You’ve probably seen the Nothing Ever Happens meme.
Things seem to be on the verge of breaking out–Trump elected, riots in France, lockdowns in St. Petersburg…–and then nothing.
Nothing ever happens. (more…)
(50% longer than a normal month, out of respect)
Mayflower indentured servant John Howland was washed overboard in a gale but managed to grab a trailing rope. He had 10 children and an estimated 2 million modern descendants (me among them). Joseph Smith was his descendant.
One of the unique challenges of the current age, is a loss of identity and purpose. As much trouble as men are having here, women might be having a worse time. Women have gained opportunities their grandmothers lacked, yet many seem no more certain what those opportunities are for. I am not going to try to solve all problems here, but if we can just get a clearer view of the ideal, this will be worthwhile. I may not be able to get you to Paradise, but I hope to at least point in the right direction.
A few days out from Conference I re-read my notes. Something striking emerged.
A truly remarkable number of talks were about patience in suffering, and how the trials may not end how or when we wish.
Meanwhile a truly remarkable number of talks were about expecting miracles.
These two themes do not work with each other on paper.
But the feeling of these two themes combined is very holy.
Simeon, Anna, coming to the temple for 60 years, ‘waiting on the consolation of Israel’
Rioters, demanding in a vicious spasm what they do not believe they will ever receive.
In his recent posts, Zen has called on readers to stand independent with increased temporal self-reliance, and to make 2027 an Annus Mirabilis.
These calls came to mind as I happened to peruse websites of a couple of businesses in Panaca, Nevada. Panaca is 120 miles north of Las Vegas, 70 miles west of Cedar City, has 900 people and three wards of latter-day saints meeting in the stake center there. My personal experience with Panaca is limited.
Always over too soon.
There was a lot about children dying. A lot about trials. A lot about knowing who we are, children of God, not meant for (endless) mediocrity and (lasting) misery.
The most winsome concept was from Saturday. It was the concept of divine appointments. It will probably enter my lexicon like tender mercies did awhile back.
The most startling concept was Elder Uchtdorf’s concept of “exponential spiritual growth.” I don’t think I have ever experienced that. I want to.
Get buried in your temple clothing.
Elder Gong Ancient City posting live over the pulpit in General Conference.
Well, why not?
Annus Mirabilis – Year of Miracles
Isaac Newton had one in 1665-1666, with his pioneering work on defining the law of gravity, inventing calculus and discoveries in optics.
Einstein in 1905, when he published papers detailing photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and mass-energy equivalence (E=mc²).
Pres Nelson said in April 2022 General Conference,
Suggestion number 4: Seek and expect miracles.
Moroni assured us that “God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.” Every book of scripture demonstrates how willing the Lord is to intervene in the lives of those who believe in Him. He parted the Red Sea for Moses, helped Nephi retrieve the brass plates, and restored His Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Each of these miracles took time and may not have been exactly what those individuals originally requested from the Lord.
In the same way, the Lord will bless you with miracles if you believe in Him, “doubting nothing.” Do the spiritual work to seek miracles. Prayerfully ask God to help you exercise that kind of faith. I promise that you can experience for yourself that Jesus Christ “giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.” Few things will accelerate your spiritual momentum more than realizing the Lord is helping you to move a mountain in your life.
So, if we believe it, then why not do it? So, I propose 2027 as the Official Junior Ganymede Annus Mirabilis. Each of us will both seek for, and live our lives in such a way, that we can have our own Annus Mirabilis. We will deliberately strive to bring the power of God into our lives and move mountains. I know all of us, LDS, Catholic or Otherwise, on this site have great faith. I have interacted with you, and I have been uplifted many times. And I know you can do this. So let’s just do it.
2027 as our Annus Mirabilis
Our Year of Miracles
On the inside I am still a 20-year old kid staring wide-eyed at a world of wonder.
But my joints and my eyes tell me we’ve run through decades of being that 20-year old kid.
So I should probably be embarrassed to say that this fall is the first time I’ve enjoyed reading Isaiah.
This fall is the first time I have started to understand.
There once was a man so bleak and despairing and angry that he decided to kill himself.
So much so, however, that no ordinary suicide would do to fully express the depths of his contempt for everything.
He decided he had to build a tower higher than any tower ever had been built to jump off of.
It was an endeavor of years. Raging, he learned architecture and engineering.
In pure spite, he found funders. He savagely browbeat them into accepting his only marginally commercially-valuable vision for the tower. After all, the point was not to make money. The point was to show the world what he thought of them.
In grinding black apathy he cut stone and hauled it himself, when necessary.
He died of natural causes, full of years and honors, bitter to the end. The tower was almost finished. It sparked a revival in arts and culture. Indeed, for the region round about, it helped to birth a great nation.
***
This is dark, I know. I don’t know what to tell you. This is how it came to me.
The Young Matron and I were playing around with some virtue set concepts related to innocence.
While we are Brother Flowers’ posting, here is my current favorite song off his new album. Like most of his stuff, the lyrics make no sense but there is a strong feeling that comes out of them.
Sitting in a hospital room (problem identified, we’re back home now) thinking long thoughts and listening to Brother Flowers.
The sky was beautiful on our way to the hospital. Bluer then blue, and white fluffy clouds. On the way home the full moon was shining above the horizon. It was so beautiful.
How odd to be surrounded by beauty and your family is having such trouble.
It put me in a Brother Flowers kind of mood.
Last night Brandon Flowers was in Philadelphia, so there too was I. This was a solo show, not the Killers, and more intimate, a couple thousand happy people in an 80 by 170-foot room, which happens to be a mile east of the Philadelphia temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which latter structure I highly recommend to anyone with a chance of visiting. Two weeks ago I thought my four tickets would be used by myself, my wife, my teen-aged daughter, and a boy the daughter invited. Then, the naming and blessing of my wife’s new grandchild was scheduled for the day before and 30 miles west of the concert venue. That drew in a daughter and a granddaughter from the Mountain West for a few days, and I lost my date to the Monday night show.
(more…)
The Ancient City, by de Coulanges, was one of those rare books where reading it is more of an experience than a receipt of information. It is as if I dreamed the book.
One thing I got from it that struck me very powerfully, and still does now that I am ‘awake,’ is the sense of physicality associated with the ancestors. Unlike with other pagan beliefs, it would be impious to cremate your ancestors’ remains. There is some real truth to this; it wasn’t until recently that we allowed cremations; in common with the Christian tradition, we used to ban them. There is still a sense that the physical remains have some special connection to the person, which is why we dedicate the graves and Joseph Smith taught resurrection at the site of burial.
In a certain sense, the Ancient Religion just was tending to graves, and there is a lot we can take from that. That is as much family history as searching out names online. Perhaps more so. So too the care and transmission of family antiquities.
When the ancients left to found a new city, they would take soil from atop their ancestors’ graves with them to commingle in their new earth. This is a powerful thing to do.
