Some years ago Dialogue published Tracie Lamb’s interesting essay on her experience as a sister missionary. (25/2, page 137) Some of her comments stemmed from being older than the average male missionary. I do not recall seeing any similar discussion by an older male missionary. (Perhaps you know of one?) One of my nephews, a recent college graduate from a Little Ivy, will begin his mission to Japan Sept. 9. In two years he will resume his dream of a career in an area of cell biology. In addition to having met very exacting academic standards, he boasts a real love of people, a warm personality, a highly trained and excellent singing voice, and a sincere desire to serve a mission. He seems well suited for success in a mission and in life. However, I wonder, what unique challenges and opportunities does the more mature young male missionary face?

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Today I learned an old friend, 61, architect of all 3 of the homes we’ve owned over 30 years, my husband’s sometimes fishing buddy, enthusiastic gardener of rare hibiscus,  fundamentalist Christian who homeschooled his children to protect them from the world, and seemingly devoted husband was charged with soliciting an underaged prostitute. The FBI says he will be charged with additional offenses. His wife and children must be devastated.
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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.

A few years ago the New York Times food editor suggested the only way to crack black walnuts was to run over them with a large SUV. But, just before trying our heaviest vehicle, a 3/4 ton 59 Ford pickup, I found a nutcracker strong enough to break the shells. Thinking I might eventually amass enough nutmeat to bake with it, I googled black walnut cake recipes tonight and found a prominent ad for a free Book of Mormon on multiple pages of the Cooks.com black walnut info. The ads are not on all the site’s recipe pages. These were the first ads I’d seen on non-Mormon sites. So I’m curious. Where have you seen Church ads on non-religious sites? Does anyone know what theories currently motivate the Church’s advertising buys? Are we who love black walnuts really more likely to embrace the Church?

Tomorrow I will teach Lesson 10 in the RS/PH manual. So rare is the very mention of a woman in the manuals that tomorrow’s lesson indeed boasts manna, the name of Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball. Feast a little when you come to page 130. Sarah is quoted regarding instruction JS gave in the School of the Prophets. The manual fails to add that, as the only woman I am aware of attending the School, she heard the teaching firsthand. The instruction is important but not as important as the opportunity to introduce the sisters to a heroine. [Read more…]

Today I posted the following announcement on Dialogue’s website. Of course BCC needs no introduction to Kristine. You know her much better than we, though we are excited to try to catch up. Please join me in congratulating her and wishing her every success. [Read more…]

Yesterday a longtime member of our Dialogue Board and prominent sociologist, Armand Mauss, was featured in a front page article in The Wall Street Journal entitled Mormons Dismayed by Harsh Spotlight.. He was quoted as saying ” I don’t think that any of us had any idea how much anti-Mormon stuff was out there.” The article concluded with another statement by Armand: “There will be a long-term consequence in the Mormon Church. I think there is going to be a wholesale reconsideration with how Mormons should deal with the latent and overt anti-Mormon propaganda. I don’t think the Mormons are ever again going to sorrowfully turn away and close the door and just keep out of the fray.” [Read more…]

Catching up on fun reading, tonight I read a brief Dec. 2 NYT mag interview of Ian McEwan about his novel and film “Atonement.” For him, an atheist, the impulse to atone is human rather than religious. I agree. He adds that atheists “have the same problem of how they reconcile themselves to a bad deed in the past. It’s a little easier if you’ve got a god to forgive you.” [Read more…]

I pulled a string and Lori Levinson, Dialogue’s excellent business manager, sent me her advance copy of the Winter 2007 issue. Yours and mine will be along soon. I haven’t made it past the poetry (I usually read the poetry first and this batch is hauntingly appropriate for winter), Neal Kramer’s review of Wayne Booth’s autobiography My Many Selves (which I loved so I had to read the review- good review) and Ethan Yorgason’s interview of John Durham Peters, professor of communications theory at the U. of Iowa and branch president. I’m now too busy googling Peters. [Read more…]

MCQ’s request today for posts on Sterling McMurrin and Hugh B. Brown lit all my Dialogue antenna. I apologize I haven’t time to attempt a bibliography, even a Dialogue only bibliography with its numerous citations, but I will point you to a start: Volume 17, No. 1, Spring 1984, for Blake Ostler’s interview with Sterling McMurrin and a reprint of one of my favorite talks of all time, Hugh B. Brown’s address to BYU on May 13, 1969. Entitled “An Eternal Quest: Freedom of the Mind,” it is a classic. A wise blend of deep testimony and humble acknowledgment that “Our revealed truth should leave us stricken with with knowledge of how little we really know. It should never lead to an emotional arrogance based upon a false assumption that we somehow have all the answers–that we in fact have a corner on truth. For we do not.” [Read more…]