Heavenly Harp Music
Dear Paul and Kate, Melanie and Jared, Bridget and Justin, Sara, Ben and Sarah, Heather, Audrey, Rachel, Matt via hardcopy, and Brian,
cc: file, Andrea, Tony Hafen, Sara and Des Penny, & Maxine Shirts
Welcome to "Thoughtlets." This is a weekly review of an idea,
belief, thought, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit
to you, my children, with an electronic copy to on-line extended
family members. Any of you can ask me not to clutter your mail
box at any time.
"Well, I started to catch up a week ago, and didn't get very
far. Hard to write about the death of your Mom. And it is
one of those things which will happen to each one of us.
We left Sara's house and the party about 10:00 PM and
drove to Las Vegas. We were there in plenty of time for
our 1:30 AM Sunday morning flight to Houston. Once we
arrived in Houston we waited for three hours and then
flew to Austin. It is interesting how much cheaper it
was to fly from Austin to Las Vegas via Houston than to
fly from Houston to Las Vegas. Needless to say we were
all wiped out when we got to Austin. It took us a while
to find the car, and eventually we did. Then we went
to Jonathan and Jenna's apartment and met Melanie,
Jared, and Colby. We went to church at the Barton Creek
Ward in the Oak Hills Stake. One of the notes I wrote
down from a talk was:
<![CDATA[ `Your life is bigger than your personality.']]>
After sacrament meeting we went to the UT campus and
found Sara's concert hall. I was surprised to see about
10 harps of all different sizes and shapes on the stage.
There were several very young children who were also
performing. It was fun. I thought of Aunt Sara and
all of her music training and of Sara's early days of
learning to play heavenly harp music.
It was definitely worth it to listen to Sara play the
heavenly harp music. Maybe I was partly asleep, or
maybe I was partly in one of Hawking's BRANE WORLDS.
I really did enjoy listening to the little kids play
their harps, and then the older students, and Sara.
I think she was the only one who wasn't a music major
who played. It reminded me of when I was a Senior at
the University of Utah taking a classical guitar class.
All the geologists and geophysicists thought I was
crazy taking guitar, and giving a concert. There were
three of us that played a song together. I enjoyed
doing that a lot. It was obvious Sara enjoyed playing
her heavenly harp music.
After the concert we went back to Sara's apartment and
had a wonderful picnic. Cole had bought sandwich meats,
chips, soda pop, and everything else necessary for a
picnic. We had the picnic on the ground floor in Sara's
apartment complex. Everyone seemed to have a good time,
and it was time to leave for Houston before we knew it.
Rob rode back to Houston with Andrea, Matt, and I. He
and Matt got along fine, and we had a very pleasant
conversation on the way back. Dropping Rob off was the
first time I have been to where he and Marti live.
It has been so long, I don't remember much of what
happened during the week. Riley called on Monday,
and came down later in the week for an interview. As
far as I know it hasn't gone anywhere yet. On Tuesday
I went by Blaine Taylor's new offices and we talked
about the Rocky Mountain Geoscience Repository. I do
enjoy Blaine. Wednesday ConcoPhillips came in for yet
another review of OPL-229 in Nigeria. I ate a 6" subway
for lunch. Thursday I learned Sid Sidisco was laid off
from Santos. In the afternoon I went downtown to the
law offices of Fulbright & Jaworski for my first
briefing on the law suit Norman Neidell had called
me about (0315.html). It is a $100 million lawsuit
claiming a company has broken patent rights. I am not
to talk about it, and so I won't write any details
until after the trial, which will probably be sometime
in November. I accepted because I think the lawsuit
is frivolous and can be won by our side, and because
we need the cash. They pay $150/hour and $175/hour
in the court room or in depositions. This will be
good experience for me to gain.
Friday evening Andrea and I went to the temple. I did
an endowment for Johnnes Joseph from Munscher Germany.
Saturday was Easter, and there were a lot of jelly beans,
and some chocolate eggs. I counted how many I ate, and
I ate many more than someone who wants to loose weight
should have eaten. At Matt's soccer game I talked to
Ed Taylor about possible passwords for Wulf Massell's
machines. What time there was during the week was
spent catching up on e-mail's, preparing a revised
proposal for Bob Sneider, etc.
Sunday morning was Ward Council. We had missed the
Activities Committee Meeting the previous Sunday
because we were driving back from Sara's concert in
Austin. Julie Caron had sent me notes on the meeting,
and I represented the committee at Ward Council. It
was also the Activity Committee's one week to give a
spiritual thought. I shared the following:
<![CDATA[ `Imagine, quoting from The Age of Spiritual Machines,
it is now 2009. Personal computers are available in
a wide range of sizes and shapes, and are commonly
embedded in clothing and jewelry such as wristwatches,
rings, earrings, and other body ornaments. Computers
with a high-resolution visual interface range from
rings and pins and credit cards up to the size of a
thin book. People typically have at least a dozen
computers on and around their bodies, which are
networked using "body LANs" (local area networks).
These computers provide communication facilities
similar to celluar phones, pagers, and web surfers,
monitor body functions, provide automated identity
(to conduct financial transactions and allow entry
into secure areas), provide directions for navigation,
and a variety of other services. For the most part,
these truly personal computers have no moving parts.
Memory is completely electronic, and most portable
computers do not have keyboards.
We live in a time of terrorists, and Houston is a
prime candidate for a terrorist attack. What steps
has the Nottingham Country Ward made to prepare for
these times? We have access to technologies which
were unthinkable a decade ago, and, as described,
will have access to even more phenomenal technologies.
Now seems a good time to prepare to use these tools
to insure safety in our homes.
Quoting from the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith:
Whatever you may hear about me or Kirtland, take no
notice of it; for if it be a place of refuge, the devil
will use his greatest efforts to trap the Saints. You
must make yourself acquainted with those men who like
Daniel pray three times a day toward the House of the
Lord. Look to the Presidency and receive instruction.
Every man who is afraid, covetous, will be taken in a
snare. The time is soon coming, when no man will have
peace but in Zion and her stakes.
I saw men hunting the lives of their own sons, and
brother murdering brother, women killing their own
daughters, and daughters seeking the lives of their
mothers. I saw armies arrayed against armies. I saw
blood, desolation, fires. The Son of Man has said
that the mother shall be against the daughter, and
the daughter against the mother. These things are
at our doors. They will follow the Saints of God from
city to city. Satan will rage, and the spirit of the
devil is no enraged . I know not how soon these
things will take place; but with a view of them,
shall I cry peace? No; I will lift up my voice and
testify of them. How long you will have good crops,
and the famine be kept off, I do not know; when the
fig tree leaves , know then that the summer is nigh
at hand.']]>
My message was heard, and the Bishop told the Ward
Council it would be good to spend some time and to
draw up an emergency preparedness plan. It will be
interesting to see if we get to it, with all of the
press of day to day activities. There is certainly
no heavenly harp music when jets are flying into
tall buildings or when bombs are being dropped on
buildings in Iraq, and it looks to me like there is
going to be much more conflict before there is a
time of real peace. Hopefully each of you are also
thinking of ways to prepare to keep your families
safe if there are troubles in the area where you live.
A couple of weeks before Brother Mason had called and
asked us to talk in Sacrament Meeting on Easter Sunday,
20 April 2003. After Ward Council, there was just
time to make one more revision on my talk. Andrea's
topic was the Life of Christ and Easter, focused on
Luke 23:50-56, John 20:1-18, and the new Church DVD.
My topic was `The Resurrected Christ,' focused on
D&C 110:2-5. My talk is replicated below, specifically
because it talks about my Mom's death, the power of
the resurrection, and in this sense relates to the
topic of heavenly harp music:
<![CDATA[ `I'm a geophysicist. I like to count things. This was
shown at the recent ward party where I was on the stage
counting how many were in attendance. I'm also a
geologist. I like to explain things by analogy. This
was shown when I explained counting attendance at the
ward party was like counting cattle on the farm when I
was growing up. My analogy was a bust.
It is interesting, some 14 years after the event, to
have members of the ward bring up my talk comparing our
lives to being a peanut on the peanut butter cannery
sorting belt. The number of peanuts we canned back
then was approximately the membership of the church,
and the number of cans was approximately the number of
stakes in the church. When we went to the Peanut
Butter Cannery last year Brent Peterson asked for a
count, and it turns out cannery improvements
approximately made up for the increase in membership
in the church and the increase in the number of stakes
over the last 14 years. And what is the message of
the 11,721,548 members, and 2,602 stakes referenced
in General Conference two weeks ago? The message is
today, Easter Sunday, and the topic I was assigned to
talk on:
The Resurrected Jesus Christ
I'm going to share my thoughts about the Resurrected
Jesus Christ organized around the style of Sesame
Street's Count Duracula (one angel, two two angels,
three angels, ...).
First day, two weeks ago today, I called my Mom, like
I have done almost every Sunday evening for the past
18 years, ever since she had a stroke and was paralyzed
on the left side. I was pleased to learn my daughter
Melanie had called her and told her of Sara's plans to
go into the Peace Corp. When I talked to Melanie later
she said there were a lot of long silences between
brief conversations, and Melanie felt really good about
having called. Mom told me she had fallen out of bed
and was having spasms. I felt so sorry for Mom as I
recalled the priesthood blessing Harold Hiskey and I
had given her on the evening of her stroke. This was
after an emergency flight to Las Vegas, phoning from
the cockpit of a Southwest Airlines plane and getting
another plane held on the runway, in order make the
connection to fly direct into Cedar City. I recall
pleading with our Savior to spare Mom, specifically
to give her time to turn her heart to Him. I remember
asking Him to remember how important His mother was to
Him, and to allow my Mother to recover from the stroke.
Eighteen years of being able to read and talk was a
remarkable recovery.
Second day, Monday morning I opened the paper and read
about the death of General Hugh Hardy, a retired Exxon
geophysicist I had come to know through several
professional society activities in Houston. One of
his daughters was Secretary to the Geophysical Society
of Houston when I was involved in monthly meetings,
and I thought I should at least go to the viewing,
since I had a meeting during the funeral on Tuesday.
So I found my way to EarthMan Funeral Home in Bellaire,
and was pleased to meet several of my friends. As we
went up and said hello to the family, the oldest
daughter mentioned how they all thought the General
was too tough when they were growing up, specifically
before they had their own children. I thought of my
Mom. When I gave Kathryn a hug, I said, isn't this
Easter a nice season for this to happen, and after
her tears and a question as to why it had to happen
at all, I responded it happens to all of us, and was
able to bear testimony of the blessings that come to
us because of the resurrection of our Savior. I felt
a moment of peace.
Third day, at 11:00 AM Tuesday morning, while I was
waiting for my meeting to start, and while many of the
geoscientists in Houston were at General Hardy's
funeral, my cell phone rang, and Andrea told me Mom
had died earlier in the morning. As I hung up the
phone, the man I was meeting with came out and I
explained, matter-of-factly, what had just happened.
He is an older geoscientist, very rich, and seemed
uncomfortable with my peace.
Fourth day, Wednesday morning, I was getting on a car
rental bus in Las Vegas when the phone rang. It was
a well known geophysicist, born in the garment
district of New York, calling to see if I would be
interested in a consulting opportunity. As we have
been living on this type of manna for the last
couple of years, I expressed my interest. We talked
about fees and availability and the bus driver
started to talk on the bus intercom. My friend said,
`Roice, where are you?' I replied, `Getting off a
rental car bus in Las Vegas.' With surprise he
asked, `What are YOU doing in Las Vegas?' I replied,
`Mom died yesterday and I'm here to take care of the
funeral arrangements.' ... Total silence. Then
through tears he said, `I had no idea, I should have
asked before we started talking, I'm so sorry!' I
explained Mom had a stroke 18 years ago, hadn't been
out of bed for years, and her death was a blessing.'
He explained how he was looking at his calendar
earlier in the morning and it is the anniversary of
his Mother's death. He talked about General Hugh
Hardy's funeral and how he felt at the service. I
was really surprised to still hear tears between the
words. I explained how I have lived my whole life
for events like this, and it really wasn't a big deal.
My friend's response was classic: `Roice I haven't
lead my life preparing for death, and it is a big
deal to me.' Isn't it wonderful to have the restored
gospel and to know the things we know, particularly
about our resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ, and His
love for each of us individually?
If you would like to turn with me to D&C 110:2-5, I
would like to review the verses I was specifically
asked to talk about. While you are turning there,
let me point out I am a Star Trek and Star Wars fan,
and if you think about it, just a little bit, these
verses can come across like one of these science
fiction stories, especially when written on April
3rd, 1836, in what was then the far western frontier
of the United States at Kirtland, Ohio. There are
eleven phrases, and after reading the verses I will
briefly discuss each phrase:
Phrase 1. "We saw the Lord standing upon the
breastwork of the pulpit before us;
Phrase 2. and under his feet was a paved work of
pure gold, in color like amber.
Phrase 3. His eyes were as a flame of fire;
Phrase 4. the hair of his head was white like the
pure snow;
Phrase 5. his countenance shone above the brightness
of the sun;
Phrase 6. and his voice was as the sound of the
rushing of great waters,
Phrase 7. even the voice of Jehovah, saying: I am
the first and the last;
Phrase 8. I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain;
Phrase 9. I am your advocate with the Father.
Phrase 10. Behold, your sins are forgiven you; you
are clean before me,
Phrase 11. therefore, lift up your heads and rejoice."
As a geoscientist, it is sometimes too easy to put on
my scientific hat, to read words like these and discount
them as science fiction. For example, Phrase 1. "We saw
the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit
before us." We all know and take for granted the impact
of gravity. I've been to the Kirtland Temple. I've
seen where the drapes were dropped. The pulpit is not
much more sturdy than this. Imagine a 6'3" man standing
on a gold platform sitting on this pulpit. Is it
possible? Yes. Is it feasible to the world? No.
Could it have been a holographic projection? Yes. Does
it matter if it was only in the mind of the Prophet
Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery? No. Like doubting
Thomas in the new church DVD, as shown by their lives
and their works, they were both firm witnesses of the
resurrected Jesus Christ.
Phrase 2. "and under his feet was a paved work of
pure gold, in color like amber." One of the challenges
of having a science oriented mind is I get more
interested in the paved work than in the feet with
wounds from the crucifixion standing on the paved work.
I want to count the paved stones. I want to measure
them, to weigh them, discover their physical properties
and to find out if stories of the Alchemist weightless
white gold are true. You can see from these comments
why, as a scientist, I liked the words of John Lienhard
in his 1788th program of The Engines of Our Ingenuity
presented last week: "If, in the pursuit of knowledge,
we have any stake in the outcome, it is a daunting
struggle to leave our wishes outside the door. That's
why Creation Science can never be a science. Belief
precedes the outcome. Science is only science as long
as its practitioners keep looking for ways to negate
their own conclusions."
The paved stones are like this rock, which comes from
the vicinity of Van Horn in West Texas. Notice the
layers. There are hundreds of thousands of these
layers in this one formation. The best estimate
geologists have is that these layers are the result of
annual growth, similar to the annual growth rings in
trees. Recently a Chinese colleague explained that
during the Protoerzoic (the latter part of the
Precambrian Era, which geologists claim to be about
1.4 billion years ago), the earth had 6 hour days.
By measuring the growth of fossil Crynoids the annual
and daily cycle has been measured. I have wondered
if the layers in these rocks can be explained with a
faster spinning earth. I spend many of my days
counting layers of rock, like these layers in the
seismic section from offshore Mozambique. Note that
all of the hundreds of thousands of layers in the
formation this rock comes from are represented by one
of the smallest intervals at the bottom of this
seismic section. Hopefully I have made my point as
to why scientists sometimes get caught up looking at
the paved work Christ is standing on, and miss finding
the resurrected Christ. To stress this just a little
bit more, keep your finger in D&C 110, and turn with
me to II Nephi 1:10.
"But behold, when the time cometh that they shall
dwindle in unbelief, after they have received so
great blessings from the hand of the Lord - having
a knowledge of the creation of the earth, and all
men, knowing the great and marvelous works of the
Lord from the creation of the world; having power
given them to do all things by faith; having all
the commandments from the beginning, and having
been brought by his infinite goodness into this
precious land of promise - behold, I say, if the
day shall come that they will reject the Holy One
of Israel, the true Messiah, their Redeemer and
their God, behold, the judgments of him that is
just shall rest upon them."
Back in D&C 110, let's review Phrase 3. His eyes
were as a flame of fire; Doesn't this describe the
fluctuations of looking into the eyes of someone
on a Star Trek transporter. A few weeks ago Andrea
bought tickets for us to go up to The Woodlands and
to listen to the synthesized voice of Stephen
Hawkings, the Cambridge University cosmologist. It
was neat. His topic was BRANE WORLDS (spelled
B R A N E), which are mathematical descriptions of
dimensions beyond our normally experienced length,
width, depth, and time. There is a direct
comparison of the 93rd section of the D&C to the
sub-centimeter sized worlds Hawking's mathematics is
proposing. Today we have a knowledge of the creation
of the earth. And because we think we know so much,
too many reject the resurrected Christ.
Phrase 4. the hair of his head was white like the
pure snow;
Again, it is too easy for me to get up in counting
the number of hairs, comparing the number I come up
with to the hairs on Alan or Reed Peterson's head,
and trying to figure out if every hair was restored
to it's proper and perfect place. This is only one
of a myriad of reasons why I have not had and do
not expect to have the opportunity to become a
physical witness of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.
I grew up where it snowed, and the importance of the
color is not lost on me. It is like the His hair
has become like strands of fiber optics, each
emitting pure white light from another place.
Phrase 5. his countenance shone above the brightness
of the sun;
It is hard to measure a person's aura. Even those
of us who have experienced the energy emitting from
another person know it is hard or impossible to
measure. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery simply
described it as light, light which was above the
brightness of the sun.
Phrase 6. and his voice was as the sound of the
rushing of great waters,
Joseph Smith was in Kirtland, Ohio when he wrote
down this experience at the Kirtland temple pulpit.
He had arrived there from Palmyria, New York, by way
of Missouri. I expect he had seen Niagara Falls,
and heard the low frequency crash of the water down
the falls. He had certainly experienced storms and
floods and heard the rushing sound of great water.
What a wonderful analogy in bearing witness of the
voice of the resurrected Christ, a voice speaking
from eternity to eternity, "his voice was like the
rushing sound of great waters."
Phrase 7. even the voice of Jehovah, saying: I am
the first and the last;
I have had the opportunity to get to know a lot of
really bright folks. As I interact with them, I
have watched to learn how they think, how they draw
their conclusions, and were they claim their
knowledge is coming from. No one I have ever met
has had the audacity to claim to have heard the
voice of God. Joseph Smith was very special and his
testimony of the resurrected Christ is unique, as is
shown in
Phrase 8. I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain;
Since I started out this talk in Las Vegas, I decided
to shuffle the lines in Hymn 241 and 136 as I draw
together my thoughts about He who was slain and He
who liveth":
1. When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed
I know that my Redeemer lives.
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
When you are discouraged thinking all is lost
He lives, he lives, who once was dead.
He lives, my ever living Head.
Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
He lives to bless me with his love.
He lives to plead for me above.
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done
He lives my hungry soul to feed.
He lives to bless in time of need.
2. Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
He lives to grant me rich supply.
He lives to guide me with his eye.
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
He lives to comfort me when faint.
He lives to hear my soul's complaint.
Count your many blessings; every doubt will fly,
He lives to silence all my fears.
He lives to wipe away my tears.
And you will be singing as the days go by.
He lives to calm my troubled heart.
He lives all blessings to impart.
3. When you look at others with their lands and gold,
He lives, my kind, wise heavenly Friend.
He lives and loves me to the end.
Think that Christ has promised you his wealth untold.
He lives, and while he lives I'll sing.
He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.
Count your many blessings; money can not buy
He lives and grants me daily breath.
He lives, and I shall conquer death.
Your reward in heaven nor your home on high.
He lives my mansion to prepare.
He lives to bring me safely there.
Phrase 9. I am your advocate with the Father.
It has hurt, more than I have words to describe, to
see children choose to not follow what I have
attempted to teach by example an by word. One of
my issues is I have a lot of pride. For instance,
I continue to struggle within President McKay's
context of `No success in life can compensate for
failure in the home,' specifically because divorce
is failure. It is kind of sad that over the last
couple of years I have found comfort in recognizing
men, much more important in the scheme of life than
I am, who have also failed in their home. For
instance, none of Joseph Smith's children stayed
involved in the church, although, thankfully, some
of his nieces and nephews did. Brigham Young had
a public, and much more nasty divorce than I went
through. And there are numerous other examples of
others I admire and respect who have also `failed'
in the home. I find great comfort knowing that
the creator of the world, He to whom THIS ROCK and
this geology is but a footstool, is my advocate
with the Father. And that if I will humble myself
enough to repent, then
Phrase 10. Behold, `my' sins are forgiven `me';
`I am' clean before `Him',
And the message of the gospel is that we can all
be clean before our Heavenly Father.
Phrase 11. therefore, we will do well to lift up
our heads and rejoice."
I have not seen gravity with my eyes (phrase 1),
nor the alchemist floating white gold (phrase 2),
nor the essence of a flame (phrase 3), nor the wind
(phrase 4), nor light waves (phrase 5), nor sound
(phrase 6 and 7), nor Christ (phrase 8), nor the
essence of forgiveness (phrases 9 and 10), nor the
essence of joy (phrase 11). However, I have
experienced and am currently experiencing the
effect of gravity, I can conceptualize paved pure
gold which floats above a pulpit, I have felt the
heat of a flame, I've seen leaves blow in the wind,
I've heard the sound of rushing water, and most
importantly I have experienced the love and
forgiveness and joy coming from the living
resurrected Christ. Hopefully my analogies were
not a complete bust. It is my prayer that each of
you will find this same comfort I have found
through my belief in the resurrected Christ as you
contemplate this wonderful Easter Season.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.']]>
Once again, I have written more than I intended to.
Oh well! I expect most of you skim these words and
only focus on those which you find relevant. And
hopefully you will find the concept behind this
thoughtlet attractive, and bring it into your homes:
i.e. heavenly harp music."
I'm interested in sharing weekly a "thoughtlet" (little statements
of big thoughts which mean a lot to me) with you because I know how
important the written word can be. I am concerned about how easy
it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of
distractions of daily life. To download any of these thoughtlets
go to http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets or e-mail me at
rnelson@walden3d.com.
With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)