What does it mean to "do good" anyway?

I know I haven't posted in a months. Whatever. I have this issue which has been bothering me (not the reason I haven't posted...that would be grad school), so I decided I should try to get it down in words so as to organize my thoughts. This post is really all over the place and is very poorly written. Sorry. I don't have the time or will power to fix it up.

I came across a handout from (I think a Priesthood lesson at) church over a year ago and it said something to the effect of "on judgement day, it's not going to matter in the least what your occupation was in this life..etc". Sorry for the terrible non-quote. I take that to mean "do whatever you like in this life (for a profession). Just make sure you're a good person who is keeping their covenants". Am I misinterpreting? I probably would have forgotten this paper entirely, if I didn't encounter similar sentiments frequently in other situations (casual conversations, lessons, talks, etc).

Isn't it better to choose-for your profession-something that will help other people? Change and improve lives? Improve the world in some meaningful way? I know that not everyone can change the world, but isn't that something we should strive for? If we have the choice between becoming a celebrity chef and becoming a human rights lawyer, wouldn't it be better to choose the latter? Isn't it important to strive to maximize our potential for doing good? Do you really think that God doesn't care AT ALL about what you spend 40+ hours a week doing-for decades of your life? I understand that people can do good and improve lives in really any profession they choose. But this is not an issue of good and bad; it's a question of good, better, and best. Shouldn't we choose the best?

Also corollary to this issue is this other belief that we encounter a lot here in Calgary: the idea that your only purpose in life is to take good care of your family, provide for them, raise your kids, fulfill your church callings, and be a nice person. Doesn't our responsibility extend further than that? Whatever happened to "where much is given, much is required"? What do people think that refers to? Or are people so completely ignorant of the poverty that exists in this world that they don't realize how much they've been given? Do people not realize the great gift of education that we in North America have been given? Have we all turned a blind eye to our neighbors who don't have the same opportunities as us? Shouldn't we do something meaningful with all that we've been given? (MORE than just providing for our family).

Am I totally off base here? What are your thoughts?

The Power of Incentives

Did I mention that 4 out of 6 of my professors this semester are economists? Well if you've ever been in an econ class for more than 20 minutes, you've probably heard an economist talking about the power of incentives. And he/she has probably used the example of seat belts in cars. Since the government mandated the installation and use of seat belts, the rates of accidents has gone up (though the number of fatalities from automobile accidents has gone down). The idea is that because drivers know they are less likely to die in an accident, they drive more recklessly. (Unfortunately this has consequences for the pedestrian who is not made safer by the seat belts, but is made less safe by the reckless driving). In any case, I was doing some readings for class last night and came across this. Enjoy.

"If you find it hard to believe that people drive less carefully when their cars are safer, consider the proposition that people drive more carefully when their cars are more dangerous ... If the seat belts were removed from your car, wouldn't you be more cautious in driving? Carrying this observation to the extreme, Armen Alchian of the University of California at Los Angeles has suggested a way to bring about a major reduction in the accident rate: Require every car to have a spear mounted on the steering wheel, pointing directly at the driver's heart."

Foreign Aid Rant

Hmm I'm starting to see a trend with the rants. I'm really not an angry person...generally.

Last week I took a Social Work class, Social Policy. It was class 9-4 for 5 days. It was pretty intense and I'm glad it's over now (well the class hours anyway). It covered a VERY broad range of social policy topics - both international and domestic. Anyway, let's skip to the exciting part. The last day of class (which was Saturday-yech) we had group presentations about a topic of choice. The first group presented on foreign aid, and used the example of Haiti. Blah blah blah skip to the end of their presentation. A girl in the class raises her hand and asks, after the group's research, what, in their opinion is the best thing to do when you want to help. A group member jumps in and says (almost word for word) "The best thing you can do is get on a plane and go there and help." At this point my head almost burst. I was so outraged by this idiotic belief that it still makes my blood boil to think about it. Thus the rant. Unless you have a very specific skill which is in high demand, STAY PUT and DONATE. Even if you are a physician, an engineer, or another highly-trained skilled worker, you should probably only go in an acute crisis type of situation. Unless you have (or plan to build) a relationship with a specific place, stay of of what the aid-community appropriately calls aid-tourism. They have doctors and engineers and translators in these poor countries. Going in for a few weeks and then leaving won't help much. The money you spent on your plane ticket could be much better utilized by groups/people that are already on the ground.

The worst part of what she said was in response to my "I completely disagree 100%" was "I had a friend who went down to Haiti after the earthquake and she brushed people's teeth. They just needed hands to help out." Say whaaaaaat? Do people not have hands there? When I went to Haiti (for pure tourism, which they frankly need more of to pump money into their economy) everyone I saw had hands. I mean, there were definitely some new amputees post-earthquake, but really? She brushed people's teeth? That is just insulting. Do you really think people there are so stupid and incapable that they need you to go and brush their teeth?

We read Poor Economics for our class. It was a really interesting book (it was published earlier this year) and I really enjoyed it. My one complaint about it was that it tried the whole book to describe and define poor people. As if they are a different species. This student's view of emergency aid was right up the same alley.

I could go on, but my anger management coach is telling me to cool it.

Pyramid Scheme Rant

Alright, let's just put it out there. I HATE pyramid schemes! Here are my reasons why:

1. Often the products involved are not the best - otherwise why wouldn't they just follow the normal route of being sold in major stores? Hmmm??

2. I HATE these pyramid scheme parties. It's not a party. Let's just call it what it is. You're trying to get me to buy something so you can make a buck. Under the guise of being my friend. What a load. If I want to buy something, I will hop in my car, drive to the store (yes this is life in Calgary) and BUY it. Without the jacked up price of paying a toll to all the people that came before you in the scheme.

3. The focus of any pyramid scheme, and the thing that draws suckers in is money. Like that is the only benefit you gain from joining up. In my opinion, if all your 'job' (if you can even call it that with these things) can give you is money, you're missing the point of life.

4. They are all 'get rich quick' schemes where hard work is not only not valued, it is actually laughed at and looked down upon.

This leads me to say, what is WRONG with the world?!

And that's my rant for the day. I may have to continue it tomorrow...

Back in Black

..or should I say Calgary. I just thought the 'back in black' line was catchy. We arrived back in Calgary 1 week ago. Or I should say, we should have arrived a week ago. Instead we arrived about 7 hours shy of a week ago. After a VERY long day in transit which involved dropping off a playpen during an expensive cab ride (one of Dave's pet peeves), delayed flights, missed connections [Craigslist anyone?], meeting up with friends in the T. (read T-dot) and getting home too late to get any food at the grocery store, we finally arrived HOME! Which inspired me to write a '101 reasons I'm glad we're home'. I'm not sure if I'll actually make it to 101, but I'll see how far I get. However, I was VERY sad to leave the east coast where I have lots of friends and family and so much to see and do.

In other news, our neighbors across the street, who were either running a brothel or a drug ring, have been evicted. It's much quieter around here these days. And lastly, for those who are interested to know, our Christmas tree is no longer in our neighbors' front yard. I have no idea how they got rid of it.

More to come on our recipe book and 101 list.

Recipe Book

T-4 weeks and I'll be in school. The week of August 15, I'll be in school from 8:30-4:30 the whole week. Same for the week of September 5. Did I mention Dave is starting clerkship in earnest August 1? It's hard for me to imagine how busy we are going to be this year. In an attempt to simplify one area of our lives (and to avoid either starvation or eating out all the time), we are making a 2-3 week dinner rotation. This way, there will be no 'what's for dinner?' dilemma. We've come up with a list of about 10 meals that will be in our rotation, and I'm in the process of compiling recipes and corresponding grocery lists. Stay tuned for those.

No More Dance Aerobics

So Thomas seems to be getting worse and worse when it comes to bedtime and sleeping. I'm sure we've probably done this to ourselves, but it has gotten to the point where you have to bounce him while walking around and patting his back, with his soother, sleep sheep, swaddled for like 45 mins before he will go to sleep. And that's after feeding him and bedtime stories. And I'm not doing it anymore. It's ridiculous. Does anyone have any wonderful suggestions of how to get him to go to sleep easier? He's 4 months old now and he still eats every 3 hours all night long - any suggestions on lengthening the time between feeds? Some people purport to have babies younger than him that sleep for upwards of 9 hours at a time. Are they lying? If they are actually being truthful, what is their secret? Is it too young for sleep training? We will be leaving in about a month and he's bound to be thrown off by all the travel and sleeping in new places, etc. Should I not even bother doing this right now?