On the sweetness of Saint life.

The new YW class presidency speaks.   Each girl starts by talking about her dad before saying a few things of general religious interest.  It is really quite affecting.

The twelve-year old has written down a collection of  her dad’s best dad  jokes.  My favorites is the very Anglo-American “What’s the definition of a dad joke? A joke by a dad” and “Sometimes at church they’ll ask me, ‘Brother X, are you awake?  Are you paying attention?’ and I think, what a weird way to start the lesson.”

The 16-year old thanks her dad for reading Harry Potter so they could talk about it.  She says she hasn’t forgotten her return promise to read the Lord of the Rings.  The 15-year old says her dad kept trying to teach her to ride a bike until she learned.  It took five years.

The Father is the Adult Stage of the Human Male

“Long periods of peace foster certain optical illusions: one is the conviction that the inviolability of the home is grounded in the constitution, which should guarantee it.  In reality, it is grounded in the family father, who, sons at his side, fills the doorway with an axe in his hand.”

-Ernst Junger.

I have a new son-in-law and he and my daughter have had their first baby.  I see the burden he feels to provide for his family and make it possible for my daughter to raise their child, and for him to also.  It is almost crushing him but he staggers on.  My heart goes out to him.

On the sweetness of Mormon life

8-year old sitting by himself on the front row beaming.

Dad conducting.

12-year old sister chorister.

10-year old sister opening prayer.

Mom speaking.

5-year old brother and 3-year old sister providing improvised comedic relief.

Dad baptizing and confirming.

13-year old brother on the closing prayer.

Grins breaking out everywhere.

Ahem. If I may, dear sirs and madams of the Jewish persuasion,

While one would hardly presume to dictate your reading list—least of all to a people with so estimable a literary heritage—I wonder if I might, with the utmost delicacy, suggest the perusal of a certain passage in what is known among the Gentiles as the New Testament. I refer, of course, to that rather spirited affair often dubbed the Battle of Armageddon.

Given certain recent events—the sort that cause even the more blasé butlers to polish the silver a touch more nervously—it may prove of more than passing interest. Not, of course, that one suggests any conclusions—merely that a quick peek might be… prudent.

One does hate to show up at a prophetic military engagement underdressed.

No pressure, naturally. Just a friendly tip from one who has seen rather too many apocalyptic horsemen galloping about the place lately for comfort.

Yours in faithful service and polished candlesticks,
Everard J. Twinge
(Butler, Retired—though always alert)

Usually, when one has a complex and interesting thought, it is best to polish it first, and arrange it like a seven course meal, prepared for someone important. But these are not fully fleshed out thoughts. Indeed, now that I am delving into this, I find I am in great danger of delving too deeply, as it were. I am shocked just how much Isaiah has to say on the Fall of Babylon. But the pure Isaiah exposition will have to wait. For now, I am going to dump the jigsaw puzzle pieces on the table, and let all present work them out.

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I want to read an SF story where you have a small lost colony in a star system somewhere.  They eventually convert en masse to the Restoration.  But its all on paper.  No authority.  They are hopeful that they will be sent an angel someday.  But so far it hasn’t happened.  They struggle with their finite resources to build a broadcaster sending out their complete genealogies so their work can be done.  But even with this hope and this effort, they realize that its still not complete.  Without their genealogies going back beyond the settlement of the colony, which they don’t have, they can receive their individual ordinances and they can be sealed to each other, but they cannot be welded in to the rest of the human race.  They would be an isolated pocket of sealings.

So they decide to launch a starship.  They will send a young man to the stars.  His mission is to marry an LDS girl.

Its some kind of cosmic injustice that John C. Wright can write serious stuff more serious than me and silly stuff sillier than me.

http://scifiwright.com/2025/06/my-plan-for-a-better-polity-2/

I have petitioned the Congress for redress.

I was in Sacrament meeting feeling separated from the Savior.  Yes, I have spiritual feelings.  Yes, I feel his presence in my life.  It is not enough.  I feel a hole.

But I know myself.  When the veil finally breaks, I probably won’t feel some kind of ecstatic reunion, I will probably just be too overwhelmed to feel anything at all.  And after that, I know this is incredible to say, but I know myself, it risks becoming routine.

The sense of separation I have now is necessary so that in the future the end of the separation never feels routine.

Scribblers have spilled lots of ink on why George RR Martin can’t finish his Song of Fire and Ice.  For technical reasons, he has too many viewpoint characters, one says..  For character reasons, he’s old and fat and lost his drive, another says.

I have my own theory.  I think he is fighting reality and losing.

Here’s a truth about the world we live in.

The good man always wins in the end.  If he hasn’t won, it’s not the end.

Stories reflect that truth.  Even tragedies have to.

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A lot of being a parent is gross. A little kid isn’t sinning when they mess their little diaper nor is it obviously some kind of trial from which the youngster will develop personal character. It’s just gross. But perhaps being the parent is a preparation for Godhood. He is with us always, every time when we are on the pot.

Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them

In the midst of them — Metaphor? Vibe? Some kind of spiritual physics we know not of?

In recent years we have been hearing more Second Coming talk again.  But instead of hearing about preparing for the calamities and misery that will precede it, our brethren have been talking about it as a blessed relief from all the ills of the world.  (It must get pretty tiring up there where they are).  I remember a talk a few years ago, maybe from Elder Cook, where the real longing in his voice for the Savior to come and put an end to all the gross evils was obvious.

In the words of the meme, ‘the Second Coming solves this.”

But one of the sections we just read in the Doctrine and Covenants is even more optimistic than that.

Brothers and Sisters, welcome to another installment of Talking About Things After Everyone Has Moved On to Something Else.  For our select audience  only.

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My teenage daughters have a delightful custom of putting on favorite conference talks while we cook and clean up on Sunday.  This Sunday it was Elder Holland on why understanding the Fall was important to understanding the Atonement.

Coincidentally, I had been thinking about the logic of Eden and the Fall on the drive to Church and during the Sacrament, for no particular reason.

What I am going to tell you is that the story of Eden and the Fall has a deep logic to it that connects with the basic and unavoidable features of mortality and progress.  It’s a fount of philosophy.

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Wherefore, I will that all men shall repent, for all are under sin, except those which I have reserved unto myself, holy men that ye know not of.

-thus D&C 49:8

I don’t know what this means and I wish I did.  There is no context to speak of.

There are two references I could find.  One from Spencer W. Kimball which doesn’t address the holy men part.  The other was added by a later editor in a footnote in the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, to a statement by Joseph Smith saying that God had reserved Enoch unto Himself.