WOW! A second thin line

No one remembers getting older, but unless we get twinkled, we all go through the process. Over the last few months, I have received a million (slight exaggeration) notes, jokes, stories, and never-ending looks and comments regarding my antiquity. Some of this is good because it keeps me humble and aware of my mortality. Some of it can be used to flavor certain situations so they are more palatable. Others are just down-right distressing. About a year and one half before I had to go on sick leave, disability, and eventually retirement, I went to my division chair Barbara Grover and shared with her that I was having some blank spots in my memory and I called them “brain-farts. She was obviously concerned so I would see her frequenting my hallway by my classroom.  To this day, I have never been diagnosed with a tumor, a stroke, or anything else that would cause these, but they continue to this day and I have simply learned to live with them.

Why do I bring us this nasty stuff now? Simple! Jean and I are really struggling over what we are supposed to do when we grow up. She fears that I will kick the bucket and leave her with the delightful chore of looking after our grandchildren. I fear that my mission on earth has not been completed and that I need to keep doing whatever I can be bless her life, the lives of our children and grandchildren, and whoever else I am prompted to help.

Just before the first of the year (2012) Jean and I met with a member of our Stake Presidency, President Seegmiller. He wanted to let us know that the Lord was desirous of calling me to serve in a High Priest group leadership. I told him that we were already serving as Primary workers; that we were moving in the next few months, and that my health was not fantastic. I then told him that I would be most pleased to serve where, when, and in whatever capacity I was called. We both then agreed that the most beautiful opportunity in mortality would be to be called from our mortal mission to an eternal one while serving our Heavenly Father.

Many of the people I enjoy as friends, colleagues, and mentors are significantly older than me. My good friend, Arturo de Hoyos is fast approaching ninety. My friends Howard, Frank, Leonard, and others are well into their seventies. Heck, my brother Glenn is even over seventy. My mother was ninety three when she was twinkled and she went like a teenager until the last few months when she started slowing down a bit. It was Dr. De Hoyos that asked me about four years ago what I planned to do for the next twenty years. I liked that.

My bride and my oldest daughter, Diane, determined that a discussion was in order regarding my ability to manage our motor home and driving responsibilities. This is one of the best questions on the planet. So when do we stop driving? When do we stop going to the Temple? When do we need help getting through the day with our normal activities? I don’t have a clue. I do have ideas that might lead to more adequate answers:

1. Make sure I keep my sense of humor
2. Make sure I do as much physical activity as possible daily
3. Make sure I attend to spiritual needs
1. Pray constantly
2. Love my family
3. Love my friends and neighbors
4. Love God
4. Help others by sharing and doing
5. Keep your mind active
6. Figure out what God wants us to understand in Isaiah and the Book of Revelations
7. Figure out why God repeats himself regarding loving God, Loving our neighbor, and loving ourselves.
8. Follow the guidelines I was given in a Priesthood class in 1961 from a group of classmates as I was about to leave for the US Navy. These are not correlated with the person who wrote them. Fifty years later and they still hold the keys to the truths of ages
1. DYB                        Joe Richardson
2. Read                      P. L. Lawrence (Priest Quorum Advisor)
3. Have faith           George H. Durham III
4. Be prayerful       Jake Windsor
5. Be honest           Doug Austin
6. Be an example  Bruce A Kerr
7. Be cheerful         Brian Schweirchart
8. Be reverent        Bob Doherty
9. Be yourself         Steven A Smith
10. Love                      Dodge Kave Golding
11. Be perfect           Ron Brewer
12. W of Wisdom     John Thomas
13. Clean                     Mark Blasneck

Roger Baymiller

                                                                Bruce Larson

                                                                Stewqrt Morris

                                                                Kim Udall

Bernard Brown (Bishop