Nailed it!

My Grandson was here in Utah to celebrate his 4th birthday.  We were going to have the party here, so we asked about what he would like for a cake.  He wanted a dinosaur cake.  So I went to work to find a cute dinosaur cake, and pinterest never fails.  Here is a picture of one of those I thought was cute.

Well, I thought it would be cute to add rocks and candy rocks should be great.  Then I decided that the cake should have brown frosting.  My daughter suggested we use crushed Oreo cookies for dirt.  Then, I decided that the strawberry gel used for shortcake would work well for the lava.  I couldn't find cute little dinosaurs, so I bought a set of the little plastic ones.  The final result looked more like the cake had been run over by a truck.

Then began the real lesson.  I asked my 7 year old grandson to put the dinosaurs on the cake.  I left the room and when I returned, the dinosaurs were being killed in lava.  I was a little frustrated and felt that was not appropriate for our little 4 year old's cake.  

When the family arrived and the dinner was over, the cake was brought out to be served.  Three adorable little boys were having a ball killing dinosaurs in the lava.

I was still caught up with the "nailed it" about how the cake looked.




But my daughter-in-law wrote a post that helped me realize that my "nailed it" was really in missing out on the fun those children had.  So here's to dinosaurs dying in lava and whatever else brings children that kind of joy!

Evaluating truth

I have been pondering a great deal about the great divide that is occurring in our country.  The issues causing such great contention have been issues that have existed for many years.  They are not new to this time or to this presidency. 

So I was pondering why it has become so contentious and divisive.  That made me think back to being a prosecutor.  You see, a good prosecutor knows that their responsibility is not to win at any cost.  It is to gather the facts fairly, analyze carefully and determine whether it is in the interest of justice to proceed in a case. 

One of my greatest tools was to evaluate the evidence of the defense.  They were not under the same requirement to share information that I was.  So, I had to look to other witnesses, documents and try to determine what they might have that would allow them to prevail at trial.  I had to evaluate their evidence to find the weaknesses in my own case.  Sometimes they had a really good argument about a point.  I just had to accept that and build the strength of my own arguments.  Attorneys who knew me well knew that I would treat information they gave me with fairness.  Sometimes, I changed my position based upon that information.

There were some things that neither side could do, like tamper with evidence or hide witnesses.  Unfortunately, Perry Mason was known to do both.  The reasons for those protections were to allow the judge or jury to clearly see the evidence in the case  and make a determination as to the truth.

One of the things that people could not understand is how we could argue strongly against each other in court and still be friends.  It was simple.  We understood each other.  We knew that the other side was doing what they believed to be right.  Sometimes, we even understood that the other side was correct, but we had a different responsibility.

How could that be?  Defense attorneys are necessary in order for our system to succeed.  They must be able to separate their personal feelings about a client in order to protect the rights of that client.  If they served as the judge and jury, their clients would not receive a fair trial.

I see the divisive issues in the same way.  There may be two sides, with understandable arguments. We may not always know all of the information upon which the other side is relying. We need to listen to both sides.  Unless the press becomes objective, we cannot rely on a single source for our information.  People are biased and see things through their personal life experience and belief systems.

We are the judges in these contentious issues.  We should insure that we are carefully evaluating to find the truth where it stands. Then, we must be strong enough to stand for the truth we find.