Neurodiverse He Created Them

I think it is less an issue of neurodiversity, and more just the way things are described without diagrams. Makes for dull reading, at least for modern readers.

A dozen years ago a family reading of Exodus changed that book for me. Up through chapter 20, the Ten Commandments is familiar narrative; my elders’ quorum working together would likely do a fairly good job recreating it from memory. Then there is the second half, as Zen says, verbal blueprints of the tabernacle, which makes for dry reading. But maybe that is only when one is reading it alone silently. Somehow reading it together night after night it was very lively as we got into the rhythms of taches and sockets, embroideries of a bell and pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, and the the refrain that we were all waiting for and repeated together: “shittim wood overlaid with gold.” I brought it up several weeks ago as the recent Washington DC temple house reminded me of it, and the older boys still remember that experience with Exodus fondly.

An aspect of Exodus 21-40 that G has indicated an appreciation for is the overt, earthly physicality of the tabernacle that comes out of reading a lengthy description of it. All leading up to to the last five verses: “Moses finished his work,” then a cloud covers the tabernacle and it is filled with the glory of the Lord.

In a similar vein of “I guess some people like it,” from my reading this morning:

“To house the meetings for the many quorums, the seventies constructed their own Seventies Hall, which was completed that winter. On December 26 1844, the Twelve presided over the first of several days of dedicating the new seventies hall as a home for fifteen quorums. That day many of the Twelve and the Seven presidents sat on the stand. Senior presidents of each of the seventies quorums sat on the right, a choir on the left, and a brass band in front.”

That has really impressed me in the D&C. You will have the most profound doctrine, then purely Temporal directions – do this, let so&so go on a mission. They seem to be intertwined.

Zen: apparently, that dichotomy only exists in our fallen-state mortal viewpoint. And, maybe it’s only in our Western Civ mindset/framework — I wonder if the dichotomy exists in traditional Eastern ways of thinking.

And I wonder if it’s also a product of the Enlightenment — did pre-Enlightenment Western thought have this spiritual-versus-temporal dichotomy?

To the Lord, it’s all one — DC 29:34-35.
34 Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal; neither any man, nor the children of men; neither Adam, your father, whom I created.
35 Behold, I gave unto him that he should be an agent unto himself; and I gave unto him commandment, but no temporal commandment gave I unto him, for my commandments are spiritual; they are not natural nor temporal, neither carnal nor sensual.