Infants on Thrones: an open letter. Share your new name.

Infants on Thrones - an open letter

For the past several months, I've listened to several dozen Infants of Thrones podcasts. The "Infants" podcasts are mostly related to the LDS Church. The podcast participants are all individuals dissatisfied with the LDS Church (I hope that's an accurate representation). Their podcasts are often critical of the LDS Church, its leaders, and its members. The Infants often talk about how they've moved on past all the LDS silliness. One is agnostic/atheist and the others, at a minimum, don't fellowship with the Church.

I have a suggestion for a future podcast. But first, I need to give a bit of a background.

In the LDS religion, there are temples. In the temple, LDS members go through an "Endowment" ceremony. In that ceremony, LDS members are given a new name. They're charged to never reveal that name. (you can read more about any of this online) Church members keep this charge pretty serious. You'd NEVER hear an active Church member say what their name is.

So, here's my suggestion to the Infants.

Dear Infants,

You've left the LDS faith behind you. You've abandoned all the silliness. You've recognized the Book of Mormon is just one big fraud (there were no real Nephites or Lamanites). The Book of Abraham... give me a break, right? The entire thing is just a big load of hogwash.

I have a suggestion for your most popular podcast ever. Here, I'll write the abstract for you:

In this episode, each infant shares his temple name and the temple name of his spouse. They talk about what this means and how they felt while sharing their name with the world. They'll talk about the irrational power the LDS Church has over them and the freedom they feel as they sever this final link to that oppressive influence. You'll not want to miss this episode where the Infants shatter this long-standing LDS taboo.

Regards,

Andrew

Note: I sent a version of this in an email to the Infants with no response.

Twenty-some-odd years ago I spent two years in Ohio as an LDS missionary. They were a great two years. I met so many wonderful people.

In December, my son will be doing the same thing, in a different place: the Philippines.

Over the past two decades, I've thought a lot about my experience and what I could have done better. Here's what I told my son a couple of weeks ago... (knowing that he was going on his mission, but not knowing where the assignment would be)

The next two years will be an opportunity for you to _learn_ how to serve and help other people. Probably, at no other time in your life, will you have such an opportunity to focus on something quite this completely. Use the time well. Your job is NOT to convert people to the LDS Church. Your job is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, to love people, serve them, and help them. Don't ever get caught up in how many people join the Church or how many discussions you give, or anything like that. Those things are easy to measure, but they don't mean anything.

If you want to measure something, keep track of the number of times you get a sincere "Thank you" from someone.

I've spent time in the Philippines. There will be no end to the good he can do. What a great learning experience this will be.

Marriott Executive Lounge - Manila

Associate: "Hello Mr. Teasdale, good to have you back."

Me: "Wow, you know who I am?"

Associate: "I'll never forget you."

This interaction happened a couple of nights ago - about 11:00 PM. I just arrived in Manila after about 17 hours on 3 different airplanes.

I'm not a memorable person. Not handsome, tall, short, skinny, fat. Really just particularly average. I don't stay too often at this particular hotel, maybe 18 nights in the past 30 months. I didn't recognize the associate speaking to me. However, I'm pretty sure I know why she responded as she did.

You see, last time I was there, there was a bit of a tension in the room. Some self-important customer was behaving like an ass and giving this particular associate a pretty abusive treatment because he wasn't getting his way. From what I remember, he either wanted a room upgrade or a lower rate on the room he had. Given how important he thought he was, and said he was (there was no problem overhearing him), you'd think that 500 pesos wouldn't really be that big a deal ($13). However, you'd have thought the Marriott associate was telling him he was about to be dipped in boiling oil.

Anyway I apparently checked in during a lull in the fight and then his argument picked up after I arrived. I listened to this man berate this associate for a long time (> 10 minutes). I contemplated stepping in and suggesting he cool off. However, here's what I did. I took out a business card and wrote the following on the back: "I am so sorry you have to go through this. If he complains to ANYONE, please feel free to contact me and I will confirm that you behaved in a professional manner. Andrew Teasdale"

I didn't actually do anything. They never called. However, that simple offer made a difference to this person.

I'm not relating this for anyone to think I did anything great. Again, I didn't actually do anything. I write this to illustrate that little acts of kindness mean a lot. Her comment back to me, "I'll never forget you" meant a lot to me. She just said a kind thing to me, and it helped me at the end of a long day.

Virtual Office Hours

Talking with our intern today, we decided to try something new.

I don't remember if I mentioned this, but our intern is working remotely. She visited our Cebu location this past Friday and Saturday, but aside from that, she's been working from her home. I've been trying to do different things to compensate for working at a distance and the lack of interaction with other people in the company. Today I had what I think is a brilliant idea.

I had our intern send me some hours when she knows she will be working. I will have a tech support guy in our office setup a computer for "Intern Office Hours." We'll set it up so it doesn't fall asleep (i.e., the monitor doesn't go dark when the computer isn't being used. We'll connect a headset to the computer. On that computer, we'll initiate a Google Hangout with the intern. For that hour, she'll have her camera pointed at her and anyone walking by that computer will see her sitting there. Anyone who wants to can then stop by, put on the headphones, and sit down and chat for a moment.

I'll let you know how this works. She agreed to try it for three hours: two hours this week and one hour next week.

Designing an Internship

Savvysherpa has an office in Cebu. A board member in the Philippines asked that we do an internship program with his alma mater: Ateneo de Manila University in Manila. I was tasked with taking care of that.

I worked with HR to get a pool of candidates. We interviewed and selected three candidates. We made three offers. Three originally accepted, with two bailing out on us. We have one intern. That's OK.

The design challenge is to develop an internship. Here's what we have working for us:

• we selected a great intern,
• we have a board member invested in this being successful
• we have some good problems for the intern

My goals for the internship program:

• for the board member to be pleased that a student from his alma mater had a good experience
• get positive word of mouth from the intern about our company
• get helpful effort applied to the problems we're giving to the intern

Challenges:

• the intern is working remotely - we don't have an office in Manila and she will not be traveling to Cebu
• the intern is 11 hours away from Minneapolis (0800 here is 2100 there)
• the intern will not have access to the company intranet

Here's what I've designed.

Weekly "Meet the Sherpa" (clever, eh? Savvysherpa is the company name, "Meet the Sherpa"). Using Google Hangouts or Skype, every week the intern will meet 2-3 people from the Cebu or Minneapolis location. After those meetings, I follow up with a message to the Sherpas asking them to occasionally "reach out" to the intern. Trying to find a way to duplicate "stopping by the cube" that's possible when the intern is located in the office.

I've apprenticed the intern to one of our Cebu researchers. He's teaching her how to use a fairly sophisticated data visualization tool - I think something that will set the intern apart when she returns to class in the fall and a plus to add to her resume.

I've found two people with problems the intern can research. I've connected her with them and then gotten out of the way so that she can work with them. Both are senior people in the organization, so she is getting good face time.

She'll be meeting with the well-connected board member I mentioned earlier. That's a great opportunity.

I've identified some additional learning resources for the intern. One is a Coursera course on Data Science. The other is a codeacademy course. Learning from these resources isn't her primary task, but I want to be sure that should she have ANY downtime, she has something to do that's worthwhile.

I'll meet with her twice weekly to review her experience and determine what additional things we can do to make the experience positive for her.

I've asked her to compose a weekly summary of her activities. This is NOT a check to be sure she's working. It is to keep me updated so I can inform stakeholders here what's happening. It gives her an opportunity to reflect on her experience.

Today is the last day of week 1. So far, so good. The intern commented to me today that she went to Coursera and registered for the course I suggested. She didn't know about Coursera. She reported that she actually found several other courses she wants to take. That's good! All the other events have kicked off as I've expected.

Oh... Just a note on technology. I met with the intern when I was in Manila a couple of weeks ago. I told her she'd need a good internet connection. She worked with her family and made that happen. We've done several Google Hangouts. The thing I want to mention is how much of a trouble the technology is NOT. It took us a minute or two to get the Google Hangouts thing working the first time, now it's a complete non-issue.

I'll continue to post updates on the experience an what I learn from it.

Have any suggestions?

instructional design designing internship remote Philippines Cebu

Just a little Christian

I'm a Mormon. Sometimes we're accused of being not-Christian. I don't think those accusations are accurate. I think a more accurate accusation might be that we're just a little Christian. Let me explain.

Last Sunday, the topic in one of the classes was the Atonement. The instructor shared this story...

He's preparing for a Tough Mudder race. He hasn't exercised much in the past and he's started lifting weights. He talked about how sometimes, when you're lifting weights, you have a spotter. The spotter, on that last set when you just can't quite lift the bar all the way to the top, sticks out his finger and gives just an ever-so-slight nudge to the bar to help you get the bar to the top.

The Atonement is, he related, like this example of lifting weights. You struggle to overcome sin and become perfect and grace is that little extra nudge that bridges the gap between your effort and perfection.

Hence the title of this post, "just a little Christian."

I think, with this attitude, you don't need Christ all that much. After all, you're almost perfect doing it on your own and he's just helping a little.

For the record, I didn't just sit there. After he paused, I raised my hand and said, "I think maybe it's the other way around. The atonement and grace are really all the heavy lifting and our effort is the ever-so-slight nudge to the bar. After all, as I recall, it was Christ who sweated blood. I don't recall ever working that hard."

The instructor did agree that I have a point.

So, maybe we're sometimes just a little bit Christian.

I was asked, this past Sunday, to give the benediction on the main service this coming Sunday - Easter Sunday. The more I think about it, the more I wish I didn't know in advance. It's easier to give a prayer without warning. You just say the usual stuff. With time to think about it, I'm worried I might decide to say something more, well, controversial. Could you imagine what would happen if I were to say something like:

"Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to meet on this holy day. Perhaps more than any other day of the year, we direct our thanks to the for the gift and sacrifice of your son, Jesus Christ. We're so thankful for his sacrifice. Thank you. Now, that said, we're in serious need of help. We've, for the most part, rejected many of your commandments. We don't treat each other all that well. We're supposed to proclaim peace, but somehow we've become a warlike people. I could go on and on. We need help. Would you please help us to wake up to our precarious situation? Would you give us the strength to admit where we're wrong and make changes? Please forgive us! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I don't know. Somehow, I don't think that'd go over well. We don't do well at calling out our unworthiness.

Anyway, to anyone reading this, I wish you a most joyful Easter. Peace.

A Christian Perspective on Navigating TSA Security

OK, the title of this post is a little presumptive. And, what comes next is not a slam on people who consider themselves Christian and submit to the TSA.

Right now, when you go through the TSA screening, you have 3 possible screening events:

1. Go through the old style metal detector.
2. Go through the new body scanner.
3. Get a full-body patdown (hereafter “grope”)

There may be instances where you’re planning, and in the line for, a metal detector, and you get pulled aside for extra screening: meaning either a scan or a grope (this has now happened to me twice). Depending on the airport, you may or may not have a metal detector option (there are less and less of these as more scanners are put in). If there are only scanners, you can “opt out” and be subjected to the grope.

Of the three options, two are abhorrent to Christians: scan and grope. The scan is bad on two accounts: it creates a pornographic image and it blasts the person with harmful rays (and please, don’t tell me the government has assured us it’s safe. Governments lie. Just ask my relatives who were downwind of the nuclear tests or the 9/11 first responders – both of whom were assured it was safe when the government knew it was not). Both of these factors are abhorrent to Christians. Your body is a temple and should be treated with respect.

The grope is the state exerting it’s will upon you by, and I hate to be crude here, “feeling you up.” This event done by a stranger would land that person in jail. It’s completely unconstitutional. Also, do not, for a second, think that this is about safety and security. It is not. It is about submission to the state.

If you need to fly, you must recognize that you may end up being forced into one of these two unacceptable options. What do you do?

Here’s what I’ve done.

Background

Several weeks ago, I was groped for the first time. It was a horrible experience. My genitals were “pushed” (not sure of a good way to describe this). Not to the part of being painful – but certainly more than a caress. This was NOT about security. The guy groping me knew, before he mashed my genitals, that I wasn’t carrying anything. He did it anyway. This was about the state dominating me.

After the experience, I thought about what to do. I determined that I would buy a speedo, wear it to the airport, and should I be forced to go to the grope, I would strip to the speedo, let them examine my clothing all they wanted.

Yesterday, I was going through the metal detector line and was pulled out for the scanner. I opted out and was sent to the grope. On the way to the grope, I started disrobing. I got my top off and was going for my pants when all hell broke loose. Next thing I know, I’m surrounded by cops and several TSA agents. Obviously the speedo solution is not acceptable to them. In the next few minutes I was threatened to be deported from the airport, arrested, or both.
Here are some things I’m thinking about right now.

The cop in charge was abusive and was using provocative language, statements like “What are you looking at?” (my answer was, “a tyrant , I suppose.”) He’s the one who threatened to escort me from the airport.

My understanding is, that once you begin the screening process, you cannot stop until the process is complete. I “think” by threatening to escort me from the airport, he actually committed a federal crime. He offered to assist me in committing a crime. Next time, should that happen, I’ll politely ask for his card and the cards of the other people there. I’ll the explain that I’m going to call the authorities and inform them of his crime and ask that charges be filed.
While I was there, the TSA agent several times made a comment suggesting that walking around in a speedo was indecent in a public place. Of course, swimming pools would have to be outlawed if this were really true.

I have to fly again today. I don’t think the metal detector is an option in RDU. I’m not getting scanned, so, I’ll have to opt out. From my first experience, I understand that I have a right for a private screening. I’m asking for that. Once I get to a private area, off come the clothing. In private, there’s no charge of public indecency. We’ll see how that goes.

I’d like to come back to the title here at the end. I was thinking about my coming screening experience this morning. I think a key to doing this is to keep the commandment to “Love your Neighbor” (or to “pray for your enemies”) in mind while going up against the state and it’s minions. On several occasions now, I’ve said to the TSA guy groping me, “Bud, you’re a bright guy. You can’t tell me that you couldn’t get a better job than this.” The last guy actually said, “Thank you” after I said that.

Good luck with your experiences. Let me know what happens.

New Job

I resigned my position with Humana and accepted a position with a company in Minneapolis, MN called Savvysherpa. It’s a small company, less than 100 employees.

We’ll be moving to Minneapolis sometime in the spring - the precise time depending on if/when we sell the house. I’ll be commuting back and forth until that happens.

In a way, I feel like I’m coming home. My uncle lives just NE of Minneapolis. My dad grew up 90 miles SE of here. Other distant cousins live here. I was walking around this week and the temps were single digits (both plus and minus). I had a warm coat and the necessary gear. It just felt refreshing to me. My uncle and I went cross country skiing. The temps were in the high 20s. People were greeting each other and commenting on what a nice day it was. I’m looking forward to getting the family move here.

My uncle lives in the coolest development ever. It’s called Jackson Meadows (you can learn more at www.jacksonmeadows.com). It’s a peaceful place. The architecture is beautiful – just a great environment all around. I’d LOVE to move the fam here – but a bit too pricey and a bit too far from the office.

Louisville was good. Looking forward to Minneapolis

San Antonio

Woo hoo. In San Antonio again. My says in San Antonio combine a couple of my favorite things. First, the Embassy Suites breakfast. Second, Pappasito's Cantina.

Had a nice flight here this morning. For the second leg, ended up sitting next to a guy from Anchorage, Alaska. The guy is living the dream. He has a plane, flies to remote locations to fish and hunt, he just loves it.

Love it here.

I head back Tuesday.

4:00 AM

It’s 3:45 AM. I’m in a hospital downtown Louisville. It’s a hospice hospital. In the room down the floor is a man in my congregation. He is sleeping; his mother is sacked out in a chair next to him. He’s been dying of cancer for about 18 months now. He requested that members of his congregation come be with him.

I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like for him. His oldest son is serving an LDS Church mission in Nevada. He has 4 girls at home.

4:30 AM. Kirk woke up and I’ve joined him. His mother-in-law went home. His life now seems to be mostly a roller-coaster of pain. The ups and downs are dictated by the timing of the pain medication.

He prayed with his mother-in-law before she left. I guess that’s a sign of faith, to be laying there, in pain, and praying for help. I wonder what sort of help God gives to people in his condition. It doesn’t seem that he takes the pain away. Now only drugs are doing that. Does he give you peace? Does he just watch? Maybe the pain and the anxiety are just the table stakes for being here – and you just have to go through it? I don’t know. What do those prayers mean?

Kirk is about my age.

We were talking… He can’t lift his legs any longer. He said the cancer stole his muscles. He showed me his arms – the muscle is all gone. There’s just skin, tendons, and bones. When he was healthy, Kirk could move the world.