Quick Week in Review

Thanks NPR, for a great title.

It has been a solid week since I last posted anything, so it's about time for an update. This week has been pretty uneventful but a mild roller coaster; I've spent it either working on an essay (which I'm quite proud of, if I do say so myself), or relaxing with some Lost in Austen, or trying to block out some mildly distressing news as well as how far away from home I am. I've spent a lot of time on the fourth floor of the library and in my head, which is why I particularly enjoyed the ward temple trip to Preston, England, last Saturday, and then ceilidh dancing on Thursday night. It cleared my head of a few things. My mood right now: pensive.

Preston, England LDS temple

From the morning drive through England.

There is a part of me that wants to talk about how brilliant a lot of these Scottish thinkers are - I've been wrestling with them for most of the day, so they're on my mind. I was reading the transcript of a lecture given by David Daiches, and I felt an enlightening, like my mind was being lifted higher and higher. I had first encountered Mr. Daiches while reading Two Worlds for one of my classes, where he discusses growing up Jewish in Edinburgh, Scotland; I liked what he had to say then, and I love him - and hate him - now. In his writing, I see the buds of a few of my own thoughts in his, fully formed. I feel smarter for having read him, as if I have caught a little bit of his brilliance and it has settled onto me, enlightening and expanding my own mind a little.

This is one of the reasons I'm really starting to love academics: I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of it. (About time, with thesis to think about next year.)

On Being a Mormon (Again)

I like being a Mormon. No matter where I go in the world, it seems, that there will be a place for me. There is a great many things that I like about the religion, and some thing that I don't like. However, I really like this willingness to be open and to accept people in general. I felt like I was reached out to both in Madrid and Edinburgh; I've realized that it's up to me to reach back, and even to make the initial move.


Practice, practice. Wow, this is becoming such a religious blog...

Fitting In and "Mormon Moment" - Pt 3

So, the famous webcomic xkcd posted the picture below a little while ago. Note the section on blogs.

Thank you, xkcd-man.

According to this map, I'm in multiple places at once, because this is a writing/travel/personal/journal/religious blog. I have defied the laws of physics!

Speaking of defying the laws of physics, there is a wonderful poem by Carol Lynn Pearson entitled "Position," which I may have shared before. It's so good, though, that it bears sharing again:

If "A" looks up to "B"

Then by nature of the physical universe

"B" must look down on "A"

Rather like two birds

Positioned

One on a tree

And one on the ground.

Or so thought Marjorie

Who had always wanted to marry

A man she could look up to

But wondered where that

Would place her

If she did.

Imagine her astonishment

When she met Michael and found

That together they stood

Physics on his head.

You could never

Draw this on paper

For it defies design

But year after year

They lived a strange

Arrangement

That by all known laws

Could not occur:

She looked up to him

And he looked up to her.

Ah, if only more of life could overlap like this - Carol Lynn Pearson is both a Mormon and a feminist. I love the fact that they don't have to be competing ideologies, even though there are some incompatibilities. In Church, some people say that the reason women don't have the priesthood is because women are so much kinder and concerned naturally than men, and that women don't need it, it is the men who need it to equal themselves to women. I don't like that argument, because it still puts one gender above the other. In my estimation, everyone is perfectly equal before God, but it is society and our mean mortal minds that puts out of balance that equality.

Yes, the photographs from the Hubble Telescope are back.

"Mormon Moment" - Pt. 2

The title for "Mormon Moment" came from one of my very dearest friends who will remain anonymous for the purpose of this post. We had known each other for about a year and had many conversations about Mormonism, because the doctrines we teach and espouse have had a profound influence on who I am and who I want to be.


One day, she told me that she had been to the nearby (fantastic) coffee shop and was drinking a mocha when all of a sudden she stopped and thought to herself, "Oh crap! I can't be drinking this!" because she momentarily thought she was a Mormon. She described this as a "Mormon moment."

I'm Mormon, which means I get to have these moments all the time! Whoo!

Mormonism: 1 (n +1)

Caffeinated beverages: 0

Midori and Zil, that was for you. Yes, you know what I'm talking about.