Be ye wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.
That’s pretty straightforward, even though in real life serpents are stupid, they will literally swallow their own tail on rare occasions, and doves aren’t harmless. As my denuded grape vines can attest.
I wonder if there is a symbolic meaning?
(more…)
I find in my notes the following quote
The pursuit of kleos is to internalize the judgment of a lofty tribe – to observe yourself from the perspective of historians & poets & try to create something that they will notice, & find inspiring & beautiful
if you live for kleos it matters very much *who* you want to remember your name
(From whom I have neglected to mention, perhaps twitter user EDJCB)
Kleos means glory.
Generally the people you want to admire you are the people you yourself admire. And you want them to admire you for who you are, not for a façade. (more…)
One theme of this blog is that the great value of mortality and the body is opportunity cost. It is the great gift of being able to do things, which also means the great gift of not being able to do other things because of the one thing you are doing. We don’t normally think this way, but it is true that every time you do something you are sacrificing a million different actions that you could be doing but aren’t; in fact, literally sacrificing an infinite number of possible actions. The limits of mortality make each action of yours extremely valuable. And that, for an immortal spirit, is a desirable thing.
Some economists point out that in some situations scarcity is a good thing. It increases the value of the scarce good.
You have perhaps 70 years of mortality as compared to the forever of immortality. This time is infinitely precious (which is one reason why even believers are right to fear and avoid death).
A child is gestated and dies in the womb. That means that experience of just being, of just existing in rhythm with its mother, is one unique experience which compared to forever is infinitely precious. The person will never have that experience again.
The usual thrust of this line of thinking is to deplore how much you are wasting your time on frivolity. And, sure, be sure to improve the shining moment.
But I would like to look at it a different way. Because your mortal time is infinitely precious, the most valuable thing you as a divine being will ever have to spend, you are every day engaged in acts of wild generosity. If you read some pulpy genre novel for a few hours, you have conferred an immortal boon on the author, you have lavished on him generosity beyond the human scale.
By writing this, I have poured out infinite profligate gifts on you to a height that only a god can conceive. By reading it, you have reciprocated at that same princely divine level. Here I give you the the jewels of the Orient, which we call time. You respond with peacocks and ivories, also called time. We don’t know what we do now. But when we are grown, we will appreciate how greatly we have gifted each other.
There is a connection or metaphor to the atonement here. I am groping for it. Perhaps a Jordan Petersen type would better be able to explain.
In the atonement, my solitary mortal acts require an infinite sacrifice on the part of a God. And the whole thing is an act of grace.
In a manner of speaking, there are some who wander out into the sun because they reject the shade of the trees the pioneers planted. Surely they wither.
It would not be bad description of our little sociality here–writers, commenters, and readers–to say that we mainly consist of those who still say in our hearts, “Blessed, Honored Pioneers.”
Happy Pioneer Day. Go and do thou likewise.
PS- from a younger daughter (more…)
We of the Jr Ganymede have no intention of being accused of simply entertaining conspiracies. Nothing half way about it! We have the Lizardmen from the Hollow Flat Earth over for Sunday Dinner with their wives and lizard children. And Bigfoot.
If you have been carefully following the news, there are some seriously weird things going on, as in significantly weirder than normal. Which is pretty weird these days. On top of government officials discussing evidence for UFOs and massive conspiracies of deep black programs hiding things that terrify and unsettle all who know them. Things that are too terrible for the public to know, (but conveniently, not too much for the powers that be.) Seriously, I am not exaggerating. We have even had a Congressman suggest that perhaps these beings are not evolved on other planets, but stem from out own ancient history. And major congressional hearings to reveal what is known on July 26th.
Am I honestly willing to engage the scriptural aspect of these wild irresponsible lunatic conspiratorial rumors? (more…)
Elder Bednar spoke in conference on the theme of the Savior saying “Abide in Me, and I in Thee.”
One of the men in my quorum was pretty touched by it. He said he knew he was supposed to get closer to Christ but it was pretty moving that Christ also wanted to get closer to him. Big truck, soft heart. He said he loves coming home and people meet him at the door, or the little ones run out into the yard.
I thought of that prodigal son painting, where the father has run out onto the road.
I have a particular for thinking that going to heaven will be going home in just that way. In the words of the old song, “we will all come out to greet you when you come.”
When we say “heaven is our home,” we are not primarily making a doctrinal point but a phenomenological one.
We were talking about Isaiah proclaiming woe for those who call sweet bitter and bitter sweet and somehow the conversation revealed that we had opposite interpretations of this passage from Lehi
15 And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter.
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/2?lang=eng
I interpreted the tree of life as sweet and the tree of knowledge as bitter. She interpreted them the opposite. (more…)
A crow on a fence spoke to the bull in the field.
“Your bellow is not beautiful,” said the crow. “You should try to sound more like a nightingale. ” The crow squawked triumphantly at what it evidently considered to be a real zinger.
The bull replied, “Nightingales sing beautifully, no doubt. What my herd needs to hear is the bellow of a bull. ”
Loosely inspired by Father’s Day, I intended to put together a JG collection on “becoming as a little child.” While so doing I started to wonder if we were also meant to become as an adult, and if so, what does that mean?
A follow up to the post about the Reflection Index, with all its valuable comment, and Friday’s post suggesting that if we are complaining, we should be complaining that the Church doesn’t fail enough or spectacularly enough. And lo, Laman and Lemuel murmured because Nephi wasn’t lost sometimes.
A good start
Let the stream of consciousness and half-formed thoughts begin.
You are deacon watching
I stumbled across a lesser known form of service recently.
Through an odd set of circumstances I ended up doing a thing for several days where the circumstances were configured for me to be both an authority and to have charisma. For a wonder, I didn’t flub it.
But my only real model for that kind of role is church, so I put on my church personality, which includes asking how people are doing by name and all that sort of thing. A little pastoral counsel mixed in with the other presentations I was doing, that kind of stuff.
To my surprise, it really touched people. It was moving to them. Having an authority figure interested in them felt good.
Now that I’m back on my normal bland track, situation-derived authority and charisma gone like the snow, I have reflected on that experience. And on other experiences I have had when I was on the receiving end. When some person of character and authority and charm took an interest in me and pushed through my usual seesawing between wariness and fangirlishness to really make a connection. It felt so good. And at key junctures, changed the direction of my life.
I had a boss like that one time. Everyone who worked there was unnaturally productive and agreed that the office felt like heaven.
These experiences have also been common for me inside the home, both now and when I was young.
Boyd K. Packer’s Parable of the Debtor is good. But I think it could be added upon. I have in mind hybridizing it with Elder Uchtdorf’s story of the man who ate saltines on the cruise.
Inspired by EC’s comment and some of the ongoing boycotts, today I am inaugurating the Big Corporate Fast. For one month I and whoever will join me will fast from Big Corporate.
The contours of this fast will be up to you. It should be some combination within reason of:
Buy local. Buy direct. Don’t buy at all.
For this month, as much as reasonably possible, I will be fasting from Amazon and Walmart and Target and big chains and big media.
As much as I can, I will be getting my groceries at a local place.
I will not eat at a national chain.
If I have products or services I need, I will go local or go direct instead of going through a national chain or a big retailer.
If I can get a similar products in generic or from a smaller corporation or used, I will.
If my only source is Big Corporate, I will do without or make it from scratch as much as I can.
As much as possible, I will stay off Big Social Media.
As much as possible, I will not use the big paid streaming sites. I will read books from the library, pop in a DVD, jam with friends and family, listen to music I already have.
As much as possible, I will stay away from live sports, paid Hollywood, and other aspects of Big Corporate Entertainment.
Example: I want to order a new pen for my journal. Instead of getting it from Amazon like normal, I ordered direct from the manufacturer. It cost a little more, but not much.
The goal here is not something grandiose like bringing corporate America to its knees. Sure, we can eventually get enough people to do it that there may be a noticeable dip in corporate sales for a month. That would be great, but that’s not the point. The point is to be free. Are you a helpless consumer or are you the kind of person who makes choices? It’s going to be wonderful to discover what you don’t have to be hooked on. It’s freeing to say, hey, you can’t force me to engage.
I am excited about doing this. Please let me know if you can join with me.
