Wednesday was Ken Mattingly’s 85th birthday. As I pointed out ten years ago when he turned 75, and five years ago after he turned 80, this retired admiral is the youngest among the two dozen who ever ventured farther than low earth orbit, all explorers of the moon. Twelve of them landed and walked the lunar surface, and the other twelve like Mattingly orbited the moon (or looped around it in Haise and Swigert’s case). Five of his peers have died in the five years since Mattingly turned 80, so now four of the walkers are still alive, as are seven of the orbiters. The oldest of the living, Frank Borman, is 93, and none who have died lived past 88 years old.

Five years ago I wrote that we had a decade or so remaining before their feats passed into legend. At that time I had no expectation that any new astronauts will venture again even 1,000 miles above the earth’s surface before all the lunar astronauts will have died. That is still the current trajectory, but there is a chance it may not be so.

Something I have kept in mind: After Amundsen reached the south pole at the end of 1911 and Scott did so a month later, it was not until the austral spring of 1956 that anyone set foot at the south pole again. After a 45 year pause, the last second of southern latitude has been continuously manned for 63 years now.

On the sweetness

A sister gives a talk about her dream job.

She got it about a year ago.  She felt inspired to take it.

It has been rough on her family with her out of the home.

Last week a young lady taught a lesson to the young women on the Proclamation on the Family.  She, the sister with the dream job, felt inspired to go back to being at home.  So she gave notice.

Why, shore, I aint worried none bout claim jumpers.  Taint nuthin’ I cain’t resolve on account o my six shooter.    But why in everlovin’ tarnation would SpaceX proclamate where they figger on homesteadin‘ just so a passel of lowdown skunk varmints can sashay in o’ front of them?

Could this meeting be a zoom?

Could this zoom be a phone call?

Could this phone call be an email?

Could this email be a text?

Could this text be unsent?

 

Could we in silence retreat to the forest?

Could we, by game trails & forgotten paths, vanish into the trees?

-thus Louis Evans

Women connect, men synthesize.

Not completely sure its true or kind.

But our ironclad policy is to post whatever pops into our heads.

I recommend this talk by Elder Maxwell about Joseph Smith.  His literary bent shows him the rhythm and contrast, the tragic poetry, that lies in Joseph Smith’s life and in ours.

Great courage, great strength, great passion — and going peaceably to his death.

After a glorious visitation, a laborious implementation.

Remarkable manifestations, along with constant vexations.

Befriended by heavenly notables,  betrayed by some of his earthly friends.

Receiving keys and gifts, but  the painful loss of six of his eleven children.

That is Joseph Smith’s poetry.

When you come to passages in your own life that are troubling, keep reading.  Dauntless the slug horn to your lips set and blow.

P.S.  I loved this passage.

President Young said that those who knew Joseph could tell when “the Spirit of revelation was upon him, … for at such times there was a peculiar clearness and transparency in his face.” (In Journal of Discourses, 9:89.)

Other posts from the Priesthood session of the April 1992 General Conference

Marilyn Nielson The very best available

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from nature.

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No evidence of alien species because most advanced species correctly intuit that information is pollution, and cease communicating in patterns.  Their language approaches static, their architecture approaches nature.

-twitter user @ctrlcreep

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Any sufficiently advanced activity is indistinguishable from ritual. (more…)

Today is Betsey’s dying day.

Atlas started small.  He grew.

His first burdens seemed heavy enough.   He bore the burden of working out his own salvation in fear and trembling before God.  He bore the burden of growing up.  He discovered the grace of Christ.  He bore up.

He took on more burdens before he was ready.  Mission, job, marriage.  He staggered a bit.  Infused with grace, he bore up.  He took on more.  His shoulders got broader and broader.  Family children hometeaching community neighbors friends truth beauty land heritage generations.  His shoulders are broader and broader.  His back is bigger and bigger.

Now it is only the weight of the whole world on his shoulders that keeps him down.

(more…)

My children, my children,

my jewels of my heart.

Time, death, and distance

will ne’er long us part.

Romans held actors and actresses in great contempt. They classified them as a form of prostitute. The plays they acted in were often extremely lewd and they often just were prostitutes. The Roman attitude makes sense and one wishes we could adopt it. It is hard to think of a single redeeming feature of our celebrity culture. (more…)

My wife says that I have a subconscious rule that I must move things from one place to another at least a hundred times before I can bring myself to give them away. Suffice it to say, if you need help in this, there are better experts than I to teach you.

-thus Brother Bradford, from his talk Unclutter Your Life.

It is not really a talk about clutter. It is a talk about systems, and means and ends, and goals. (more…)

The one Lord,
from the two branches hung,
three days in the grave,
the four quarters saved

I was thinking of John Mansfield, and Brandon Flowers, and JM’s wife this morning.

There are two beauties, one being more beautiful than the other; there shall be another more beautiful than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more beautiful than they all.