The reach of the government continues to grow. We must ask what it receding.

Only a virtual people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.

Benjamin Franklin

Nations are made up of people. How am I doing? Am I helping or hurting?

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other

John Adams

A person needs his own limiting principles, not just the laws. There will never be enough laws for the variety of folly he is capable of.

Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whos manners are universally corrupt.

Samuel Adams

It would be wisest to take the commandments from the ultimate Lawgiver and apply them as best we may, in service of self, family, community and country. Here is another way in which man cannot serve two masters.

As I've aged, I've changed taste from what I can broadly call exciting to beautiful.

I also think I've always had a sense, sometimes latent, of what beauty is. I think we each do.

An example: music.

As a youth, I was more easily excited. I would look for the most energetic, high-tempo pieces to play on the piano. How fast and how loud could my fingers play?

As I go on, I seek less excitement and value more of beauty, in subtlety, dynamics, soaring swells and pondering pianissimo.

I still like perspiring tempo Mannheim Steamroller's Motivator album. I still like jubilant celebration of Dave Bruebeck's Unsquare Dance. And I now add to that the surreal spiritual experience of taking in Andrea Bocelli singing the Lord's Prayer.

Why is that? Change in energy? Exposure to more of life's experiences? Development of different human emotion? Seeking for the long-lasting? Needing calm admidst increasing pressure, noise and activity? Learning to taste what is truly beautiful?

It's good to know what you really want and what you don't want.

Stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight.

Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley

I have felt this, and it's good.

Music is the pleasure the human mind experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting.

Gottfried Leibniz

Or: "Die Freude, die uns die Musik macht, beruht auf unbewusstem Zählen."

Teach the children how to be bored.

Parents have a crucial role to play in teaching children how to deal with boredom, and it can be as easy and as old-school as simply telling them: “Go outside and play.” Instead of handing a child a slot machine of distraction, encourage them to come up with their own game or activity. Rather than structuring and organizing an activity for your children, let them figure that out for themselves, or with their peers. Children are extraordinarily creative when given the space and time to indulge their wandering minds, but this often requires first overcoming the immediate challenge of handling their frustration and boredom. Placing the burden of alleviating one’s boredom back on a child isn’t a punishment; it’s an opportunity for them to find creative solutions to their discomfort and, as they mature into adults, to identify and cope with feelings of frustration.

As well, parents should model better behavior by resisting the temptation to pick up our phones whenever we are bored. Try this experiment: For one day, do not pick up your smartphone during small breaks in your routine, such as waiting for the train, or sitting in your car at a stoplight. If you find yourself in a doctor’s waiting room, or waiting for a friend at a restaurant, don’t pick up your phone to fill those few minutes. Pay attention to what is around you, or let your mind wander. This sounds like a simple experiment, but as someone who repeatedly tries and often fails to do this, it is revealing of our own bad habits and a useful prompt for thinking more critically about how we spend our time. Reaching for the phone every time is the easy fix, but it is one that has damaging long-term consequences for individuals and for society.

In other words: a bit of boredom is good for us, so the next time you have a minute to spare, instead of reaching for your phone, be rebellious: Daydream.

J. Haidt

We may have grown up without the in-pocket solution to boredom. But we're just as tempted by it. Hopefully we have more self control. But I've seen equally-bad phone resistance from the very old as well as the very young, and all in between.

We all need space to think and dwell in our thoughts more.

WeightWatchers files for bankruptcy as drugs are chosen over discipline.

WeightWatchers has been offering drugs as a complement to its legacy business model of providing food consumption and exercise plans, though the company’s clinical business hasn’t grown fast enough to offset the decline in subscriptions to its core programs as many women decide the drugs are all they need.

WSJ

Convenience, efficiency, ease, money. Kinda yucky.

Drugs are all you need, set to the Beatles' tune. It's the modern regimen for weight, strength, sadness, attention.

There's not enough money in eating oatmeal and broccoli. And it doesn't taste like a dorito. And it's not fast enough.

Why not me?

I just heard an excerpt from a podcast by an interesting gentleman named Naval Ravikant. He said that he heard one time of a person asserting that there must be a happiest person in the world. And then he asked himself, "Why not me?"

I love that. Why not me? Why not unleash myself? Why not stop holding myself back.

(Paul Harmon clipped some of the interesting highlights.)

I think that this is part of the joy of daily repentance that President Nelson talks about. It's sloughing away the things that drag us down. It's lightening us to be able to reach toward light and truth and beauty and joy, unencumbered.

Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God

Joseph Smith

Men are, that they might have joy.

2 Nephi 2:25

Like Mr. Martin of whom he, himself speaks, Mr. Knightley is full of wisdom.

'There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do if he chooses, and that is, his duty; not by manuevering and finessing, but by vigor and resolution... If he wished to do it, it might be done.'

'...A sensible man would find no difficulty in it. He would feel himself in the right; and the declaration -- made, of course, as a man of sense would make it, in proper manner -- would do him more good, raise him higher, fix his interest stronger with the people he depended on, than all that a line of shifts and expedients can ever do. Respect would be added to affection. They would feel that they could trust him... Respect for right conduct is felt by everybody. If he would act in this sort of manner, on principle, consistently, regularly, their little minds would bend to his.'

...

'Your amiable young man is a very weak young man, if this be the first occasion of his carrying through a resolution to do right against the will of others. It ought to have been a habit with him by this time, of following his duty, instead of consulting expediency. I can allow for the fears of the child, but not of the man. As he became rational, he ought to have roused himself and shaken off all that was unworthy in their authority.'

Mr. Knightly, c/o Miss Austen

Beautiful, searching questions.

When all is said and done
As the season slips away
When I've taken steps beyond my sight
Will I find my strength in greater light
Will my courage grow with every passing day
And will my faith be constant as the setting sun
When all is said and done

When all is said and done
And the years have turned to gold
Will my life become a legacy
Of the things that matter most to me
Will the fire of faith grow bright inside me
And will I want to be the person I've become
When all is said and done

When all is said and done
When my eyes can finally see
Will I glory in the sweet release
And will mercy fill my soul with peace
Will I kneel and wonder at the savior's feet
Will I hear him say, "well done"
When he sees who I've become
Will I live with him
When all is said and done

Katherine Nelson

Expect to work. Do your best. Expecting otherwise does not lead to prosperity.

In London, he had expected neither to walk on pavements of gold, nor to lie on beds of roses; if he had had any such exalted expectation, he would not have prospered. He had expected labor, and he found it, and did it, and made the best of it. In this, his prosperity consisted.

Dickens