thoughts on the meaning of: Love

About a month ago I had a long (17hr) drive to entertain myself through, and I choose to listen to the book on CD, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (that's the seventh and final book, fyi). Sadly that book is much longer than 17 hours, and I didn't get a chance to read the rest of it until about a week ago. As I finished the book one evening I took interest in the attitude of Harry towards death, pain, and torture. For Mr. Potter it was not a bad thing to die, it was not hard to endure painful attacks and physical torture. It really hardly affected him at all. What did have a profound effect on him was the suffering and torture of his close friends and loved ones. An interesting theme in our modern media. Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 3 does all he can to avoid allowing his enemies to learn his true identity, preserving (he hopes) his wife's safety. I think that most people, despite their outward appearance or showing of selfishness, would act similarly valuing the safety of those they love above themselves, for that I believe is the definition of love. If there is a person that you are pained to see suffer, it's quite clear that your affections for them high, high enough to the point of being called love. It was later that night, after I had finished the book (don't worry everyone, Harry wins, in case you were wondering) that I talked with a friend that was suffering, having a bad day, and in need of a friend. Being aware of this friend's suffering and knowing there was simply nothing I could do one way or another to help alleviate it in anyway caused me to feel quite sad indeed. I began to realize the truthfulness that J. K. Rowling had endeavored to capture in what seems to be one of the central themes of Harry Potter, true friendship, and perhaps the true meaning of love.

I have had an interesting experience myself with the word love. Growing up I had the greatest friends a boy could ask for. I kid you not in any way, I would guess that the cumulative amount of true friendship that I had (the quality and the quantity) surpasses that of anyone reading this blog. Not that I'm bragging, I didn't have anything to do with it, the Lord gave them too me. I was forced away from those friends at the height of our friendship, and it was only then that I realized my love for them. Having know them for ~13 years, I realized that I had never once told any of them that I love them. After that I signed all my letters, "Love, Michael" and I began to let them know that I did in fact love them as much as possible. When I finally gained the opportunities to be with them again, I found that the phrase "I love you" became a common line in my vocabulary. Since then I have continued to use that phrase, and although sometimes with less or more meaning, I do not say it lightly, and those I say it to are those I would risk my life for.

I feel like I have more to say, however I cannot think of just what more to add here... friends, I love you.

Day 7

Sunday:Boeing
My family was invited to attend Boeing Family days from my Sisters in-laws, the Grahams. We left after church and went to the Everett Boeing Factory, the larges building (by volume) in the world! Where they have production lines for their 747, 777, and 787 among others. We got a little glimpse of the new, up and coming 747-8 a new aircraft to be released within the next year as well as the new 787 the first plane built with a carbon fiber fuselage. They told us that taking pictures was not allowed, but we all know how good I am at following rules so:

That green thing is the 747-8 in final inspection-->


and here's a 777 being sold to EVA air. EVA is a Taiwanese company that I actually rode to and from the Philippines \/

Day 6

Saturday: Movie Making
This actually only took about 2 hours to film all we needed and a couple hours on Sunday to clip it all together. ENJOY (click here to go to the YouTube file of this video)

Other than that I went shopping on Saturday, got some new white shirts for work, a black belt, and a new wallet. This time I didn't get a big thick, fill with junk wallet, but a small, simple, hold-your-ID-and-some-cash wallet. I'm really excited to start using it, it's just so nice and small and makes me happy ^_^

Day 5

Friday:.....
Okay, so my Friday was kind of a really lame day. I did take a bike ride around washington park... but I didn't take any pictures. During the day I sat on FB a lot, did some schedule rearanging for the school year, dropped classes, made my work schedule, etc. In the evening I went to spend some time with Randi and Renae Deighton. These twins are in my stake here in Washington, and I've had some great fun hanging out with them while we were all at BYU. It was fun to get away from my family for a little while and hang out with friends. The picture attached was taken from the top of my house, I did so in order to try to illustrate how close I live to the ocean, but you can't really see anyhow. That dark, double humped island in the background is... well, an island, separated from us by a couple hundred feet of ocean water... Here's a google map of my town, I live between the airport and Burrow's Bay. Anyhow, tomorrow will be much more exciting :-D

Day 4

Thursday: not camping
So today my mom wanted to go camping. There's a really nice state park nearby that she loves to visit and she wanted to go there, stay the night and come back Friday. Great plan except she didn't make reservations at the relatively small campground and we ended up going there, visiting the visitors center (a great place for visitors to visit... really), walking in the tidelands a bit and having a picnic lunch. Not bad for an afternoon. When Kacy got off work her and I went on a quick kayaking trip. We ran into a rather swelly ocean... at is an ocean with large swells, large for the Puget Sound at least, I think we saw some that were nearly three feet! something I've never really seen much of before hear since the area is so bay-y... or rather, has many bays. :-D

Day 3

Wednesday:Sailboats
I visited the Left Coast Development shop today, it is owned and operated by Jim Lee, aka my pointy haired boss (he's actually just mostly bald). He's a really funny and relaxed guy who decided to get into the boat building business. After one year of work they've yet to finish a boat, but they're getting close. In the mean time he's making money selling the 'Simple Stereo' which is a control box that you plug in a 12v battery, speakers, and your iPod and it plays music. Good for a car, boat, RV, or kayak (if you want to tow along a battery, which in my case is worth it for music, hehe). Anyhow, you can check out his website if you want to see picture of the boat he's building, "The Dart"

In the evening I went out with Jim in his J-35 sailboat and participated in the Anacortes Yacht Club weekly race. Jim isn't competitive since his crew consists of his wife, kids 3 (ages 15-9), and who ever he finds durring the week, but it's always fun to get out and sail. His boat is actually a racing boat and gets going quite fast. Despite only a small wind we had a great time sailing.

Day 2

Tuesday: beach combin'
So because of the exceptionally difficult morning going to the dentist and such my day was slightly dampened. Okay, mostly I was just lazy, couldn't eat so I didn't have energy, badda boom. We did got to the beach though where I took several pictures of my broha skim boarding and such.













So I did a lot of thinking today. I was driving my mom's honda Accord and as I left our driveway I tried to push the automatic transmission stick into neutral and jiggle it around (as I usually do with my car) and when it wouldn't budge to the side I remembered that it was automatic and not manual. Then I noticed the knob for adjusting the side mirrors, it was a very simple and easy to use knob, much nicer than the one on my car. This got me thinking of the perfect hybrid car. Taking elements from each of the cars that I drive I devised what would be the best car ever!

First, it's a manual, and it would drive just like my Mitsubishi, but then it has the space and seating of our Suburban with of course the gas mileage of our Prius. (Okay, I know that is so impossible right now, but this is a perfect car after all.) Then it would have the audio control system/capabilities of the Pruis with the sound system of the suburban. It would have adjustments and controls (seat position, mirrors, CC, brights, etc.) like the Honda (as well as the pick-up of the Honda) and a dash display like the Mitsubishi. Finally it would also be just as cute and fun-loving as my Mitsubishi. That's pretty much the perfect car, and I love it. The end.

A Week in WA: Day 1

So I'm visiting my family at our place of residence in Anacortes, WA. Here in A-Town there is a lot of crazy fun stuff to do I have therefore decided to give a little picture blogg of what I do. I'll call it A Week in WA and do a post everyday.

Day 1, Monday:
Arrived at the airport and drove home. Took a bike ride in the forest, went kayaking w/Gavin, later that evening we took the boat out, but just for a bit so I could get used to it again. Now that my parents believe I'm capable, I can take it out anytime this week :-D



Gavin and I just walked to the beach from our home with the kayak




This is our friend fredrick the Seal











My bike in the forest near the Beaver Ponds

Coleen

DSC_0028, originally uploaded by guywmurray.

My older sister got married last week. In true Murray fashion her reception was held at a beach, and here is one of the pictures they took just previous to the reception. I looked and looked for a picture that I wanted to post, but I couldn't find the one that was just right, Coleen has a really good (and permanent) fake smile that she uses for pictures. I guess her over-the-top photogenity is counter-ballanced by Bjorn's lack of enthusiasm for picture taking. I guess in that sense this picture is good in showing how well these two compliment and balance out each other.

tmi

I recently created a note on Facebook. It was one of those chain notes, answer the questions, tag some people and see the comments flow in. I chose to do this on a whim, quickly starting as I read a friend's who had tagged me. I choose 15 people based on what came to mind first which ended up being those who I had been in contact with in the past 24 hours (perhaps even in order from the most amount of time to the least). Then I proceed to answer questions, and as fate would have it, a majority of the more prying questions fell on people that there was actually information to pry about. I however maintained a steady policy of honesty, to the point of being blunt and possibly offensive at some points, revealing somethings that perhaps should have remained hidden.

I found it an interesting release for myself, despite being myself uncomfortable with some of the answers I gave, and fearful of what they may say to me after reading this note. I suppose I put a lot of trust in the tendency of people to assume that someone is kidding when they give cutting remarks, and while most who read this note will likely see my humor throughout, they will also notice that the comments are truthful. I'm not sure just what I think about the whole idea of exposing your heart and soul to anyone at BYU that is inclined to read my note. It creates an interesting feeling, and again, despite putting all truth that I could muster, even embellishing on many items to create an interesting read, I think many people will not consider at as serious or important as it was to me. That is a good thing in the end, I do believe.

I think many bloggs are the same way, the writing puts down random peices of their soul, often being very truthful and deeply minded as they write. While readers may skim over the piece, think it's interesting, maybe even eave a comment, but rarely, if ever, will they feel the full meaning that the writer felt (unless on the rare occasion the reader was some one also directly involved in the event blogged about). Writing allows a person to take thier time to put down their true thoughts and intentions. "Writing maketh an exact man," so says an inscription at the Library of Congress, and I believe it to be true.