Forty-Nine Echoes

 

History is weirder than you realize.

Abraham Lincoln was a twelve-year-old growing up in a cabin on the frontier when Napoleon Bonaparte died.

Joseph Stalin, Sigmund Freud, Josip Broz Tito, Leon Trotsky, and Adolf Hitler walked into a bar. Well, not really. But it could have happened, because they all lived in Vienna in 1913.

In 343 BCE, King Philip II of Macedon hired the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle to educate his thirteen-year-old son. That son would grow up to be Alexander the Great.

The first Egyptian pharaoh ruled around 3150 BC. Woolly mammoths lived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until about 4,000 years ago. So, there was a time when pharaohs and mammoths both lived on Earth.

Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452; a year after the birth of Christopher Columbus.

Oxford University was founded in 1249; the Aztec Empire crumbled in 1545. So, both existed for 296 years.

Four Woven Hearts

 

We have Sunday dinner together as a family every week – all sixteen of us. We’ve been doing it for years. When one of us celebrates a birthday, for dessert we do the light-a-candle, sing-a-song, blow-it-out thing. For the past several months, I’ve let the one with the birthday select the dinner’s menu. I don’t know if everyone appreciates the opportunity to choose. But maybe it gives everyone a glimpse of the mental effort involved in a weekly family dinner. My own birthday is about a dozen weeks away. I’ve been thinking about what I want for Sunday dinner, and I keep leaning toward Brazilian churrascaria: grilled pineapple, pão de queijo, boiled quail eggs, fried bananas, etc. My grocer doesn’t carry quail eggs. I found several for sale online. But they’re not for eating; they’re for hatching. Hmm. If I buy the hatching kind, I might eventually get more quail eggs, right?

March Door Banner

 

“’Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.’ The key question in this inquiry by the Lord is “Lovest thou me more than these?” We show love to the Lord when we put Him above ‘these.’ ‘These’ can be anyone, any activity, or anything that displaces Him from being the most important influence in our lives. There will never be enough time in a day, a week, a month, or a year to get done all we want or need to accomplish. Part of the test of mortality is to use the precious resource of time for what is most important. President Russell M. Nelson said, ‘The question for all of us is the same: Are you willing to let God be the most important influence in your life?’” – Elder Steven C. Barlow