I just came across another instance of that old feminist cliche–wives are basically prostitutes because … sex!

Roll, mine eyes.  Anyone who has followed our virtue chart work knows that many vices are simply distortions of virtues.  That is  not a truth we have discovered.  The devil being God’s ape was a commonplace for thousands of years in antiquity and Christendom, so how can moderns . . . ok, now I see the problem.

The bottom line is that in the nature of things we should absolutely expect that there will be wicked versions of the greatest goods.  This should not shock us at all.  Sometimes it is only a hairs breadth of difference that separates shining glory from slimy abomination.  Prostitution is a soullless, sad, commercialized abomination of the glorious carnality and celestial interdependence of married life, which in no way tells us anything about married life.

Yet  you see this error all over the place, perhaps deliberately.

Wives are like prostitutes, so being a wife should be abolished.

Leaders are like tyrants, so reject all authority.

Manhood is like barbarianism, so do away with  manhood.

Anarchic rebels are like free citizens, so eliminate free citizens.

Mindless obedience and sterile conformity are bad,  so don’t obey ever and try hard not to fit in

Whole philosophies are just that stupid.

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Still beautiful after all these years.

Old Glory

Let’s do the usual JG thing and get unnecessarily nerdy and analytical and hopefully ending up in unexpected, beautiful territory.  Specifically, let’s talk about what it is people point to to justify their love of their country.  True, no reason is necessary–it is your country, that is reason enough.  But the reasons are still valid and therefore interesting.

I recently read a great Spanish novel from the midcentury that has a lot of Spanish and Catalan patriots talking about their patriotism, so the subject has been on my mind.  Their way of talking about their countries is pretty different from ours.

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In a land of sudden rains and roaring floods, the authorities were charged with supervising dams, baffles, culberts, channels, and so on to prevent the worst of the floods.

The flood authorities were troubled by some who ignored their advice and plans. These people built culverts or filled channels to suit their own convenience.

Where the authorities were most ignored was when they asked people to manage their own property in specific ways to cut down on run-off or to make individual houses more flood proof.

The authorities often had to remind the people of the need for obedience and not doing their own thing. The more public-spirited among the citizens encouraged each other also to heed the flood authorities.

One day there was a horrible storm. (more…)

This is another attempt to approach the gospel stories as something that were actually happening, not as Scripture.   I’ve tweaked some details to better capture the feel of it.

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(Inspired probably by @JRC and Bishop T.D. Jakes).  I dreamed I was on flat stone platform at the top of a low ziggurat, or later the stand in a church.  It was both in the dream.

With the stand with me were priests in black robes, or later preachers in 19th C. black.  They were both in the dream.

But whether seated in the congregation or standing in the square in front of the ziggurat, the audience was the same throughout.  Standard American.

It began with a young priest/preacher haranguing the crowd.

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You are commanded to become as a little child.

You are also commanded to be great,  impossibly great, as great as Christ.  Be ye therefore perfect.

These commandments do not contradict.  They are one commandment.

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Good news! The JG has found a new cheap southeast asian supplier of repartee.

The banter will be of the same quality you are used to and we will pass the savings on to you.

Some men say that fatherhood these days isn’t very manly.  They say that protecting and providing is mostly about being dutiful and conscientious and conformist. Checking boxes.  Change the batteries in the smoke detector? Check.  Meet or exceed my management assigned objectives for Q2? Check.

They have a point but only up to a point.

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Week 3 of the Big Corporate Fast — 10 days to go, its not too late to join!

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On the sweetness of Mormon life.

The prayer is “Good morning, heavenly Father.”  You wonder if this is a new thing.  You like it.  You ask afterwards.  No, she says, mental hiccup.

The sister missionaries are speaking.  The first one tells about making fun of the elders who were asked to speak over Mother’s Day.  Now its her turn.

The other told about calling her dad from the emergency room.  He didn’t answer.  She left a message.  “Dad, I’m in the emergency room, I’m probably dying.”  He called her back later.  “So I hear you are dying.  Sorry I didn’t pick up earlier, I was at Costco.”  She knew her dad would know she wasn’t dying.  Her dad knew that she knew.

For Father’s Day, I have been thinking about the Father.  (Some insights courtesy of my ward Sunday School). (more…)

Newfangled Primary songs are one of my pet peeves.  I hate planned obsolescence and avoidable generational disruption.  My kids had to learn Give Said the Little Stream from me, consarnit.

Have mercy, Primary music leaders.

2 Samuel 22 is a psalm in which David is full of the awe of God.  It is submissive but exultant.  It almost has an air of “though he slay me, yet will I trust God.”

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It is hard but virtuous to hear other people’s miracles when that same miracle has been denied you.  It is hard to love them, hard to share their joy . . . but it is virtuous.

Reminiscent of the nameless virtue.

[This photo shows the tracks left by my son Saturday night a week and a half ago as he sped off with his bride from the wedding reception to begin their honeymoon. I took the photo Monday morning.]

Thinking on yesterday’s post warning that “Births are not Well in Zion,” a number of things we could potentially do better came to mind, and I will elaborate on one: Start early.

Wise counsel I have heard a few times from a friend in our elders’ quorum meetings is: Whatever it is you want your children to know three years from now, talk to them about that now. (more…)