I figured out how to really obey the Word of Wisdom.
D&C 89:7
And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies.
Next Sunday I will douse myself liberally with whiskey before I head to church. Let all know, and smell, how righteous I am.
I had the odd experience stretching a tendon lately. I was talking to a trainer type who said my hamstrings seemed tight. Did I want help stretching them? Sure. (I don’t know that what happened next was actually a good idea, I am not recommending it). I laid down, put my leg up, and then he leaned into it. He pushed it to the point I normally go which is the point where it really hurts. Then he pushed it farther to a pain so intense it was all consuming, I had nothing to compare it with. Then he pushed my foot down. The pain became so much it was almost a transcendent experience. This is hard to describe. It was like I had gone beyond ordinary sensation to the point where I was almost dissassociated. Mentally it felt almost like transcedence, no joke. Then he stopped and something happened that has only happened before when I have done an exercise to the literal point of muscle failure where the muscle literally just won’t move any more. I burst out laughing.
I had the odd experience of resisting a temptation lately. (more…)
We are all supposed to be a little amused at the fundy types who won’t drink cokes because tea and coffee have caffeine.
(Actually there’s no bad reason to not drink coke.)
The fundy approach is assuming there is a general principle behind the specific rules from the Word of Wisdom, trying to figure out what the Word of Wisdom general principle, and then applying it generally.
That’s their logic with caffeine. They reason that coffee and tea should be avoided because they contain lots of addictive caffeine and therefore maybe we should avoid other products with high levels of caffeine. And we are supposed to think this is stupid and low class. How ignorant to think that the commandments are unknowable and arbitrary. How nekulturny to trying to be an agent instead of just doing exactly what they are told and only what they are told. How pharisaical.
Whereas the Pharisees were doing something in the opposite direction. Putting a hedge about the law means making extra sure you try not to violate any arbitrary commandment. Generalizing means assuming they aren’t arbitrary.
The reality is that treating the commandments as arbitrary and unknowable is stagnant and small. Whether its in big areas like sex roles or the male priesthood or in little things like coffee and tea.
The real problem with the fundy approach is they don’t generalize enough. Instead of just looking at coffee and tea they should be looking at the entire thing. (more…)
The Dark was rising. It spread its influence over the land. It captured institutions, customs, lands — it put more and more peoples into its thrall.
When this had happened before, each time a Champion had arisen. Blessed with power and light from the Great God of Light and War and Justice, the Champion led the people with his blazing sword in driving back the lords of the Dark.
But this time no Champion came. One by one the peoples fell into the hands of the Dark powers.
Finally, of all the free peoples all that was left was a little band of a few hundred gathered around a hill to where they had been driven, awaiting the final assault of the Dark hordes in the morning.
They would fight and die.