Virtue Is A Virtue

I went to institute with my sisters the other night, and although I haven't been to an institute class since I was taking night classes at the community college, I rather enjoyed myself. Not only did I meet a bjillion people I haven't seen since my awful experiences in high school (who all wish us felicitations, btw, Josh), but I got to listen to my old seminary teacher, who is *awesome*. It was an incredible lesson, too, as evidenced by the fact that I didn't start writing a new chapter for my great American novel like I had planned to do. Instead, I actually took notes with the notepad I brought along. I was mighty surprised by that.

Anyhoo, the lesson was about the signs of the times (which, incidentally, is a direct phrase out of Doctrine and Covenants, section 6-something). Out of the 51 signs of the Second Coming that Elder Bruce R. McConkie pulled from the scriptures, 30 of them are good things and 21 are somewhat more threatening (but really, how bad is it if the evil places are buried in the sea? The earth has to be cleansed for Christ!), which is way more of the good signs than I realized. One of the bad things was that the hearts of men would fail them, and as President Benson explained, this is both a physical and a spiritual occurrence, as people would grow weary with the world and give up on life and sometimes even kill themselves. I couldn't believe it! People would actually kill themselves because they don't feel hope anymore? I know I've been sad and discouraged again and again, but there's always the hope that things'll improve, right? So it's impossible to be sad forever.

At least, that's what I think. But President Wilson (my awesome teacher) explained that people lose hope all the time and that there are twelve things he knows of that will change people from being discouraged and depressed to being hopeful and happy again. Now, up to this point, I've been writing all of this stuff from memory, which if you know me, is flippin' impressive because I don't remember anything. But President Wilson has always been able to teach in a way that allows me to retain the information (which I'm positive is one of the Lord's tender mercies toward me, since afternoon seminary basically saved my butt during those awful, awful, awful high school years), so I think I can remember most of the twelve things. (I also wrote them down, but I'm not gonna go get my notebook.) We were encouraged to pray, repent, read the scriptures (these are obvious), be healthy, exercise, serve, work, listen to good music, have good friends, and then a bunch of others that I don't remember right now. The one I want to draw attention to is listening to good music.

When I heard that, in my head I thought, well crap. Before you get all judgy judgerson on me, understand that I don't listen to crap. I listen to what I feel is quality music. But perhaps there is a random swear word, and sometimes (mostly) the rhythm or beat is harsh and overloud, and perhaps the singer tends to scream rather than croon. But it's quality music just the same. And although I have been spending these past days trying to be always found working or serving or having good friends and all that, I don't think I can give up my music. Some of those bands got me through the twice alluded-to hellacious years of high school.

So I know that I need to clean up my act in all facets of my life, but if music happens to be one of the last things I focus on changing, then can I help that? I mean after all, even Ben Franklin felt that his 13 virtues could only be mastered one at a time in a rotating 13-week stretch. Attaboy, Benny--I'll follow your advice.