Book # 20

Sugar Changed the World:

A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science

by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos

This wasn't the book I planned on reading next, but I was in the library and it caught my eye. So I thought I'd give it a lookie. And it was interesting. Lots of stuff I never knew.

To start out with, both authors have ancestors who were part of the history of sugar. Marc's distant uncle was a serf in Europe during the 1800's. At the time Britain controlled most of the sugar plantations in the Caribbean and the sea routes to Europe and so their rivals were looking for new ways to create sugar. Someone discovered that you could get sugar from beets. His relative, as the story goes, was an intelligent and remarkable man, who discovered how to give raw beet sugar sparkling colors. And although he was a serf, which was only a step above a slave, he made a lot of money from his invention and was able to buy his family a better life.

Marina's family story in sugar began when slavery was abolished in Britain in 1833. The British needed to find new cheap labor. So they turned to India. Marina's family were poor in India and so they went to Guyana to work on the sugar plantations and look for a better life. Marina's great-grandfather was chosen to be a "sirdar" in charge of the field hands. When his contract was over, he purchased land and prospered.

The book begins by describing "The Age of Honey" which was the sweetener before sugar was discovered. I liked this quote: "In the age of honey, people tasted the neighborhood where they lived. From a light orange blossom flavor that is almost a perfume, to dark buckwheat with a hint of soil and grain, honey tastes like local flowers. And that was only part of its appeal. Bees work very hard, and it is easy to see that a queen bee is surrounded by worker bees that protect and serve her. To the ancients, a beehive was perfect, for it brought a gift of sweetness to people while being a mirror of their lives--a king or queen served by loyal subjects....Honey was a way of living: people ate foods grown near them, did the same work as their parents and ancestors, and owed honor and respect to kings, nobles, those above them."

Cane sugar can be traced back to the island of New Guinea. The plant spread north to the Asian mainland. Polynesian seafarers took canes with them as they sailed from island to island and cane reached Hawaii around AD 1100.

India provides us with the first written record of sugar. It was used in religious and magical ceremonies. The word candy comes from the ancient Indian language Sanskrit. The word for "a piece of sugar" is khanda. Sugar had another use in India, it was considered medicine. "Today we say, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. But from ancient times until quite recently, sugar itself was a medicine, a means of healing."

Hmmmm......interesting. I'd love to see some modern studies on that!

The book then describes the intensive labor necessary to process cane into sugar. Not a pretty picture. There were two problems with processing sugar. Time and Location. Cut cane begins to dry out and turns woody if not into the boiling vat within 48 hours. Also  a great deal of wood to burn was needed to keep the vats boiling. Not many places in the world offer rich lands that can grow cane, are near water so that the sugar can be shipped to distant lands, and has plentiful trees to be cut and used for fuel. 

The plantation was primarily  invented to grow and process sugar. "On a regular farm there may be cows, pigs and chickens; fields of grain; orchards filled with fruit--many different kinds of food to eat or sell. By contrast, the plantation had only one purpose: to create a single product that could be grown, ground, boiled, dried, and sold to distant markets. Since one cannot live on sugar, the crop grown on plantations could not even feed the people who harvested it. Never before in human history had farms been run this way..."

Spain and Portugal were competing with other European countries and with the Muslims to explore the coast of Africa and find a sea route to Asia. Spanish and Portuguese sailors conquered the Canary Islands and Azores and established sugar plantations there ,staffed with slaves purchased from nearby Africa. "One sailor came to know these islands particularly well because he traded in white gold--sugar. And then, as he set off on his second voyage across the sea to what he thought was Asia, he carried sugar cane plants from Gomera, one of the Canary Islands, with him on his ship. His name was Christopher Columbus."

The book then begins to talk about the slaves used to work the plantations. Between 1701 and 1810, 252,500 enslaved African were brought to Barbados, an island that occupies only 166 square miles. In that same time, 662,400 Africans were taken to Jamaica. Thus sugar drove more than 900,000 people into slavery and those were just two of the sugar islands. By 1753, British ships were taking an average of 34,250 slaves from Africa every year, and by 1768, that number had reached 53,100. "Scientists have shown that people all over the world must learn to like salty tastes, sour tastes, mixed tastes. But from the moment we are born we crave sweetness. Cane sugar was the first product in human history that perfectly satisfied that desire. And the bitter lives of the enslaved Africans produced so much sugar that pure sweetness began to spread around the world."

"Day after day, week after week, month after month, the cane was cut, hauled to the mill and fed through the rollers. The mills kept going as long as there was cane to grind--the season varied between four and ten months, depending on local growing conditions. A visitor who came to Brazil in 1630 described the scene: 'People the color of the very night, working briskly and moaning at the same time without a moment of peace or rest, whoever sees all the confused and noisy machinery...will say that this indeed is the image of Hell' ".

The death rate on the plantations was very high. "Though we often think of slavery as a problem peculiar to the United States, only 4 percent of the slaves taken from Africa were brought to North America--which means 96 percent went to the Caribbean, Brazil, and the rest of South America to work with sugar. The slave population in North America grew over time as parents lived long enough to have children. Some 500,000 slaves were brought here, and there were 4 million enslaved African Americans at the time of Emancipation. But on the sugar islands, while more than 2 million people were brought over from Africa, there were only 670,000 at Emancipation. Sugar, with its demand for relentless labor, was a killer."

The next chapters dealt with the human fight for freedom, both for the black and the white. Americans protested the sugar act set upon them by England, Africans revolted on the sugar islands and in South America, the English began to see the blood in the sugar they used every day. Thomas Clarkson, Olaudah Equiano, William Willberforce were just a few of the many who fought to abolish slavery in England. The cry of freedom began to sound throughout the world. The French revolution, the American revolution, the American civil war. The revolutions fought by the slaves throughout the world. The book even talked about Ghandi and his work for freedom in South Africa and then in India. Ghandi was the first to use the idea of passive resistance for a mass movement. 

This is the second to last paragraph of the book..." Sugar turned human beings into property, yet sugar led people to reject the idea that any person can be owned by another. Sugar murdered millions of people, and yet it gave the voiceless a way to speak. Sugar crushed people, and yet it was because of sugar that Ghandi began his experiment in truth--so that every individual could free him or herself. Only sugar--the sweetness we all crave--could drive people to be so cruel, and to combat all forms of cruelty. The cravings for sugar took us from that ancient time when people were defined by the work of their ancestors to our modern world--the one Ghandi led us to see, in which each individual is valued as human. Though terrible conditions for sugar workers still exist in places such as the Dominican Republic, and cane sugar has been replaced by other sweeteners invented in the age of science, this one substance forever marked our history."....

Until next time ;o)

Book # 19

The Confession

by John Grisham

This is an interesting book. Some of John Grisham's books have an obvious agenda and this is one of them. He is against Capital Punishment, which is a reasonable opinion. I don't know how I feel about it. Having grown up in a conservative Mormon family and state, I have feelings in favor of it for practical reasons. We pay a great deal of tax money to support these men and women in prison. But as he points out in the book, often more public money is spent it the years of appeals to save these people, than if we just supported them for a life sentence.

I won't tell you much about the book because I don't want to spoil it for you. But it is about a young pastor who has a visit from a man who confides in him that he committed the crime that another man is going to die for in just a few days in another state. It is an exciting and upsetting tale. With a surprise ending. Enjoy!

Until next time ;o)

Book # 18

To The Rescue

The Biography of Thomas S. Monson

By Heidi S. Swinton

This book is 529 pages long. 588 if you count the timeline, notes and index. And although it was interesting, informative and inspiring, it wasn't exactly a "page turner" that lured me away from gardening or made me want to stay up late at night. So it's been awhile.

I won't give you much of a history of President Monson, although I found it amazing how long and faithfully he has served in the church. He was a bishop at 22, counselor in the stake presidency at 28, mission president at 32, and ordained an apostle at 36. He became the prophet at age 80. Wow! It made me tired just reading about all that he has done in his life.

What I am going to share are the things that resonated with me and the quotes that impressed me the most.

1. "He (President Monson) likes funerals because he feels that they provide an ideal setting for teaching the truths of the gospel. He has said, 'Because our Savior died at Calvary, death has no hold upon any one of us...we laugh, we cry, we work, we play, we love, we live. And then we die. Death is our universal heritage. All must pass its portals. Death claims the aged, the weary and worn. It visits the youth in the bloom of hope and the glory of expectation. Nor are little children kept beyond its grasp.'

2.  (This is a quote from Elder Harold B. Lee as he counseled President Monson before he went to serve as mission president in Canada) "Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies....When you are on the Lord's errand, you are entitled to the Lord's help....Remember, God shapes the back to bear the burden placed upon it."

3.  "Remember that the mantle of leadership is not the cloak of comfort but rather the robe of responsibility."

4.  "No one can escape the influence of his own example....a mediocre teacher tells, a good teacher explains, a superior teacher demonstrates, but the great teachers inspire."

5.  He applied in his everyday work what he calls 'Wisdom's Seven Watchwords: vision, patience, balance, effort, understanding, courtesy, and love....Complaining is not thinking. Ridiculing is not reasoning. Accountability is not for the intentions but for the deed."

6.  (After telling a story of rescuing a widow who felt unwanted, unneeded and lost) "President Monson has taught that lesson many times. The names, faces and places change but his message is the same; 'Let us listen for the sound of sandaled feet. Let us reach out for the Carpenter's hand. Then we shall come to know Him. He may come to us as one unknown, without a name, as, by the lakeside, He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same words, "Follow thou me", and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings that they shall pass through in His fellowship, and ...they shall learn in their own experience who He is."

7.  (Talking about the publication of the Latter-day saint edition of the King James version of the Bible with its cross referencing to the standard works and the topical guide) "The advent of the computer was absolutely necessary before the Topical Guide could have been prepared."

8.  "The holy scriptures are for our children, to fill their eager minds with sacred truth. They are for youth, to prepare them for the challenges of a fast-moving world. They are for the sisters...to be scholars of the scriptures....They are for the bretheren of the priesthood, that each may qualify for the description given in the Book of Mormon to the sons of Mosiah; "They were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God."

9.  "Resolve to make room in your life for Jesus Christ. We have time for jogging, time for working, time for playing. Let us make time for Christ."

10.  "Contemplate the next twelve months. First we should resolve to be good listeners. And to whom should we listen? To the prophets of God, to the whisperings of our conscience, to the whisperings of the still small voice."

11.  President Monson is a loyal supporter of scouting. He quotes, "The greatest gift a man can give a boy is his willingness to share a part of his life with him."

12.  'Throughout our country, we have been screaming ever louder for more and more of the things we cannot take with us, and paying less and less attention to the real sources of the very happiness we seek. We have been measuring our fellowmen more by balance sheets and less by moral standards... We have become so concerned over the growth of our earning capacity that we have neglected the growth of our character. Perhaps this is indicative of the days in which we are living--days of compromise and diluting of principles, days when sin is labeled as error, when morality is relative and when materialism emphasizes the values of expediency and the shirking of responsibility."

13.  (Elder Neil L. Anderson, speaking of President Monson) "He has never asked Sister Monson to be anyone different than she is."

14.  "In 2009, online current affairs publication Slate.com ranked President Monson number one on its list of the eighty most powerful octogenarians in America. He was ranked ahead of Former US presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush, former Secretary of State Henry Kissenger, and news personality Barbara Walters, among others. Slate.com reported, 'The top spot this year goes to 82-year-old Thomas S. Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the only person on the list to rule over millions of people as a prophet of God."

15.  "When God speaks and a man obeys, that man will always be right."

16.  "Decisions determine destiny"

17.  "Your decision to think right, choose right, and do right will rarely, if ever, be the easiest course to follow."

18.."You do not find the happy life--you make it."

19.  "Good habits...are the soul's muscles; the more you use them, the stronger they grow."

20.  "Life is like a candid camera; it does not wait for you to pose."

Until next time ;o)

Book # 000

I've had a few readers comment that they are waiting for my next book. 

Well too bad!!! 

Just kidding....

 

I am reading a book. It's a big book but that isn't why I'm behind. 

Thought you'd like to see some pictures of what has caused the delay.

 A view of my garden from across the street, upstairs in my house.

 The watering system I built this summer to make my life easier.

 Two plantings of corn. 

 A row of sunshine!

 I planted a cover crop of alfalfa on the east side.

 My little helper loves the shadowy space in between the rows of corn.

 Fruit trees, squash, and melons.

 Granny Smith apples -- the only tree that produced this year.

 Pretty purple cabbage.

 Marigolds added another splash of color. 

Supposed to be a pest repellent as well.

 Beautiful Broccoli.

 Jack's magic bean stalk...

Actually a bean plant from some seeds I got from friends.

The seeds were very colorful and almost as large as quarters. 

The red flowers are pretty.

 Celery - a first for me.

 Potatoes - also a first. 

And I learned that if the eye hasn't already got a sprout, it won't grow. 

So I've only got about 6 feet of potatoes.

 I planted the rest of the row with corn.

One of our favorites - yellow banana peppers.

So, be patient with me. 

School starts in 10 days and 

maybe I will find more time to read some books,

before I have to DO something with all those vegetables!

Book # 17

20 Compelling Evidences That God Exists

By Kenneth D. Boa & Robert M Bowman Jr.

Okay, Okay .... so I am behind. I should be on book 20. But May has been a tough month. I got out of jail and then had to go back in after 2 weeks. It was just so depressing. Ha Ha! But seriously, I just got to go outside and work in the garden for 2 weeks and then it started to rain again! I am so sick of gray days!!! I am also behind because I picked another dumb book. Just kidding, it wasn't dumb. I liked this book for the first half, it was interesting, challenging, mind stretching. But then it got to where I was thinking "you've got to be kidding me!" and "is it over yet?" And I didn't read it because I doubt the existence of God, I was just interested in what someone had to say about it. I liked the scientific evidence that they presented in the first few chapters the best. The other thing I liked about it was that they also presented the opposite views to their own; what atheists might argue against the evidence of God and Jesus Christ's divinity.

I will make this a brief post. Just so you know, if anyone is interested in reading these books I am writing about, I would be glad to lend them out.

Chapter 1

The Evidence of Reality

If a belief system doesn't claim to correspond to reality, head for the nearest exit.

Chapter 2

The Evidence of Knowledge

You can know the truth--and still not be an arrogant pain in the neck!

Chapter 3

The Evidence of Existence

The most elementary question: Why is there something rather than nothing?

Chapter 4

The Evidence of the Universe's Beginnings

The Universe hasn't always been here, and it's a good thing, too.

Chapter 5

The Evidence of the Universe's Fitness for life

Somebody went to a lot of trouble to make it possible for us to be here.

Chapter 6

The Evidence of Life's Origin

The more we learn about the origin of life, the more of a puzzle it becomes.

Chapter 7

The Evidence of Life's Intelligent Design

The closer we look, the clearer it is that life was intelligently designed.

Chapter 8

The Evidence of a Fallen World

As wonderful as it can be, it's obvious that not all is right with the world.

Chapter 9

The Evidence of the Bible's Reliability

The general reliability of the Bible's text and major "story line" is not in question.

Chapter 10

The Evidence of the Bible's Accuracy

Where we can test the Bible's accuracy in matters of fact, it holds up remarkably well.

Chapter 11

The Evidence of the Bible's Fulfilled Prophesy

The Bible contains remarkable predictions of events occurring centuries later.

Chapter 12

The Evidence of the Bible's Profound Wisdom

Despite all criticism, the Bible contains the wisest counsel ever written.

Chapter 13

The Evidence of Jesus' Life

No one can afford to ignore Jesus, the most compelling person in history.

Chapter 14

The Evidence of Jesus' Claims

By claiming to be God, Jesus left us no room to view Him as just a great teacher.

Chapter 15

The Evidence of Jesus' Death

The death of Jesus holds the key to His identity and to the nature and love of God.

Chapter 16

The Evidence of Jesus' Empty Tomb

The empty tomb of Jesus is a cold, hard fact that even early critics couldn't deny.

Chapter 17

The Evidence of Jesus' Resurrection Appearances

The accounts of Jesus' appearances cannot be reasonably explained away.

Chapter 18

The Evidence of Those Who Lived For Christ

The realty of Jesus' resurrection is evident in those who have lived for Him.

Chapter 19

The Evidence of Those Who Died For Christ

Only Christ has inspired so many to die so nobly as martyrs for their faith.

Chapter 20

The Evidence of the Uniqueness of Christ

The world's religions have no one and nothing to compare with Jesus Christ.

Sorry. Not too much information shared. But the sun is shining today!!! 

So I'm done with this book.

Until next time ;o)

Book # 16

Hellen Keller: A Photographic Biography

By Leslie Garrett

This is a biography published by DK Books. If you aren't familiar with DK it is basically an children's educational publisher. I have been mildly interested in Hellen Keller and bought this book some years ago for my sons so that they could read about someone who achieved success against great odds. I liked the book because it had pictures and facts about the subject, and when they used a word that a young reader would probably not be familiar with, they would have the definition in a little box on the same page. There were also small by-lines about historical facts and people that would help the reader understand the life of the subject better.

Things I learned about Helen Keller, and about her teacher Annie Sullivan.

Annie Sullivan was born in Massachusetts on April 14, 1866. She contracted Tracoma, an eye infection  when she was 3 years old. Her family didn't have money for treatment and so her eyes became very weak. Her mother died of Tuberculosis when Annie was about 10 and her father was an alcoholic and so Annie and her 5 year old brother went to live in the poorhouse, where they were the only children, except for the newborns in the orphans ward.  Her brother passed away there. Annie eye sight was so poor that eventually she received admission to Perkins Institution for the Blind when she was 14. Annie had a terrible temper and was almost sent away from the school but a teacher took her under her wing and taught her manners and how to control herself. She became one of the best students and graduated as class valedictorian. The summer after graduation, she was asked to become the teacher for a Hellen Keller. She spent many months studying how to teach a blind, deaf and mute child, before she accepted the position. On March 3, 1887 she arrived in Tuscumbia, Alabama to teach Hellen Keller. She was 20 years old. She remained as Hellen's teacher, friend and companion for the rest of her life. She died on October 20, 1936 at the age of 70. She was totally blind by then.

Helen Keller was born June 27, 1880 in Alabama. When she was 3 years old, she developed a high fever and as a consequence lost her hearing and sight. She became a wild, uncontrollable child. When Helen was about 5 or 6, her mother read a book by Charles Dickens called "American Notes." He spoke about meeting a blind and deaf woman who lived at the Perkins Institute for the blind and noted that she had learned to communicate. Kate Keller hoped that the same could be accomplished for Hellen. They took Hellen to a noted eye doctor, who admitted that nothing could be done for Helen's eyesight or hearing, but that she was obviously intelligent and could be educated. He recommended that they meet with Dr. Alexander Graham Bell who (among other things) was an expert on teaching speech to the deaf. Dr. Bell recommended that ask the Perkins Institute for a recommendation of a teacher for Hellen. Annie arrived about 7 months later.

Other notable facts:

• Helen was taught to speak but she was difficult to understand by most people.

• Helen learned to lip read by placing one hand on the speakers throat and the other on their lips.

• Helen was a Socialist, but received much financial support from several notable, wealthy capitalists.

• Helen was once charged with Plagiarism.

• Helen graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College when she was 24 years old. 

• Annie Sullivan married a man 11 years her junior and he lived with both women for many years, until he and Annie separated.

• Helen was courted by a man named Peter Fagan. Her mother disapproved, and so they made secret plans to elope. Peter never showed up. Helen was disappointed but decided that it was for the best. She referred to that time when love entered her life as her "little island of joy."

• Helen supported suffragists and workers striving to create unions.

• A silent picture called "Deliverance" was made of Helen's life in 1918. It was not very successful.

• Helen and Annie created a Vaudeville act which was highly successful.

• Helen became quite religious and followed the teachings of Religious philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg. She especially likes his idea of heaven. She came to believe that "death is no more than passing from one room to another." She said that for her though, "In that other room I shall be able to see."

• Helen wrote 2 autobiographies, "The Story of my life" and "Midstream: My Later Life". 

• Helen lectured all over the country for the American Foundation for the Blind.

• In 1954 a documentary was made about Helen, featuring Helen and was called "Helen Keller in Her Story."

• Helen traveled extensively and met many famous and powerful people. She was a very famous person in her time.

• Helen visited the wounded during WWII. 

• In 1959 a play called "the Miracle Worked" was presented on Broadway. It was very successful and was later made into a movie and tells the story of Helen when Annie first came to be her teacher.

• Helen died of a heart attack in June 1, 1968 in Westport, Connecticut.

Book # 15

"Satan's War On Free Agency"

By Greg Wright

I saw this book in our local drug store which is owned by our recently released Stake president. It caught my eye and I wondered what else could be said about Satan and his war on our agency. It was surprising and I thoroughly appreciated this book.

The author is or was a Seminary teacher. This is an object lesson he used with his students to demonstrate the difference between choice, freedom and agency. 

He would put a penny in one of his hands, close his hand into a fist and then hold it out in front of him. Then he would ask a student to pick a hand. The student would momentarily be confused and then would pick the hand with the coin in it because it was the only one offered. They then would discuss that choice means that you have a minimum of 2 options. 2 options = Choice

Then he puts a penny in each hand and offers both fists to a student and asks them to choose. Now, the student has 2 options, but the result of both choices is the same. So they talk about how that in order to have freedom there needs to be different results in your different options. "In Nephi 2:11 we read that there must be opposition in all things, so we need not only opposite choices, but also opposite, or at least different results." 

2 options + different results = Freedom.

So then he puts a penny in only one hand and offers two closed fists to a student and tells them that they now have two options and opposite results, and the empty hand means that they go to hell and the hand with the penny means that they go to heaven. If the student picks the empty hand he tells them "sorry, you are going to hell." He then asks if this person had agency. Then they discuss how in order to have agency, one needs knowledge of the results. 

2 options + different results + knowledge of the results = Agency

He then discusses how political freedom differs from spiritual freedom. He noted that political freedom means choice without penalty. But spiritual freedom means choice without compulsion. He says, "This is a key concept that many of our youth do not understand. Some of them think that when their parents impose penalties for making bad choices, that their free agency has been taken away. What is worse is that some parents believe this as well......The philosophies of the world today fuel this falsehood by promoting the notion that freedom always means choice without penalty. Such false doctrine insists that no penalty should be administered for so-called wrong choices simply because people have the right to make choices. They believe that if anyone, (including God) threatens to impose a penalty for their choices, their rights have been violated. The truth is that the "free" in "Free agency" is not without penalty and never has been--but it is without compulsion."

He talks about how we simplify the word "agency" a lot to mean freedom to choose, when it really means so much more. The word agency is derived from the word "agent" and to be an agent means to be a steward, to be responsible for something, and in the religious sense we are agents for ourselves, for our souls. "The 1928 (Webster's dictionary) definition of the word agent is: a substitute, or deputy, one entrusted with the business of another. This refers to someone who is assigned to and responsible for certain duties...In other words, an agent is a steward, someone who is accountable to someone else for the choices he makes." We are accountable to God for our own souls. In Moses 1:39 it tells us that God's purpose is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man". But he doesn't force us to obtain it. We are our own agents in making this happen. So the formula is 2 options (choice) + different results (freedom) + knowledge of results = agency, which also means accountability. 

I love this. I'm going to give a family home evening lesson using this object lesson.

Then he talks about how Lucifer, "a son of the morning"  became Satan. How we mistakenly think that Satan's plan was to force us to be good so we could qualify for heaven. How do you force someone to be good? This is something I have often wondered. You might be able to compel someone to do the right actions but how can you control their mind? The author talks about 3 plans and compares them to attending a university.

The first university is Force College "At force college, no one ever has, or ever will get into trouble on campus. No one ever breaks any rules. No one needs to worry about their safety or well being. There are security guards every where who do not allow anyone to break any rules or harm anyone else in any way. All students are forced to live the school's standards. Personal tutors force students to study and learn. As a result, everyone gets straight A's. Graduation and straight A's are absolutely guaranteed to every single person enrolled in force college."

The second university is University of Freedom. "Do as you please is the school motto. The only requirement is attendance on campus, though not necessarily in class. You may read, study, sleep, play, dance, talk, wander around, or just sit and listen to your music. There are absolutely no rules or restrictions. There are no standards of dress or conduct....If you wish to educate yourself, you are free to do so. Teachers are available if and when you need them. Books are also available in the library should you want to study. The campus entertainment center is always open, complete with everything you can imagine. The cafeteria is always open and the food is free...You are totally free to do as you please. They also guarantee you will receive straight A's, and every single student will graduate regardless of what you have or have not done."

The third university is Law School. Law School is "a place where facilities and teachers are available only at certain times, and a strict schedule of classes is maintained. There are many rules of conduct which provide a safe and orderly environment to protect the rights of everyone. Obedience to the standards is expected and disobedience is punished. Learning is the purpose of this school and efforts toward learning are expected of all. No one will be compelled in any way either to study or to attend classes, but hard work and dependability will be rewarded while laziness will not. Generally, only a few excel, though all are free to do so. You are graded against certain standards and criteria but not against other students. You are free to succeed, fail or be average. While straight A's and graduation are possible for every student, they are only given to those who meet the requirements."

He then quotes general authorities and the scriptures to persuade the reader why Satan's plan was the University of Freedom and Not Force College. First of all, Satan persuaded a third part of Heavenly Father's children to rebel. Who in their right mind would vote for going to Force College? He believes that Satan wanted to save us in our sins, not from our sins. In Moses 4:1, Lucifer says, "I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost." If he imposed the force plan and we were all sinless, then he wouldn't need to redeem us. The force plan is not logical. But allowing us to sin and then redeeming us without any effort on our part, is something that many of us would want. It is the philosophy of many in the world now. A free ride. No responsibility or accountability for our actions. I can see how Lucifer could have led away so many of God's children with that idea.

With this in mind, the reason why we say that Satan wanted to rob us of our agency, isn't because he wanted to take away our choices. He wants to take away our accountability. We would no longer be agents for ourselves. If he redeemed us of all sin, then we have no reason to repent or to modify our behavior in anyway. But the sneaky part of his plan was that when there aren't different results, then we have less freedom, not more. Pretty deep, huh?

Then he talks about modern day secret combinations and how Satan uses them to corrupt people. He said that they have many methods of operation, but he only focused on two. He said that the government convinces us to trade our freedom for security, and also through Hollywood corrupting our morals. 

The last part of the book focuses on us as parents, especially those in the gospel, who mistakenly believe that when we impose consequences for our children's bad choices, then we are stealing their agency. I have to admit I am sort of one of those parents. He talks about the different parenting methods, and then he gives several examples of good parents and bad parenting. I KNOW that I need to have consequences but I have difficulty following through. My trouble is, I have been blessed with really good children. Why get upset when they are only 5 minutes late for curfew? My son's best friend just got his cell phone taken away for 5 days for being 5 minutes late. And I know that his being late isn't a common occurrence. So why make a big deal of it? I tried to explain to my son why they might have done it and how we as parents do the best we can, but he wasn't buying it. I guess I fear causing my children to rebel if I am too strict. But the author definitely gave me some things to think about. 

I highly recommend this book.

Until next time ;o)