How Rhodes Scholars think: “At the time of this interview, he [Gerrit Gong] was the assistant to the president of Brigham Young University in Utah, focusing on planning and assessment. He is now a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” (link)

Christmas is over. Here’s my favorite thing of this year’s season

Via Instapundit.

There’s often a bit of melancholy at Christmas.  Have you ever noticed how many Christmas songs are touched with a little bit of sadness?  “Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow.”  Depression is just grey, but you have to be truly merry for real melancholy. (more…)

The boy is father to the man. In honor of the feast of St. Stephen’s, here is Bruce C. at his drollest. I laughed, and not just because a few weeks ago in choir I was bellowing out “Good people all, this ChristmasTIDE” because damn the wrecker who published our choral music with it spelled “time.” Or because I remembered last year the same choir director, bless her longsuffering heart, trying to hide her grin while I gave a harangue on where the comma should be in “God rest ye merry, gentlemen.” Or the year before that . . .

Anyway, read the whole thing. If you don’t laugh, a pox on you and no wassail.

I read that rich people are having fun playing survivalist.

And why not?  No harm in it, and just like our years’ supplies, they may do some good during those horrible catastrophes that history tells us are inevitable but that our daily experience conditions us to believe can never be.  There are black swans–course changing events that we could not have predicted–and there are white swans–course changing events that we could have predicted but sure didn’t.

All the same, most plans for real catastrophe are silly.

Like Taleb’s black swan investment strategy they mostly assume the continuity of the government and current Overton windows.

Or else they are fundamentally nihilistic.  Live in a luxury-stocked bunker somewhere eating down your luxuries waiting or hoping that someone else puts civilization back together, comforting yourself until you die.  There is no future in that vision.

The rich guys who buy farm land are at least thinking a little, though not very much at all.

Here is what a rich guy who thought it through would do. (more…)

Anyone else watch Venus and Jupiter in the dawning sky today? It was a good sight as my son drove with me to seminary.

In case you ever wondered what that looks like . . . (more…)

Eleven years ago, we had arranged to spend Labor Day weekend at the beach, an end-of-summer recreation. A tropical storm arrived before we did and summer ended for us a little earlier than we had desired. Six years before that, we finished up three years living in Los Angeles just four miles from beaches that we enjoyed frequently year round. The muting of seasonal cues became stranger to my perception the longer I was there. I would strain to recollect milestones by which I could reckon the current month, much as I usually do to figure out the date of the month when a calendar is not at hand. A neighbor cut down a Norfolk pine, and I obtained a couple feet of the trunk to show the cub scouts its rings. It turned out that it didn’t have any distinct rings. Not even the trees of LA know what season it is. (more…)

Four years ago when internet streaming of the general priesthood meeting was announced, I wrote a short post with the title “The Singing Won’t be the Same.” It looks like it wasn’t. The latest turn for that meeting leaves me feeling defeated. Reduce and simplify the demands on members and leaders, because we just aren’t up to gathering twice a year anymore. It’s too much for us and of too little value.

Isaiah 52:7. Explained by Abinadi in Mosiah ch. 15 to the priests of Noah who were too lazy to understand it. Partially repeated in Nahum 1:15. Cited by Jesus in 3rd Nephi 20:40. And Paul in Romans 10:15. Also Doctrine and Covenants 128:19.

Looking back at sunsets on the eastside
We lost track of the time
—“Smile Like You Mean It” from the Killers 2004 Hot Fuss album

The photo above was taken from the east side of the Las Vegas Valley. It was sent yesterday by an LDS missionary of my acquaintance who is serving in my hometown. As Brandon Flowers once told a Times reporter, “Have you been to Los Angeles? Well, our sunsets are better!” The large buildings below the mountain silhouette are hotels on the Las Vegas Strip. (more…)

Early in the spring, former LDS missionary and veteran pitcher Jeremy Guthrie started what would be his only game of the 2017 season. (“So, how was your 38th birthday?”) July 31st he announced his retirement. (link) On August 31st, Brother Guthrie let anyone reading Twitter know: “My next chapter has me teaching early morning seminary class at Sunset High. Please share any ideas you may have from your fav teachers.” Something to think about as the regular season concludes this last weekend of September. Repeating myself from April, “He’s one of us, and it’s on to the next part of his life.”

From the LDS Newsroom:
After receiving media inquiries, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has provided the following statement about the LoveLoud Festival in Orem, Utah, which takes place August 26, 2017:

We applaud the LoveLoud Festival for LGBT youth’s aim to bring people together to address teen safety and to express respect and love for all of God’s children. We join our voice with all who come together to foster a community of inclusion in which no one is mistreated because of who they are or what they believe.

We share common beliefs, among them the pricelessness of our youth and the value of families. We earnestly hope this festival and other related efforts can build respectful communication, better understanding and civility as we all learn from each other.

LoveLoudFest.com

Words of Lemuel Sturdevant Leavitt (1827-1916):

Our crops had been very poor. There was never enough water for each man to irrigate his scanty acres. We not only had our own families to feed, but often the Indians came and demanded bread. One winter was particularly hard. Our crops were more meager than usual and the winter was extra-long and severe. Our bins, as well as those of most of our neighbors, were getting pretty low so it was decided that I should make a trip to Parowan to replenish our supply of flour. At that time it was a hazardous undertaking, for in the winter a trip over the snow covered mountains to the north, with no road to follow, was a real undertaking, however, it was necessary that someone make the trip. (more…)

Sunday evening two days ago I had a follow-up conversation with a young mathematician, a son of members of my ward. A couple years ago I asked him about his area of work, but there wasn’t much for me to connect with—something vague about mapping manifolds. The Sunday before last I saw him again at a reception for a departing missionary couple and learned that he will begin a post-doctoral position in Finland, so I asked him, “Why Finland?” “Well, Finland is a small place, so the math research there is focused on a particular area that happens to be my area. I’ll be working with my PhD advisor’s advisor.” “And what is that area?” I asked, fearing that the answer would be as vague as before. Instead he simply said, “Complex analysis.”

There couldn’t have been an answer of more interest to me. (more…)

Two nights ago, my little daughter had a fever. She asked me if I could say “a boy prayer.”

“What’s a boy prayer?” I asked.

“It’s where you put your hands on my head and you say a prayer for me. Only boys can do them.”

I’m grateful for the restored power and authority to give boy prayers for my family.