From ad0bbbc109ae8aeb7559cdbecf3c66b900f7e885 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Collin Williams <96917990+bluedragon1221@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2024 10:15:57 -0500 Subject: initial commit --- src/md/23_Dem_Bones.md | 96 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 96 insertions(+) create mode 100644 src/md/23_Dem_Bones.md (limited to 'src/md/23_Dem_Bones.md') diff --git a/src/md/23_Dem_Bones.md b/src/md/23_Dem_Bones.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a6b4c1a --- /dev/null +++ b/src/md/23_Dem_Bones.md @@ -0,0 +1,96 @@ +--- +title: Dem Bones +--- + +Life Lessons: We become the sum of our choices. + +Thankfully, I've never suffered a broken bone in my life, but Lori and +several of our children have. The most recent occurrence was Lori's +wobbly-rock incident at Girl's Camp that resulted in a shiny new +stainless-steel plate in her left wrist. She now has a small collection +of metal objects in her body, but I'm not the least bit jealous. I think +perhaps the artificial lenses in my eyes trump the metal she has in her +wrist and hip.\ +\ +Lori's broken wrist got me to pondering over the children's broken +bones. I've decided to write about the time Emily broke her arm. I think +there is a life lesson in there somewhere, but only where you would +least expect it.\ +\ +We were living in our first house in American Fork, Utah. It was a +starter house neighborhood with mostly young families and tons of young +children roaming the neighborhood. Emily was probably about 5 years old +at the time. As young kids will do, Emily had climbed a fence and was +demonstrating her balancing skills by walking like a tight rope walker +along the top of the fence. I don't remember who the culprit was, but +some other neighborhood child thought it would be funny to chuck his +shoe at Emily in an attempt to make her fall off the fence. I don't even +know if he was successful in hitting his target, but he was successful +at making Emily fall off the fence. She came home with her forearm bent +at an impossible angle. It was quite apparent that some bones had been +broken and we needed to get her to the emergency room in a hurry.\ +\ +Not having a sitter for the other kids, Lori and I loaded up the other +two children and Emily in the car and headed to the hospital. The +treatment for the broken arm seemed rather bizarre to me. They put +Emily's fingers in metal springs that worked like Chinese handcuffs to +suspend her hand in the air. They then hung a bucket from her elbow and +started adding water to it to use the weight to stretch her forearm as +they tried to re-align the broken bones prior to adding the cast. I +believe they gave Emily some laughing gas to calm her down, but it +didn't work and she was making a pretty big fuss the whole time. It was +all very stressful to watch my own child suffer so much and the +procedure was taking a very long time. Lori suggested that she could +stay with Emily at the hospital and I could take the other children back +home. My nerves were a little bit frazzled by the harrowing experience +so I was glad to comply with the suggestion.\ +\ +I took Ryan and Megan back to the car and loaded them into the back +seat. Now this was before the days when seat belts and child car seats +were required and my children were quite used to roaming free whenever +they were in the car with us. It was also before we were affluent enough +to afford a car with air-conditioning, so the windows were down as we +left the hospital parking lot. Not long after leaving the parking lot, I +could see Megan in my rear-view mirror. She was standing on the seat and +quite happy with herself for her accomplishment. Recognizing that this +was a dangerous thing for a three-year-old to do and not wanting to have +to pay for two broken bones on the same day, I told her fairly firmly to +sit down on the seat. Well Megan wasn't about to comply while she was +quite enjoying her newly discovered ability to see the world go by from +a much better vantage point. I told her again with even more volume and +probably a good deal of anger in my voice to sit down. Again, no +result.\ +\ +Because I was driving and Megan was in the back seat, I realized I +couldn't do much under these circumstances to enforce my command to my +non-compliant child. So, with a bit of steam coming out of my ears, I +pulled over to the curb and braked hard to bring the car to a stop. I +turned around and yelled, "Megan, sit down!" as I rather roughly pushed +her into a sitting position in the back seat. Megan wasn't any too +thrilled about this kind of treatment and immediately started to holler +over the affront to her 3-year-old dignity.\ +\ +Satisfied I had reaffirmed that my authority was not to be trifled with, +I looked up and discovered I had stopped right in front of a house where +some kind of barbeque event was going on in the front yard. Everyone in +the party was looking at me with a look of shock and horror on their +faces. I was totally mortified to realize that they all had witnessed my +little tirade in front of their house. Fortunately, this was before the +days when everyone had cell phones and took videos of such spectacles so +they could go viral on the internet. However, my shame at being caught +in the act by so many witnesses was such that I determined to high-tail +it out of there as fast as I could. I put the car in gear and put the +pedal to the metal to make my get-away.\ +\ +Thinking about this memory more than 30 years later, I can recognize the +life lesson I didn't really learn at the time of its occurrence. I +wasn't really mortified by my lack of gentleness and patience with +Megan. I was mostly mortified that my little outburst had been seen by +others. I wonder how I would have behaved if I had remembered that +everything we do here in mortality is being observed by someone. It all +goes into the Book of Life and becomes a part of the permanent record. +Our choices become a part of our soul and the cumulative effect +determines who we become. I think this is one reason why marriage is +such a vital part of this mortal experience. We have a built-in witness +to our lives and a greater motivation to try to behave well in front of +our companion on the covenant path. -- cgit v1.3.1