"Heaton Home Evening"

4/13/09

We had a fun and interesting evening that perhaps I can recount somewhat here. I know, shocker that I would ever put up a post again...

Doug and I decided that he really needed a haircut, so we got that all set up and I began clipping. The air rang with my fine rendition of the first line of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It!” as I trimmed and did a little (very little…) Moonwalk behind the chair. As I worked my way through a couple of other favorites including “If I Only Had a Brain,” I asked Doug if he had any song requests.

“Do you know any Simon and Garfunkel?” he asked. I paused to think. He continued, “I would like to hear “The Sound of Silence” if you don’t mind.” Oh funny, that was a LOT of funniness. By then I was working on trimming his ear hairs and offered to pluck them instead.

I asked him what he thought I should do the for FHE lesson. “THIS is the lesson,” he said, meaning the haircut. “THAT’S not a lesson,” I retorted, “it’s the game.” “No, he said, “It’s the musical number.” Clearly we were at a stalemate. Or is that a stale mate.

With an artful swish and to the strains of the old “Batman” theme, I removed the haircutting cape and shook it. Looking at the floor I commented that there was enough hair there to make a wig. “Oh, that must be for the ‘Whiskers of Love’ program," Doug declared as he swept the last of it into the dustpan. More funniness.

Then it turned out that Clarissa needed a ride to the single adult FHE, so we piled into the Taurus and headed east. Doug asked if I was going to give the lesson on the way. Clarissa groaned. I pulled through by suggesting that all of us look for object lessons along the way that relate to our life’s experiences.

Doug was the first to be inspired as he told the Parable of the Guardrail. He said it looks a little like an Iron Rod, but isn’t. He said that most people know what it is for and are careful to not get too close because they know it is protecting them from falling into a big ditch or something. And people who plow through the guardrail and land in a ditch wish they had paid more attention to the guardrails because sometimes it’s really hard to get out of there. And they wish they had brought along their lunch to eat while they wait for help to arrive. Or something like that.

Then it was my turn. I told the Parable of the Windshield Wipers (since it was raining). I said that when it starts raining, the windshield gets more and more drops on it and it gets harder and harder to see your way ahead. But all you have to do is recognize what is happening and make the effort to reach over and turn on the windshield wipers and you can see much better right away. Some people in life seem to just ignore their increasing blindness as drop by drop their vision is obscured and they plow ahead anyway. They know about the existence of the windshield wiper switch but simply don’t make the effort to use it. This could be similar to those who are aware of gospel principles that can give them light and improve their "sight" but choose instead to go blindly forward. An accident waiting to happen.

Finally it was Clarissa’s turn but she stated that she thought that our object lessons were plenty for one evening, or something like that.

Anyway, like most things, all of this was a lot funnier at the time and I can’t remember half of what went on, but it was a great evening anyway. I love my family! SH