Last night I read President Monson’s message in the Ensign entitled “Treasure of Eternal Value.” In it, he quoted a portion of the Savior’s Sermon on the Mount:
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
“But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:19-21
It reminded me of a scene from that giddy movie, Pirates of the Caribbean. It opens with the one-and-only Jack Sparrow leading Will Turner through a cave, to where Will isn’t yet aware:
Jack : You know, for having such a bleak outlook on pirates you’re well on your way to becoming one. Sprung a man from jail, commandeered a ship of the Fleet, sailed with a buccaneer crew out of Tortuga [they both look at the gold on the bottom of the little river] and you’re completely obsessed with treasure.
Will : That’s not true. I am not obsessed with treasure.
Jack : [looks in on the gathering] Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.
Barbossa: Gentlemen, the time has come! Our salvation is nigh! Our torment is near at end.
Will: Elizabeth.
Barbossa: For ten years we’ve been tested and tried, and each man jack of you here has proved his mettle a hundred times over and a hundred times again! [the men cheer]
Ragetti: Suffered, I have.
Barbossa: Punished, we were. The lot of us - disproportionate to our crimes! Here it is [throws off the chest’s lid] the cursed treasure of Cortés himself. Every last piece that went astray, we have returned, save for this. [points to the medallion on Elizabeth’s neck]
Will : [scrambles up, upsetting some of the treasure] Jack !
Jack : [pulls him down] Not yet. We wait for the opportune moment.
Barbossa: 881 we found but despaired of ever finding the last.
Will : When’s that? When it’s of greatest profit to you?
Jack : May I ask you something? Have I ever given you reason not to trust me? Do us a favor? I know it’s difficult for you, but please stay here and try not to do anything stupid.
Barbossa: And who among us has paid the blood sacrifice owed to the heathen gods?
Pirates: Us!
Barbossa: And whose blood must yet be paid?
Pirates: Hers!
Barbossa: You know the first thing I’m goin? to do after the curse is lifted? Eat a whole bushel of apples. [takes up the knife] Begun by blood, by blood undone.
You don’t have to look very hard to find the relevant messages. Barbossa’s my favorite character in the Pirates trilogy. After all, he had the all-time best line (again, one I interpret as relevant to our time on earth): “Ye best start believing in ghost stories, Miss Turner… yer in one!”
Despite our best efforts to follow the Savior, we all pick up our pieces of Aztec gold along the way– be they vanity or possessions or pet resentments. Our pockets jangle heavily with the loot, slowing us as we urge forward. If you’ve read a few of my entries, by now you probably noticed I like to talk about the past a lot. I won’t pretend it’s not a big deal to me. There are a lot of great stories behind me (some I shall never put to print), and somewhere out there walk many Daves to whom I owe my present– for good and evil (and why is it we secretly hold dear the scoundrel within?).
In his message, President Monson offers up a treasure map in three pieces:
1. Learn from the Past.
2. Live in the Present
3. Prepare for the Future
Regarding those who dwell too much in the past or constantly say, “I can’t wait for the day when…”, he said:
“Daydreaming of the past and longing for the future may provide comfort but will not take the place of living in the present. This is the day of our opportunity, and we must grasp it.”
I don’t live in the past nearly as much as I did when I first moved to Los Angeles and hated it. I guess I’ve grown up a little in that regard. There’s been so much of the present consuming my life and I’m happier for it. But then an old song will play that I haven’t heard in a while, and then I get a little wistful, remember something I was doing 30 years ago when I listened to it before, and wonder where the time has gone.
It’s too damn delightful, laying claim to treasures that have nothing to do with eternal things. Another Aztec coin in my pocket is my joy of books and the hours they eat up. Not church-related material, mind you (dullsville!), but really dark stuff like noirish mysteries or Cormac McCarthy. It’s a sobering moment when you acknowledge that excessive time wasted on frivilous reading can earn stripes just as easily as looking at porn or gambling away the food money.
As with the nostalgic reflections, my reading time has seriously dried up lately, too. And TV, movies… And it wasn’t until I was in the middle of this entry that I realized my vice time is quietly being displaced by Church, family and a new uber sense of responsibility. I’m being assimilated. It’s only a matter of time before this blog shuts down, my last hobby.
So in case I don’t come back, let me leave with this last thought: When you’re in a particularly honest mood, dig in your pockets and see what kind of coin you got stashed on your person. Then ask yourself, is this the treasure I really came for?
Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho!
7 responses so far ↓
1 xoxoxoxo // Apr 11, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Why is the rum gone?
I don’t think you are any different than most of us in that we all hear an old song or a long forgotten memory gasps one last time and we find ourselves considering time in an Alice in Wonderland kind of fashion. I remember as a kid thinking that my brother and his wife were “OLD” and they must have been around 35 at the time, and now finding myself on the OLDER side of that number I constantly wonder who hit the fast forward button without telling me.
But I’m one of those who spent WAY too much time thinking about the future…”once we get X job” or “If we can just do X, THEN we’ll be happy/content/able to…” Living in TODAY has been something I’ve had to struggle with because I found myself allowing precious family type moments to slide past me more and more. I guess you could say that I wasn’t treasuring the treasure I have enough. We’re all a work in progress.
As far as worldly goods, I’m sure my viewpoint sounds a little odd to some. I have absolutely no problem with the Law of Consecration or with the thoughts of turning over everything we own to the Church at some point in the future. And other than personal documents, letters, and mementos that belonged to my parents or children-there’s not one inanimate object in our home that I would return for should there be a fire or disaster of some kind.
I’m not sure when it happened, but for as long as I can recall, I’ve looked at “my possessions” as not really mine but the Lords. Part of my stewardship on Earth then is to take good care “His” property, build equity with it, improve it in His name and bless others with it whenever possible. We’ve been slothful with His wealth many times, but the harder we try to correct that and use it wisely and share it with those who have less, the more we seem to be blessed with.
That only adds another challenge to my experience-staying humble and in tune so that we can serve the Lord’s purposes rather than our own.
Don’t be so hasty to toss your blog into the pile of things you cannot spend time on any longer. Just because you ENJOY it, doesn’t mean that it is a selfish hobby or heathen pleasure my boy. It could very well be part of the Lord’s purpose for your life-journaling your experiences for posterity AND for the uplifting and edifying of those who read it. And if you are just too darn Jewish to allow yourself to believe that you CAN do things you LIKE doing with the Lord’s approval, then let me appeal to your cultural leanings with a guilt trip…it would be WAY uber irresponsible to leave us all wandering in the darkness without your light now wouldn’t it?
:P
2 David // Apr 12, 2008 at 12:05 am
Ah, skippy…
Technical issues are over, I THINK. I just need to stop messing with this entry, and I think I’m back in black.
I remember as a kid thinking that my brother and his wife were “OLD” and they must have been around 35 at the time, and now finding myself on the OLDER side of that number I constantly wonder who hit the fast forward button without telling me.
That reminds me of a favorite lyric from Pink Floyd (ahhh, the Floyd…): “And then one day you find ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run; you missed the starting gun.” More like 30 years here, but the sentiment of the song line is muchly appreciated.
I’m not sure when it happened, but for as long as I can recall, I’ve looked at “my possessions” as not really mine but the Lord’s.”
You'’d be a dream to divorce.
And if you are just too darn Jewish to allow yourself to believe that you CAN do things you LIKE doing with the Lord’s approval, then let me appeal to your cultural leanings with a guilt trip…it would be WAY uber irresponsible to leave us all wandering in the darkness without your light now wouldn’t it?
Again she plays the Jewish card. Oy, you making me so mashugana! I’m gonna call the Anti-Defamation League on your hiney.
Seriously, I don’t want to stop blogging. It’s been therapeutic (although a tad nerve-wracking for needing to have something to say on a regular basis– I have a whole new respect for columnists) and rewarding.
Just don’t walk into the light, Carol Ann.
3 xoxoxoxo // Apr 12, 2008 at 3:59 am
“You’d be a dream to divorce”
Um….not so much. You see, I was divorced. And when my 2nd counselor in the Bishopric, LDS Church employee husband decided that he was “unhappy” and left me and our 4 children (so he could marry his 23 year old newly returned sister missionary receptionist) the Lord made it very clear that “His” property belonged under the stewardship of the spouse who WAS honoring her temple covenants and obeying the counsel of LDS leaders. The ex didn’t want to pay lawyer fees so I told him if he wanted it uncontested and “quick” I got everything except his car and his “stuff”. And I did. (Let’s just say I fiercely protect my stewardship to the full extent of the definition thereof )
“I’m gonna call the Anti-Defamation League on your hiney.”
Oh waaaaaaaaaa. Defamation involves false claims and you have no proof that you are not a light or that any of us would be darkless without you ya big crybaby.
Cross ovah children….cross ovah!!!! All are welcome, all welcome! There is peace and serenity in the light.
4 David // Apr 12, 2008 at 4:20 am
Ohhh… that last line got a laugh out of me. Keep quoting me movie lines, I’ll put you in my will.
On a side note, I actually met that woman– “crossing over” on the Santa Monica Pier. She had a very tall male companion at the time.
5 xoxoxoxo // Apr 21, 2008 at 2:56 am
That woman was the creepiest thing about that movie-and considering the skeletons in the swimming pool and the steak that barfed intestines in the kitchen, that’s saying something. Did he look like Julian Beck?
6 David // Apr 21, 2008 at 3:07 pm
xoxoxoxo,
Geez, skippy, I think it’s most frightening to me that you’re able to pull Julian Beck’s name out of the air like that. I don’t recall what the man looked like, but I’d prefer to remember him as Richard O’Brien.
7 xoxoxoxo // Apr 23, 2008 at 4:18 am
Ahhhh Davey boy…you esteem my memory too highly me thinks. Was trying to remember the name of the creepy preacher and of course Julian’s name was listed so used it instead. Am I scary? Yes. Am I scary smart? Yeah…not.
Richard and Beck have similar appearances but only of them can do the Time Warp baby!:-P
Leave a Comment