Pedantic Fixation: Mormon Message and Some Running

Pedantic Fixation: Mormon Message and Some Running: "So everyone has seen at least one Mormon Messages Video right? The movies the church makes from some of the talks at General Conference and ..."

The Last shall be first, and the first shall be last...

In the parable of the laborers (Matthew 20), Jesus tells the story of a householder who goes out in the morning and hires laborers to work in his vineyard. The group and householder agree upon a price and then the laborers go to work. Later that day the householder finds some more laborers being idle and hires them on as well. A few hours later he does the same, finding and hiring others to work. He repeats this single-handed economic hiring boost several times until the work day is almost over, hiring the last group with only an hour left in the work day, promising them they will be paid "whatsoever is right." The work day ends and it is time to collect pay checks. The householder instructs his steward to pay those that came in the final hour first and follow in reverse order to those that worked the full twelve hours. All were paid an equal amount, despite the significant discrepancies in the amount of time worked. This obviously led to some discontent amongst the workers who were first hired and had "borne the heat of the day," but were still paid equal to those who had "wrought but one hour." This obviously seems to not "feel" right to the workers first hired, despite the fact that they had agreed for the one penny wage for their days work. The employer gives and affectionate clarification saying,

"Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee...So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen."

Despite, the urge I will not delve into any interpretations or lessons that can be learned from the Master Teacher on what it means to be chosen. Instead I selected this parable as a perfect fit for my first official post on SkippyN8tion because it seems appropriate and emblematic of the idea of me starting a blog. As there are endless spiritual parallels, life lessons, and symbolic auguries that can be drawn from this short allegory Jesus told, likewise, in number are the coincidences, questions and archetypical inferences this parable has to the birth of this blog.

Parables are hard to understand....my written thoughts are nearly impossible.

This blog is not for everyone (I'm not sure who it is for, its is only my first post, work with me here). "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear (Mark 4:9)." If you get something out of these posts, or they entertain you subscribe, read, comment, and come back for more. If my late night ranting inspires you, great. I'm supposing a lot of what I talk about may require some inside knowledge of me, or an observation or two. This blog is offered to all, but only those who have "ears to hear," and a lot of time to waste will likely make it far.

The last are first and the first are last.

I didn't invent blogging. This is likely not the first blog you have ever read, nor is it the first I have written. I just heard once that blogging was cool. I think someone told me on my brand new cell phone that looked like this.

Remember this? The Motorola TeleTac 200. I was one of the first kids at my high school to have a cell phone.

I didn't pick blogging up back in 1999 when Blogger made it all the rage, but you better believe I am jumping on the bandwagon now. It is the same thing I did with the New Kids On The Block. I hated those guys during the late 80's and early '90's, but in the 2000's, the cassette player in my Mustang always had "The Right Stuff" in it, and the volume was only turned down to make calls on the above pictured phone. The point is, I'm not the first blogger in the world and I am just now getting with a trend that some say died years ago, but in the blogosphere all blogs are equal. I may be late to the party, but I am still going to have a good time. Many of those early "web loggers" may be feeling much like the first group of workers in our parable that started at the beginning of the day (See "How blogging software reshapes the online community" by Rebecca Blood). Perhaps they are a bit frustrated with guys like me thinking I can just saunter onto the scene in 2010 when they were coding their own HTML pages of lists and links back in the day, in the snow, uphill, both ways, without any shoes. Despite everyone who came before me having their weblogs around for years/centuries, mine is now first on the list for at least a few seconds until the next blog gets made and abandoned. This post, now first, will ironically become last.

Why stand ye here all the day idle?

I work from home. As part of my work I sit in front of a computer for at least 8 hours a day. That's right, sometimes I don't even get dressed. Vicki is gone to school most the day, whilst I sit about the house answering phone calls and email. It therefore, follows that I am no longer the vibrant physical specimen, adventure seeker, and athlete I was while packing around my Motorola TeleTac 200. So in an effort to increase my physical excursions I felt there was no better way than keystroking my thoughts here as well as continuing to maintain my fantasy sports rosters. I mean, what kind of person lives that lifestyle and doesn't spend countless hours looking at and posting things all over this fad they call the Internet? Well, I will be idle no more! I am a tweeter (evidence to the bottom left of the page here), I have a FaceBook, and I'll even admit that I had a MySpace account once, but again, that was post-"MySpace-is-cool" era. I would credit my work environment, my insomnia, my path of undergraduate study at Utah State University, and my wife, Vicki and I's utter feelings of being pariahs amongst friends and family for the creation of this blog. I am not sure when it began happening, but I noticed Vicki discussing the blog content of several family members, friends from church and acquaintances of ours. This grew into the desire for us to begin a blog. We avoided this hankering to de-privatize our life for quite some time because we lacked a proper name to describe our online nakedness, but a rousing game of online Facebook Scrabble solved that dilemma real quick as evidenced by the creation of our family blog. So with the raping of our collective anonymity, I said to myself, "why not go all out?" Hence, the creation of the blog you are currently reading. I believe each of us has the desire, and love the excitement, of splashing the moments of our lives and our opinions and experiences all over the web to friends, family, strangers, and identity thieves. We, like the laborers in the parable are all equal in the eyes of Blog. Some may start early, and some may come in the eleventh hour, but we eventually all will give in. My rigorous efforts to find, follow, and subscribe to other's blogs yesterday proves that each of us needs to feel like we belong. I too needed confirmation I am not an outcast, or I fold under peer pressure and quickly sell out to avoid not fitting in. 

Many are called....

So I have answered the call that resides within each of us to join the blogosphere, and I will continue to do so that I may become one of the chosen that endures the heat of the day and doesn't forsake that call. It may come late, but when that TeleTac 200 within rings, we have to pick it up, eventually. 

http://www.thegreat80s.com/80s-Pop-Bands/New-Kids-On-The-Block.html