LDS Geeks Podcast #32: Disney Songs (3)

Heading into a new year, people will inevitably start making resolutions (and hopefully keeping them). So for those setting goals or need something for a new start, check out the discussion Russell and I had about some more of our favorite Disney songs. And check out our ongoing playlist of favorite good mood songs here.

--Spencer

Listen to Episode 32 on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube

Check out Spencer's recent blog posts: click here

Check out Russell's recent blog posts: click here

Show Notes:

00:11 - Introduction
00:42 - Spencer's Recommendation: Visser
            Available for purchase on Audible
05:40 - Russell's Recommendation: "The Christmas Story" and "An Unexpected Christmas" from St Paul’s Arts n Kids 

09:38 -  “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana
            "Is it the Holy Ghost or Me?" by David A. Bednar
            "Your Potential, Your Privilege" by Dieter F. Uchtdorf

17:25 - "A Whole New World" from Aladdin
21:39 - "What Else Can I Do?" from Encanto
27:21 - "I've Got a Dream" from Tangled
            "We've Got a Dream!" by Russell

33:27 - "Stand Out" from A Goofy Movie
34:47 - Conclusion

Goal Setting with Calvin and Hobbes

I’ve made my thoughts about New Years and resolutions plain in the past, so I don’t think I need to beat that dead horse. However, if you want to set a resolution and don't know where to start, I have some tips, based on the wisdom of the one and only Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes.

Pick something that sounds nice, but doesn’t change you.

The most basic way to make sure you achieve your New Year’s resolution is to aim low. Want to spend less time on social media? Delete the app you spend the least time on (for me that’d be Pinterest). Or if you’re someone like Calvin with no filter, you could always go for the “expressing yourself more” option.

“The world [ought to change] to suit me.”

If the low hanging fruit of goals doesn’t appeal to you, denial and victimhood is always an option. After all, maybe you don’t need to change. We live in a crazy world where we’re bombarded with opinions of others and their emotions. So why not play the victim and wait for the world to change before you start changing yourself? 

Logic yourself out of the need to change.

Or maybe, in this world of accepting your true self and self-affirmation, you don’t really need to change. Plus we live in a world where truth and values are relative anyway, so who’s to say you need to change? Why not stay exactly as you are?

“Wing it and see what happens.”

All else fails, you can always just say your resolution is to go with the flow more. In doing so, you don’t really need to do anything except continue life as you are. Maybe you’ll improve and better yourself? Or maybe you’ll coast through 2023 as safely as ever?

In the end, I suppose it’s only because of tradition that we make resolutions right? No need to make any life changing or transforming goals. Just whatever will make life easy right?

New Beginnings 101 at Greendale

(Guest post by Tyler Q)

It was just another new semester at Greendale Community College, but it was our first one there. The pilot episode of the show Community opens with a bald man, the Dean, standing on a platform to share some words to the students.

“What is community college?” he asks. “Well, you’ve heard all kinds of things. You’ve heard it’s loser college for remedial teens, 20-something dropouts, middle-aged divorcees, and old people keeping their minds active as they circle the drain of eternity.”

“That’s what you’ve heard. However, I wish you luck”

The Dean smiles triumphantly at the crowd of students, who stare back blankly at him. The Dean suddenly realizes his mistake and scrambles through his cards in confusion.

“There’s more to this speech. There’s actually a middle card that’s missing”

The Dean never finds that middle card. However, the six seasons that ensued (and hopefully, someday, a movie) all clue us in on the hope that the Dean was hoping to instill upon the students. Because for remedial teens, 20-something dropouts, middle-aged divorcees, old people, or whatever else those students were, they needed to believe that Greendale would provide a new beginning for them. No matter where they came from, they would have chance to become something more while there.

While we may not find our own Greendale, we must obtain that same feeling of hope in this life despite the trials we each face. Without such hope, our life drudges on and we feel forever stuck where we are and as who we are. While Greendale’s motto was “Welcome to Greendale: You’re already accepted,” Jesus Christ Himself perfects this invitation: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). He’s not just wishing us luck, He’s inviting us to join with Him and to receive greater blessings than just success.

At least for me personally, that’s what I’m seeking right now -  greater blessings, especially “rest.” Amidst all my personal trials this year, this was also the first year that the pandemic has spanned the entire year. With the New Year looming around the corner, I sought a new beginning. I wanted to just leave behind any unpleasantness that has happened in the past year. But God has taught me to look at “new beginnings” differently.

In Moses 6:59, we read that each of us must be “born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten.”  Baptism is a symbol of being “born again.” But why would He ask us to be “born again” instead of we need something greater than that. Being “born” is great, but what’s the point if we are still in such an imperfect state, doomed to mess up again. Even after begin “born again,” we still fail due to weakness. Can’t being “born again” mean that we already enter into a perfected state?

Perhaps being born again isn’t just about becoming clean again. Perhaps it’s not about entering into a “perfected state” but instead a state that we are being perfected. This way, it’s not just about where we came from or even who we are today - though those are important parts of our journey of discipleship. It’s about where we are headed and what we are willing to do to make it there. When our lives are aimed towards Christ, that is when we feel the blessings of being “born again.” We feel light. We feel renewed. We feel sustained. 

Elder Clark S. Gilbert shared “Brothers and sisters, in this Church, we believe in the divine potential of all of God’s children and in our ability to become something more in Christ. In the Lord’s timing, it is not where we start but where we are headed that matters most.” Being “born again” is the starting mark of discipleship - a new beginning that isn’t about what we are leaving behind as much as it where we hope to become. We may not be perfect at the time of our commitment. But we become a people who when given an eternity will eventually reach perfection.

I invite all of us to use this New Year not as a chance to leave everything behind. We won’t be able to fully let anything go in our lives unless we fully embrace the Lord instead. For me, this New Year will be a time where I recommit to where I am headed - to Christ. Christ has already taken Himself our struggles. He will take care of them, and more importantly us, as we turn to Him with all our heart.

Always Winter, Never Christmas

“It's always nice to look out the window
“And see those very first few flakes of snow.”

My family and I moved from Utah to Texas earlier this year, so for the first time (unless another winter freeze hits) we’re going to have a warm Christmas. Growing up in Canada and then living in Utah, I’m used to winters akin to the White Witch’s reign in Narnia. 

“And later on we can go outside
“And create the impression of an angel that fell from the sky.”

I grew up building snow forts and making snowmen. We’d have snowball fights and go sledding down a nearby hill. As a kid, the year’s first snow was just as fun as Calvin describes it (minus the demon snowmen). But as the winter rolls on, especially as an adult, winter just seems to persist and it feels like it’ll never get warmer. Even though we know spring will come, it can still be depressing at times. 

“When February rolls around I'll roll my eyes
“Turn a cold shoulder to these even colder skies
“And by the fire my heart it heaves a sigh
“For the green grass waiting on the other side.”

Life has emotional winters, as I’m sure we’ve all experienced. I mean COVID sometimes seems like a winter that’ll never end… and it’s even stopped holidays to some extent. Always winter, but never Christmas.

“It's always winter but never Christmas
“It seems this curse just can't be lifted
“Yet in the midst of all this ice and snow
“Our hearts stay warm cause they are filled with hope.”

If we look back into the White Witch’s endless winter in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the winter didn’t end all of a sudden. And the end didn’t begin until the Pevensie children began bringing hope back to Narnia. And the first thing to happen (even before the springtime thaw began) was Christmas. Father Christmas brought the children their presents, only adding to the hope of Narnia’s freedom. 

“And everything it changed overnight
“This dying world you brought it back to life
“And deep inside I felt things
“Shifting everything was melting
“Away oh away
“And you gave us the most beautiful of days.”

Christmas brings us hope, even if you don’t celebrate it for religious reasons, as we look towards a better world, in the midst of the darkest time of the year (at least in the northern hemisphere). And it only gets brighter and brighter after Christmas. “Halfway out of the dark,” the Eleventh Doctor said (Doctor Who: “A Christmas Carol”). 

“Cause when it's always winter but never Christmas
“Sometimes it feels like you're not with us
“But deep inside our hearts we know
“That you are here and we will not lose hope.”

It’s hard to find hope sometimes. Obviously on this blog we testify of the reality of Jesus Christ, especially at this time of year. But even after Christmas is over and we look forward to 2022, we will still look to Him. At New Years we often talk about change and new beginnings. While I’ve made my thoughts about New Year’s resolutions known before, I believe in change, because I believe in a Savior. He is where our hope comes from. 

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

(Lyrics by Relient K “In Like a Lion”)

The One With All the Resolutions

So among all the holiday episodes that Friends did, there are a handful of New Years Day/Eve episodes. The one that stands out the most to me today is “The One With All the Resolutions”. The Friends each pick something they need or want to work on and make a decision to change or improve.

Now comes the rant about New Years resolutions. How many TV specials make New Years resolutions a joke? They last for a few days or a week. Phineas & Ferb even made the joke that those New Years resolutions never even started.

I cannot tell you how much I dread January at the gym. It gets overly crowded (my gym is crowded regardless) and it persists for a month or so until the non-committed people trickle out. Every time I see Facebook posts about New Years resolutions, I roll my eyes.

That being said, if you have goals you want to work on, do it! If you want to grow and improve in a particular way, do it! But don’t make New Year’s Day your make or break. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone hits plateaus. Everyone gets discouraged. But it’s the trajectory of our progress and the resolve we continually renew that matters.

Don't get me wrong; the end of the year is a wonderful time to make goals. People tend to get reflective and introspective about how the year went. It's a great time to decide to make a change in our lives. However, the stereotype with New Year's resolution is that once you slip on it once, you give up. But we're taught to repent and make changes on a daily basis. As such, daily reflection and changes will make a stronger, longer impact on a person's life. That's part of why we take the sacrament each week. Whether it's a daily reflection, weekly reflection, or whatever, we can always make changes and grow and become stronger through the Atonement of Christ.

In the end, even though Joey didn't learn the guitar, Rachel started gossiping again, and Ross's leather pants were awful, you can grow and improve each day, instead of waiting for an arbitrary day of the year to start. Every day, every week, and every semester is the start of a new day, a new start. Welcome to day one!

"Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness." (D&C 58:27)

No Broken Bridges

Christmas has come. It’s been a wonderful year for myself and for Mormon Geeks. This was the first year we were given press passes for both Fantasy Con and Salt Lake Comic Con. We’ve continued our little blog with a lot of fun commentary and have appreciated all of the input from you, our readers. New Years is now coming up and I’m very excited for 2015. I’ll be in the last semester before my senior year and can’t wait to see what the future has in store for me and for my favorite blog. It is during New Years that I get a little extra pensive and think about where I’m at and what has happened in my life. My grandmother on the Larsen side once told me she hated the song Auld Lang Syne. “No one ever knows the lyrics. The tune is always sung poorly. And no one even knows what it means.” At the time, I didn’t even know the song she was talking about and had to look it up. When I did I thought to myself, “Oh, that song.” I have to agree with her. The few times this has been sung at parties it’s usually been poorly played, poorly sung, and the lyrics are usually mumbled. Still, there is something about the song that resonated with me. It wasn’t until I heard it by Dougie Maclean that I felt I heard the song as it was intended.

You may watch this with the lyrics and think, “That is very nice but I still don’t know what the lyrics mean.” Well, allow me to provide an English translation.

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And times long past.
Chorus And for times long past, my dear
For times long past,
We'll take a cup of kindness yet,
For times long past
And surely you'll buy your pint-jug!
And surely I'll buy mine!
And we'll take a cup of kindness yet,For times long past.
Chorus
We two have run about the hillsAnd pulled the daisies fine;
But we've wandered manys the weary footSince times long past.
Chorus
We two have paddled in the stream,
From morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared
Since times long past.
Chorus
And there's a hand, my trusty friend!And give us a hand of yours!
And we'll take a deep draught of good-will
For times long past.
Chorus

The song is about loss and restoration in friendship. Sometimes we get busy with our lives, or have human errors, or sometimes we die. Auld lang syne is about reconnecting and forgiveness. It’s recognizing, if nothing else, what was once shared even if it isn’t shared again. The narrator talks about drinks that he shares with his friend. They both bought their own drinks. One didn’t buy for the other. To me, this says that there is still bad blood between them or a change in their friendship. Despite that, they both drink to the memory of what they shared. They respect what was between them even if they have gone separate ways. Social media makes it easy to “reconnect” with friends or even disconnect from them. If we leave our new connection as simply facebook friends than we do ourselves a disservice. Every now and then we should send a message and see how they are doing and how their new baby is. I’ve reconnected with long lost friends and though our friendship may be different now, we celebrated what we once shared. I’ve also blocked and been blocked by friends before. In some cases, it was to take care of myself. In others, it was my pride. I imagine it must have been the case for others as well. I’ve lost a lot of friends over the years. In some situations it was a good thing and wasn’t a healthy friendship. After one or two cry sessions, they were pretty easy to get over. I mean, I lost an unhealthy “friendship.” That’s a great thing. Not gonna miss something that’s bad for me. The ones that hurt the most are the friendships with meaning and that were healthy. A song like this means something to me because it gives me hope that bad blood can wash away and something new can begin--even if it wasn’t what was before. When I’ve been in these experiences, I’ve wondered if what I did was really the right decision. Was it really kind of me to detach entirely from someone? A block on facebook for me usually meant a block in real life too. Did I really have to do that to take care of myself from people that hurt me or annoyed me? Did those friends really have to do that to me? Being on the receiving end recently caused me to think about how I take care of myself in relation to those around me. It’s helped reinforce a decision I made this year.

I don’t believe in broken bridges. I don’t need to break bridges with someone (ie: never talk to them ever again and close off any way for them to contact me) in order to take care of myself. Every now and then there may be an exception to this rule but generally, I want to make things work and only give up when to not do so would be toxic for me. There is a friend that I have that has a severe bipolar disorder. When he’s hit a manic phase he can say the worst of unkind things. He can be annoying and emotionally volatile. It can be like dealing with a pouty child. When he’s depressive he’s self destructive and emotionally enmeshed. I have friends that have blocked him to take care of themselves. I don’t blame them. I still chose to be his friend. I’ve chosen to be his friend even if he’s a bit much sometimes. I may not be the close friend he wants but I’ll always be a friend and will always be the best friend I can possibly be. I may only see him once every two months. I may be careful in being emotionally vulnerable with him. And despite how he is, I still love him. I still look forward to seeing him. It isn’t like with one of my closer friends but that doesn’t take away from how genuine it is. This open door policy has made me a better friend to me. I like who I am because of this. It has taught me patience, charity, and a greater power to forgive. It gives me confidence knowing that I take care of myself and also love others unconditionally. It gives me hope that what was lost may someday be restored. It does take work to rebuild a broken bridge. It may take time, patience, and humility. It may not even necessarily be easier if one side still stands. Despite all this, I know it is worth it. I know that I am worth it. I hope we take New Years to reconnect with old friends we haven’t seen in a while. I hope we forgive others and find closure in any losses we may have experienced. I know that if we do this we will be blessed. Let’s start this new year right. Happy New Year

-Stephen