Value by Dane Allred

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Value


Why would we value one person above another?

They had a mother, a father who cared for them.
Who guided their path into this world.

They were born into this world with the same
Potential
Hopes
Fears
And anxieties as each of us.

But when someone falls short of what they want to be,
Or someone falls short of what we think they should be,
Then that judgment devalues the world.

When one of us is dimished,
Then the world must be diminished.

When we strike out with our anger,
Express our disappointment
Give up our goals of being better today
Than we were yesterday;
This universe suffers.

When we are less than we can be
The loss is evident not only to those around us,
But to the mass of humanity hoping for a better day
For a day when we will use all our potential
For the day when we will strike down our fears
And reach out to the others on this journey with us
And make their path a little easier
A little more friendly
A little more exciting
Because we are now on the path together.

Walking alone against the struggles we find in this world is the loneliest path.
But when we reach out and take another into our world
When we let them know they are not alone
Then the unity of two becomes unbreakable.

Then when the world walks in unity
There is nothing we cannot accomplish.

There are so many hungry to feed,
Sorrowful to comfort,
Lost to direct,
So many searching for a friendly face
To greet them.

They are not alone.

As we direct our attention outside ourselves,
The world will open up and reveal itself to us.

Look outside yourself today.
What is there that this life offers you
That one problem that grabs your attention
And demands action?

Look closely.
It is not work.

It is an opportunity to make this world the place you and I can make it.

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Sonnet Forty-five by William Shakespeare

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Sonnet Forty-five

The other two, slight air and purging fire,
Are both with thee, wherever I abide;
The first my thought, the other my desire,
These present-absent with swift motion slide.
For when these quicker elements are gone
In tender embassy of love to thee,
My life, being made of four, with two alone
Sinks down to death, oppress'd with melancholy;
Until life's composition be recured
By those swift messengers return'd from thee,
Who even but now come back again, assured
Of thy fair health, recounting it to me:
This told, I joy; but then no longer glad,
I send them back again and straight grow sad.

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Sonnet Forty-four by William Shakespeare

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Sonnet Forty-four


If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Injurious distance should not stop my way;
For then despite of space I would be brought,
From limits far remote where thou dost stay.
No matter then although my foot did stand
Upon the farthest earth removed from thee;
For nimble thought can jump both sea and land
As soon as think the place where he would be.
But ah! Thought kills me that I am not thought,
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
But that so much of earth and water wrought
I must attend time's leisure with my moan,
Receiving nought by elements so slow
But heavy tears, badges of either's woe.

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Sonnet Forty-three by William Shakespeare

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Sonnet Forty-three


When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright are bright in dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow's form form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.

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Sonnet Forty-two by William Shakespeare

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Sonnet Forty-two


That thou hast her, it is not all my grief,
And yet it may be said I loved her dearly;
That she hath thee, is of my wailing chief,
A loss in love that touches me more nearly.
Loving offenders, thus I will excuse ye:
Thou dost love her, because thou knowst I love her;
And for my sake even so doth she abuse me,
Suffering my friend for my sake to approve her.
If I lose thee, my loss is my love's gain,
And losing her, my friend hath found that loss;
Both find each other, and I lose both twain,
And both for my sake lay on me this cross:
But here's the joy; my friend and I are one;
Sweet flattery! then she loves but me alone.

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Sonnet Forty-one by William Shakespeare

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Sonnet Forty-one


Those petty wrongs that liberty commits,
When I am sometime absent from thy heart,
Thy beauty and thy years full well befits,
For still temptation follows where thou art.
Gentle thou art and therefore to be won,
Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assailed;
And when a woman woos, what woman's son
Will sourly leave her till she have prevailed?
Ay me! But yet thou mightest my seat forbear,
And chide try beauty and thy straying youth,
Who lead thee in their riot even there
Where thou art forced to break a twofold truth,
Hers by thy beauty tempting her to thee,
Thine, by thy beauty being false to me.

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Automotive Repair

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AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR



Why does society allow someone like me who has dozens of accidents to keep driving? Another automotive adventure was with the Mazda RX-7 which we had bought from my mom. Debbie drove the car during her cancer treatment and even jumped it over some curbs somewhere when she was on morphine. After the chemotherapy, she thought the car smelled like the drugs they had injected her with, and she couldn't drive it anymore. I got to drive that car into almost total collapse, and loved every minute of it.

When it first decided to quit working on me, I was driving up the hill in Payson and had just made it past Smith's. I was in the left lane ready to turn, and almost to Payson High School, when a black cloud emerged from under the hood. I was in the middle of the road, and the car had stopped running, but not smoking. I looked ahead and there was nothing but smoke, and a quick check behind me showed the coast was clear. I quickly decided to back down the hill against traffic, go across the southbound lane while northbound, and swing the car into the Smith's parking lot. Coasting backwards downhill was challenging and the turn into the parking lot was also in reverse, so I hoped anyone pulling out was paying attention. I coasted to a stop right in a parking spot. The smoke continued to pour out. I grabbed the window washer fluid from the back and popped the hood. The engine was in flames. It was from a broken PLASTIC gas distribution piece which is mounted right on the engine. I’ve heard this is a common problem with these cars. The rest of the windshield washer fluid I had in the bottle was just enough to put it out, and the bag boy who had ran from the store with an extinguisher was amazed I had put it out myself.

I had to wait to visit a couple of different auto shops to finally get the car fixed, but the good news is that it did run again. Did you know that if your mechanic parks your car illegally on the street, you may still be expected to pay the fine? At least that’s what I learned in Provo court. I even got the chance to drive it one entire winter without heat and to replace the heater control unit the next summer. Eventually it wouldn't pass inspection and I had to sell it.

I was parking it illegally on the street and moving it every few days. I wanted a thousand dollars, but it probably wasn’t worth that much. Here’s a negotiating tip. Show up with cash.

The two Hispanic gentlemen who showed up to buy were two hundred dollars short, but as soon as the money came out of the younger one's pocket, in CASH, I knew I had seen the last of the Mazda.

It made me think back to the good old days when I could fix the stuff I drove. One night during my high school years I was going up Parley's Canyon to Vernal. I was cutting pine poles and pine posts for extra money, and Dad had helped me buy an old truck and put an old bed on it. As I neared the top, the accelerator flipped to the floor but the engine went to idle. No matter what I did with the pedal, the engine just putted along. I had to pull over to the shoulder and try to figure what was going on.

Without a flashlight.

As I climbed into the engine, I could get the engine to rev by pulling on the throttle, but the accelerator wasn't working. That means there was something wrong with the linkage. I could feel where the problem was, and it seemed to be a part missing between two holes. Now if only I could find a piece of wire, and join those two parts, then I could be on my way. If only I could find a piece of wire.

Without a flashlight.

Luckily it was dark and deserted enough that night I don't think anyone saw me crawling along the freeway groping in the gravel for wire. But then I found a piece!

I fixed it after another half hour of cursing the darkness before it all worked. I made it to Vernal that night, and I don't remember ever buying the correct part for the engine. It was working fine, and I was convinced that if it ever happened again, I would be able to fix it, even in the dark.

I wonder what kind of demand there is for blind mechanics. I really think I could do it if I had to.

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