{"id":67581,"date":"2018-11-21T02:43:10","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T09:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=67581"},"modified":"2018-11-21T02:43:10","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T09:43:10","slug":"my-mercenary-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/11\/my-mercenary-ways.html","title":{"rendered":"My mercenary ways"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Brisbane Australia Temple (LDS.org)
I won\u2019t, alas, make it to Brisbane on this particular trip. I guess the folks there didn\u2019t offer me enough gold bullion and the private jet that I typically require?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the question is occasionally asked of me, and since it\u2019s recently generated a weird bit of excitement among a small handful of my more obsessive and implacable critics, I think I\u2019ll explain here what it requires to get me to come and do a fireside.\u00a0 However, I\u2019ll leave untreated the even more fundamentally important question of why anybody would want<\/em> me to come for a fireside.\u00a0 That remains, perhaps, one of the insoluble mysteries of mortal life in this fallen world.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

So:\u00a0 What does it take for me to come and do a fireside or public lecture?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

First of all, it requires an invitation.\u00a0 I never invite myself.\u00a0 (Left on my own, on the whole . . . well, I\u2019m quite content to be left on my own.\u00a0 I have plenty to do.)\u00a0 If it\u2019s to be at a private home or to a private group, a private invitation is all that\u2019s necessary.\u00a0 If I\u2019m to speak in a chapel, though, somebody with appropriate authority needs to do the inviting.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Second, it needs to fit into my calendar. \u00a0I can only do so many of these. \u00a0And, since my calendar is complex, with university classes and lots of travel and other obligations, and since it tends to be filled up well in advance, the invitation needs to be extended fairly early.\u00a0 If the fireside is close to my home or close to where I might be otherwise staying, that makes things somewhat easier.\u00a0 But I\u2019ve had to turn down quite a few invitations that I would like to have accepted, simply because they couldn\u2019t be made to work on my schedule.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next, although I never expect an honorarium or a speaker\u2019s fee and have received one only on extremely rare occasions\u2014perhaps two or three times in my entire life\u2014if special travel and lodging will be required, they need to be covered or provided.\u00a0 (I don\u2019t know why, but my plan to become enormously wealthy by going into academics is seeming less and less likely to succeed.)\u00a0 I simply don\u2019t have the budget, whether through my BYU department or through the Interpreter Foundation or on my own, privately, to go out on public speaking tours.\u00a0 Now, travel and lodging can be handled in various ways.\u00a0 Some of my invitations to speak come through the BYU Alumni Association; I\u2019m on its \u201cSpeaker\u2019s Bureau\u201d<\/a> list. \u00a0Either the Association or one of its local chapters covers my travel and lodging.\u00a0 Sometimes, I\u2019m hosted and fed by local people, in their homes.\u00a0 Sometimes, when it works out, my wife and I stay with relatives.\u00a0 It varies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the fireside or speech is to be given within a reasonable radius of my home\u2014more or less along the Wasatch Front or maybe within the borders of Utah, or near where I\u2019m staying if I\u2019m traveling privately\u2014I often simply drive and, usually, am not even compensated for gasoline or for the use of my car.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s pretty much it, I think.\u00a0 Nothing mysterious.\u00a0 And, although my more oddball critics will still pretend not to believe that it could be so, nothing sinister or underhanded.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Since the question is occasionally asked of me, and since it\u2019s recently generated a weird bit of excitement among a small handful of my more obsessive and implacable critics, I think I\u2019ll explain here what it requires to get me to come and do a fireside.\u00a0 However, I\u2019ll leave untreated the even more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMy mercenary ways<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Since the question is occasionally asked of me, and since it\u2019s recently generated a weird bit of excitement among a small handful of my more\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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