Choir Notes

Look Around You

From Music and the Spoken Word

Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4317

A traveler once pulled into a gas station and asked the attendant how far it was to the Grand Canyon. "About 170 miles” was the answer.

"What’s it like there?” the traveler asked.

"I don’t know. I’ve never been there,” the attendant answered.

The traveler was shocked. "You mean to tell me you live this close to the Grand Canyon and you’ve never visited it?” Then he thought for a moment and said, "I guess I can understand that. I live in New York City, and I’ve never visited the Statue of Liberty.”

The gas station attendant exclaimed, "I’ve been there!”1

When was the last time you visited a place of interest in your community? Do we sometimes become so accustomed to our surroundings that we are blind to the beauty around us?

Field trips are not just for school children. Whether it’s down the street or across the town, there are many things to see and experience in every community: a historical marker, a walking trail, a museum, a factory or farm, a sanctuary or garden, to name just a few.

A daughter, now grown with children of her own, fondly remembers how her father would occasionally pile the family in a car and go on a Saturday field trip—after the chores were done. They did not have time or money to go very far, but they discovered all kinds of sights and adventures close to home. Now she tries to do the same with her family.

You don’t need to get in an airplane and fly across time zones to go on a field trip. Right where you live there are things to learn about and do, discoveries to be made, and sights to see.

Look around you. Don’t let the opportunities pass you by. Don’t let the school children have all the fun.

1 See Steven E. Snow, "Gratitude,” Ensign, Nov. 2001, 43.