ( how did we get it there, Glenn).
Another time a great catastrophe fell upon Concho school and the much older kids determined to come to the rescue. It seems that a lovely mother skunk had found a wonderful, warm place to have her baby skunks. We couldn’t let this peaceful school go to rack and ruin because of the needs of a mother skunk, so we found ways to bless the school and rid it of this terrible malady. The task was completed and after a large amount of scrubbing, fumigating, and anything else that could be done to rid the school of that incredible fragrance, school went on.

Then there was the mystery of the exploding egg in the wall heater in the South classroom. It seems that an egg just happened to be placed on top of the heater and after several hours of heating it built up heat, gas, and wow, what an explosion.

Now, you ask? What can we possibly learn from these (and a thousand more I will probably share as time goes on) life experiences. Simple! The more things change, the more they stay the same. Grandmother Jacobs and I have watched and learned as we have gone through several generations of young people growing through experiences. We can’t seem to take the word of our elders for the fact that if we play with fire, we will get burned; that if we live by the principles of the Gospel we will be blessed; that the opportunities to be free from the nightmares of regrets are all embodied in living righteous lives, loving those around us, and generally doing those things which will bless the lives of our family, our friends, our country, and our future.

God bless each of you as you strive to bless the lives of those around you.

Duane Jacobs, AKA, father, Gpa, friend, cousin, uncle, brother

Don Quixote rides again

American Native legend: The end of the trail – when dreams die.

An old friend, Udell Brown, of the San Carlos Apache American Native tribal council once sat with me when I was discouraged about an assignment I had there. He said, this is how you look at your assignment. You determine that when you get to class, you will have one book, instead of twenty, no students, an empty classroom, and patience. You will keep going, track down those who have enrolled, and make a difference in their lives. Then if you get to class and actually find that you have one, or two students ready to learn, you will feel like a complete success.

The story line is the same. I have changed the characters just a bit for the sake of making a point. Don Quixote is myth, but his fame is legend. Was he crazy? Was he misguided? Or, was he really trying to tell the world that certain things need to happen to fulfill life’s purposes?

A young man named Glenn Jacobs was always on the wrong side of the bus. If everyone wanted to turn left, Glenn would naturally want to go right. If proper society said that writing the appropriate title of a pile of manure on a nice fresh stack in the school yard was not polite, he did it anyway. If creating a very politically incorrect essay on his law entry exam would mean certain exile from the ranks of budding law students and lawyers, he would make it happen. If creating an entirely different arena for elementary students by allowing them to have “shelter” for their thoughts while reading, he would do it by providing cardboard boxes they could retire to and read as rewards for good work. He loathed “busy work” and fought valiantly to seek means of assisting students gain wisdom. Not even close to acceptable, his notions were cause for banishment from the ranks of the teaching profession.

He went to war in Vietnam and was severely wounded, hauled to Germany, then back to the United States where he recuperated for months at El Paso, Texas. Never to be outdone, or outwitted, he and his marvelous wife Dorothy (remember! She has always been the strong one) would do insane things like shove him while he was in his full body cast, in the back of their Volkswagen station wagon and go to a drive in movie. He also convinced our father, Glenn Sr. to travel around with him somehow hanging above the seats of the Lincoln Continental he drove, all while adorned in a towel and body cast.

Then, he did the unthinkable. He was the chief editor, cook, and bottle washer for a weekly newspaper he and Dorothy wrote, edited, generated ads, and distribute for twenty years. Was it conventional? Did it create wealth and fame? Did it assist him in accomplishing his earthly mission? You be the judge.

Glenn was examined by physicians and found to have a real bad tumor, I believe on the frontal lobe right behind his nose. Determination was made to extract the tumor by, as Glenn reports, removing his face, removing the tumor then stitching him back up. The possibilities of paralysis, mental incapacity, and death were very real. In miraculous fashion, just prior to the operation, a brain surgeon came in from Germany and asked additional questions regarding his health history and found that because he had a specific, non-typical male characteristic, the tumor could be maintained and controlled with some kind of non-traditional medicine that could only be found in Germany. The medicine was procured and Glenn has lived these many years through the grace of God and his miracles given to us as mortals.

January 9, 2012

This is Nextep University. You can see and participate in this activity by going to the Blog, Nextep Living, on Blogspot.com.

As you can see, it is nothing but hot air right now; however, it can be a mighty force. This is how it works: Someone

• asks a question
• poses a challenge
• has an answer
• sees the question and answer and likes what is said
• sees the answer and determines that they have a better answer
• talks to someone else
• else listens, learns, talks, and takes positive action

Neat things happen because mortals are given opportunities to learn, to grow, and to fulfill their live meaning.

Last week the question was very simple. Why should I take the hard path, keep living, keep working on the things God sent me to earth to do?  Shorter version: Should I keep trying to be the kind of person I am told that I can be, or should I OD on drugs and alcohol and say goodby to the pain in life. Probably the most complex question in the universe. Any takers. Remember! Your answer may save a life.

Today’s question: What should we do for the rest of our lives. My incredible brother writes that his also incredible daughter Sarah has blessed him with an opportunity to just relax, enjoy life, get his estate in order, and not be saddled with the expectations that come from unfulfilled dreams. In short, he has committed the last decade to helping people in need. He is determined to establish an assisted living home in Eager. Eager town management has resisted him even though he has gone through the bowels of hell to abide their wishes. Sarah says, “Dad, they will never let you open. Question! What would you do? What would you encourage your aging and ill parents to do? What would Heavenly Father have you do? What will you do for the next twenty years?

I have attached a copy of some notes I made concerning today’s question. The notes do not make an answer; they simply add more to the puzzle. I look forward to your comments and responses.

PLEASE HAVE SOME FUN AND SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS. MOST OF US ARE GOING THROUGH THIS EXPERIENCE, OR WILL SOMETIME IN OUR LIFE TIME.

Duane Jacobs

January 9, 2012

This is Nextep University. You can see and participate in this activity by going to the Blog, Nextep Living, on Blogspot.com.

As you can see, it is nothing but hot air right now; however, it can be a mighty force. This is how it works: Someone

• asks a question
• poses a challenge
• has an answer
• sees the question and answer and likes what is said
• sees the answer and determines that they have a better answer
• talks to someone else
• else listens, learns, talks, and takes positive action

Neat things happen because mortals are given opportunities to learn, to grow, and to fulfill their live meaning.

Last week the question was very simple. Why should I take the hard path, keep living, keep working on the things God sent me to earth to do?  Shorter version: Should I keep trying to be the kind of person I am told that I can be, or should I OD on drugs and alcohol and say goodby to the pain in life. Probably the most complex question in the universe. Any takers. Remember! Your answer may save a life.

Today’s question: What should we do for the rest of our lives. My incredible brother writes that his also incredible daughter Sarah has blessed him with an opportunity to just relax, enjoy life, get his estate in order, and not be saddled with the expectations that come from unfulfilled dreams. In short, he has committed the last decade to helping people in need. He is determined to establish an assisted living home in Eager. Eager town management has resisted him even though he has gone through the bowels of hell to abide their wishes. Sarah says, “Dad, they will never let you open. Question! What would you do? What would you encourage your aging and ill parents to do? What would Heavenly Father have you do? What will you do for the next twenty years?

I have attached a copy of some notes I made concerning today’s question. The notes do not make an answer; they simply add more to the puzzle. I look forward to your comments and responses.

PLEASE HAVE SOME FUN AND SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS. MOST OF US ARE GOING THROUGH THIS EXPERIENCE, OR WILL SOMETIME IN OUR LIFE TIME.

Duane Jacobs

Don Quixote rides again

American Native legend: The end of the trail – when dreams die.

Call to Action Two – Education Intervention

Three highly integrated elements make up the basis, the problem, and the solutions to all educational matrices.

1.      Money, or funding is always a key factor because no matter which model is used, people need to be compensated for sharing their talents and time. Even home school scenarios though which parents are the sole source of providing learning and learning environment, the cost of parent time facilities, and of course resources must be included in the equation.

2.      Content, including curriculum, textual material, liberty to include or exclude elements such as religious data, dogma, and religious preference. Economic thought, political direction, and cultural customs and practices are also a significant element in this portion of the equation.

3.      Pedagogy, academic focus, and general philosophy are vital elements which form the mortar, binding together plans of action embodied in all educational programs.

Follow the Money

George Meany, once President of the AFL/CIO, was asked by a reporter what he really wanted from corporate business for his union members. One of the most unique questions in the world was once answered by a single word, “MORE.” No thought was given to, quality, quantity, personal satisfaction, improvements in working conditions, or the myriad other elements which go into the lives of those of us who want to be part of the solution. Perhaps the “MORE” Meany referred to included some or all of the elements we all wish for, but for now let’s consider only the financial component.

Over the last Century the United States has voluntarily taxed itself into a frantic sense of justification regarding the education of our population. No school board meeting, election, or discussion by parents, students, or teachers, is complete without discussions regarding the lack of funds for education. A recent advertisement on television shows a young teacher working herself into oblivion attempting to work with her class. The cameras pan in close as she merrily declares that it is almost impossible to save because she puts so much of her own money into supplies for the class. The almost incomprehensible conclusion stretches the mind beyond a total blowout she states that now, by using a specific type of credit card, or a specific bank, she can automatically transfer one dollar (of her own money) to her savings with each transaction.

The absolute truth is that many wonderful teachers exist, and teach well. For now, let’s just focus on these faculty members, K – 12, applied technology education, community college, four year bachelorette colleges, and graduate education. A typical tax paid state system has boards of education, state legislatures, district boards, and several types of unions including AFT and National/State Education Associations. Each group makes its appropriate decisions regarding the distribution of funds.

I can show using public documents that only about 20 percent of the funds intended for classroom/teaching activity ever gets to classroom/teaching activity. The remainder is spent in layer, upon layer of bureaucracy, ancillary activities, and other purposes, never quite fully explained. As a member of a faculty Senate, I asked to review the annual budget at a community college. I like simple numbers and this time I got what I really like. For even more simplicity, my example uses $100,000,000 as the total budget allocation, and $20,000,000 as the amount line itemed as classroom/teacher budget. I asked the President why only twenty percent went to classroom activity. Her answer was even more stunning. She said that wasn’t correct; it was really 20 percent. I suspect that there are many significant needs, but to have a 1 to 5 ration simply does not compute.

The Board of Regents in Utah has grown from a rag-tag group in the early 1960’s, to a massive group, sucking up as much in tax dollars as one, or more of the major higher education institutions in Utah. A like expenditure can be found in each of the other state and local (district) education agencies. Add to this the generous serving of self indulgence provided those institutions which can generate sufficient good will within the walls of state legislatures and education boards and agencies to merit “promotions” to more significant prestige, such as technical school to community college, community college to four-year college, four year college to University, and then the ultimate – research Universities. Each level of increase adds significant dollar increases – some necessary, even significant to the role of the college, but most is simply an added cost with little to no increase in citizen benefit. A long-standing, non-binding, rule of thumb in community colleges is a teaching load of 15 semester hours, roughly correlated to clock hours. Compared to post secondary schools with five, or six class periods daily for five days per week at 25 – 30 hours, questions could certainly be raised regarding these numbers; however, when institutions are promoted, the number of teaching hours goes down to 9 – 12 per semester, and for some at the apex of academia, 3 – 6 hours of classroom activity becomes the norm, and much of this activity is done by graduate assistants.

Money should not drive our desire to ensure the most quality education possible, but it does. We are getting more and more data regarding home schooling, and private academies, including those affiliated with religious groups strongly suggesting that the “zip” isn’t in the huge buildings, layer upon layer of bureaucracy, and highly refined curriculum.

What Makes the “Right” Educational Environment?

Content, including curriculum, textual material, liberty to include or exclude elements such as religious data, dogma, and religious preference. Economic thought, political direction, and cultural customs and practices are also a significant element in this portion of the equation.

And God gave us his son, Jesus Christ.

And he gave us so many blessings, we can barely contain them.

He gave us oranges because they are orange, and unlike the sun, or the Son of god, we can look upon them and enjoy their splendor because they have been colored just for us.

We hope you have a wonderful spiritual time during this celebration of the birth of Jesus. Share your lives with those around you. Give thanks to him who gave us life eternal.

God bless you all in the things you do and say for others.

Duane and Jean Jacobs

December 11, 2011

I have been jumping with excitement all year long because I could not wait to share my vision of Christmas. You see many will not have a merry Christmas.  This past week I had the wonderful opportunity to see and visit with one of my “sons”, Charles (CC) Chuck Lewis. He is going through some of the same kinds of torture most of us put ourselves through and so I dedicate this story to him, his wife Stacia, and his incredible son, Jessie. May the spirit of God rest with each of us as we build our own knowledge and wisdom, our family, and our eternal peace.

• Many will not have their temporal needs and wants met.
• Many will be without friends and family.
• But most importantly, many will be without the spiritual strength of testimony and a sure knowledge of God.

The important thing about this story is that the Genesis of all three elements for our family was in the tiny towns of Concho and St. Johns. This time must have been a true trial of fire for mother and dad, but one which really launched our family. My family moved to St. Johns, from Concho, Arizona for a few weeks. Dad had worked all year long in getting us ready to move to the big city. We were dirt poor and had traded our white house on the mighty main street of Concho for a house on Sixth Avenue in Mesa and were waiting for the opportunity to move there. The apartment we move to was right on main street, across from the big white, LDS Church. I get confused as to dates and times, but I believe I was ten years old at the time.

St. Johns was the first town I had lived in that was bigger than a button. It had stores, an LDS Church building, and multiple schools. We had little to no money and I honestly have no idea how we survived. Dad went to classes sponsored by the Veteran’s administration, to as mother put it, receive VA benefits. An interesting sidelight was that down the road in life, I met Dallas Butler, dad’s teacher. He was the Dean of Students at Eastern Arizona College when I met him, a good friend, and one who dearly loved life and those around him.

First, it was there that I began to see my dad making progress in his vocations. He was first and foremost a rancher, but mother had strong feelings that we needed to move to the big city where “the children” would have more opportunities for growth. He learned to use his Navy training in the CC’s as a carpenter and get work, and to use his excellent mind and mathematical skills to go into sales in insurance and real estate, apartments in Scottsdale, and ultimately ranches in Cordes Junction, La Junta, Colorado, and Mangas, New Mexico, all while raising his family in the big city.

Second, we had to remain strong as a family unit. This included doing things together and sacrificing many things that we “wanted.”  Auntie Marian lived about 30 miles from St. Johns in Springerville, and we found them to be very well rooted in serious material sacrifice. Uncle Chris had an unknown illness that rendered him almost entirely unable to work, so Auntie Marian was the primary bread winner. Though their home was small, it was absolutely immaculate and filled with love. I can still remember the piano in the living room, the wood stove with its hot water (what is the word, Glenn) thingie, the refrig that I believe was an ammonium  model with the funny circular cooling unit on top. Okay, so no money, no source of creating big mansions, no fancy cars, but hearts as big as all outdoors, a love for family that transcended all, and a reverence and knowledge of God, so big that, when Auntie Marian died, my brother said, she didn’t need to get to know God, she already knew him. Best tribute I have ever heard.

Besides our primary, and extended family, a trillion, or so, of the three or four hundred residents came out of the word work to help us, to love us, and to help us progress to the next stage temporally and spiritually.

Third, we began to understand what it meant to participate in Church activities, to learn of God, to understand the atonement, the sacrament, and the very sacrifice of our Savior. Jesus Christ. Mother had an absolute knowledge of God and dad had some notion that there was more to life than what his first 33 years had shown. The blessing of testimony has taken my entire life to mature, but it all started there. I had very difficult time understanding, or recognizing the Savior in my life, but over the years, I have seen his mighty hand through the Spirit of the Holy Ghost and understand how the tiny seeds planted in my soul all those years ago by caring, loving individuals move me along the path of life and help me share solemn testimony of the goodness and reality of God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost.

God bless each of you as you work through your personal trials

Duane Jacobs, Grandpa, popsa, uncle, dad, brother, cousin, friend and child of our Heavenly Father

11/13/20011

Today, we sat in the midst of angles. We sang with them. We listened to their thoughts. We pondered the very purpose of life. Jean and I have had the privilege of teaching the seven year olds in primary this past year and today was the culmination of those activities with a presentation that shared the most touching, spiritual thoughts humans can consume.

Little tiny children (we call them sunbeams) exploding with energy, hardly able to sit for a moment without waving to parents, squirming in their seats, or poking another child just to make sure everything was okay. Then, as if by magic they would each share their thought (well, most of them anyway). For the better part of an hour, these children made us all go back to our earliest times on earth and understand just a little better, the love our Heavenly Father has for each of us. Almost inconceivably, sixty eight years have passed in my life, with experiences filling the full range of expectations, from purely childish adventure, through illness and the passing of loved ones, and on to eternal marriage, children, grandchildren, and spiritual maturity – an incredible knowledge of God the Father, his Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.

Any group of children includes the standard number of really sharp children who are the bright, leading stars; the average children who make us the vast numbers who work real hard to keep up and be on the team; the youngsters who have a difficult time sharing their thoughts because of slowness of speech, limited mental capacity, or because they are late bloomers. Then, there is a very special group; those children, who will probably never fully function in society as others. Down syndrome, muscular dystrophy, alcohol syndrome, and a legion of other maladies find their way into homes of every ethnic, social, and spiritual brand and make no pretense of apology. They simply exist. I have been privileged to be very close to many such Children of our Heavenly Father. They are not mistakes.

They are the very essence of our existence. The only mistake made is when we ignore, snub, bully, or in any other way, do physical, spiritual, or mental harm to these select spirits. We will all go through the refiner’s fire and the books will be opened and we will see the hurt, the sadness, and the torment we have caused, “even the least of these” and we will pay dearly for our irreverence to God’s chosen. I believe these children were so valiant in the pre-existence that they needed only to come to earth to gain a body and to assist God in helping each of us reach our highest potential. I watched this morning as one little boy, unable to eat normally, to stand, talk, or otherwise function like you and I, was held by a beautiful primary leader through a significant part of the program. This little boy, looked adoringly into the eyes of this sweet sister. I complimented her on being so strong and caring for her son. It was then that I began to understand the true meaning of the Pure Love of Christ. She said, “oh, he isn’t my son. I am just holding him for his mother so she can participate in her church activities.”

Another girl who does not regularly participate came yesterday for the practice and today for the program. Having very little understanding of the what, why, where, and how’s of participation, she was quite lost and distressed. My sweetheart, swung into action, treated her like a queen, expected her to act like a queen, and brought out the very best in this marvelous child.

May we all seek out those in need. Go back and read the Words of Christ and become converted to the Love of God.

God bless you in every aspect of your life.

Duane Grandpa, popsa, uncle, cousin, and friend Jacobs,

April 6, 2012

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was officially organized 182 years ago today. It continues to grow and flourish because it has eternal value and was provided to us mortals by God as a vehicle through which the Priesthood of God and the remaining covenants, ordinances, and commandments would be available to us as we attempt to endure to the end and return to his presence.

The most compelling question we can ask ourselves is how we can best serve our fellowmen in achieving this goal for our family, for our fellowmen, and by extension, for ourselves. In recent years the Church has added a fourth tenant to the three-fold purpose of the Church; namely, ensuring the needs of the poor and needy. The adage regarding giving someone a fish and it lasting for a day and teaching someone to fish and it lasting a lifetime comes boldly to mind as I review this purpose of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So, the critical question is, how can we serve Heavenly Father’s children through helping administer this principle.

This is what I believe would assist in blessing the lives of many in this country and other parts of the world:

1.       Create a network of like-minded individuals that share a common interest such as

a.       making shoes, clothes, blankets, socks, furniture, caskets;

b.       or remanufacturing cars, bicycles, houses, etc;

c.        or creating food products including, vegetables, fruit, sheep, cows, pigs, chickens, eggs, legumes, wheat, rye, oats,

d.      Or others.

2.       Create one, or more cooperatives with distributive linkages, owned and operated by the members of the network.

3.       Provide

a.       first, for the needs of any and all network members

b.      second, for others who wish to purchase quality products through the cooperative.

c.       Products and services not available through network members purchased through the cooperative, such as paper products, fuels, new vehicles, building products, etc. purchased in bulk and sold to members.

4.       Each network member would provide consigned products to the cooperative to be purchased at market price by other network members or outside vendors, or users.

5.       Each participating network member would be paid for any and all products sold through the cooperative, less ten percent that would remain as a contingency fund in the cooperative for overhead, employees, insurance, etc. Employment in the cooperative could be rotated through members of the network that wished to do so and paid for their services.

6.       Even, services such as insurance, real estate, mortgage brokerage, and stock brokerage could be included in the network and cooperative.

7.       Since the network and cooperative are 100 percent owned and operated by members, any residual funds at the end of any fiscal year would be returned on a prorate basis to the participating members. Again, a contingency fund would be developed and maintained as a “rainy day” fund.

I have only sent this to you, to my sons Scott and Daniel, and to my friend Mario for right now. I really have no ideas if we could pull off something like this on any workable scale. It just seems like a great idea. Glenn Beck is attempting to put things together that will bless the lives of like-minded people. It might be that we would want to share this with him and see what happens. I am not sure what kind of business licensing we would need. Would we need licensing for individual network members? Would there just be one umbrella license for the cooperative and no other? Would we all go to jail for thwarting the purposes of our Communist leader, Rocky Obama?

Just me thinking again. Can you smell the smoke coming out both ears?

Duane Jacobs

February 12, 2012

This is a special note because Hailey and Ashley are helping me write today. Their mom and dad (David and Susan) are helping the family take care of their grandfather Sheldon Fransdson. He passed away this morning and the family is together working out the arrangements for his graduation. He will be missed by all here, but he is going on to meet with his sweetheart Barbara. This is a story that Hailey wants to share. I am so smart. I can play with Kamy. I can run faster than my cousin. I can jump. I can ride horses. I can slide. The end. Well Hailey that is a great story for a kindergartner. Ashley says her story is “my stuff”. Then, she says that her stuff is special. My favorite smurf is clumsy and favorite smurfette is noisey. Ashley also likes her silly band. Mom and dad feed us, help us, help us know when its Christmas, take care of us, take us to Church, Hailey go to school, help Ashley take naps and go to bed and learn the colors including pink and red.

January 29, 1973 we were sitting at home in Orem and Grandma Lucy called from the ranch in Mangas, New Mexico to tell us that my father Grandfather Charles Glenn Jacobs has passed away. We got in the car and drove down to the ranch only to find that they had gone over to Holbrook where my sister Lynda lived at the time. Dad wanted to be buried on the ranch, but since he couldn’t argue at that point, the decision was made to take his body over to Holbrook where there was a mortuary, and assistance from Lynda’s LDS ward. Scott and Diane were old enough to have a clear understanding of the purpose of the activities. Grandmother Lucy shared a recollection on several occasions, in which Scott was standing next to the open casket for a protracted period of time, so she asked if he wanted to go sit down. He replied, “not yet, we have to wait until grandpa is resurrected”. Diane was also busy at the funeral home. She was drawing a masterpiece. In this drawing she included Me, mom, Scott, herself, Kaye and Daniel. In the background Grandpa was in the casket. We were all looking at the casket and crying.

One of the most trying times in our lives is when we have to watch as a loved one goes on before us. We feel lost without the presence of an individual we have known throughout all our lives. Then, we look to the understanding we have received through our testimonies of the scriptures, of our Heavenly Father, Jesus the Christ, and the Holy Ghost. We watch as clear evidence is provided physically and spiritually regarding the questions; where did I come from? Why am I here? And where am I going? For those who may have had a temporary forgetfulness come over them regarding our eternal travel, this is the way it works. We come here straight from the presence of our Heavenly Father. Prior to our arrival in our mortal form, we commit to our Father in Heaven that we will do all that we can to honor him through service as mortals. We get here after we have temporarily lost the knowledge of our prior exisitence. We begin all over again. We have promptings from time and we have an inate sense of what we are supposed to do. We do our best to remember, to live the way we promised in the preexistence, then we move through the veil and back to His presence where the books of life are opened to us (not scriptural, but I believe these “books” are all in our memory tapes. We accept the findings cheerfully, acknowledging that we have come up short in some areas, and are ready to receive our eternal status. Now this is where the atonement of Christ comes in. We can’t be in the presence of our Heavenly Father if we have the least amount of sin in our lives. It is though the willing sacrifice of our Savior, the only perfect one to reside on the earth, his resurrection, and atonement that we are able to be unspotted and able to continue an eternal existence.

From the several occasions I have been very close to the veil and the opportunities I have had of sharing undisputable knowledge of the presence of spirit messengers (I believe through the Holy Ghost), I have a solemn and complete witness and testimony that we are in the hands of spiritual directors throughout our lives. Our job is to accept them, attempt to abide by the inspiration we receive, and live every moment of our lives helping others and being full of charity for those with whom we share this mortal existence.

My friend, Sheldon Frandson, has lived an exemplary live and truly been an example of worthy principles. He will be missed here by his family, but he goes with a pleasant and honorable legacy and will soon be received into the eternal embrace of those who have gone on before to await his eternal blessings.

May God bless us all as we attempt to do the will of our Heavenly Father,

D. Duane Jacobs, Gpa Jacobs, Uncle, father, cousin, and friend

March 4, 2012

The last two weeks have been wild and exciting. Should you ever have to move in the future make sure you do it before you are 68 years young. We relied on so many people from our family, from Orem, Saratoga Springs, and Toquerville that it is virtually impossible to know who to thank for the many huge and small gifts of love we have received. Blessings, packing, hauling, loading and unloading, friendly talks, smiles, thanks and appreciation have filled our lives to the brim. We have “arrived” in our wonderful community of Toquerville to enjoy whatever our Heavenly Father has in store for us.

The most important part of our lives – our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ -  continue to provide us with direction, strength, and certainty that we know where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is my personal resource for assistance with temporal and spiritual events that might otherwise bog me down. The second most important part of my life is my family (intricately linked to the first). My incredible bride Jean and I were married on May 1, 1965 in the Los Angles Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We were babies then, even though we thought were just as wise and mature as those years and decades older. We set out on an adventure that would take us through multiple academic degrees, millions of moves, 40 years of teaching, six natural children, untold numbers of children that have called us parents, confidents, or just great friends. We have been blessed with 26 grand children (all perfect, at least in the sight of their grandpa and grandmother.)

Now, we are in the service of our Lord and Savior, full-time. We will serve in whatever capacity we can to be part of “His” great plan of Salvation. We can do nothing without our Savior. When he shares that all the law and the prophets lay in this great commandment, that we Love God, Love each other, and love ourselves; how can we not want to do his will and serve Him. Over the last four decades, I have had the great privilege of sharing my understanding of life with thousands of students. These students came in all types, sizes, ethnicities, genders, spiritual levels, persuasions, church affiliations, etc. On the first day of class I would share two thoughts with them:

1. They were in a class called, Marketing, management, office procedures, Word processing, Computer Concepts, or whatever. We would certainly get through the material in a marvelous manner; however, we would also make great strides in getting to know something about each other. We would see what wonderful people are on the other side of the street, or world.
2. Second, I gave them permission to enjoy education. I told them that much of life is wrapped up in humor and that anyone was welcome anytime to share a joke or good story. The caveat, it had to be nonreligious, non racist, and not dirty. Some said that was not possible, yet every day we had a delightful laugh over something that was common to many.

Unfortunately, some of you have taken to looking for daily things over which to “pick a scab.” In recent weeks I have heard people taunt, or make fun of ethnic groups, illegal aliens, ex-convicts, military personnel, police officers, disabled persons, Mormons, homosexuals, mentally challenged, and others. May I quietly remind each person who may read this that we are all children of our Father in Heaven; that he loves us all; that we all have our little problems (I am sure each of us knows our own little secret). So here is the challenge. Go back to God’s law. Love God, Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Love the person who has been just plain nasty to you. Love yourself. Then, forgive and move on to the Charity side of life. If Charity is the pure love of Christ, then we can accomplish our earthly missions by listening to the spirit of the Holy Ghost; then answering the call to serve. Say hello, give a hug, tell someone they look nice, seek out those who have trampled on their lives and share your love.

God bless each of you as you seek out those who are lost, or fallen, or confused.

Duane Jacobs, Gpa Jacobs, pop, uncle, cousin, and dear friends

An old friend, Udell Brown, of the San Carlos Apache American Native tribal council once sat with me when I was discouraged about an assignment I had there. He said, this is how you look at your assignment. You determine that when you get to class, you will have one book, instead of twenty, no students, an empty classroom, and patience. You will keep going, track down those who have enrolled, and make a difference in their lives. Then if you get to class and actually find that you have one, or two students ready to learn, you will feel like a complete success.

The story line is the same. I have changed the characters just a bit for the sake of making a point. Don Quixote is myth, but his fame is legend. Was he crazy? Was he misguided? Or, was he really trying to tell the world that certain things need to happen to fulfill life’s purposes?

A young man named Glenn Jacobs was always on the wrong side of the bus. If everyone wanted to turn left, Glenn would naturally want to go right. If proper society said that writing the appropriate title of a pile of manure on a nice fresh stack in the school yard was not polite, he did it anyway. If creating a very politically incorrect essay on his law entry exam would mean certain exile from the ranks of budding law students and lawyers, he would make it happen. If creating an entirely different arena for elementary students by allowing them to have “shelter” for their thoughts while reading, he would do it by providing cardboard boxes they could retire to and read as rewards for good work. He loathed “busy work” and fought valiantly to seek means of assisting students gain wisdom. Not even close to acceptable, his notions were cause for banishment from the ranks of the teaching profession.

He went to war in Vietnam and was severely wounded, hauled to Germany, then back to the United States where he recuperated for months at El Paso, Texas. Never to be outdone, or outwitted, he and his marvelous wife Dorothy (remember! She has always been the strong one) would do insane things like shove him while he was in his full body cast, in the back of their Volkswagen station wagon and go to a drive in movie. He also convinced our father, Glenn Sr. to travel around with him somehow hanging above the seats of the Lincoln Continental he drove, all while adorned in a towel and body cast.

Then, he did the unthinkable. He was the chief editor, cook, and bottle washer for a weekly newspaper he and Dorothy wrote, edited, generated ads, and distribute for twenty years. Was it conventional? Did it create wealth and fame? Did it assist him in accomplishing his earthly mission? You be the judge.

Glenn was examined by physicians and found to have a real bad tumor, I believe on the frontal lobe right behind his nose. Determination was made to extract the tumor by, as Glenn reports, removing his face, removing the tumor then stitching him back up. The possibilities of paralysis, mental incapacity, and death were very real. In miraculous fashion, just prior to the operation, a brain surgeon came in from Germany and asked additional questions regarding his health history and found that because he had a specific, non-typical male characteristic, the tumor could be maintained and controlled with some kind of non-traditional medicine that could only be found in Germany. The medicine was procured and Glenn has lived these many years through the grace of God and his miracles given to us as mortals.

March 11, 2012

Toquerville is a fantastic place. I am sitting in my home office looking out at great mesas and other evidences of eons past. I can imagine struggles and hardships, friendships and families as they journeyed through this land, tens, hundreds, and thousands of years past. In most spiritual communities there are knotholes through which we can peek in at the past.  We can also look at what will come during the days before the millennial reign of our Savior on earth. History provides us with evidences of what to do to avoid destruction, disappointments, derailing. Peeks into the future via Isaiah, John the Beloved in Revelations, Lehi in the Book of Mormon, and others provide us with fortification against going off the rail and following the Lemmings off the cliff of pride and worldliness.

When I was in the prime of my teaching career, I kept looking for perfection in the academic system. I brought my family to Holbrook, Arizona to teach at Holbrook High School. I was certain that the small-town invironment, with an excellent mix of ethnicities, cultures, and spiritual communities would be a great place to raise my family and find professional satisfaction. We built a home as a family – brick by brick, served and grew spiritually through worship and activities in our LDS Ward, and generally had a sterling opportunity to make Holbrook our permanent home. About February of our second year, 1979, a great cloud fell over us. We were told by the Superintendent of Holbrook School district that funds were low and teachers without tenure would not be given contracts. How could they do this to me and my family? I made a commitment and they had broken trust.

Here comes history. The past tells us that if we work with people, play nice, and avoid nasty duels, we will come out on top. I went to a school board meeting to express my disappointment and completely wiped out my cause. They ended up cutting selected positions including mine as a business teacher. Here comes the need to be able to understand the future. Because I was “riffed” I asked for and received a contract to teach in the resource program. I found the program to be non-existent. The program consisted of a closet/classroom, working with wonderful students who had trouble learning. Had I looked to the future, I would have seen two things. First, working with students who “learn” differently from the norm, is truly my passion, and second time heals most circumstances and within two years, my position miraculously reappeared and they hired the lady-in-waiting out of the business office who had been working toward her teaching degree.

All worked well for us. We moved to Orem, Utah where I completed my teaching career and a thirty year Utah State retirement package. Would it have been better for us if we stayed in Holbrook? We will never know. What we do know is that the things we do in life; the things we say; the bridges we burn in our zeal to get it right are what we take with us. History has taught me that people, when pushed into a corner (especially if it impacts their family) will fight for their very lives. The future has taught me that restraint, calm, prayer, (hearing the answers to prayer), planning, and clear thinking can keep us out of all kinds of trouble and grief.

God bless each as you work to attain eternal life with your families.

March 18, 2012

I keep dreaming that I have gone back to work as a teacher and I find myself working with small children and those who have a different learning style/need than the norm. Jean’s cousin, Cathy Shaffer goes to see her 95 year old father daily. Last Thursday she went for her visit and he had his oxygen tube all wrapped up beside his chair and declared that he was ready to go out and get a job because he needed to make some money. He also noted that he was a little frustrated with the plan because he couldn’t make his legs work enough to walk. I believe this goes directly with the adage that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. I say, go get “em”, Uncle Jack; whatever “em” is.

Perhaps that is what my dreams are all about, but then, they may have some real meaning and purpose and I would be remiss is I didn’t look carefully into what the Lord would have me do.  Getting older gives one an excuse for repeating stories and asking questions for which the answers are readily available. Here is an oft reaped story of mine that I just can’t let go. When I was a first grader, I went to school in Concho, Arizona; A tiny speck of a town in a little valley in Northeastern Arizona. Miss Greer was my teacher. She taught first through fourth grades in the two-classroom school. (Yes, we had an outhouse) We had four kids in my class, June Baca, two others and me.

For the record, I am left-handed, color blind, Hispanic, not tuned into the educational traditions used then, or now. Neither me, nor my family had a clue about color blindness, or ethnicity. All I knew at the time was that all the crayons without name labels on them were a dirty trick which ensnared me; making me look stupid because I couldn’t tell one from the other. Most of the students were Hispanic (I would say Mexican, but my mom would come down and give me a family history lesson – another story for another day) so there was no problem there except that no one was allowed to speak Spanish by order of the Gestapo. These interesting elements along with some dyslexia, etc made learning really complicated. With this auspicious beginning I made rapid progress to the bottom of the education scrap pile, reaching the eighth grade, angry, hostile, and in the “C” class, in Longview Elementary School in Phoenix. By the way, no one was supposed to know that the “C” class was code for warehousing students through their 16^th birthday, or reform school, whichever came first.

The dreams and the history behind the dreams all wrapped up in a neat package. In my forty years in teaching, I tried to look out for those who didn’t fit the conventional mold. Perhaps I made a difference in the lives of a few, but I am scalded by the reality that we still perpetuate this monster. We keep piling more money on the problem, but it just keeps growing. Now, we have thousands, if not millions of students, parents, and teachers alienated by the system that keeps failing us all. Right across the street, a family works day and night to quell the storms created in their children by the “system.” Perhaps I am the reincarnation of Don Quixote and will forever tip at windmills, but I am going to keep “tipping” because some very good answers are raring and willing to be put to the harness which will help those in need and help me to achieve closure for my dreams.

God bless you, each and everyone, as you achieve your dreams though service to each other.

Duane Jacobs, Grandpa, popsa, Uncle, cousin, and friend

My mother, (grandmother Lucy) used to tell the story of her and dad coming home to Phoenix via a shortcut dad was convinced would take them directly in to Flagstaff and cut off many miles from the trip. As usual, they were hauling cattle in a horse trailer and eager to get home. They started out on a fairly well traveled, paved road; however, as time and miles went by the road turned into a gravel county road, then a mountain road, and finally a rutted ranch road ending abruptly at an old earthen dam. By this time it was dark, with nothing to do but forge ahead. About half-way across the dam all hope for crossing failed as had the dam. A flash flood had blown through the dam chewing a large jagged hole about twenty feet across. What to do?

Like hundreds of times before when dad had reached the point of no return and found an insurmountable obstacle, he turned to mother and said, “mom, pray us out of this one.” She did. They got out the trusty flashlight and with mom walking behind the truck and trailer with the flashlight and a prayer straight to heaven dad slowly, carefully, backed off the old dam to a place which was wide enough to turn around and they went back the many miles to the real road and home to Phoenix.

I have noticed that most of us get caught in just such messes time and time again. Whether it be a washed out road, a misjudgment in financial affairs, or our pathetically sad record of staying on the strait and narrow path and holding to the iron rod, we all seem destined to fall into these well traveled ruts over and over. My heart is heavy when I put my family at risk by doing something that can cause them harm. In reading scriptures this week I walked with a man named Jacob whose mission was to warn his people about getting away from the iron rod. The thing I was impressed with was his understanding of the roots of sin. He told the people that way before we do something that constitutes sin we play out the given deed in our minds.

Whether our ill conceived thoughts be in about sexual improprieties, physical harm to self, or others, or deceitful word games aimed at tearing away self respect and love, each begins with a negative blip to the mind. The thought burrows in, getting bolder, brasher, more intense, until it finds itself out in the open, played out for God and the world to see. As I review my life and the lives of others who have strayed from the iron rod (the word of God), I can easily trace the path taken. The humble advice I am now giving to myself is to avoid further unlit roads with eroded dams by keeping negative, ugly, or dangerous thoughts out of my mind. My sister, Lynda, used to use a psychological concept called “STOP.” Whenever I get notions that are going to cause me or my family to endure danger and evil, my job is to say STOP and force the nonsense out of my mind. Other tricks for eliminating Satan from my mind include singing a spiritual song, doing something that is very positive (mentally or physically). Anyone who wishes to follow these suggestions, please feel free and encouraged to do so. They are not mine. I am just passing them along.

God bless you as you travel the roads of life.

Duane Jacobs, Gpa Jacobs, Uncle, cousin, popsa, and wonderful friends

IF I WERE KING FOR A DAY

April 18, 2012

The adage regarding giving someone a fish and it lasting for a day and teaching someone to fish and it lasting a lifetime comes boldly to mind as I review the process of attempting to serve the homeless. So, the critical question is, how can we serve those who need a hand up.

This is what I propose:

1.       Create a network of like-minded individuals that share a common interest such as

a.       making shoes, clothes, blankets, socks, furniture, caskets;

b.       or remanufacturing cars, bicycles, houses, etc;

c.        or creating food products including, vegetables, fruit, sheep, cows, pigs, chickens, eggs, legumes, wheat, rye, oats,

d.      Or others.

2.       Create one, or more networks with distributive linkages, owned and operated by the members of the network.

3.       Secure:

a.        A parcel of land that can accommodate up to 120 mobile homes.

b.      This land would need to be close to town for ease of access to all services.

c.       This land could be donated, leased, offered for use as a benefit to the community

d.      It could come from private, state, local, or other

e.      Homes from:

                                                               i.      Donations

                                                             ii.      FEMA stock

                                                            iii.      Pre-1978 homes that can be converted to upgraded codes for electrical, plumbing, insulation, windows, hvac, exterior, and roofing.

                                                           iv.      Other

4.       Each participant would use his/her talents and training to on assigned tasks:

a.       Farming

b.      Accounting

c.       Cooking

d.      Construction

e.      Security

f.        Manufacturing clothing, shoes, and other soft goods

g.       Creating and maintaining computer access, equipment, etc

h.      And many etc’s

5.        Each participating network member would be provided housing, food, and other necessities.

a.       Those with social security, etc would still participate in productive activities and would share 40 percent of their monthly outside benefit with the network(s).

6.       During the time participants reside and work in the cooperative, they would be mentored through RRC and encouraged to participate in TTW employment network, work force Services activities which encourage gravitation into traditional employment and community activities.

7.       We would need to look long and hard at existing law, programs, services, residential codes, limitations on felons associating with other felons, etc, but it could be done

8.       We would need to ensure that our efforts were either “for profit”, so as not to impede, or compete with other for profit businesses; or a under a 501c3 so as to be deemed a non-profit that somehow worked with the employing/business community; thus, ensuring a strong link between the network and the business community.

Duane Jacobs