Notice Anything Unusual About This Fan...?

 It's what you don't see that makes the photo of this fan interesting.

Years ago my wife and I got some passes to a local gym. It was a new gym with all the bells and whistles, but there's something I notice that maybe others missed...these huge ceiling fans overhead. I'm not good at estimating so I can't tell you just how big these fans are, but I think each blade is probably about twenty-feet long.

Yup...big fan.

It wasn't only the size of the fan caught my attention. The company name was printed on the blades...

Big Ass Fans.

I thought at the time it was a great name. It told people exactly what the product was and what it did.

Fast forward a decade or so and I found myself in an arena at our local fairgrounds. I looked up and noticed they had several Big Ass Fans working away above us, moving the air, doing their job without fan fair (sorry, not sorry...).

But, if you see the above photo, you'll notice something...actually something that's missing.

Ass.

I smiled. I knew the word should be there, but wasn't and I'm pretty sure why the word was removed. We live in a fairly conservative community. They removed the word so as not to offend.

I don't think anyone there knew the word was missing. That's the genius of it. How can you be offended if you don't know something's offensive to begin with?

Exactly.

Well played Box Elder County Fairgrounds...well played.

Give Thanks...Where We Live

 Where we used to live, I hung the American Flag on our porch. We had lights so we could fly it twenty-four hours a day. We flew the American flag on all holidays, and if I remember correctly, we also flew it the entire month of July. 

July's a good month to fly our nation's flag.

In Utah, we have two major holidays in July. Independence Day, of course. We also celebrate the day when pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley, July 24th, 1847. It's called Pioneer Day, or the Days of '47. We treat the holidays the same, sort of. We gather as families and friends. We barbecue, watch parades, and when night falls, we gather to see fireworks (some communities in our state are having drone displays this year...). 

It's a time to celebrate, but also a time to reflect...

Reflect on the lives we have.

For as long as I can remember, I've loved our nation's flag. I like other flags of other nations, but there's something special about your own flag. I want to fly the flag the entire month, but our new home has a porch that does not lend itself to the same display options as our old home did, so we improvised. I put together a flag and a base and I've flown it on most holidays. Yesterday, I found a light and for the first time in years, we had a flag flying all night.

I'm grateful for he life I've had, for being able to live in this country. I know I've been blessed...so blessed. I've lived with people who have loved me. I've had shelter, food, clothing all my life. Not everyone can say that. I'm not so naive as to think the flag is the only reason for all these blessings. The flag is a symbol--or should be--of a set of ideals that the citizens follow, something that directs them, protects them. Without anything to back it, a flag is only cloth. 

We've had the flag up for one day. It's been flying over our country for centuries. I hope it continues to fly for many more.

Give Thanks...For How We Used To Live

 If it weren't for the car in the far left of the picture, or the telephone/cable box just slightly right of center in front of the buildings (and, had I not adjusted the photo by removing all color...), this could be a picture of many places in America in the mid-twentieth Century. It's not...I snapped it today driving home from church.

I live about three miles from here. Where I live looks much different. Like most places, the town we call home was built in sections. Much of it sprang up when Thiokol Chemical Corporation built a rocket-building facility about twenty miles to the west. You can see the homes built during the 1950s and 1960s. They're small, a single story above ground.

Then, as farmers sold their property, new housing developments were built. They too were a reflection of their times. Larger houses, bigger yards, bigger garages--you see the pattern over and over again. Even where we live, homes built in the last twenty years. They define those who built them and those who live in them.

Still...

There's a beauty in the rural, in the structures built with wood, tin, and nails, built for livestock or to store food, and also to house those who cared for the animals, for the land.

The structures are a testament to the people who settled the high desert. They worked spring, summer, and fall to sustain them through the tough and cold winters. Then, it began all over again until they died. Most of us no longer live that lifestyle. And had those who came before not persevered, not survived, life would be much different than it is now.

When I turned down the street and saw the scene before me, it made me think of my ancestors and I'm grateful for their example. I'm also thankful there are reminders so close to where we live showing all of us, how life used to be.

Give Thanks...Where I Live

 You see the colors everywhere now...an invasion does that. It took only a few days for the colors of blue atop yellow to be known across the globe. I've seen the Ukrainian flag more the past few days than I have my own flag.

Across the country and the world people are wearing the colors of blue and yellow on their shirts or they're making posters to show support of people they mostly have never met but feel they must do something.

I know our country has its issues, some serious, but I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. I've never had to hide in the basement of a building due to an air raid. I've never had to flee for my life because of an invading army. The thought of having to do these things seems foreign and almost impossible to even imagine. Yet, half a world away people are doing just that. 

I'm thankful for where I live. I love to see buildings lit in blue and yellow lights. Reading supportive messages for others makes me feel good about our country, even with all its faults. I don't have all the answers...in act, I have very few. All I can say is I pray wars will stop, that people will stop being killed at the hands of others. And I pray those horrors will never reach any other country of land.