Thursday, July 2, 2009

Wind Tunnel Musings

Penny Surfing. I don't know if its a game I invented, but I remember riding shot gun going 80 MPH on Highway 93. We'd open the window and see how long we could keep a penny balanced on the tips of our fingers. If you controlled the angle of the hand just right the penny would stay there for minutes. But once you tilted just a little too far, the wind would catch your hand, fling it back and the penny would be lost--hopefully not hitting another car on its way to the Earth.

I know not the most sophisticated game, but its Idaho what do you expect. You can't really play the alphabet game when you don't have any billboards.

But wind is pretty cool. When they design sports cars, airplanes, and other vehicles, they'll put them in a wind tunnel. The purpose is to analyze how the easy it is for the wind to slip by. They'll check the placement of mirrors, windshield wipers, the design of the hood. They want to make a machine that slices though the air as easily as a purpose in a pond or a eagle to his pray. They want it to be aerodynamic.



I've been driving I-15 alot lately. As you approach the Utah/Idaho boarder between Tremonton and Malad, there is a new high capacity power transmission line going in. I'll admit being a little miffed at the scars on the landscape. (Even a staunch conservative enjoys a nice view.) But as I drove I got to see the progress of construction. From nothing at one end of the line to standing steel power pole. Its impressive how solid these polls are. First the create a flat surface, then they dig deep into the ground and poor cement. In the cement they place cris-crossing rebar.that sticks out the top. Then the bring in the steel pole. As they erect the pole, they bolt it to the cement and put the rebar up the middle, keeping it anchored. These poles must be solid, not only so the good people of Idaho will have uninterrupted power, but so they poles don't crash down in a Idaho windstorm, killing people and cooking cattle.

All right lets tie it together. Heleman 5:12
And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.


Helamen warns his sons and tells them of the storms that will come. The "mighty shafts in the whirlwind." I think all of use with same gender attraction realize the storms come. Of course its not like we have a monopoly on trial.

Think of the two things that can help us withstand a whirlwind. First the base that we build on. Do we have a rock. Is it the rock of mom, the rock of our favorite therapist, the rock of Perez Hilton? It may even be the rock of our bishop. There is only one rock that promises to keep us safe when the torrents of temptation come. It is the rock of Christ. We must choose our rock. Some will hold us through various storms, but only one through them all.

Second. We know the storm will come. even if the rock is there we don't want to snap off. Its all about aerodynamics. How much wind to we catch. Are we a kite? Or an arrow. As we live the gospel, we become more and more aerodynamic, until the wayward winds wield no power over us. God reshapes us, adjusting the parts that catches air, until we are a polished shaft, and the wind has not grip.

2 comments:

  1. Jake..there must be a story in here somewhere. What if we are not reshaped. Where does a single male fit into the gosple picture given a lifetime of celibacy and sitting alone on that bench?

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  2. Keaton,

    I'm working on telling the story. It'll probably come in non-linear bits and pieces.

    You ask a very good question. I don't want to be single, I doubt anyone wants to spend a lifetime without somebody to love.

    I hope through God's grace I find a wife to love and cherish.

    If I don't I've thought alot about how there arn't that many active LDS Single men in their 30's and older. Most of us don't survive. I plan on being involved with my nephews and nieces. I plan on finding people in whatever ward I live in to have as a support. I'm not just going to sit on the bench alone. I'll be active.

    The celibacy isn't as hard as the loneliness. I'm sure it would be tough. I have a co-worker who is a 40 something single women. She is strong in the church, but I can tell it how it hurts her to be alone. We are hardly the only people who live alone. My grandfather outlived his wife by nearly 15 years. I have a good friend who is handicapped and will never find a wife.

    One of the hardest things when you are denied the "normal" life is to avoid being bitter, to avoid denigrating that which is good, but we don't have.

    Anyways, thats the attitude I hope to have. I'm working on it. I don't think being single means being alone.

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