When I'm 64

 Will you still need me, will you still feed me When I'm sixty-four?

64th Birthday Cake

Last weekend Felicia and I rented a SXS and went upt to Mount Lemmon.

The suspension on the Polaris RZR we rented was really good allowing us to drive very fast over lots of rocks and obstacles without slowing down much or losing control. The key element in a suspension is the shock absorber. One is shown clearly in the picture above. 

A shock absorber consists of a spring and a damper. The spring compresses and expands to react to loading and unloading due to bumps in the road. Without the spring, the sharp force of each bump would be transmitted through the frame directly to the driver making it very hard to maintain control or comfort at speed. The damper provides resistance proportional to the speed of the spring compression or expansion. It keeps the spring and vehicle body attached to it from oscillating endlessly resulting in another kind of control problem. When the spring and damper are tuned correctly a driver can go very traverse rocky terrain and not be diverted or lose control.

Recently the seal holding the damping fluid in my motorcycle rear shock absorber burst causing a reduction in damping and a loss of some control. The rear would start to oscillate up and down while I was riding. 

No Damping, No Control

 Repairing the shock absorber restored control and confidence when riding difficult terrain.

Good Shock Absorber, Good Control

In life, our personal spiritual strength and resilience is like the spring on the shock absorber allowing us to take the impact of life's challenges without damage. The church provides the damping to keep us from oscillating wildly from external disturbances. The two together allow us to move forward to our ultimate goal without losing control. We recently had training in High Council regarding the difference between Doctrine, Principles, and Policy in the church. I'll cover that in a later post.