It's made of people

It’s about people.

 

The movie is Soylent Green. No, I haven’t seen it. I hear Heston is great in it. I thought of this because recently I have been thinking of the people in my life and wondering if I am a good enough people in someones life to make a difference. People make all the difference. My father thought that. He was ALL about people. If he was talking to people he was happy. I believe this too. I have many people in my life that dramatically affect me. My friend Richard got me carrying a knife and cleaning my new gun. My wife is an ever-changing influence on me. I love her and when I contemplate all that she is I am in awe of her. I really appreciate her talents, intellect, and wit. I try to be worthy of her. This continually shapes my actions.

 

I was thinking about the dedication prayer offered last Sunday by Pre s. O st ler for the new building on McDowell. It was one of those things you hear that changes you. He is a great man and one that has influenced my life. I think of him or his words or his actions in various facets of my life and am once again pleased and honored to know him. This example is legendary. I’ll give you one example this: In passing during a meeting, Pre s. O st ler mentioned that he often has difficulty getting out of bed in the morning. He is 100% successful, though, using a trick he learned and has now passed on to me. He says he counts to three. 3. One, two, three. On three he gets up. Why? Because he has told himself that he, “…doesn’t want to be one of those people who doesn’t get up on 3.” Simple, effective. I love this. I have often thought of this when waiting to arise. I guess I don’t want to be one of those people who doesn’t get up on three.

 

I was channel-surfing the other day and stumbled, digitally speaking, upon a man preaching the gospel of success. He was directing a success seminar in which he stood in the middle of a crowd and taught them wearing a beard, a bald head, and a shirt that can only be described as hick-fire. As the red, orange,and yellow flames shot up his black corduroy sleeves, he told the crowd that they were in charge of whether they were successful or not based on what they were thinking and doing. He then ridiculed a guy for writing that down as if it were a new concept. He did, however, teach one concept that stuck with me. He said that to become successful we had to do something. Anything. Don’t tell me what it is. Shut up and do it. He said he was tired of *hearing* all the things people were going to do to become successful. He asked the audience to stop talking about it and do it. Anything. Sleep on the wrong side of the bed. Anything. You are at your current level of success because of your current actions. So, change them. This change may lead to other things that will influence your behavior and the outcome could be success. Or cancer. You choose.

 

My son, Max, is on a mission. I’m sure he is having an impact on people in his sphere. There was a missionary here from Japan who had a sudden and dramatic impact on me. He arrived a couple of months ago and told me he was from Tokyo. Cool. So, I took him and his companion to sushi a couple of times and chatted with him. He left Tuesday (yesterday) for home but not before coming over to our home to visit and teach us a little bit. He and his companion, Silski, were very grateful for the rides and food I have provided them but they were all business at first when they arrived. I busted out the pictures of Japan and softened them up a bit. Utagawa was interested in the pix of home so I took a second to show him what was there.

 

Funny, in a country of 127.5 million people, I asked Utagawa if he knew three people. One was my first companion Watabe Masasue, one was a greenbean I knew named Koyama Norio, and one was Ikeuchi Eiji. The odds were about 42 million to one that he would not know these guys but I took a shot. Let’s ignore the focal effect of church affiliation – it sounds better. He knew two of them. Get that? Two of the three people I asked about he knew – one of whom would be his relative soon as a member of his family is to marry a member of Koyama’s family. Cool, right? He knew two of them and had heard of the other one. We had a funny discussion about this. After identifying that Watabe lived in Orem and had a son named Leo, Silski piped up and said, “Wait, I know him, he was in a class with me at BYU.” Tiny, tiny world.

 

 

Japan — Population: 127,433,494 (July 2007 est.)

According to https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/ja.html

 

 The following is from Wikipedia - so there's nobody to credit but the last line is funny.

Soylent Green is a 1973 dystopian science fiction movie depicting a future in which overpopulation leads to depleted resources on earth. This leads to widespread unemployment and poverty. Real fruit, vegetables, and meat are rare, commodities are expensive, and much of the population survives on processed food rations, including "soylent green" wafers.

 

The term "soylent green" and the last line "Soylent Green is people!" became catch phrases in English, in part due to a Saturday Night Live parody where comedian Phil Hartman mocked Heston's acting in the final scene of the movie.^[4]

Soylent Green is referred to in a number of television series and other media, either for dramatic or comedic effect. The film was referenced in an episode of the US television sitcomBarney Miller (1975-1982), which was set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village. The animated American sitcom Futurama, which is set in the year 3000, makes a number of references to fictional "soylent"-based foods. The show, created by Matt Groening, depicts billboards that advertise a variety of "soylent" foods, including "soylent cola" (the taste of which, according to Leela, "varies from person to person").