Samuel B. Hislop

The New York Times has a story about how the ripples from the crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine are being felt worldwide. The story's closing section, which I've pasted below, is a fascinating case study in crisis communication. The article provides at least a glimpse of what some in the White House experience on the heels of tragic breaking news. (See full article here.)

After hanging up with Mr. Putin, Mr. Obama boarded his Marine Onehelicopter to fly to Andrews Air Force Base. During the flight, news broke that Ukraine was blaming a Russian-made missile. Dan Pfeiffer, the president’s senior adviser, received an email and told Mr. Obama about the allegation.  

Once he boarded Air Force One, which was scheduled to take him to Delaware and New York for a policy speech and political fund-raisers, Mr. Obama was briefed by his national security aide, Brian McKeon. By the time the president landed outside Wilmington, Del., it was clear he would need to address the disaster. Speechwriters at the White House emailed a statement to the plane. 

Josh Earnest, Mr. Obama’s press secretary, gave him a copy and explained that a line about concern for Americans stemmed from reports that as many as 23 were on board.Mr. Earnest told the president that the number came from Ukrainian officials and seemed dubious. But even as Mr. Obama went before cameras and made his brief comments, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. got on the phone with Mr. Poroshenko, who told him the Ukrainians had intercepted conversations indicating the separatists had shot down the plane. 

Mr. Obama was briefed by telephone after his speech by Antony J. Blinken, his deputy national security adviser, who told him about the Poroshenko call, and the president decided to call the Ukrainian leader as well as Mr. Najib from Air Force One. The flight to New York was so short, however, that the pilots had to fly a long, looping route to give the president enough time to talk with the leaders. 

Once in New York, he headed to his first fund-raiser at an upscale apartment. In a den, where a secure telephone line had been set up, Mr. Obama convened a conference call with his staff for an update. He was told most of the dead were from the Netherlands and so arranged to call the Dutch prime minister. 

The next morning, back at the White House, he was told that one American had been on board, as well as AIDS researchers and activists heading to a conference that he himself had addressed two years earlier. He recognized that he had probably met some of them. “That seemed to kind of rattle him,” an aide said. 

As a cloudy morning dawned on Ukraine on Friday, the horror of the crash site was on full display. Small white pieces of cloth dotted the grassy farmland, marking the locations of bodies. The smell of burned flesh hung heavily near a broken hulk of metal on the road. A foot with part of a leg lay nearby. 

The scene was strangely empty. There was no yellow tape, no investigators poring over the giant metal carcass. Four local rebels wearing fatigues and carrying hunting rifles wandered through the ruins, poking around the debris more out of curiosity. On the grass were photographs of a family vacation, a baby announcement postcard and a boarding pass. 

This is one of my favorite passages from William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White's The Elements of Style:

Silvin Petersen in 1920s or 1930s.

This is sage advice from my maternal great grandfather, Silvin Petersen:

It is important to do the best you can at whatever you do.  

This comes from Roy Peter Clark. It's pure gold. 

verbs are not active or passive at all. The activity or passivity rests in the subject, not the verb. When Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey complained that “I was blindsided” by the bridge scandal, it portrayed him as the passive receiver of the malpractice of others. That is exactly when the passive is most useful. 

I often teach a passage from the journalist Thomas French, who wrote the story of an aging chimp named Herman, a charismatic creature who died violently at a Tampa zoo. We learn that as an infant, Herman “was taken from his mother…then sold in an orange crate for $25 and a thumbprint. He was carried across an ocean, installed inside a cage, taught to depend on the imperfect love of strangers.” These verbs (my italics) are vivid enough: taken, sold, carried, installed, taught. They describe Herman as an orphan, a captive, a victim. He is passive, not the verbs. 

When Herman grows to become an alpha chimp, the virtual king of his zoo, his status changes, and so do the author’s verbs: “He charmed Jane Goodall,threw dirt at the mayor of Tampa, learned to blow kisses and smoke cigarettes, whatever it took to entertain the masses.” Herman is no longer the pauper, but a prince. He is the agent, the doer, the active one. 

In those adjoining examples we see a lesson for all writers. Prefer the active, if you will, but when you want to focus on the receiver, the victim – be it bunion or chimp – the passive rules. There, I said it. In the active voice.

With Elder Sheldon on a cold night in Dnepropetrovsk in February 2004

Life is like a wheel on one of those massive dump trucks — at times we are on top, enjoying the exalted view born of pleasant circumstances; at other times we are stuck at the bottom, resenting the humbling feelings brought about by its crushing disappointments. This analogy comes to mind from two simple passages I come across this morning in my Mormon mission journal. (I am transcribing the journal so I will have a digital copy — a spiritually healthy practice that keeps that life-changing experience in Ukraine close to my heart nine years later.) The first entry is from 17 August 2004 when I was in Donetsk, an eastern Ukraine city of nearly 1 million people. I had been in the country seven months and was junior companion.

Something I never thought would or could happen as a junior companion, happened near the end of a discussion this evening with a member: She told me I speak better Russian than my companion.

I can't adequately describe how much these compliments meant to me as a young, timorous missionary. They always lifted me up and provided precious validation that all those hours of language study were actually moving my needle of understanding. But life isn't all roses. That journal entry reminds me of an experience six months later, on 8 February 2005 when I was senior companion in Dnepropetrovsk, an eastern Ukraine city of just over 1 million people. This time it was my junior companion who received the honor.

At an evening lesson, the investigator ... told my companion that his russian was better than mine. Yes, a humbling comment. Why would a person say that? ... I have come to learn that having a positive attitude ... is the most difficult thing to do in this work.

I've long felt that the United States would be a better place if we all slowed down more often. You know, the milk-and-cookies-in-the-afternoon, take-a-nap kind of life. Today I'm reminded that I'm not the only one who feels this way. Rhesa Storms, the Director of Communications for Orchard Group (a church planting organization in New York), writes at On Faith that rest is so uncommon today that it's become "an act of resistance."

Resting may be the most countercultural and spiritual thing we can do as people who follow God. In our modern, crazy-busy, take-it-to-the-limit society, rest is an act of trust in a sovereign God.

A beautiful thought. She provides an interesting commentary on the fourth commandment:

 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 

 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy strangerthat is within thy gates: 

 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

From the New York Times:

mobile data consumption is up 81 percent as the world turns more to tablets and smartphones, especially to watch video.  

Globally, mobile now accounts for 25 percent of web usage, up from 14 percent a year ago.Mobile is also taking a bigger share of Internet advertising, and Ms. Meeker sees great potential for future growth there. In 2013, people spent 20 percent of their time on mobile devices, yet only 5 percent of the ad spending was there.  

... 

What's the secret to getting youth interested in religion, and Christianity in particular? Jefferson Drexler at Patheos posits a powerful solution.

even if all of us church-going hypocrites came out of the closet and said: “We’re sorry.  We’re sorry for saying one thing and doing another.  We’re sorry for judging you and telling you that you’re wrong.” – even if we acknowledged our faults, we’d still find that today’s youth still aren’t attending church. 

Here are two fascinating glimpses of how some organizations power their social media accounts.

Nieman Lab: Who’s behind that tweet? Here’s how 7 news orgs manage their Twitter and Facebook accounts

Rabbi Sacks

The Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks has said, “we’re not just bodies, but also minds; not just physical beings, but also spiritual beings.” His comment is an axiomatic truth for Latter-day Saints and connects well to a subject I’ve thought about recently — namely, the spiritual nourishment available to us through the scriptures during our individual spiritual journeys back to God. Because we are both physical and spiritual beings, we need both physical and spiritual sustenance. 

A scene from John Bunyan's book, The Pilgrim's Progress, illustrates this truth quite well. Bunyan’s book is a poignant allegory about a man named Christian who has answered God's call to leave the sinful world behind and journey to the what is known as the "Celestial City." Toward the beginning of the journey, a messenger gives Christian a scroll (symbolic of the scriptures) designed to give him comfort and refreshment as he reads it along the way. Unfortunately, at one point on the journey, an exhausted Christian, still somewhat a spiritual novice, unwisely falls asleep under a large tree. A messenger chastises him for his sloth and Christian hastily continues the journey. But he forgets the scroll, which fell out of his hand during his rest. 

After he travels some distance from that tree, Christian reaches into his pocket for his scroll, but it's not there. "Then was Christian in great distress, and knew not what to do," Bunyan writes, "for he wanted that which used to relieve him, and that which should have been his Pass into the Celestial City. Here therefore he began to be much perplexed, and knew not what to do.” Christian soon remembers the spot where he fell asleep, and he then falls down on his knees to ask forgiveness from God for his foolish action.

He soon finds the scroll, and Bunyan describes the scene this way: "Who can tell how joyful this man was, when he had gotten his roll again? For this Scroll was the assurance of his life, and acceptance at the desired Haven. Therefore he laid it up in his bosom, gave thanks to God for directing his eye to the place where it lay, and with joy and tears betook himself again to his Journey."

I like this story because I can relate to it. Like Christian, I’m on a journey to the Celestial City. Like Christian, I sometimes find myself exhausted, asleep, and losing my grip on spiritual things. But also like Christian, I can say with certainty that the scroll, the scriptures, comfort me, refresh me and guide me. But the scriptures can’t guide us if we don’t find time to read them. 

Carving Out Study Time

Continuing that thought, Elder Tad R. Callister has spoken of the important role daily scripture study played throughout his three-decades long law career. He describes arriving early to work, where his Dad and brother (who also worked at the law firm) would be studying the scriptures for the first half hour. And so, seeing their example, he studied the scriptures as well. But he notes that the temptation would often come to cut short his scripture study so he could get to that day’s work more quickly.

He says, “[I would] see all the piles of legal file theres, and I remember many mornings [I would] say, ‘I’ve got to get to those files, they’re going to be on me today. I’ve got those phone calls.’ And then the little impression would come, ’No, stick with the scriptures.’ And somehow,” Elder Callister says, "the 34 years of law practice came and went, and I got to all of the files and I got to all of the phone calls, but I also had had the privilege of studying the scriptures.” 

He then adds this valuable insight: "The Lord’s a good compensator. If you spend time in the scriptures, He will compensate and help you in all of the other decisions in life you have to make, whether it’s the business world or your family or your spiritual calling.” 

A Few Personal Experiences

Let me provide two illustrations of how the scriptures have guided and compensated me on my journey.

The first example comes from October 2003, when I was in the Provo MTC learning the Russian language to prepare for a mission in Donetsk, Ukraine. While some others in my MTC group seemed to learn the language with enviable ease, I struggled mightily during my 12-week MTC stay — I was convinced that I was the furthest behind, the least able, the weakest link in my MTC district. Fortunately, the MTC teachers gave us time each day to step away from the intense language study to have personal scripture study in English, and this became a shady refuge for my weak mind from the scorching complexity of the Russian language. Like Christian in Bunyan’s allegory, I could go to my scroll, the scriptures, and be comforted and refreshed in the midst of another long day at the MTC. And gratefully, the habit of daily scripture study has blessed my life in similar ways ever since.

The second example comes from a morning in November 2005, shortly after returning from Ukraine. I was sitting at my parents' kitchen table in Logan, Utah, reading Mosiah chapter 4. I distinctly remember how the words of King Benjamin in verse 29 sunk deep into my heart: "if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not." 

Rarely has a scripture touched my heart so tenderly and powerfully as it did at that time. I experienced an unmistakable feeling of admonishment from the Holy Ghost about the paramount importance of spiritual caution along the joyful yet dangerous path of mortality. This was a key message for me to receive at the tender time of transition from full-time missionary to full-time adult, consisting of college, marriage, parenthood, graduate school and full-time employment — experiences collectively so demanding and exhausting at times that there’s little energy left for spiritual things. (I would add as a side note: No wonder Peter, James and John struggled to stay awake in the garden with the Savior. Life is challenging and demanding — especially for followers of Jesus, who asks us to give all our might, mind and strength. The spirit is almost always willing, but the flesh is often weak.)