Laundry
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.
"I ended the last Thoughtlet on Friday on purpose. Last
Saturday and Sunday were General Conference, and the second
talk in the Saturday morning session set the theme for what
I would like to write about in this week's Thoughtlet. The
talk was by Lynn A. Mickelson, of the 70, and these are my
notes, intended to put you, the reader, and me, the writer,
on the same page, or at least in the same library, for what
I will write about this week:
<![CDATA[ `A man in a Spanish speaking country ran over a dog by
accident. He was named the Spanish equivalent of the
dog killer. Kids would say, here comes the dog killer,
and he was very judged by the community. Malicious rumors
and words cause great pain.
The adage to not wash our sins in public is good advice.
Remember, all things before the Lord are known. There is
a time and a place for asking for forgiveness. When there
is a public offense, then there should be a public
confession. However, in general, confession is like
washing our garments, and should be done in private.
This is Christ's church, and He is the judge. Do not
expose dirty linen in public. For example, exposing
your parent's sins is a form of self-justification for
personal sin. With the judgment we judge, we will be
judged. When we know of another's problems, we must
not judge them. We must forgive them, for it is
required of us to forgive all men. Then we need to
forget and leave it alone. It is not our prerogative
to judge.
There is no pancake so thin it only has one side.
Empathy leads to respect and leads to understanding.
With our dirty linen, we must start by starting the
process of repentance. Then The Holy Ghost will
burn out our sins from us. Real repentance comes
with our connection to the Savior. We must take
care of our dirty linen through repentance.']]>
As most notes, these are cryptic. I imagine the whole
talk is on-line at www.lds.org, and recommend you go
to this site, look it up, and ponder the message. I
know I have been thinking about it. Partly because I
have used this forum to air some of my dirty laundry,
which should have been taken care of in private. And
so these notes have set a theme for my week.
It is fascinating to me how basic things like doing
laundry are often overlooked in our automatic washer
and dryer society. I expect / hope we will learn a
lot from Sara about how people in a more primitive /
less developed society have to spend a lot more of
their time doing basic things which we simply take
for granted. Things like doing our laundry.
It seems like I had a very busy week, and yet as I
look at my calendar, I can not remember all that
happened this last week. Maybe it is because we
received word we will have our first granddaughter
in February. For those not on Melanie's list, she
wrote:
Click on the image for a larger view.
<![CDATA[ `Hey guys!
We just got back from the doctor and we are positive
this time we are having a GIRL! The first granddaughter
on the Nelson side and the 6th on the Wright side:) We
are so happy and excited. Jared and I both felt
beforehand that this was a girl, so I guess that feeling
was confirmed today. We don't have a name yet, but we
have a few we are thinking of... Taylor, Alexys, and
Emma. Maybe we'll send out another poll soon to get
your input.
We are all doing well. Colby is growing bigger and
bigger everyday. He's started to say a few words:
"Pappy", "Daddy", "Mommy", "Ba-ba" (Grandma), "Cheese",
"Gone-gone", "Tickle... tickle", etc. He knows how a
dog, a bear, and a monkey go. He dances, blows kisses,
does the itsy bitsy spider, and loves to be the center
of attention. We just really enjoy watching his mind
work and his creativity start to shine through. He is
definitely an outdoor boy... and ALL boy. Every morning
he grabs his shoes and my shoes and points at the door.
He's ready to explore. He's drawn to tractors,
motorcycles, cars, and airplanes. He's not every too
excited about sharing with other kids and he always
picks on anyone smaller than him ... so I guess we'll
see how this big brother thing is going to work out.
Jared and I are finally in the works of building a house.
We are still in the very beginning stages, but we are
excited. Jared continues to work with his dad at the
restaurant and enjoys it. My business is going well...
slowly but surely. Our product is now in approximately
90 stores and we have sales reps in about 15 states.
We're waiting to hear from QVC in the UK, but we think
our product is going to be featured on their show, which
is very exciting. So, overall we've had some neat
successes but we're still waiting on the financial
payoff. I guess that's the story of new businesses,
especially after less than a year.
I can't think of any other news at this time. I hope
all of you are doing wonderful. Thank you for your
updates... keep them coming. We feel very blessed to
have you guys as friends and family.
We love you,
Melanie, Jared, Colby, & Baby girl!!!']]>
In regards to not remembering this week, I have down
I had signed up for splits with the missionaries on
Tuesday evening, and I don't remember doing this.
I do recall that between conference sessions on
Saturday, I wrote a white paper about interpretation
and integration. I posted it at www.walde3d.com/seg.
At Andrea's suggestion, I passed it by Peter Duncan,
Swede Nelson and others before passing it to the
SEG Interpretation Committee. Les Denham and Sam
LeRoy stressed I should not send it to the committee,
as they would not do anything with it. They both
said it was an interesting historical document. And
not much more.
I do recall on Tuesday putting together answers to 18
questions from Kevin Hill about why I would be a good
geophysicist to work with him. I have all of these
mixed feelings about what to send with these thoughtlets,
i.e. what is dirty laundry, and what is useable
information. These notes are intended to help you kids,
and one of the things you will be faced with is looking
for a job or improving your job, and so I will share my
response to Kevin, in the spirit of example (it will be
interesting to learn if any of you see it as a poor example):
<![CDATA[ `Kevin,
Below are answers to your questions:
> Generally, we need ethical, hard working, oil finders that can work with 3d
> and/or 2d seismic data to generate prospects in. We haven't put together a
> pay package yet because it will depend on a lot of things, i.e.: office
> space requirements, workstation requirements, etc.
I believe my reputation addresses my ethics, being a hard worker, and
being able to work with 3-D and 2-D data to generate prospects. Having
served a two year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints in England, 1970-1972, and regularly being very involved in my
church, ethics and reputation have always been of key importance to me.
Having spent 20+ years designing and building software tools and working
with customers to help them optimize the use of the tools, my history as
an oil finder is much shorter than it will be in another few years.
>
> Here is a list of questions that I would like to start with:
I look forward to getting to the questions with which you end.
> 1.. What fields have you been responsible for finding?
A. Asabo D Field in Nigeria, drilled by Charlie Beeman after I
went into field operations in Mobil in 1978, reference Basil
Nwanko, retired Chief Geologist, Mobil Producing Nigeria.
B. Nelson Field in North Sea, drilled by Enterprise Oil based on
a course I taught them and work we did on their data in about 1985
(discovery well March 1988), references Malcolm Hones, retired
Chief Geophysicist, Enterprise Oil.
C. 165 drilling locations for heavy oil in the Orcinoco Heavy Oil Belt
of the Eastern Venezuela Basin from 3-D seismic as a subcontractor
to the Bureau of Geophysical Prospecting (BEG) in Austin in 1996,
reference Noel Tyler, retired Director, BEG.
D. The interactive 2-D and 3-D interpretation technologies I have
pioneered the development of are responsible for most fields
discovered worldwide since the mid-1980's.
> 2.. Roughly estimate the depths and recoverable reserves and
> methodology you used to find those fields.
A. Asabo-D Field: interpreted with 2-D paper seismic data;
3 reservoirs from 4,500-6,500 feet: Intra Qua Iboe, Base Qua
Iboe and Biafra; about 60-70 MMBOE and 133 BCFGE; identification
of a sand wedge on the downdip growth side of a major growth
fault, where it turns out the hydrocarbons were feeding the known
and larger upthrown Asabo field.
B. Nelson Field: interpreted with 3-D data on a Landmark workstation;
about 8,000 feet in 285 feet of water; 485 MMBOE and 17.657 BCFGE;
based on using seismic amplitudes extracted parallel to seismic
horizons and identifying a large gas based seismic anomaly.
C. Orcinoco Heavy Oil Belt: interpreted with 3-D data on a Landmark
workstation; onshore, about 6,500 feet depth; about 20 MMBOE per
well or about 3.7 BBOE; used seismic attributes to identify
stratigraphic channels and integrating surface rivers and rare
trees to limit environmental damage and optimize the placement of
pads from which groups of 8 - 10 horizontal wells were to be
drilled from.
D. You determine how much liberty I take in claiming responsibility,
based on product design, training, and professional presentations
about how to use and develop interactive interpretation products.
> 3.. What makes you different/better than other explorationists?
I have broader experience, I think in three-dimensions, and
I'm driven to exceed expectations.
At Pan American/Amoco I worked in the Rocky Mountains. At Mobil
I worked many international basins (Andaman Sea, South China Sea,
North Sea, Onshore Italy, Offshore Israel, Offshore Peru, Offshore
Argentina and Uruguay, Offshore Brazil [worked one of the first 10
offshore blocks leased, and documented the interpretation of all
of 10 blocks in the first round of leases], Offshore India,
Offshore Senegal, Offshore Mauritania, Offshore Nigeria, etc.),
and domestic basins (Gulf of Mexico lease sales, seismic
acquisition on crews based out of Mesquite Nevada; Cedar City,
Utah; Pinedale, Wyoming; Green River, Wyoming; Larado, Texas;
Pecos, Texas; Liberty, Kansas; Findley, Ohio; etc.). At the
University of Houston we used physical and numerical models
for detailed study of different structural and stratigraphic
environments, and I got a gut feel for what kind of seismic
response to look for in seismic data, depending on the objectives.
At Landmark Graphics I was the only seismic interpreter for many
years, and I worked on all of the toughest problems clients
brought to us, all over the world, opening markets and working
with clients on interpretation problems in England, Norway,
France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Canada, China,
Australia, Indonesia, India, etc.
As an independent consultant I worked on the subsalt team for
BHP, which led them to win 71 blocks in the Gulf of Mexico,
worked on the heavy oil reservoir characterization project for
Corpoven in the Eastern Venezuela Basin, worked on a detailed
regional stratigraphic interpretation of southern Lake Maracibo,
Venezuela, developed 2.5 BBOE risked reserves for Emerald Energy
in OPL-229 on the coast of Nigeria (it is still for sale), worked
on farm-in opportunities in western India and Southern Sumatra,
developed 11 prospects for Coastland Resources in Shackelford
County, Texas, etc. Since deciding to stop building tools and
to start using them to earn Prospect Fees and ORRI, working with
friends in the industry, I have put together a portfolio of 56
Leads, most of which could be turned to Prospects with a
leasing budget. Some were developed using aeromagnetic data
and good structural geology (50 MMBOE in Michigan and 800 MMCFG
in West Virginia risked), some are international, and some are
based on advanced data mining technologies, like the automated
self-classification system, and extensive data bases, like
Nehring's Significant Oil and Gas Fields of North America.
I demonstrated taking data from Nehring's database for 146
blocks on the Texas shelf, and in three weeks developing 32 maps
defining basic infrastructure issues, 33 maps defining basic
earth physics, 19 maps defining geological characteristics of
the Texas Shelf (including depositional systems, formations,
number of sands, etc.), and 13 maps derived from the other 84
maps, each describing unique characteristics of the 146 blocks
of interests, and leading to systematic classification and
ranking of exploration opportunities on the Texas shelf.
This same process can be repeated for any sized area in the
Continental United States in approximately the same time
frame. Why haven't I done it in other areas? Lack of cash
and attempting to bootstrap my own exploration company.
Right now, I need cash to meet family requirements (four
kids in college and one still in High School), and thus I
am willing to work for someone else for the foreseeable
future to meet these needs, and for longer if there is an
opportunity to participate in the upside of my exploration
activities.
> 4.. What skills do you have in AVO?
I worked with Chroma Energy and was the first person to mix
near trace, far trace, and full stack 3-D seismic volumes to
identify seismic derived patterns which automatically showed
anomalies based on AVO characteristics. On another project,
Sam LeRoy, a geostatistician I have worked closely with, and
I have done statistical studies in Colorado County, Texas
demonstrating the Class 1 AVO's which have been discovered
in the Frio and Wilcox are at the same approximate depth and
are all little guys. Our conclusion is that if data were
collected and processed for Class 2 AVO's, there is a high
probability of finding these between geopressure build up
zones and outside of fluid release zones.
> 5.. What skills do you have with rock physics?
My work at the Seismic Acoustics Laboratory, and its sister
lab, the Well Logging Laboratory, at the University of
Houston, and the work I did with Chroma Energy a couple
of years ago have provided me some basis in rock physics.
Although this is not an area of strength, I am a quick study.
> 6.. What processing oversight and QC skills do you have?
My direct processing experience is limited to Mobil's training
program, work at the University of Houston, and consulting work
for Wulf Massell when he was at GeoSource and then when he was
running Epic Geophysical. I have not focused in this area,
since there are a lot of good folks I know who can be hired
to do this and who do specialize in processing oversight and
QC. I did build a detailed seismic processing model for Epic
Geophysical, and since they are now out of business, I am
certain Wulf will give me permission to use this as a
checklist for processing oversight and QC.
> 7.. What acquisition skills do you have?
I grew up on a farm in Southern Utah and love the outdoors. The
two summers I worked at Pan American/Amoco I was able to spend
half of my time on field crews. I worked on a land crew out of
Kalamazoo, Michigan and a company marine crew between Lagos,
Nigeria and Douala, The Cameroons as part of my training at
Mobil Oil. Then for almost two years, 1978-1980, I ran Mobil's
four land crews, doing all of the noise tests, QC'ing the
acquisition, handing Mobil's acquisition training program, etc.
We used vibrators, 60' shot hole, 8' shot hole, Poulter, S-Wave
vibrators, Gus-Bus, helicopters, mules, etc. At the Seismic
Acoustics Laboratory I experimented with different types of 3-D
seismic acquisition response to various types of geology. One
of my good friends still does acquisition QC, and whenever he
stays with us we always talk about the latest things he has
learned. His name is Riley Skeen, and he is working a job
down on the coast by Galveston right now. He lives in Cody,
Wyoming and stayed with us last Monday night.
> 8.. Do you have any connections to companies that have data that need to
> be mined?
Yes.
> 9.. If so, what do you see as the potential in the trends where that data
> is available?
The Nehring Research Group in Colorado Springs, CO have spent 30
years building what I consider to be the most accurate database
of oil and gas fields in the continental United States. It
includes everywhere but the Appalachian Mountains. Richard and
I have become good friends. He has committed to develop 21 new
exploration concepts for me, and the Abandoned Fields on the
Texas Shelf was the first prototype example. I've never been
able to come up with the investment money to turn our friendship
into a business relationship. Given an Area-of-Interest (AOI),
and money to buy the data from Richard, he and I will work
together to generate an engineering, earth physics, and geologic
framework for working any basin in the U.S. in a few weeks.
I have developed a proprietary raster based GIS system, which
allows me to take a digital camera into a library and come out
with digital trend analysis based on published information.
This is also a way to take legacy paper maps and tie them into
the data mining and statistical approaches we use. I call this
approach the Infinite Grid(SM), and it allows me to use a
standard spreadsheet to distribute GIS and interpretation
results to partners and clients.
Bob Ehrlich, Residuum Energy, has developed a statistical
analysis system called the automated self-classification
system. Over the last three years he has used this approach
to generate hundreds of Leads, several dozen of which have
been drilled successfully. He is mostly working in the
northern latitudes, Wyoming and Canada and Illinois, and
has agreed to support me with his technology in my efforts
in the Gulf Coast. He does have a dozen reef prospects in
the Illinois Basin available for purchase right now. They
cost about $60,000 to drill, and his team has put together
a great exploration story.
> 10.. What areas do you have specific knowledge in?
Not trying to be funny, how do you define areas?
I have worked structural plays: overthrusts and flower
structures in the US and Canadian Rockies, Venezuela,
and the Adriatic; reverse faults offshore California,
Venezuela, India, and as driven by salt movement, even
in the Gulf of Mexico; lots of growth faults in the
Gulf Coast, Nigeria, Amazon Delta, and Venezuela; horst
and graben structures in the North Sea, Italy, Rockies,
Canada, Andaman Sea, South China Sea, offshore Viet Nam,
etc.; half grabens in China's Bo Hai Basin, India's
Middle Indus Basin; salt structures in the Gulf Coast,
Dutch North Sea, Norwegian North Sea, English North Sea,
offshore Israel, offshore Gabon; dynamic replenishment
up the faults from deep subsalt traps in Eugene Island
330; standard 4-way and 3-way fault closure structures
in West Cameroon Blocks 508 and 509 and East Cameron
262, the Amazon Delta, Nigeria, South China Sea; etc.
I have worked stratigraphic plays: alluvial planes and
point bar deposits in Colorado County, Matagorda
County, High Island, and other areas along the Gulf
Coast; downthrown sand wedges in Nigeria and the Gulf
Coast; Wolfcamp reefs in Sterling County; Mississippian
and Cado Reefs in Shackelford County, Texas; updip
pinchouts offshore Argentina and Western India; granite
washes in the South China Sea; alluvial fans and
buried hills in the Renchu Basin of China; etc.
I expect you are asking about geological areas, and
plays like the Vicksburg, Frio, Wilcox, Yegua,
Cotton Valley, etc. My most recent three months
has been spent working some Mississippian Reefs in
Shackelford County. As you can tell from what I
have written, I have never focused on a specific
formation nor specific geographic area. If this is
what you require, then I am not your man. And for
what it is worth, I have always been able to go into
a new area, bone up on the geology, and find more
new opportunities than anyone I have been working
with because of the breadth of my experience.
> 11.. Please list some plays that you would like to work in. (Assume
> that you have access to a $2.5.MM seismic budget)
I think there is a tremendous opportunity for
downdip Wilcox fans in TRRC District 4. I also
believe we can leverage work on Yegua and Wilcox
Class-2 AVO's in Colorado County. My ideal approach
would be to get Richard Nerhing to give me his best
estimate of a plays which were started by a major,
and was never followed up on because of budgets and
consolidations, evaluate lease and data availability
in these plays, rank them, and then go down the list.
> 12.. Do you want to do exploration or exploitation work?
Exploration!
> 13.. Would you say you work best alone or with other people?
Again, not to be funny, but how do you define best?
I am more creative alone, and because I designed
Landmark and have worked on GeoQuest, SMT, Chroma,
and other interpretation systems, I can typically
outperform others in generating maps when working
alone. I am very comfortable with myself, and
enjoy working 12 or 18 hours straight, for days on
end, at a workstation. Drives my wife crazy.
On the other hand, I am a team player, and have spent
inordinate amounts of time building up a NetWork of
professionals whom I trust and like to work with. When
we get together, ideas flow, and we can come up with
things none of us could have done on our own. These
ideas and concepts tend to have better economic
implications than ideas generated in isolation. I
firmly believe in the power of multidisciplinary teams.
In summary, I work best alone with concentrated
interaction with a team of highly competent
explorationists with complimentary skills.
> 14.. Please explain your answer to number 13.
See my answer to number 13.
> 15.. Briefly describe your techniques for exploration using seismic
> data. (I'm looking for the order in which you would attack a project.)
I believe interpretation involves much more than the
seismic data. In general, assuming the land is owned,
I use the following process;
1. Identify the AMI (Area-of-Mutual-Interest) and available data.
2. Understand the team and experience of each team member.
3. Team definition of exploration objectives, and who is
going to do what to achieve agreed objectives by when.
4. Data mine the Internet and public domain data bases
to come up to speed with the latest published Best Practices
in the AMI. Purchase commercial data which the team agrees
will enhance the earth model. Capture public and commercial
data, and build a secure web site so the data is available
to each member of the team.
5. Load the seismic, well, and culture data on a workstation.
6. Build synthetics, and develop a good time-to-depth tie
for as many wells as possible.
7. Interpret the faults, taking into account collected public
domain data, and create a structural framework for the AMI.
Identify and capture cross-sections and maps of all
anomalies identified while interpreting structure.
8. Interpret terminations, stratal patterns, and horizons,
taking into account collected public domain data and tieing
in well control and synthetics. Identify and capture
cross-sections and maps of all anomalies identified while
interpreting horizons, building isochrons, and defining
the stratigraphic model.
9. Do detailed attribute analysis at, parallel to, and between
horizons to predict lithology and fluid distributions.
Identify and capture cross-sections and maps of all
anomalies identified while identifying lithology and fluids.
10. Reconstruct faults and understand the geochronostratigraphy.
Derive geomorphology, depositional, and paleo environments.
Identify and capture cross-sections and maps of all
anomalies identified while reconstructing the geologic
history.
11. Do detailed map analysis to look for trends and anomalies.
Identify and capture cross-sections and maps of all
anomalies identified while looking at azimuth, dip,
StratAmp or equivalent, and other appropriate map analysis.
12. Consolidate, planimeter, calcualte areas and volumes, and
rank all identified anomalies. Determine the economic
cut-off for Prospects and build a prospect portfolio based
on ranked anomalies, with maps, time-slices, attribute
maps where appropriate, and strike and dip seismic sections.
> 16.. How much time do you have available?
40 to 60 hours per week.
> 17.. In what city do you want to work?
Katy (Houston), Texas.
> 18.. What would you like in remuneration?
A base of $10,000. per month plus preapproved out-of-pocket
expenses with an opportunity to participate in Prospect Fees
and ORRI once the base and expenses have been recovered.
>
> After you have had a chance to look at this and briefly answer the
> questions, please email them back to me. I would like to get some
> people hired by the end of this month.
>
> Thank you.
I look forward to your timely reaction to and comments about my answers.
Best Regards,
Roice
Finder, http://www.walden3d.com
rnelson@walden3d.com, 281.579.0172;
cell: 713.542.2207; fax: 281.579.2141
CONFIDENTIAL']]>
I have not heard from Kevin Hill as of Sunday evening,
October 12th. It will be interesting to see where all
of this ends up. It will be interesting to hear if any
of you consider my sharing this to be a poor example of
job searching. I continue to believe all of the work
I have done and continue to do will end up being
worthwhile.
Wednesday morning I went down to II&T to put together
a well plan for the Kula well for Emerald Energy
Resources. Jude did call on Thursday and tell me they
would be getting us paid for Emerald's outstanding bills.
If this is in fact true, then we will be OK for another
month, and then hopefully Kevin Hill, Sunreyes, John
Benard, GDC, or one of the other groups I've been
talking to will come through and we will have some
financial stability for a while.
I finished up the well plan by 1:00, and proceeded to
drive out to Columbus, Texas. It has been a long time
since I have made this drive in the middle of the week.
I went to talk to Ken Turner, to see the painting he
is working on, and to see if we can not come to some
closure on where Heritage Gallery On-Line is going. I
have had quite a bit of interest in Colorado County,
and so the main reason for the drive was to reconnect
with friends and find out what the land position is in
Colorado County. Exciting. In fact, John Benard
called, and when I summarized what I found out to him,
he got really excited. And so I spent Thursday and
Friday taking the Richard Nerhing data example I have
for Colorado County, and creating about 60 images
describing what the exploration opportunities in
Colorado County are. I worked very hard on this, and
missed the Taylor Homecoming game against Alief Taylor
on Friday night. Andrea says it was one of the best
games she has ever seen. They beat in overtime, and
the kids were standing up and screaming the entire
game. Matt was sure excited. I got home about
midnight, and was very tired.
Peter Duncan did send me a note on Friday about my
white paper, saying he does not have the faith in the
SEG I do, and that he would get back to me. Swede
Nelson called me on Friday evening and gave me a
summary of his thoughts about the paper. Once he got
through telling me about how all of the `poor-me'
stuff needs to be cut out of the paper, he really
surprised me. Basically Swede recognizes the power
of the indexing approach I propose in the white paper.
He recognizes that no oil company will implement this
type of a long-term approach because it does not make
them money. He recognizes this approach will completely
alter the oil industry. He says it needs to be applied
by government, and not by industry. He proposes
rewriting my white paper so it will be understandable
by President Bush, putting the paper in front of the
President and his advisors, and then working with them
to implement the plan, first in the U.S., and then
with strategic partners overseas. He sees this as
a truly patriotic, long-term, critical approach to
solving energy issues. `Imagine how much oil could
be found in Russia by simply applying the approach
you outline in your white paper,' was one of his
comments that showed me he understood my message. I
was pretty excited about the phone call.
Friday morning Joe Roberts came over, we called Wei He
in New York and conferenced to Yan Jia Feng in Beijing.
We spent an hour talking about the opportunity we have
been pursuing with Core Labs. The meetings were suppose
to happen on Monday, there were more e-mail's on Saturday
morning, and the latest note I have is the meetings have
been postponed until later in the week.
Saturday morning Andrea and I left the house at 7:15 AM
for the Houston Temple. We worked in the laundry for
three hours. Folding clothes, using the industrial press
to steam press pants, and taking time to think about how
much we take for granted. We take youth to the temple,
and all of the white clothes are there ready for them to
put on and perfect in their sphere. However, there is a
lot of work behind the scenes making sure everything is
ready. This comment certainly goes towards laundry and
unseen `stuff' at the house too. The lady we worked with
spoke Spanish. She was very nice. I could work for a
day, donate the money to the church, and pay four or five
folks to take care of the laundry. However, this does
not give me the hands-on experience, the time to ponder,
the opportunity for service that spending a morning at
the temple folding clothes and ironing pants provides.
This concept called laundry is very important. I think
I need to be more involved with it at home.
Andrea and I went to a the 11:00 endowment session. The
session was full, and with folding chairs there were over
50 people. As I sat down I had a desire to put on my
seat belt for the ride to Kolob. Did you know the human
mind is faster than any other transport mechanism on
earth. We can think about going to Mars or Jupiter, and
still be back in time for dinner. The two stewards and
the two stewardess took us safely on our journey. When
the captian came out to usher us to another dimension,
my mind jumped to the challenge of temple work. If there
were 50 folks in each of 10 endowment sessions per day
per 100 temples per 5 days per week and 50 months per
year, then there would be 12.5 million endowments done
per year. If there are 100 billion people who ever have
or who ever will live on the earth, then it means at this
rate it will take 8,000 years for everyone to put on the
seat belt and hie to Kolob. Lots to think about as we
drove home.
Saturday afternoon I attempted to fix the drain in our
shower. I proceeded to clog it up tight. Oh well!
Andrea primed two more bookshelves which she is putting
in the newly painted library. It looks very nice, and
will look that much better when she finishes. It has
the touch of the celestial room in the temple. In the
afternoon we took Matt to see `School of Rock.' Pretty
good movie. I recommend it, and not for little kids.
Then we went to see `Under the Tuscan Sun.' Nice scenery,
cinematography, story, and full of underlying gay
themes, happiness comes from one night stands, and bad
language. I don't recommend this movie to any of you.
It is really sad where our society is going, or maybe
where it already has arrived at. Scares me when I think
of how this is going to impact you kids and your kids.
Sometimes this smut rubs off on us, and we can't get it
out of our lives, no matter how long and hard we wash
our hands or our laundry.
I'm reminded of a book I really like, called `Becoming a
Zion People' by Lindon J. Robison. He wrote some concepts
I think are relevant. I quote:
<![CDATA[ `We all play games. Games include the following: players,
rules, and a goal. There are players. There are rules
for the players to follow. Finally, there is a goal that
the players try to achieve. Of course, different games
have different goals. Many of the things we do can be
called games because they include all of the elements of
a game. So when we play games and the outcome is not what
we desired, we may need to play a different game.
There are really only two kinds of games. There are
variations of these two games, but the differences are
small because all games have one of two goals. Our
ancestors played these two games in times past. We play
them today. They are still very popular. I do not know
what these two games were called anciently. I have heard
them called by different names today. The names I believe
accurately describe them are: fixed-pie and pie-building
games.
The rules of a fixed-pie game are simple enough. There
is a prize to be won, and the size of the prize, like the
size of an already made pie, is fixed. The players in a
fixed-pie game compete for a share of the pie. Therefore,
there can only be a winner if there is a loser. If one
player increases his share of the pie, winning if you will,
the other players find their pie shares decreased and they
lose. One outcome of the fixed-pie game is that it may be
destroyed while players try to increase their shares. If
this happens, all of the players lose.
Fixed-pie games should be labeled with a warning that
reads: "WARNING: The Spiritual General Has Determined That
Playing This Game Can Cause Separateness." The reason
fixed-pie games cause separateness is because our goal in
this game is to beat the other players, not to bless them.
We win fixed-pie games only if the other players lose. And
if they win we lose. Try becoming one while pursuing such
a goal.
The alternative to a fixed-pie game is a pie-building game.
In the pie-building game, we each have some of the
ingredients needed to complete an activity, like building
a pie. No one of us, however, has all the ingredients
needed. If we pool our resources, we can make delicious
pies in abundance. So we welcome the participation of the
other players, recognizing that we are all better off when
we cooperate. People who play pie-building games are
usually friends. This is because each one is helping the
other person reach a shared goal.
There are many kinds of fixed-pie and pie-building games.
In almost any setting and with almost any group of people,
we can organize fixed-pie or pie-building games. The most
important point, though, is that we can chose which game
we play.']]>
The lady in the movie `Under the Tuscan Sun' was really
depressed after having gone through a divorce. As long
as she played fixed-pie games, she was depressed. When
she realized she had ingredients, and others had ingredients,
and she started to put these together to create new pies
and play pie-building games, she won.
Reminds me of those who play the fixed-pie game called
abuse. There are two players in this game. The one
who is, has, or is accused of abusing, and the one who
is, was, or believes they were the victim. The `movies'
today (which means the social gadflies and do-gooders,
those who were hurt and have nothing better to do than
hurt others, etc.) often show parents as the abusers,
and children as the victims. Members of our society get
caught up in this, and start to believe they were abused,
sometimes as a way to justify their other choices in life.
It is a lot easier and a lot more fun to blame someone
else than to take responsibility for our own actions.
I have played this game really well for years. I have
accused my mother of abuse. I have been accused of abuse.
I remember throwing a child down the stairs to get them
to do a chore, putting a crow bar through a television
screen, etc. And I am sorry I ever played this game.
There is not much else I can do about it now, other than
to be sorry. If I keep playing the game, everyone that
plays with me keeps loosing.
I was 46 when I took PAIRS and came to understand somewhat
about doing mommy-daddy work. I have done a lot of that
work, largely thanks to Nancy White, and I don't play the
abuse game anymore. I'm sorry about my mistakes, and I
know I will be held accountable for them when I stand at
the judgment bar of Christ. I will take responsibility
for all of my mistakes which have caused you kids to
hurt or to make your own mistakes. In fact, if there is
a way to take your mistakes on myself, I gladly will.
And I will do this because I love each of you. For those
of you still struggling with playing the abuse game, I
recommend you heed Elder Mickelson's words, and remember
`exposing your parent's sins is a form of self-justification
for personal sin.'
I have aired so much dirty laundry over the years, that
I expect and deserve to be judged in the same way I have
judged. I will gladly post any e-mail's any of you wish
to send to me about what a terrible father or stepfather
I have been or continue to be. One of the first things
in daddy-mommy work is to get the stuff out on the table
so we can see it for what it really is. Maybe it will
help some of you if everyone knows how terrible an
influence I have been in your life. And maybe it will
help me to be a better influence in the future. Maybe
it will result in me going to prison, and help those
who have been negatively impacted feel better knowing
I am being punished for my sins. And maybe, we all need
to do some personal laundry.
Have a good week."
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.)
