Benjamin West

The church’s newsroom reports that date nights were sponsored in the last couple weeks at the church’s colleges and 15 of the larger institutes. (link) One obstacle to addressing a problem is that recognizing the problem can be embarrassing, and that was my first reaction: Is our current crop of 20-year-olds so undeveloped that they need their college presidents to coax them into pairing off for an evening? Well, yes, they are, so let’s face up to it instead of pretending all is fine or just grousing that those young people aren’t doing what they ought to on their own. The world they live in isn’t all of their own making, their cluelessness in pursuing romance is not just a personal problem, and improving the climate within our communities to one more conducive to their success is a job for all.

“While Elder Gilbert [church commissioner of education] said he realizes a one-night event won’t be ‘a silver bullet,’ the hope is that it will be a catalyst to help re-instill a culture of dating.”

Mr. Elon Musk has in mind an “Everything App” for social media, but I have in mind to do him one better.

I have in mind an app that’s Urbit for personal transportation, Door Dash for food including even  in-home catering, but also includes laundry, life coach, house cleaning, first responder, friendship matching, and tutoring.  I call it Momm-E.

Best if used with our partner app, Dadd-E.

It occurs to me that one of the great things about vacations is that you have small defined problems that  you can then solve.  Getting to the airport, unpacking your stuff, finding a replacement for the charger that didn’t get packed.   No one consciously wants this and too much of it can spoil the vacation but in moderation it gives you a sense of order and accomplishment and rest.  Most adult problems are either not containable into a tidy little task or keep getting repeated and repeated and repeated.

Which means that there are probably discrete little tasks that people set themselves just for the joy of doing a discrete, intelligible, doable job–and now that I think of it, yes there are.  They are called hobbies.

Let’s make a gospel point out of it.  Mostly we think of callings as an extra burden.  One more thing.  Most of us accept them dutifully, even cheerfully, but even so we feel that we have one more task to do.

Perhaps we can see callings differently.  Start from the standpoint that we are aspiring angels, sons and daughters of God that He has called to grow up, and in principle the tasks and goals we face are limitless.  This is a point C.S. Lewis makes; this a point the temple also makes; we owe all of our time and talents and effort to the work of the Lord.  What a relief then to be able to take a little vacation, where your only difficulties are this nursery, or this ward, or even this Church, and this family and neighborhood of yours.

Vocation, vacation.

Don’t ask my why, it just is.

And sometimes standing around talking about why a hole was dug is also fun.

There are two good ways to understand dreams.

The first way is as an allegory.  Things happen in sequence because they are some kind of over all natural progression of meaning and events.  We usually interpret Daniel’s dream of the statue this way, or the opening of the seven seals in Revelations.  Or else you treat the sequence as just the order in which the elements were revealed and ultimately the over all meaning of the dream is all of the elements and their symbolic meanings taken together.  A lot of cool paintings of Lehi’s Dream show it this way.

The other way is to interpret the dream as a series of flashes of images which can sometimes have the same meaning.  The Christmas Carol is more like that, each ghost essentially has the same message for Scrooge.  Hebrew writing is like this, but in dreams its not just the Hebrews.  Looping around a message or insight is just one of the ways dreams work.

When you apply this second dream approach to Lehi’s dream, you get some pretty cool insights into what enduring to the end means, and the importance of revelation.  More to come.

From a daughter:

I was thinking about how our God – who places such a high emphasis on individual agency – made the qualification for His highest degree of glory so dependent on someone else

And I remembered reading that in the Sermon on the Mount, the verse that says “be ye therefore perfect” is actually better translated as “be ye therefore complete/whole”

So… maybe we aren’t really ever complete by ourselves

Men and women compliment each other quite well – I would say men in general are more justice-oriented and women are more mercy-oriented.

But God is where justice, love, and mercy meet – he is perfectly just and merciful.

I was thinking that marriage is something also like where justice, love, and mercy meet.

So it’s the only way we can be complete (and therefore like God).

 Behold the gold, and the silver, and the silks, and the scarlets, and the fine-twined linen, and the precious clothing, and the harlots, are the desires of this great and abominable church.

And also for the praise of the world do they destroy the saints of God, and bring them down into captivity.

-thus 1 Nephi 13:8-9

In Joseph Smith’s day the idea of free lance enforcers entrepreneurially and opportunistically attacking dissenters from the world for social  media likes would seem bizarre, but nowadays it makes perfect sense.  In the attention economy, the carefully polished apple they give to teacher is the persecution of the saints.

“They” probably refers to the great and abominable church.  That church seems to be in charge so its odd that they church itself is trying to earn the praise of the world.   What this represents is that no one in really in charge, its just something mutable like “fashion” or “the consensus” and you have to keep scrambling to stay on top.  You never arrive, there is no there there.

But there is another  meaning of “for the praise of the world.”   The second meaning is that you are praising the world.  These are people who are impressed with the power and structure of the world and are angry that someone opposes it or gives it the lie.  They persecute the saints because they feel aggrieved by them.

Say what you will about the modern world, but the invention of the combined theater kid / front-row kid archetype is a world historic achievement.  You’d think these would be opposites.  You’d think the grey-suited organization man would be over there grimly checking his boxes while out the streets the hippy would be cross-legged on the corner strumming his mandolin. But no.  You clearly lack the breadth of vision and iron will of 21st century modernity.  What do we not dare!  Not only will we create this unholy amalgam, we will set it over us.

Is there a vice synthesis from a virtue chart peaking out at us? (more…)

We have done a surprising amount of work on Lehi’s Dream.  Here are the links to enhance your reading this week and next.

Comparing the  Great and Spacious Building and the Emperor’s New Clothes

(more…)

It was April 1998 that I sat at dinner next to a future member of the House of Lords. (more…)

I’m getting back to the basics on symbols.  Just asking kindergarten questions like, what does this thing look like?  What does it feel like?  What does it do?  I started with the Book of Revelations.  I’m now applying it to Lehi’s dream.

I had a thought about why clinging to the iron rod is a bad thing.

Here’s the context: two years ago we discussed a puzzle in Lehi’s dream.  Those who *cling* to the iron rod eventually fall away.  Those who *hold on* to it don’t.  Huh.  You guys had some interesting thoughts, particularly Annie and Books.  Nothing definite.  Elder Bednar mentioned the two groups in General Conference but didn’t explain it.

As I sing “Let Us All Press On,” I often think of the people in Lehi’s vision pressing forward on the path that led to the tree of life who were not merely “clinging to” but were “continually holding fast to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree.”

So two days ago I was thinking about iron rods.

(more…)

Is the hidden-in-plain-sight esoteric meaning of the Word of Wisdom that we should embrace conspiracy theories and health fads?

he said puckishly while ducking and running for cover.

—

There probably is value in taking seriously those parts of the Word of Wisdom.  Maybe some day.

What are your favorite approaches, aids, and resources for studying the Book of Mormon?

Prior story.

When they opened the midnight gate, all the travelers and all the town rushed in, bringing with them all their foods and decorations and presents.

The Tree Son was beside himself with joy. It was his familiar winter land, but changed. The Tree Father was there with a jolly laugh, handing out presents for all.

When they passed through the gate, the dumb animals—the donkey, the monkey, and the turkey cock—first were able to speak and then transformed into men. (more…)