The Vulcan Greeting

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

The other day Justin sent me a link to a short video clip that talked about the origin of the Vulcan Hand Greeting. It was so fascinating that it sent me down a rabbit hole. I could tell the story myself, but I found a copy of an interview where Leonard Nemoy told the story himself. I thought I would just let him tell it in his own words.

I grew up in an interesting inner-city neighborhood in Boston. The area was known as the West End and was written about in a book called the Urban Villagers. It was a desirable area since it was within walking distance of downtown Boston and the Boston Commons, as well as being situated along the banks of the Charles River.

The population was mostly immigrants. Maybe 70% Italian and 25% Jewish. My family attended services in an Orthodox Jewish Synagogue, or “Shul.” We were especially attentive to the high holidays, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Since I was somewhat musical, I was hired as a young boy to sing in choirs for the holidays and I was therefore exposed to all of the rituals firsthand. I still have a vivid memory of the first time I saw the use of the split-fingered hands being extended to the congregation in blessing.

There were a group of five or six men facing the congregation and chanting in passionate shouts of a Hebrew benediction. It would translate to “May the Lord bless you and keep you,”…etc.

My Dad said, “Don’t look.”

I learned later that it is believed that during this prayer, the “Shekhina,” the feminine aspect of God comes into the temple to bless the congregation. The light from this Deity could be very damaging. So we are told to protect ourselves by closing our eyes.

I peeked.

And when I saw the split-fingered gesture of these men... I was entranced. I learned to do it simply because it seemed so magical.

It was probably 25 years later that I introduced that gesture as a Vulcan greeting in Star Trek and it has resonated with fans around the world ever since. It gives me great pleasure since it is, after all, a blessing.

Live Long And Prosper,

Leonard Nimoy

The reason they use the split fingered gesture is that when you use both hands it resembles the Hebrew letter “shin” which is a symbol of God.

It is also believed to open a “window” allowing blessings from God to enter into the congregation.

I loved the gesture before, but I think I love it even more now.

--------------------trivia--------------------

The most efficient method of converting chemical energy to mechanical energy is a man riding a bicycle. It would be the equivalent of 5,000 mpg

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The Fifth Sunday

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Yesterday was a 5th Sunday and on 5th Sundays we often have the youth meet together and the adults meet together and have special lessons. Yesterday Sterling and I presented a lesson to the youth, while the Bishop took care of the adult class. 

Sterling shared the Ward mission plan because he is on the missionary committee, and since I am a member of the Temple and Family History committee, I was able to talk about our upcoming temple open house and what a wonderful opportunity this will be for missionary work. We still have no date for the open house, but the signs are pointing to one late this year.

I’m always nervous before I need to teach a lesson or give a talk, but I think this one went well. Here are the notes from my message. I had a slide show to go with my message.

Temple Open House

Even though the message for today is centered around missionary work, I can’t think of a more powerful missionary tool than the open house for our temple. The temple has been standing there, right next to the I-5 freeway for over thirty years. Millions of people have seen it and admired it. I have served as an ordinance worker in the temple longer than you guys have been alive and we always had people coming to the front desk, asking if they can have a tour of the temple. People who were not married in the temple would come to the temple to take wedding pictures in front of it. It is a beautiful building, and now everyone will have a chance to tour the temple and learn more about the beauty of the work done inside the temple and not just the beauty of the temple itself.

Every Thursday afternoon, when I would leave work a little bit early to go serve in the temple, everyone in the company where I worked knew where I was going. They watched me do this for years and every one of them will be at this open house because they want to know more about it. My wife works at Westview High School. She is a very sociable person so most of her coworkers know that she served in the temple as well. They also all know that there will be an open house when the temple opens, and many of them have already asked her to be their personal tour guide because they know how much she loves the temple.

I’m willing to bet that most of your friends know that you perform ordinances in the temple several times a year. If you let them know that they can now go inside this temple and learn more about what you do there, they will want you to take them also.

One of our apostles has said that the San Diego Temple is a jewel among the churches temples and there will never be another one like it. It was pretty expensive, and we are now building so many temples that it is necessary to keep the costs down. Don’t get me wrong, I think all the temples are beautiful, but there is nothing out there quite like our temple.

Just to get you a bit more excited about the temple and the upcoming open house, let me share some of my experiences with the temple.

Parking

When our family first moved here in 1992, the temple was just nearing completion. In our very first fast Sunday, we were asked to fast for the temple because there were not nearly enough parking spaces. I remember thinking that we were asking the Lord for a pretty big miracle. Take a look at this picture. 

Where would we be putting additional parking?

West of the temple we have this freeway. We’re not putting any parking there.

East of the temple we have all this housing. It is hard to imagine that we’re going to move them.

South of the temple is the street,

and north of the temple is this big office building.

Shortly after that fast, the office building filed for bankruptcy. If you take a close look, you can see a big parking structure adjacent to our parking lot. The church bought the office building, cut a hole in the wall of the parking structure and now the office building does their normal work during the day and in the evening, when we really need the extra parking, they have all gone home.

The Lord truly works miracles.

Over the years I’ve heard many stories about the temple. I was hesitant to share these stories because I didn’t know if they were true or if they were just urban legends. I then had the opportunity to visit with the architect of the temple. His name is William S. Lewis Jr., and he confirmed that every one of the stories that I’d heard were true.

Brigham Young Prophecy

Brigham Young prophesied that “in the process of time, there will be temples overlooking the Pacific Ocean and that there will be temples with gardens on their roof.” Some might argue that our temple doesn’t really over look the Pacific but I’ll bet that from the tower, you could see the ocean. It’s close enough for me. And the temple does have a garden on the roof. 

Do you see that eight sided star in the middle of the temples roof? Those aren’t windows. That is an opening to a beautiful garden immediately below.

I couldn’t find a decent picture of the garden, but this gives you an idea of what it looks like. The garden sits in what we call the “atrium’ and it is surrounded by sealing rooms. If you get married in the San Diego Temple, this is where you will get married.

Watch for this garden when you go through for the open house. It is beautiful.

Catholic Architects

Another story that I had heard was that the architects of the temple were a catholic couple. Since I knew who the architect was, and he wasn’t catholic, I knew this had to be a false story. When I met the architect, I asked him where this story may have come from.

As it turns out, there was a catholic couple who did work for the architect. Their names are Dennis & Shelly Hyndman. They love the temple. They never did get baptized, but they loved the temple and everything that it represented.

Reflection Pool

Where the giant lawn is now, there was supposed to be a large reflection pool. As the temple was nearing completion, San Diego was going through a very bad drought, it was decided that it would be irresponsible to put in a large reflection pool in the middle of a drought. They decided to put in a lawn instead of a reflection pool. While I would have loved the pool, it may be a good thing that we have the lawn since that is a favorite place for wedding pictures.

Water Fountain

Under the west spire of the temple is a beautiful spiral staircase. I heard that this was the largest free standing spiral staircase in America. That is actually false, but this is still a beautiful staircase.

Perhaps my favorite place in the temple is standing on the balcony at the very top of the staircase. Looking out over the stairs and at the beautiful windows just brings peace to my heart.

Since this tower is adjacent to the I-5 freeway, the architect was worried about road noise, so he planned for a water fountain to be placed in the center of the staircase on the bottom floor. Unfortunately, the temple was way over budget, and the fountain got cut. What a shame.

Seal of Melchizedek

Throughout the temple you will see many eight-sided stars. It turns out that the eight-sided star is a symbol of the Prophet Melchizedek. They call it his “seal.” I asked the architect about this, and he said that he used that symbol because it is two overlapping squares and it fit well with the design of the temple, at the time, he had no idea that it was the seal of Melchizedek.

The Night the Lights Stayed On

Have you guys heard the story about when the Saints were being driven out of Nauvoo? The temple was almost finished, but since they knew they would be leaving Nauvoo, the brethren decided to start performing Temple Endowments. There were so many people who wanted to receive their endowments, that they kept the temple open night and day performing as many ordinances as they could during the time they had.

Well, we had the exact same situation happen for us in the San Diego Temple. In 2020, when everything was shut down for Covid, the temple was shut down as well. In fact, every temple in the world was shut down. Missionaries always receive their endowments before they leave on their missions but with no temple’s, life had to go on and missionaries headed out on their missions without being endowed.

As things started improving, they opened it for a short time, but only for live ordinances.

Lisa and I were some of the more experienced ordinance workers, so we were fortunate enough to be asked to work during this time. What an amazing experience.

There were missionaries serving in our area who had come on their missions without being endowed. There were also a lot of couples who wanted to be sealed. The missionary’s family was allowed to come and be with their missionary and it was quite special to see families travel from all over North America to be with their child.

We were only allowed to do one family group at a time. We would meet the missionary and his family at the front door. Lisa would check their temperatures, and then I would lead the group to the endowment rooms. We were the only people in the entire temple. It was quite surreal. When the session was over, we would then walk them to the front door and wait for the next group. What a wonderful experience.

In November, the Governor decided that things were getting worse, so he announced that on Friday at midnight everything had to be shut down again. The temple presidency was obviously disappointed, because we had a huge backlog of people who had appointments to be endowed and or sealed. It was early in the week when the announcement was made, so the Temple Presidency called Salt Lake and asked for permission to run the temple night and day until the deadline on Friday at midnight.

The recorders called everyone who had an appointment and told them about the deadline. They then told them that if they were willing, we could perform their ordinance during the night. Beginning Wednesday morning, the temple was booked solid until Friday at midnight.

Our shift started Thursday afternoon, and we worked until Friday morning. It was perhaps the most amazing night of my life. I officiated an endowment session at 1:00 in the morning. Lisa escorted a bride who got married at 3:00 in the morning. This bride also had a small miracle. It was kind of sad, because things happened so quickly, they were unable to have any family or friends join them. They were getting married without anyone with them.

As it turned out, a very close friend of hers was the sister of Patriarch McPhie. The friend called her brother, Patriarch McPhie, and told him about her dear friend and asked if he would be able to perform the sealing. Even though they didn’t know each other, it was still special and kind of like having surrogate family perform her sealing.

Sealing a Family

My wife is a convert to the church, so she has a lot of ancestors who need their work done in the temple. When she finds a new family, she takes a paper clip and clips the members of the family together. She puts the name of the father on top, followed by the name of the mother, and then each of the children from oldest to youngest. In this way she has all the entire family together. All of her families are in little bundles like this. She even writes on the back of each card how she is related to that person.

When we take these families to the temple, she hands them over to the sealer and the first thing he does is remove the paper clip and puts the couples to be sealed in one pile, the sons to be sealed to their parents in another pile, and the daughters to be sealed to their parents in a third pile. This is obviously the most efficient way of doing it, but it about breaks my poor wife’s heart to see her family “figuratively” broken up like that.

One time when we were sealing some of Lisa’s families Patriarch McPhie was our sealer. Lisa handed him her families all gathered together with little paper clips, and he was about to remove the paperclips and then he stopped. He asked her if these were all families. She told him that they were. He then said, “would you like to seal them as families instead of separately?” My wife then said, “you can do that?”

It was amazing and a much different experience than sealing them separately. They have the father kneel on one end of the altar and the mother on the other end, and then the kids are all on the sides of the altar. What a wonderful experience that was.

Sister Leavitt was then looking at her families and saw one family with eight children. She was excited but then realized we didn’t have enough people to stand in for all the kids. We were two brothers short. As she was putting the family back in her pocket, two brothers walked into the room and asked if they could join us. Another miracle. We then gathered the family around the altar. These altars were not designed for ten grown adults. We were all squished together, and it was hot and sweaty, but it was amazing. The spirit was so strong, and we knew that this family was in that room with us. What an amazing experience. Everyone left that day uplifted and strengthened.

A week or two later Sr Leavitt was at the temple and a man comes up to her and says, “It’s you! You’re the lady who sealed her ancestor’s family all at once around the altar.” I got to be one of the sons. Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of that.”

These are the kind of experiences you will have at the temple. Think of this as you attend the open house. Make sure your friends all come with you so they too can feel of the spirit that will be there.

Dad, Tell Me About the Time (60)

 Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Do you have any grandkids? How many?

I have lots of grandkids and I love it. Let me see if I can name them all.

Justin & Kira

Evan
Landon
Cameron
Piper

Brandon & Ally

Griffin
Sydney
Hayley
Rosalie
Cooper
Mackenzie
Charlotte
Grayson
Finn

Ben & Sharley

Mariah
Zanee
Lanee
Jack
Freddie
Kit

Trevor & Alycia

Ella
Sawyer
Holden
Kit

Alex & Lisa

James
Adelaide

Sam & Sarah

Ezzy
Skye

That is a total of twenty-seven grandkids.

What do you like to do with your free time?

What free time? I don’t have a lot of free time but when I do get some, I love to run. I still love to run but I was recently diagnosed with arthritis in my left knee. Normally I don’t feel more than the occasional twinge unless I do run. I can get four or five miles in before it becomes really painful. I need this knee to last another twenty years, so I’ve decided no more running for me. I now ride my bike. It is great because I can cover four times the miles in the same time but you do feel closer to nature when you’re running. I guess if I need to feel close to nature I’ll go for a walk. That is fun too.

I also love working in my yard. It is really coming along. Something is killing my tomatoes, but the rest is doing great.

What is a goal you are currently pursuing?

The goal that dominates my life right now is to get my smoker working well enough so that I can sell it.

Once that is done then I really want to make a thermoelectric generator that will work over a small campfire.

A parallel goal is to get my immediate backyard completely finished. I am almost there. All I have to do now is to add the rest of the capstones and then put in accent lighting.

After that I will move on to the side yard. I am very anxious to terrace the hill, but I really need to do the side yard first.

At what age do you plan on retiring?

Let me first define what retiring means to me. I love what I do, and I plan to die in my shop. Why would I ever stop doing something that I love so much?

With that said, retiring to me means that I can work on what I want to work on whenever I want to work on it. I have a lot of flexibility right now, but I want to get to the point that I can just stop and go on a trip for two or three weeks, or maybe go on a mission. I can’t do that just yet.

Maybe another year or two?

If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

San Diego!!! Why would I leave here? I love everything about San Diego except for the cost of living.

What new hobbies have you started up?

Let’s be clear, it isn’t a hobby I would have chosen, but Lisa wanted to go Scottish Country Line Dancing, and I have to admit, it is a lot of fun, and it does keep me moving. That is important at my age.

Do you have any physical challenges?

My first response was going to be, NONE. As I thought about it though, realized that if it wasn’t for modern medicine, I would be very handicapped. 

The first thing to go was my right knee, but a meniscectomy about twenty years ago took care of that.

The next thing to go was my eyes. I had pretty bad strabismus, but strabismus surgery took care of that.

The next thing to go was otosclerosis in my right ear but a stapedectomy took care of that.

The most recent problem is arthritis in my left knee (notably not the knee with the meniscectomy). So far there is no cure for arthritis, but I learned about it early on, so an abundance of care and protection should keep me going as long as I have left.

So at the moment, I have no physical challenges.

Dad, Tell Me About the Time (59)

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

What is the worst thing about living without the kids?

I’m always working on different projects around the house, but two things are making these projects more difficult. One, I’m getting older and I’m not as strong as I used to be, so it is difficult to lift heavy objects and two, I used to always have a strong child around to help me lift heavy and awkward objects. Lisa does what she can to help, but she isn’t as strong as a teenage boy.

On a more serious note, I really miss being an intimate part of my kids’ lives. 

If you could go back in time and do something differently, what would it be?

There are many things I’d do differently if I were able to go back to my teenage years, but I assume this is asking about my child rearing years. I think I’ll answer both questions.

If I were able to go back to being twelve years old, knowing what I know now, I’d be much more social. I’d try and get involved in more things outside my own little world and I would try and make more friends outside my comfort zone. Both male and female.

I have very few regrets about my life after I met Lisa, but I would definitely try and be more patient, I’d get less worked up about things that don’t really matter, and I’d try better at not getting drawn into an argument.

Outside of my family life, I’d probably make a career change when I was let go from Kyocera. I went back to Hi-Z because it was easy, it was less disruptive to my family, and I did still hold out hope that I could make it a financial success. Knowing what I know now, I think I may have tried to get a job with an aerospace company. That would have been fun.

Even as I say that though, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I felt inspired by the spirit to make the choices I made, and I love my life as it is. I love my work, and it would have been tough on the kids to pack them up and move while they were in high school. 

Dad, Tell Me About the Time (58)

Monday, June 23, 2025

Now that your kids are grown, what is a typical day like for you?

Compared to life with children at home, life as an empty nester is boring. That is a double-edged sword because sometimes it is wonderful to not have to worry about homework, school sports, bedtimes, are your kids ready for what lies ahead of them, are they choosing good friends, and a hundred other things that occupy your time and thoughts.

But at the same time, you miss them! You miss them a lot, and you still worry about them but now there is nothing you can do about their choices and little you can do to help them. Of course, you still support them, you celebrate their successes and mourn with them over their failures or when they face what seems like insurmountable challenges. You try and be with them when they need you, but that isn’t always possible.

Even still, there is nothing like the freedom of an empty nester. Lisa and I spontaneously saying, let’s go to a movie tonight, but it’s a school night you think, and then you remember, who cares?

Or Lisa comes to me and says, I signed us up for a dance class. You think, do we have time for that and you answer yourself and say, yes, I do.

How is it different from when you were younger?

See the above response.

What is the best part of being an empty nester?

Planning a life for two people is so much easier than planning a life for eight. When we go to an amusement park we only need to buy two tickets and we go on the rides we want to, we don’t need to worry about anyone else.

Dinner for two is so much more affordable than dinner for eight plus I now get senior discounts. I get to focus on my wife and my meal and I don’t have to worry about whether my kids are eating or not or if they’re fighting or making too much noise.

If we need to travel to a far-off city we will often fly because two tickets are cheaper than the gas to drive a car there.

What is something you would like to do now that the kids are grown?

I love my work, and I love designing and building things. Fortunately, I’m still doing that, but unfortunately, I’m not in a situation financially where I can officially retire. I would love to just continue doing what I’m doing but without the financial pressure to be successful. It would be great to just put my work on hold and go visit the kids for a week or two.

When I’m not working in my shop, I love working in my garden. I would like to spend more time in my garden. While I don’t care to travel as much as Lisa does, she really wants to travel, and I love to be with her so I expect we will be going on a lot more trips. Lisa really wants to do some genealogy trips to Scotland, Ireland, Denmark etc. I want to see those places as well, but I would also like to throw in some sandy beaches and sun. I’d like to go to Israel as well but I think we’ll put that trip on hold for a bit.

What did you love about having children in your home?

When a child is first born, they are so sweet and cuddly, and you can’t help but love them. The joy of a beautiful creation so recently with God more than compensates for sleepless nights and dirty diapers.

Once that child is old enough to have a mind of its own, and is capable of doing damage to itself and its surroundings, but still too young to have a meaningful discussion about things, then they are not fun to be around. That happens around two years old.

Once you can have a conversation with the child, and can reason with them, then they are fun again. That happens somewhere between three and four. Now you can explain to them that if you yell for them to stop, it is because they are in danger, like running into a busy street. If you tell them to stay with you in a busy store, it is because you don’t want them to get lost. If they do get lost, they are old enough to be scared and they now understand why you asked them to stay close.

At this point, they are a joy in your life because you can start to see into their minds, and you can see their personalities. I love how their personalities differ widely from child to child, you can see their strengths and you can help them shore up their weaknesses.

They are a joy to you and as they get older, your discussions with them become more meaningful and your love and bond grows to the point that you are almost bursting with joy.

I think this joy peaks when they reach their early teens. At this point, if you have managed to create a strong bond and trust.

They continue to communicate with you, and you can still see them grow and mature but at the same time they begin to have enough confidence that they start making their own decisions. They have always made their own decisions but now their confidence is strong enough that they will often choose to ignore what they know that you want them to do and do what they want to do. You can still discuss their choices, and if you see real danger in what they want to do you can often override their choices, but usually you have to let them make choices you disagree with.

Usually these are harmless choices and are only a matter of opinion. Sometimes their choices are going to hurt them, but only in a temporary way, and the consequences of bad decision are a part of them growing. Sometimes their choices are going to cause permanent harm, and they will choose to make that wrong choice no matter what you do.

That is painful and hurts you as much or more than it hurts them. If you’re lucky, they can see the harm they did to themselves and come back to you. If you’re not lucky, they will sometimes head down a path of self-destruction and they will miss out on much joy and will sometimes face a lot of pain and misery.

While all of my children have made decisions that hurt them, I am so grateful that all of them have chosen a path that continues to bring them and me great joy.

I guess to answer the question. What I love most about having children in my home are our long discussions, often late into the night. While I still have those discussions, it just isn’t the same over a telephone. 

Dad, Tell Me About the Time (57)

Thursday, June 19, 2025

What advice would you give your children?

Don’t make any decision while you are scared or angry. Always sleep on any major decision before you make the decision.

What is the craziest thing one of your kids ever did?

This is a tough one. I don’t think my memory is good enough for this. While it may not be a “crazy” thing, I’ll try and think of something significant and out of the ordinary that each kid did.

Kira moved to Arizona.
Brandon went to court for the first time alone, without a mentor or advisor.
Ben bought chickens
Alycia coached high school lacrosse
Alex moved to Germany
Sarah quit her job and asked a dentist to hire her with no training

How has being a parent changed you?

Being a parent has changed me in every way possible. I am…

•   More patient                              •   Kinder
•   Gentler                                       •   Baldness
•   Think of others first                   •   More gray hair
•   Less selfish                                •   More charitable
•   More of a peacemaker               •   A greater love for kids

Dad, Tell Me About the Time (56)

Wednesday, June 187, 2025

How are chores divided between males and females in your family?

We didn’t divide chores based on gender. We had a job chart, and it rotated every week. We didn’t care when they did their job, but it had to be done by Saturday. Weekdays were busy with sports and practices so the kids usually waited to do their jobs on the weekend, but they quickly figured out that if they wanted to hang out with friends on the weekend, they had to get their jobs done early. I can’t remember what exactly was on the job chart but cleaning their rooms would have been on every kid’s list. They would have rotated between cleaning bathrooms, family room, kitchen etc. 

What are some thoughtful things your kids have done for you over the years?

When they lived at home, the kids would often give us nice home-made cards with their heartfelt thank-you’s in them. Not so much as adults, but we still get cards from some of the kids. Every once in a while, they will come together and do something amazing like the photo album I described on Monday, September 16, 2024, and posted in my blog on September 18, 2024.

They have done other random things as well, like

    -    take us on cruises
    -     helped out on trips to Europe and Canada
    -     giving us old cars
    -     flown out to be with me during difficult times or to help with jobs that are too big for me to handle by myself
    -     I love how we are always included in fun activities like running races and floating down rivers.
    -     We also know that we are always welcome in their homes.

The one thing that all the kids do (some more than others) is to call us regularly to just chat. That is probably more meaningful than anything.

How did you teach your children what is essential in life?

I’m not sure how to answer this. I don’t think I ever sat them down and taught them this lesson. I guess I probably did it more like my dad did. Through example and random comments when we’re together. I would say things like:

“If you love what you do for a career then you will never work a day in your life.”

“No one ever said on their death bed that they wished they had spent more time at the office”.

“The only thing you can take with you to the next life are your relationships with other people”.

“The only organization from our mortal lives that will exist in the next life are our families”.

I think some of this got through.