I recently read an interesting exchange about having servants.

To Hire or not to Hire

Who Needs Hired Help

Why Parents Need to Be Able to Hire Help for their Kids

My sympathies are with the no-servants side.  Most decent people cannot count on being able to afford it.  I certainly don’t see it as an evil for people who can do it to do it, but our society already sets up way too many expectations for running a household that price most people out.  The key is to reject the expectations.  Also the desire of upper middle class people for cheap help is a real problem for our society.

That said, I recently took my wife on a work trip.  Nice hotel, nice area, all that.  She took dresses and for a few days blossomed into real chic elegance.  She is usually classy, but being away from burdens made a real difference to her.

Section 50

V. 2-3.  False spirits and Satan listed as separate groups.  Interesting.  Is his kingdom uncontrolled?

V. 12.  No universal logic? Logic, like math, has always seemed to me to be at the very heart of things.  Here God seems to say that our logic is play logic.

V.31.  If God does not help you know the spirit, it is not of God.  Sounds simple, but what that actually means in practice is worth some thought.

V. 43.  Compare with v. 22.  Seems to be saying that the sort of mutual understanding we achieve when teaching under the influence of the spirit is the oneness that the Godhead has which they invite us to join.

V. 33.  Also compare with v.22.  Rejoicing is essentially a communal emotion that opens you up?

Section 51

v. 17. Act as if you were going to live here many years.

John C Wright on the state of his own church.

Many big publicity results in psychology do not add up. Many many.

There is glory (earned love) and unconditional love.  What does their synthesis look like?

Atonement and repentance.  Unconditional love that cares for you even though you don’t deserve it yet.  Earned love, that is offering you another chance to deserve love.

The arms that are always open for you, no matter how prodigal.  The arms that guide you towards your potential.  The insistence that you are always valuable.  The insistence that you live up to your potential.

Whether or not we identify earned love with the male principle and unconditional love with the female principle, we can see that family expresses this same synthesis.  Caring and growing.  Safety and learning at the same time.  I suspect that on some deep level, family and atonement/repentance are metaphysically identical.

This may seem like a short toss off post.  It is.  I also suspect it may be one of the most important things found on here.

If there are two types of virtues, maybe the two types are male and female. WJT says maybe, though he’s just trying the idea on, he’s still working it through.

Only later did I realize the correspondence between Ahuric/Devic and male/female. By simply exploring these models of good and evil, without thinking of sexual identity at all, I had inadvertently arrived at a possible explanation for the eternal nature of sexual identity — the necessity that good be expressed in two complementary forms rather than in a single asexual Supergod.

-thus WJT

Looking at lists of Ahuric and Devic virtues, I found that the first list made me think of Jesus Christ and the second of Our Lady. This led me to the tentative conclusion that these two types of good corresponded to masculine and feminine, and that the Ganymede model helped to explain why the two sexes were necessary and eternal.

–thus WJT.  He also discusses some problems with the idea.  This post is one you will definitely want to read.

Also this one on the two types and eternal sexual identity.

Let’s mull it over.

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the Father of lights—the veil shall be rent and you shall see me not with the carnal neither natural mind, but with the spiritual—no man has seen God  except quickened—Ye are not able to abide the presence of God now….

Doctrine and Covenants 67

There are these hints throughout the restoration of a spiritual physics.  (more…)

The Lord praises sheep, wheat, tame olive trees, etc bc they take no thought for their own nourishment – everything they get they give away If there is no Cultivator obviously this is a very stupid way to live.

The parable of the olive trees in Jacob 5 introduces gradations of tameness & wildness The lord of the vineyard doesn’t just kill the wild & save the tame – he gradually prunes away the hard, woody, wild portions of each tree.

But we also learn that tame branches are prone to decadence & decay – & the solution is to graft strong, wild root systems with hungry, tame boughs that will draw out their strength It’s not just “tame good, wild bad”, both are necessary which is why both are allowed to persist

-from ExDeJCB

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If you are interested in virtue sets, you owe it to yourself to read WJT’s essay on Satan Divided Against Himself.

It’s full of insights.  (In the following passage, “Ahriman”=Satan, the evils of fear and excessive prudence and risk avoidance)

Those who serve Ahriman may seek to be in control themselves, but more often their goal may simply be that everything be under control. Hierarchy is of Ahriman, because even those who are far from the top have no objection to it. Even an Ahrimanist who has the ability to control things personally will generally defer these personal decisions to a system or algorithm, personal responsibility being unpleasantly risky.

Even the casual asides are good.  Here he is describing how the two fundamental good impulses (seek goods, avoid evils) can be turned to evil

• Sacrifice the avoidance of evil in order to pursue good (e.g. to seek pleasure)

• Sacrifice the pursuit of good in order to avoid evil (e.g. to be “safe”)

The only true virtues are the combination of hot virtues and cool virtues.  Things like prudent courage.  Or courageous prudence.

The true virtue is not a moderation of the hot and the cool.  It is not lukewarm.  It is a synthesis of the two where each is enhanced.  Ice cold bravery.  Hot, unrelenting calculation.

The true model of manhood will be an archetype that combines the two.  Or a combination of two archetypes.

Every man a holy pirate king.

Or every man a priest and a king.  (Thanks, Zen.)

Or righteous dominion.   (Thanks, Joseph.)

What is it about us, how could we misunderstand righteous dominion for so long?  How is it that I didn’t understand the plain meaning of that passage of scripture until late last night while musing in the bath?

Holy.  Pirate King.

Priest.  King.

Righteous. Dominion.

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When Joseph Smith and the guys decided to publish his revelations, a number of the guys got to talking about how Joseph Smith wrote them pretty rough and jumbled and maybe they could do better.

In D&C 67, the Lord says, in effect, “you know Joseph Smith and you know he hasn’t really hit his stride as a writer yet.  Pick your best guy and have him try to write a revelation.  If he does better than Joseph Smith, then you can say he’s just making it up.  If not then either you bear testimony of the revelations or you are condemned.”

Interesting stuff.  As it turns out, I think the early revelations were rough and jumbled and I think I’m a better writer than Joseph Smith was at that point in his life*  and I think I could do a better job.   So what if I were one of the gang and they decided I was the wisest?  Well, first, I’m probably wise enough to turn down the opportunity.  Getting crosswise with the Lord and his prophet is no way to carry on.  But supposing I decided to because I thought the Lord was really ok with it, he really did want the testimony that the revelations were from him.  What would happen?  I will tell you what would happen.  The Lord would cheat.  The Lord would withdraw the Holy Ghost in whatever measure would be needed so that I would completely fall apart as a writer.  I would write like shambles.

*Some of his stuff later on, D&C 121 and 122, pure poetry.

I had a great time preparing and executing today’s lesson for the 13 year olds. (more…)

Inspired by friend of the JG WJT, lets apply virtue set concepts to some of our work with manhood and womanhood.

I’ve tried my hand at capturing the essence of man and woman before.  Never perfectly.

Women are love (unconditional love), men are glory (earned love).

Men are agents, women are ends.

My favorite: Every man a holy pirate king.  Every woman a luxury and a necessity.

Glory is clearly a hot virtue, its hard to say where love fits in.  Being an agent is a hot virtue, being an end, its hard to say where it fits in.  But for me what’s interesting is my favorite one.  My ideal man and my ideal woman are both combinations of hot and cool virtues  (I more and more think that the synthesis of a hot and cool virtue pair is the only actual virtue).

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I am too indulgent a father.  I killed two of the kids’ roosters for them this morning.

Afterwards I spontaneously asked God for forgiveness for killing them.  I didn’t think about it, it just happened.

It felt right to do.  But I did not and do not feel guilty.

Go figure.