This week you want to read Brother McConkie’s talk from last General Conference. Its about the man sick of palsy whose friends got him down through the roof to the Lord, Mark 2:1-12.
Conan, the mighty ruler of Aquilonia, sat atop his throne, his sharp gaze piercing through his subjects as they presented their grievances to him. The Barbarian King wasted no time in delivering swift and decisive justice to those who deserved it.
On the sweetness of Mormon life.
The happy buzz, people greeting people, your old patriarch offering you firewood driftwood from his wash. The padded seats. The Spirit as you raise your hand to sustain.
The light on the horizon at 6:00 AM on this late February morning brought a song back to mind. The summer before last (2021), the Killers put out the album Pressure Machine. At some point maybe I will write an analysis of it, which will be titled “Eleven Songs about Nephi, the town in Juab County.” The album is well worth an uninterrupted hour set aside to hear it continuously in order from end to end. My favorite of those eleven songs is the fifth, “Sleepwalker.”
Back from dropping off a son at seminary, I went into the backyard to take care of a small task suited to the time available before the sun would rise. And I pulled up a 1996 BYU speech from Elder Neal Maxwell, and in the way that sometimes happens when a thought has already entered the mind, I found in Maxwell’s words reminders of what I like in “Sleepwalker.”
I am so grateful for these intertwinings of our lives. I could say the same with regard to Elder Eyring. The manner in which our lives have intersected has been such a great blessing to me, and it is likewise so with Bruce Hafen and with so many more. It is a marvelous thing when the Lord gives us these experiences, and, of course, you have them as well.
Pray like the blond beast.
Be scripture the abyss into which you stare.
Last week I ran a Sunday School idea by you folks. Now I want to tell you what we did and how it went. (more…)
1. You can make the bed together; the wife can make it; the husband can make it, maybe he’s learned that crisp military style or something; the wife can make it some of the time and the husband can make it some of the time; some of these options are better than others; but they are all hugely better than one spouse making their half and leaving the other half for the other.
2. (a) For men, having good tools and being willing to ask male relatives and neighbors can substitute a lot for not being handy. (b) Yes, it can be daunting. If it weren’t, she wouldn’t appreciate you for taking it on. (c) Deciding you can’t fix it after trying isn’t a failure. Even the extremely competent guys you imagine in your head get to that point a lot.
Rather than see my wives and daughters ravished and polluted, and the seeds of corruption sown in the hearts of my sons by a brutal soldiery, I would leave my home in ashes, my gardens and orchards a waste, and subsist upon roots and herbs, a wanderer through these mountains for the remainder of my natural life.
-thus Brigham Young
In June 1858 a disgusted Johnston, as ordered, marched his men through abandoned Salt Lake City past Utah militiamen with torches at the ready in case of a federal misdeed.
Last night I had a dream.
In 202X, federally-sanctioned accreditors come to BYU to investigate rumors that the institution has been insufficiently compliant with the Current Thing. The accreditors have mentioned that insufficiently complying with the Current Thing will probably lead to BYU losing its accreditation. After all, it is 202X.
They come to an empty campus. The only people present are students wearing hard hats. They are demolition teams from the College of Engineering. The buildings are all wired with explosives. The boys from the engineering college stand by the plungers, grinning at the accreditors. One pats his plunger when the accreditors pass by.
The accreditors are abashed.
For whosoever shall save his life, shall lose it
Some guy who was an adjunct professor at BYU explains what he thinks is going wrong at BYU.
Caveats: (a) this is just one guy who was an adjunct professor at BYU’s opinion and (b) we only have his word for it that he was an adjunct professor at BYU (though I think he’s pretty credible).
The first link takes you to the first tweet in the series (no twitter account necessary). The second link has all the tweets combined into one document.
Okay, here it is, the beginning of the epic "What's going on at BYU?" thread. pic.twitter.com/XONBn00CwM
— J. Whitebread (aka J. Hewitt, Travis Lee Clark) (@JWhitebread1) February 20, 2023
Summary and comments below.
I was out of town this weekend, so I attended a different ward. Different, and yet so much the same. It was Fast Sunday there. (more…)
My wife knows an artist who is doing a piece for each of the days of creation. She showed me pictures of the completed ones. They are lovely.
But, my wife said, she is having trouble with the seventh day. How do you portray rest?
At the time I racked my brain for a suggestion and nothing came.
I’m thinking of doing an experiment for Sunday School.
I’m thinking of having everyone pick just one of the stories that we have in the reading from John–
–and and then just focusing on that one story from all sorts of angles. Metaphorically and spiritually but also temporal lessons. Looking at it from the point of view of each person involved. Seeing what it tells us about things past, things present, and the things of futurity.
What do you think?
I am worried that it sounds better in my head than it would work in practice.
No one builds boats any more, Noah.
That’s so last century.
The pain of unrealized lives. (more…)
For whom it may interest, the creator of Calvin & Hobbes has a new graphic novel for adults coming out titled, The Mysteries.
https://www.cbr.com/calvin-and-hobbes-bill-watterson-mature-book/