Seamless Life
Stake Conference was this past weekend. This is one of the semiannual meetings that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints attend. Stake Conference is when members gather to listen to talks from local church leaders as well as talks from General Authorities and Auxiliaries (those who lead the Church as a whole).
There is always one talk that sticks in my head. The talk that stuck in my head this time was by Mary N. Cook. She is one of the three women who leads the Young Women's programs in the Church.
I was hoping to find a copy of her talk to refer to as I write this. I couldn't find one so I am going from memory. I did find her biography and I see that we have something in common. Like me, she is a stepmother and also a step-grandmother.
The talk she gave was on honesty, one of the several virtues that young men and women in the Church are taught. I was looking forward to this. I am very serious about honesty. Maybe too serious.
Honesty, to me, is more that not telling lies. It is how you live your life. It involves doing what you say you will do, keeping promises and commitments that you make and treating all the people you come across in all the facets of your life the same. I try to conduct my life in this fashion and have always done so. I'm not perfect, no one is. I do my best.
I didn't make a conscious choice to live this way. When I got out of pharmacy school, my first few jobs were in small towns. A pharmacist is someone that people have to be able to trust. Since there isn't much privacy for anyone in a small town, it was just easier to avoid those things that might make me look untrustworthy. Now that I work in a big city,none of my customers would know what I do in my off hours. By now though it's become a habit.
Sister Cook referred to this type of attitude as "a seamless life". She held up a piece of cloth to illustrate her point. One side was red with a strip of white at one end. She said that this represented a person who acts one way on Sunday and another way the rest of the week. The other side was all white. This represented a person who was the same on all the days of the week.
I like the illustration. If you live, to the best of your ability, a "seamless life" it's easier. If you are the same person all the time, you don't have to remember who you are to what group. It's also a well known fact that a seam is the weakest part of any sewn object. Put enough stress on the seam and the fabric will tear or the stitches pull out. You can mend and patch, but it will never be like it was. While it is possible to tear a piece of cloth without a seam it is much harder and takes a lot more force.
As I wrap up this column for the week, I know what I need now is a really powerful conclusion. I wish I could come up with one. I did find a really cool quote though so I will end with it. I found it on Wikiquote and it is an unsourced quote by Tad Williams.
"We tell lies when we are afraid...afraid of what we don't know,afraid of what others will think,afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing we fear grows stronger." So living a seamless life is also living a fearless life. Sounds good to me.
Information for this column taken from LDS.org and Wikiquote. All errors are mine.
There is always one talk that sticks in my head. The talk that stuck in my head this time was by Mary N. Cook. She is one of the three women who leads the Young Women's programs in the Church.
I was hoping to find a copy of her talk to refer to as I write this. I couldn't find one so I am going from memory. I did find her biography and I see that we have something in common. Like me, she is a stepmother and also a step-grandmother.
The talk she gave was on honesty, one of the several virtues that young men and women in the Church are taught. I was looking forward to this. I am very serious about honesty. Maybe too serious.
Honesty, to me, is more that not telling lies. It is how you live your life. It involves doing what you say you will do, keeping promises and commitments that you make and treating all the people you come across in all the facets of your life the same. I try to conduct my life in this fashion and have always done so. I'm not perfect, no one is. I do my best.
I didn't make a conscious choice to live this way. When I got out of pharmacy school, my first few jobs were in small towns. A pharmacist is someone that people have to be able to trust. Since there isn't much privacy for anyone in a small town, it was just easier to avoid those things that might make me look untrustworthy. Now that I work in a big city,none of my customers would know what I do in my off hours. By now though it's become a habit.
Sister Cook referred to this type of attitude as "a seamless life". She held up a piece of cloth to illustrate her point. One side was red with a strip of white at one end. She said that this represented a person who acts one way on Sunday and another way the rest of the week. The other side was all white. This represented a person who was the same on all the days of the week.
I like the illustration. If you live, to the best of your ability, a "seamless life" it's easier. If you are the same person all the time, you don't have to remember who you are to what group. It's also a well known fact that a seam is the weakest part of any sewn object. Put enough stress on the seam and the fabric will tear or the stitches pull out. You can mend and patch, but it will never be like it was. While it is possible to tear a piece of cloth without a seam it is much harder and takes a lot more force.
As I wrap up this column for the week, I know what I need now is a really powerful conclusion. I wish I could come up with one. I did find a really cool quote though so I will end with it. I found it on Wikiquote and it is an unsourced quote by Tad Williams.
"We tell lies when we are afraid...afraid of what we don't know,afraid of what others will think,afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing we fear grows stronger." So living a seamless life is also living a fearless life. Sounds good to me.
Information for this column taken from LDS.org and Wikiquote. All errors are mine.
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