When I started blogging about our mission experience a few months ago, I intended to write every week. It has now been almost a month since my last posting, and it is time to catch up on our adventure. We hit a bump in the road of our preparations, which I call a lag error. To explain a lag error, I’ll refer to an experience I had many years ago working in the theatre when I first learned about lag errors. I’ll take my account from my personal journal that I was writing at the time.
Oct. 29, 2014: At BYU Spectacular this year, we used the phrase “Take Flight” as our theme. We chose to celebrate the arts at BYU and the power art plays in our lives. The main ideas were that art serves for the enjoyment of mankind and as an instrument of God, and that art lifts us out of the mundane aspects of our lives. We invited the fantasy artist and former faculty and alum James Christensen as our guest host. We built the theme around James and a character from many of his paintings, his Everyman. James talked with Everyman in a conversational manner, revealing the message of our program. At the end of our production, we planned to have Everyman don a pair of homemade wings, take flight from the stage, and soar over the audience.
To accomplish the flying trick, we hired a company from Las Vegas called Flying by Foy. It was a complicated and expensive rig to install in the Marriott Center. We practiced for hours, programming the computers that ran the flying operation. The system was safe in that if it ever detected an anomaly, it would not engage the motors that lifted our actor off the stage. In our many hours of practice, the flying engineers troubleshot every location in the flight routine that caused the rig to malfunction. The malfunction points were indicated on the computer as lag errors. There were four motors that worked in concert to lift our actor and maneuver him around the room. A lag error was generally observed when one of the motors had not taken the proper slack from the line.
Pat Debenham as Everyman, Homecoming Spectacular 2014, BYU
On the final performance of our show, at the climax when Everyman runs downstage and is lifted over the orchestra, the computer gave us the dreaded lag error and Everyman did not fly. It was disappointing. We re-cued the show and made a second attempt. Once again, we received a lag error. The show ended, to our great disappointment without the effect we worked so hard to achieve. Otherwise, we had a terrific performance.
Pat in a successful flight during a dress rehearsal
Time has now passed, and I’ve reflected over the experience and decided there are two lessons I choose to learn from this. After I work on a show for an entire year there comes a time when I must let go and entrust it to the talents and expertise of other gifted artists. For the show to succeed there cannot be any lag errors in the various departments. Audio, lighting, staging, costuming, music, choreography, etc. must all work together in proper harmony and tension. If any area of production has slack in its line it is quite likely that we will register a metaphorical lag error and the show will not accomplish what we set out to do. BYU Spectacular is a complicated production, and it is a tribute to many talented individuals that we rise to performance level after only one dress rehearsal. Lag errors seldom occur and when they do, we work fast and hard to resolve the problem. For example, we registered a “lag error” at our dress rehearsal when the director of the Men’s Chorus could not hear her choir over the top of the orchestra. She was agitated and unhappy. As far as she was concerned, her efforts were wasted, and not only her efforts, but also the efforts of the 180 men in her chorus. This was a significant enough lag error that it threatened the over-all integrity of the performance. Our chief audio engineer worked for hours through the night and the next day resolving the problem. By our opening performance, the lag error had been removed, the choir sounded fantastic, and our choir director was satisfied with her choir’s participation in our program. A lag error had been resolved.
On a more spiritual level we are also potentially subject to lag errors. Our Father in Heaven’s plan of happiness is likewise built and engineered to err on the side of safety. That is why we have a Savior, and more importantly why we have the Atonement. If we hope to rise to our full potential, we must ensure all motors are fully engaged and there is no slack in any of the lines. If our lives are not in full harmony, if we are slow to remember our prayers, scripture study is forgotten, or we slip into a few bad habits, at the crucial time of lift off we may find ourselves with a lag error.
Preparatory to applying for our mission, we had to complete a physical examination with our doctor. In the bloodwork done at my appointment, an anomaly was detected that raised a red flag for a potential problem. My doctor recommended I follow-up with a specialist. I made an appointment with a doctor to review the findings, and he indeed appeared a little concerned. He ordered that I complete an MRI. Thus was the beginning of my lag error. The radiologist reported that my MRI indicated a high probability of cancer. Back at my specialist’s office, the next step was to acquire a set of biopsies from the tissue. After an uncomfortable procedure, I was sent home to wait for the results.
We dreaded every minute of our lag error. We ceased preparations of going to Hawaii. We tried, with great difficulty, to push the mission to the back or our minds. We avoided talking about our mission if possible. If someone asked if we were excited, or how we were doing, we side-stepped the topic as quickly as possible. We didn’t want to engage anyone in our situation. It was deeply saddening for us. I wasn’t upset about the possibility of cancer, its treatment, or my probable decline in general health as much as that this might mean the end to our plans to fulfill the mission.
To our tremendous relief and joy, the pathology report came back with all tissue samples benign for cancer. My doctor gave me a clean bill of health and his blessing to go off and serve the people of Hawaii. The lag error had been cancelled, and we are now allowed to re-cue for the continuation to Take Flight in this next grand journey.
Lag errors seem built into the system to protect us, and to protect others around us. They give us opportunity to reflect on what is most important in life and remind us of our humanity. I’m grateful my lag error raised the flag for a potential problem. I’m more grateful that it resolved so easily and blessed us with a glorious warmth and peace. We are moving forward once again, and we seem to be back on track. We are now down to 76 days before our departure, and all systems are GO.