A bearded pilgrim without a pilgrimage was walking down a path when it forked.

He looked down the path to the one side and thought, “who knows, if I take this path I may end up coming to a village that needs a carpenter like me.  I settle down, marry a nice bouncy lass, have a brood of kids, rollick in the harvest festivals in the autumn, grumble about the scarce food with everyone else in the spring… and then when I am old, I will lie in my bed dying and think, was this all, what of the drums and bugles and clash of arms, what happened to the greatness I could have achieved?”

He looked down the path to the other side and thought, “who knows, if I take this path I may end up coming to a town where there is a sergeant taking recruits at the drumhead.  I will enlist, perform prodigies of valor, and due to  my strength and cunning and the casualties of war become an officer and a captain and a colonel.  Then I will throw off the strictures of my corrupt government, seize rule myself with my loyal men at my back, and then turn to the liberation of all the nearby countries till I am crowned emperor on the edge of the endless sea with all the known world at my feet behind me–and then when I am old, I will lie in bed dying and think, was this worth it, I left so much behind, what it is like to tell tales to your apple-cheeked children around the fire while the winter wind howls outside?”

Another man came down the path.  At the fork, he found a bearded pilgrim laying stretched out on the ground, arms stretched out desperately reaching as far as he could, one down each path.

A  knowledge of truth is essential to salvation.  What is truth?  Let’s check D&C 93, starting around verse 24.

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Father Time in his wisdom made me too old to be interested in Charlie Kirk.  I had heard of him, that’s it.  But some of my kids I found out are fans and my daughters in Utah County had gotten out of work/class and were on their way to his event at UVU yesterday when we got the news.  Perhaps for that reason, it has affected me a lot more than I would have thought.

https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1964469113352573401

https://xcancel.com/charliekirk11/status/1964469113352573401

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Covering Sections 89 through 97.

* I think the most important verse in the Word of Wisdom is verse 2.  This section can only be understood by revelation and wisdom; and God cares about temporal salvation.

* 90:17 suggests a virtue chart.  This verse is advice to the First Presidency on how to be the First Presidency.

Be not ashamed, neither confounded; but be admonished in all your high-mindedness and pride, for it bringeth a snare upon your souls.

In particular, I think the implication that shame is what leads to being confounded, whereas being admonished in some way complements being unashamed and not being confounded, is psychologically astute.

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We were in a ward last Sunday where the lesson was ‘Taking Charge of Tech.’  They had taken the Church lesson for parents and converted it into a one-sheet handout front-and-back.  It was surprisingly good.  The Purpose, Plan, Pause mantra is sound.

My daughter was an FSY counselor this summer.  She said the ‘taking charge of tech’ discussions were normally her favorite.   Everyone was engaged and spiritual.  Her main lessons were ‘change has to come from you’ and ‘you can’t just say no to bad tech use, you have to say yes to something positive.’  We had a long family discussion in the car the next day (we were on a family trip) and it went really well.

(For humor purposes only)

I was thinking of the stereotypes, with some basis in reality, that Joseph Smith was a great visionary and Brigham Young was a great organizer, and thought of a virtue chart for them.  But who would the antonyms be?  Who are the bad visionary and the bad organizer to pair them with?

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There are worse things than stretching in an early morning parking lot of a small town motel, watching the last stars on the silvering horizon

A new train engineer was learning about his duties and his assigned route.

“first,” he was told, ” there’s a long slope down.  You can coast, gathering speed.”

“Next,” he was told, “there is a long flat stretch.  You can coast for a while on the speed from the slope and then you will continue to chug along under your own power.”

“Sounds easy,” the fresh-faced engineer said, ” so what’s the problem?”

“The problem is the switch.  When you come barreling down the slope and are abruptly pulled up by the flats.”

I’m not sure what a good word would be for the vicious or imperfect form of Spirit.  Pride?  The ultimate unmoored egoism?

Here’s the synthesis chart. (more…)

We are driving across some of the flat, open parts of the country so trains are on my mind.  You can see them coming from a long way off.

Hence this parable.

There once was a newly-built train.  At the switching station, it looked out on its first track all the way across the gleaming plain to the distant white city in the far, far horizon.  The train was full of enthusiasm.  “I am going to roll on all the way to that city!”  it said.

An old worn-down train nearby wearily set about tempering the new train’s expectations.  “You have no idea how far that city really is,” the train said.  “Nor how difficult it is.  You feel good now, but wait until you are trying to get your wheels to turn in sand.  Or in swamp, heavens, oh man, swamp.”

“Why would I do that?” the new train said cheerfully.  “I will simply stay on the track.”

The older train was aghast.  “Stay on the tracks!  Are you crazy?  Live a little!”

I am tempted to read this promise in the Word of Wisdom as an easter egg prophecy that the Word of Wisdom would one day be included in the temple recommend interview.

And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;

-thus D&C 89:18

My belief is that it is verse 11–

Eat fruits and herbs only in season

–and verse 17–

Which states that specific grains are meant for specific species and implies that low alcohol beers might be okay.

I don’t talk about them either because I don’t have any idea what they mean.  I sometimes think the word of wisdom was given, this is not a joke I really do think this, to curious of our addiction for finding answers to all our questions in the scriptures instead of relying on modern prophets and modern revelation.

The word of wisdom in the doctrine of covenants in a sense is not the real word of wisdom.

I turned to the scripture citation index to see if it matched my view about what parts of the word of wisdom don’t get discussed.

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The sage came to a structure–a thing he had never seen before–and decided to explore its use.  First he tried clinging to the ceiling, but this was hard and inconvenient.  Second he tried the floor.  Though less difficult, it was still uncomfortable and there were ants.  Rejecting these two extremes, he then spied a table.  Clinging to its underside, from time to time able to rest his buttocks on the ground when his grip grew weak, but able to lift himself off the floor when the ants bothered him and his buttocks grew stiff, the sage was satisfied that he had found the right way to dwell.

And there, clinging to the underside of a table, we leave our virtuous sage.

One of the smart person “well ackshully’s” is that the word apocalypse doesn’t mean the end of the world.  It means revelation.

?????????? (apokálupsis): “unveiling” or “uncovering”

It’s just that the Apocalypse of John turns out to be, well, apocalyptic, so the meaning in English has become what it is.

But this apparently random linguistic drift is either a remarkable coincidence or has divine providence behind it. (more…)

God is in the light and is the light, He is in and  moves the planets and the stars, and space and time.  That is essentially what D&C 88:7-13 says.  One implication is that we will at some point discover we have already dwelt in the presence of God.  See D&C 88:50.  Each Kingdom of Glory has the presence one one member of the Godhead because it has to in order to function.

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