Got SAD?
Matters of the Mind: Latter-day Saint Helps for Mental Health (Ed. Marleen S. Williams, W. Dean Belnap, John P. Livingstone) gives an overview of just about every mental health issue one could think of, including diagnoses, various treatments, and spiritual supports.
It’s a blustery 3 degrees F (-17 C) outside right now on the first Sunday of the New Year. In a moment I need to head into the wind for an meeting. But first, two New Year examples of BCC bloggers popping up in daily life in Utah County.
A few days ago we were playing a family game of hockey on a nearby pond. While one of us chased down a puck after an errant pass, the rest of the family paused to rest, and someone commented, “Can you imagine breaking through this ice to get baptized, and doing that for 7 days in a row!” That statement stems from a family home evening lesson we had based around J. Stapley’s and Kris Wright’s Journal of Mormon History article, “A History of Baptism for Health.” If you haven’t (more…)
So seeing all the fuss about Nauvoo polygamy, I thought to myself, history schmistory, let’s talk biology. Biologists know plenty of titillating facts about reproductive strategies—including polygamy and polyandry! However, watch out, biologists tend to be ribald and earthy in these descriptions so if you tend towards reserved euphemisms in your discussions about what the ’stork brings’ and the ‘nether parts’ of the body stop reading now. You are duly warned that I will splash some rather unsettling biology across the page. (more…)
Twenty years ago today — 4 January 1989 — I entered the MTC as a missionary, headed for the Netherlands Amsterdam mission. Following a grand tradition, I thought I would reflect for a moment on that experience. (more…)
Since many of you no doubt have New Year’s Resolutions to lose weight, I thought I would recount my own recent experience with that topic, in case it might be of use to anyone. (more…)
Tomorrow my oldest grandchild will be baptized. 8 has always seemed to me too young to take on such responsibility, but tonight I think she might be ready.
This is why: As she and her sisters squeezed behind my 9 foot Christmas tree this afternoon to get the candy canes on the branches, she had a major role in knocking over the tree. One of our dogs once brought down a Christmas tree as he lifted his leg on it in the middle of the night, but this was the first time a child had toppled one. The dog jumped; the adults yelled. Sentimental ornaments of 40 years shattered in seconds. Tinsel tangled with branches and lights. Water flooded the floor. Having made sure the stunned children were not hurt, we set to work. I ran to get the ornament storage boxes in the attic so we could rescue the survivors and my granddaughter ran after me. “Grandma, I am so sorry.” Then, with no prodding, she joined the adults cleaning up the mess. Her mother told her to stop and go wash her hands (lead tinsel’s not recommended for fingers, especially small ones) and she refused repeatedly. “I’m going to help.” Defying her mother wasn’t popular, but I was silently very proud of her. In fact, as sad as I was for the loss, I never felt a need to scold her. She made no excuses; she showed no pride; she repented immediately with sincere remorse and a determination to make restitution–and that for a mere careless accident, no harm intended. The next time I carelessly harm another, I hope I do half so well.
So perhaps, even at the tender age of 8, she is ready.
Spoiler alert: This is a post about the connections between the Twilight books and the experience of Mormon adolescence. As such it risks spoiling in two ways: one, by giving away the plot’s general trajectory, and, two, by explaining in critical terms why it bothers me that I like these books too much. But, my aim is not to detract from any one’s pleasure in the books or from Meyers’s accomplishment. Quite the opposite: I have always thought that understanding my pleasure increased it.
I told people who asked that I decided to read Twilight over Christmas, because, for cultural reasons, I was curious to learn more about a best selling series by a Mormon author. That, of course, was a lie: I wanted to read Twilight, because I wanted to indulge in the peculiar kind of romance that I enjoyed since my adolescence—the kind of permissible romance that doesn’t depict graphic sex and yet is unquestionable arousing. (more…)
After literally years of anticipation and abortive publication dates, the The Joseph Smith Papers released their first volume a few weeks ago. In a year of important historiographical developments in Mormon Studies, one event was paramount: on December 1, 2008, Journals, Volume 1: 1832-1839 arrived at my door. (more…)
It’s a new year, a time for resolutions, for new beginnings, for big changes. I mean, you’re 40, for heaven’s sake. Time to cut off your hand.
Just about an hour ago the elders left after having joined us for a dinner appointment. I always like it when the elders eat with us, as that means an extra special meal that we actually eat at the table. (more…)
Those who are familiar with the Bible will recognize the first part of the title of this post as a quote from the Lord Jesus Christ himself, as recorded in Matthew 5:44. Evangelical creedalists of most denominations would have people believe, however, that Mormons do not read and are not familiar with the Bible and thus are not acquainted with this teaching.
Mormons are praying for Evangelical creedalists. (more…)
In Terry Eagleton’s new addition to Oxford’s, A Very Short Introduction series, The Meaning of Life, he adds a footnote to the following sentence, “Many of the readers of this book, however, are likely to be as skeptical of the phrase ‘the meaning of life’ as they are of Santa Claus. It seems a quaint sort of notion, at once homespun and portentous, fit for satirical muling by the Monty Python team.” (more…)
Let me begin by confessing that it has been a while since I have heard something new on the topic of same-sex marriage (SSM). After several years of gender studies courses in college and vigorous debates over Proposition 8, the topic of gender currently makes me feel the kind of exhaustion that can only come from struggling long and fairly fruitlessly with the utmost emotional commitment. So, I was pleasantly surprised by a recent encounter that showed me how at least one of the isssues that matters to both hetero- and homosexual couples might be resolved by a structural change in our political system that is seemingly unrelated to marriage: universal health care. (more…)
On my visit to Nauvoo last month, I was pleased to discover (and purchase) a beautiful new poster which presents a historical reconstruction of Nauvoo at its greatest extent in 1846. (more…)
One of the great joys of my life is reading and studying the scriptures in their original languages. Sometimes I worry that people will get the idea I think this is cool or important simply because I have the capacity to do it, whereas the opposite is the case: I first concluded it was important to read the scriptures in the languages of their composition, and then went to the (considerable) trouble to learn those languages. (more…)
This began as a lengthy response to some very important questions raised on JNS’s thread earlier this week. (more…)
We have to make reindeer food, of course. Reindeer prefer chocolate and Chex, and you wouldn’t want the reindeer to go hungry.
The kids leave a snack out for Santa, too. It’s a well-known fact that Santa is a big fan of cheese. (more…)
For my friends on this Christmas Eve, here is a fresh translation of the Song of Mary (Luke 1:46-55) I just now did. Merry Christmas to you all! (more…)
Today I received a mysterious package from Peru, sender unknown. The customs seal had been broken and a note was appended from HM Revenue and Customs explaining that the contents had been inspected, a routine procedure for all brown boxes which arrive from the Amazon.
Clearly the sender was aware of my continued crusade against soda and of the spiritual benefits of a nice warm cuppa. Inside were a selection of Peruvian teas, all on the safe-side of Mormon kosher with nary a leaf of camellia sinensis in sight, black, green or otherwise.
And so begins BCC Tea Club. In future instalments I will review these mysterious teas from Peru. Meanwhile, I invite all to sample the delights of rooibos — or redbush — tea, a sweet, South African elixir which is extra tasty this time of year with a shot of mixed spice. In my house, 8pm is rooibos time, as Rebecca and I curl up in front of the telly with a steaming mug. Yum.
If you want to join the Tea Club, you might want to prepare for the next installment: Maca. Oh, and happy Christmas.
As it is Christmas, I have been thinking about childbirth. (more…)
For me, George D. Smith’s Nauvoo Polygamy: “…but we called it celestial marriage” is one of the most anticipated Mormon books of recent years. A great deal of Mormon Studies writing about the origins of polygamy suffers, in my view, from a serious limitation: it regards the story of polygamy as a story about Joseph Smith. Of course, Joseph is central to the story. No other person had a greater role in shaping the way Mormons thought about and talked about plural marriage. (more…)
In my treatment of the early Mormon death conquest, I have been working on early rituals, including the antecedents to the temple liturgy we call the “endowment.” As many people know, the role of Masonic induction rituals has generated great controversy over decades. Unfortunately, there is not yet a reliable scholarly treatment of Masonry and Mormonism during Joseph Smith’s life (two separate histories are being written, but they are not yet available[1]), so I have been forced to spend about ten pages treating Masonry and Mormonism. This is tricky territory, in large part because Masonry and Mormonism were both remarkably fluid in the period in consideration and because they both drew from an immense, highly Biblical literature and tapped into considerable creativity among non-theologians. To give a sense for how easy and dangerous it is to leap to conclusions, I offer the following example: (more…)
The Thirteeth installment of our ongoing look at that most charming column of the Daily Universe. Previous installments can be read here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
This week: former guest Ken Jennings drops in as a holiday surprise for BCC readers.
Between Feb. 6 and March 3, University Police received a phone call from students’ parents. The parents gave police information about criminal activities their sons were involved in. The police found no criminal records for the students, but upon further investigation, discovered the two individuals were impersonating a police officer. Both individuals were cited in court for impersonating a police officer. (more…)
Last Zeitcast before we take a mid-season break. This time Amri and Ronan discuss temples as airport beacons, brother-husbands, and the identity of those who inherit the second degree in the celestial kingdom. Plus a certain Canadian returns to the Zeitcast and muses on the eternal fate and premortal valiance of J. Stapley, esq.
For MC, with thanks
It seems to me that at Christmas, even more than most of the year, a good deal of pain comes from the sense that we ought to feel a particular way, and, for whatever reason, we can’t summon the emotion we believe is appropriate for the occasion at hand. The solution to this problem, as to so very many problems, can be found in choral music. (more…)
There are lots of Christmas carols about angels, but not too many claim to have been received from angels. We Mormons with our own roster of angelic ministrants (led by Moroni) are perhaps more open than most moderns to such a claim. (more…)
There is a scene in the movie Star Trek Generations in which Picard the captain of the Enterprise finds himself in the most wonderful Christmas celebration ever depicted in film. It blows It’s a Wonderful Life’s final scene out of the water. Light snow is falling outside, and a cozy fire is seen on the hearth. (more…)
Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
A breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.
From In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti.
