Ryanware

You’ll have to go read what I wrote two days ago to know exactly what I’m talking about. I’m not going to bother catching you up. Anyway, I stated two days ago that this idea of directing benevolence far away and malice close by extends beyond benevolence and malice. And then the examples I gave were basically about benevolence and malice. So I figured I’d provide an example that isn’t.

I recently heard a story about a guy visiting the Grand Canyon. This guy was talking to an Arizona resident about the canyon and the resident stated she’d never been to the Grand Canyon. The guy was shocked that, living so close, she’d never seen the Grand Canyon. It is, after all, one of the wonders of the world. The guy then admitted that he could understand it because he’d never been to the Statue of Liberty, and he’s from New York. The girl, as it turned out, had been to the Statue of Liberty.

The moral of the story is, of course, to go see the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty.

No really, the moral is to look closer. Go see cool things in your own state as well as going to see other cool wonders.

Some time ago I read about the mechanics of sleep and ever since I’ve still slept in a lot.

Apparently you have to do something with knowledge or it’s of no use. Crazy.

No really, it has helped. I don’t remember the article I read, but it was back in July I think. I’ve slept in plenty of mornings since then, but I have noticed that waking up is significantly easier when I set my alarm to go off after 6 hours of sleep instead of 7, 7 1/2 instead of 8, etc.

So today I called a friend at 9:30 AM. He answered almost right away. He said he went to bed at 3:30 AM.

So, a sleep cycle is 90 minutes. 3:30 AM to 9:30 AM was only 6 hours of sleep, but it was right on the 90 minute cycle. He told me he was going to wake up at 10:30, and that I should call him then. Problem is, 10:30 AM was 30 minutes before the next cycle ended, so naturally he’d sleep right through his alarm.

I didn’t actually call at 10:30, but I figure he probably turned off his alarm when it went off and so by 11 when the sleep cycle ended he kept on sleeping. I tried calling several times around 12 PM with no answer. The next cycle should be ending right about now.

…

Dang it. No answer after 5 attempts. The sleep cycle can be 90-110 minutes. I’ll try again in a few minutes. This is fun!

Today in church we were reading out of a talk from General Conference called Out of Small Things. In the talk, Michael J. Teh quotes from one of my favorite books by one of favorite authors.

The following advice, given by the deceitful Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood in C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, describes a common malady afflicting many of us today: “Do what you will, there is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice, in your patient’s soul. The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbours whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary.”

This idea of benevolence being directed far away and malice being directed close by extends beyond benevolence and malice. When I think of being charitable I often think of donating to some large charity that feeds hungry people in other countries. While that’s incredibly important, I sometimes forget that there are people in my own neighborhood, perhaps even in my own family, who may be starving physically or emotionally. Likewise, I have often thought that to become a great business person or a great friend I need to do something really amazing. When people ask me what I do I want to say I build schools in some third world country or something, as if that’s what it means to be amazing.

Doing good things means you do good things, no matter where it is that you do them. Doing something good starts with your innermost circle of influence. It starts with your family and friends, and then on outward. If you never get to feed thousands and thousands of people? It doesn’t mean you didn’t save the world for someone.