For as long as I can remember I've always carried pen and paper to meetings with me. When I was younger, it was purely to sketch something random that ran through my mind as I attempted to listen. Then as I entered the MTC, in an effort to be a "good missionary" I tried to at least take notes. Although, looking back at those journals, they are still filled with sketches of horses, dogs, cowboys, and mountain lakes. I don't recall any of the visiting general authorities focusing their talks on riding through the Uintahs, the faithful dog trailing while the sun sets over the tops of Mt. Timp, but that could be just my poor memory.
While at the University of Idaho, I learned that there really was no time to doodle. Either take notes and mostly get the lecture or sleep and fail. I never did seem to find the middle ground there.
It has been just recently that I have taken up the old habit of doodling during church meetings. Although I hate to admit this publicly, it was more in an effort to stay awake than an intense desire to either improve my caricatures or focus on the message being given. I will say to my credit, though, in a desire to somewhat try to capture the message, I started to pick out things from the lessons or talks and I would try to sketch those. Unfortunately, when I would get home and look down at what I thought had been a masterpiece, I would find myself wondering just what the heck the thing was or why I had drawn a flower or tree. This led me to start to add notes to my sketches to help me identify the mess of squiggly lines.
Today, about half way through the sacrament program, I looked down and realized I hadn't doodled a thing. The page I was writing on was filled entirely with notes from the talks being given. Now, I should say, these are not usually nicely organized and directly related to the topic but they are my notes. It reminded me of my dad's old journals he used to carry around to meetings. I guess I've finally grown up. Realizing this, I quickly added some trees and a family fishing and a nice caricature of a cowboy. I would hate for anyone to look over my shoulder and confuse me for some boring old teacher who loves to take notes. That would be just too embarrassing.
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2 comments:
I love that you are keeping up on this. It is such a nice way to keep in touch. Keep up the doodling or the note taking it keeps you in tune with what is going on whether it makes sense afterwards or not. Dad still takes notes on teh sunday program. We love you!
Dad says don't worry Rod there will come a time in your life when you will sleep and that will pass and you will catch the spirit and be awake all the time. Keep up the doodling. Love ya Dad
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