The next night after dreaming about the drowning prophet, I had this dream.

It was on the huge capital city of a decaying interstellar empire. The capital itself was run down. It had grand old architecture and futuristic architecture too but it was subject to the late-stage processes of physical and moral decay we are all familiar with at that stage in a civilization. It was dirty.  It was shabby.

There were refugees. They were simple rural folk of the founding stock of the empire, perhaps even from elsewhere on the planet. They had fled their homes because of natural disaster and because of the devouring of all things that happens in decaying, corrupt polities. Like everyone and everything, they had gravitated to the imperial center.

I will pass on describing the atmosphere of the dream at this point, but it struck me immensely. The cobble stone streets, the stone and brick and stucco buildings rising many feet high only a step or two from the road. The heaps of trash. The gleaming metal arches crossing half the sky overhead. The broken drones. The sullen police standing by and staring vacantly at the middle distance.

The refugees were widely disliked by both the high and the low in the city and as the dream began a number of them were being casually chivvied through the nighttime streets by street gangs.

There was a man they were particularly after who had some sort of preeminence among the refugees, though he was also simple and uneducated.

Turning down one street he saw a door opening directly onto the street for a large imposing structure. Blank towering walls, fortress type architecture. His pursuers were close behind. He stepped in and the refugees with him came in also.

It was a college. Inside the door was a hall, the entrance area for the college, and it so happened that the dean of the college was standing there. The rural refugee and the dean recognized each other with some shock. Brother? Brother?  They were literal siblings.

(more…)

When I first heard this idea, I was horrified. Yet, even bad ideas in the hands of a talented author can be well written. Hollywood, in general, just isn’t well written.

What I imagine…

Young 15 year old Aragorn is pining after Arwen, and Elrond can see there are mutual feelings.

Elrond and Aragorn chat for a minute…

“Do you love her? She is a princess and she deserves a king.”

“I don’t know that I could become king. Or if I want to.“, Aragorn protested, more out of trying grasp the magnitude of this task, than genuine rejection.

“It is your gift, what some might call destiny. If you do not do it, you will feel dissatisfied all your life. It will weigh on you as a burden you can never put down. What was once fresh will become foul. If you are capable of it, and refuse, you curse yourself.

And I will not allow my daughter to marry someone who refuses to live up to his potential. I am not faulting your father’s. Their trials were different. But you can be king. You are the rightful king of Gondor.

Will you do what is necessary?”

“I really don’t know how.”

“No one can tell you how. That is your life’s work to figure that out.”

And with that, the difference between men and elves became immediately apparent. Aragorn wasted no moment. He devoured books and maps. He practiced sword play with Elladan and Elrohir. He learned all he could in Rivendell, until he knew what he had to do. A king could not stay safe within an Elvin kingdom all his life. He needed real experience. And he rode off into parts unknown, far lands where the stars are strange, among both noble barbarian kings and vicious savages, that even the Noldor knew little of.

For the love of an elven princess.

This is his tale.

The beasts were preparing for a great assembly at which to choose their next king.  The candidates were a lion or a wildcat.  One bird spent all its time for many months of its short life flying back and forth all over the wild telling every critter it could find that the wildcat was a menace to birdkind and all small things.  The assembly happened, and perhaps in some small part due to the bird’s efforts, the animals chose the lion.

The bird flew back to its favorite tree.  Safe–but with no nest, no mate, and no younglings.

The bird died sad with no descendants.

(more…)

Who are these dashed people one sees everywhere on the TV these days?  The woman of indeterminate pronunciation and the elderly bridge player fellow?  I dare say that the marked American cussedness is more than a little marked.  In fine fettle, as it were.

On the sweetness of your second primary program this year.

(more…)

In Sunday School this Sunday someone summarized 3 Nephi 8-10 as “Christ punishes and pleads.”  There is a magnificent oratorio waiting to be written from those chapters culminating in Christ’s appearance.

In 3 Ne 11 (insight not my own), the people first hear, then see, then touch.  Amazingly physical.  Amazingly bodily.  Appropriate for the resurrected Lord.

Source: Area Seventies page at ChurchofJesusChrist.org
(more…)

What if the fairy tales were true?

Once upon a time, there was a boy who found a great treasure in the woods…

Christ’s in his heaven,

delightful’s his earth,

The Saints are a leaven,

bubbling with mirth.

https://nitter.poast.org/UniverseBYU/status/1848507056581709921

I just took G’s numbers and did a crude simulation.

These are for US national and LDS numbers, where P0 is the childbearing population and P1 is the older non childbearing. Can you tell the difference?

We are the one with the tiny bump. But both show a half life of childbearing population of about 50 years and a total population of roughly 150. Basically indistinguishable.

This is a crude simulation and I don’t promise there are no mistakes. Still, all is NOT well in Zion.

And just for fun, this is the ratio of childbearing vs non-childbearing populations.

So, mostly old people.

The grandmaster is back.

As both Zen and Bruce Charlton have pointed out here, having low birth rates is bad but having low birth rates that are dropping is worse.

It’s bad if your expenses exceed your income.  Its worse if every year your income gets smaller and your expenses get larger.

Here’s the bottom line.  Based on recent trends, the really low American birth rates are declining by about 1.5% per year.  Based on recent trends, the low LDS birth rates are declining by 3.43% per year.

At these rates of decline, it will take America 52  years to get to the catastrophically low unprecedented birthrates of South Korea.  YtSK=52.  For the LDS, 34 years.  YtSK=34.

However, there is some small glimmer of hope in the LDS numbers for the last couple of years.

(Figures are based on limited data, should be treated as ballpark and directional only).

From here.  There was another drop in 2023.  The number of births per is now 54.4.

The  implication is that every year more people look around and decide to have less children, or no children.

I don’t believe we will continue to decline at the same rate.  It will slow once we catch up (catch down?) to the Gentile population.  The gospel is true and beautiful but for many LDS in First World countries the fruits of the gospel are increasingly only in areas that are unmeasurable and intangible.

Analysis below for those who are interested.

(more…)

After a lengthy delay, we return with more Isaiah!

As I mentioned in the previous post, chapters 40 & 41:1-20 are the gospel proclaimed, to Israel. In the next post, this will be extended to the Gentiles. But this has more depth than you might guess at first glance. The central part of this chiasmus askes the question, Do you really understand, or believe the Doctrine of the Creation? Then we look at future events (it would have been future events for the people of Isaiah’s time) and ask, Do you still believe God is in control? Let’s look at this in more detail.

Three Voices of Comfort (40:1-11)
* The Voice of him that crieth in the wilderness  (40:3-5)
* What shall I cry? All flesh is grass (40:6-8)
* O Zion that bringeth good tidings… say unto the cities of Judah, Behold! Your God!  (40:9-11)

The Lord is a Creator, who rules his Creation (40:12-31)
The Lord is the Ruler of history and of the world  (41:1-7)

Three Examples of Comfort (41:8-20)
* I will help thee (41:8-13)
* From worm to harvesting mountains (41:14-16)
* Needy sustained in the desert (41:17-20)

(more…)

Success is dangerous, but good.

Elder Bednar this conference taught that success is a challenge.  Our choices can make it a curse.

He was talking about the Book of Mormon, and of course this is a very Book of Mormon viewpoint.  The promised land is blessed and cursed and the blessing and the cursing are the same.  At one level, the blessing and the cursing are that here the people will get what they deserve.  At an even deeper level, the blessing and the cursing are that any little bit of righteousness will get rewarded with success, and our choices too often make success into a curse.

Whether we live in the promised land or not, I believe we Saints have the same blessing and cursing.  If we try, we will often succeed–but that’s dangerous.

Many of us try to avoid the danger.  Probably we shouldn’t.  Elder Bednar’s point isn’t that success is bad.  It’s that success is a challenge.

Success with humility is godliness.