The Curmudgeonly Professor: LDS Temples

One thing old age teaches you, one thing that old people feel qualified to talk about, is their experience in surviving the bumps and bruises of life. Old people know what it's like, not just for a few years as a child or as a teenager or as a young parent or even as a middle-aged person, to face and survive the trials, indignities, and struggles of life. And the aged can teach you a thing or two about looking for the light. We sometimes search for "the light at the end of the tunnel," or the silver lining through the clouds, or the rainbow with its pot of gold. As a teacher we try to help students "see the light," to see the meaning of complex ideas and concepts, and we rejoice when the light goes on, in that moment when the student proudly announces, "I get it!"

Some times we think the light will never come. We think we will never see a solution to a problem, that we will never be healed from an illness, that we have lost everything that is important to us. During these uncertain and troubled times, we must seek and wait patiently for the light. The light does not always shine, so we must seek the light and wait for it to shine on us. Photographers look for the golden light, for the bright rays of sunshine at dusk that turn the landscape into incomparable shades of purple and gold and red. And then we take a picture to remind us of what the light is, how it shines on us, and how it lifts our spirits.

The best light, however, is often fleeting so we must watch for it and capture it when it comes. The golden light of dusk and sundown will last only briefly, and you must be ready and watching and waiting to capture it so that it can illuminate your life every time you look at the photograph that records the light. A picture taken in the "magic light" of day illuminates hillsides and trees and mountain ridges not clearly seen during the rest of the day. Such a picture shows the beauty of even the most seemingly insignificant flowers and clouds and landscapes, and we see life in a new and more hopeful and more precious perspective.

Some day, the light will come to you if you search for it. Whether by thought, or prayer, or faith, or encouragement and love from others, the light will come. Whether the light lasts an instant or an hour or a day, we treasure the light, the insights we gain from opening our minds and our souls to a spirit of hope. No matter how many days or months or years are left to us in this mortal probation, we can search for and then let the light shine, for others as well as for ourselves.