Yesterday my family painted two newly finished rooms in our basement (one a bedroom, the other my new office). More...

A search for value in fiction, essay, and journalism

It's been a very strange trip for me over the last fifteen years or so, and I find myself suddenly lost in both a superabundance of interest and a declining patience with the many and varied forms of literature that have engaged me in my life.

Before I go any further, I apologize if I have left out a particular form, genre, or flavor in my glib encapsulation. I'm working under a (still largely unformed) model that suggests story as the intentional construction of words in a search for fact (journalism), understanding (essay), or meaning (fiction). As such, I find the specific form (poem, screenplay, lyric, story, ad copy, speech, etc. etc. etc.) far less interesting than the effective accomplishment of these three primary intents. More...

A (relatively short) meander in two and a half parts that have (mostly) nothing to do with literature. Sorry for the downer after Ed's lively and entertaining piece; it's all I have today.

In Ephesians 2:19 we read:

19. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

20. And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

21. In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

22. In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

I’ve always felt vaguely guilty about this passage because I still regularly feel like a stranger and often times a foreigner—or at least an outsider—in so many ways when I meet with my fellowcitizens of the saints and the household of God, both online and in person. More...

We all love the young hero who challenges the provincial, narrow, and oppressive conventions of previous generations to create a new and better world capable of dealing with new challenges. We like to see innovative thinking and the creation of new, hopeful solutions to replace the cynical and often corrupt institutions currently in place. As often as not that seems to require violent overthrow of the establishment and the death of the hero's father by his own hand.

As an aging father of six, I've become increasingly less intrigued by that plot line. I identify more and more with dad, and find myself defending some of his choices as responsible stewardship rather than priggish stupidity. He may be wrong, but he's not actually evil despite what his children think.

Oddly, this came to a head for me recently after a week of movie watching that started with Fiddler on the Roof and ended with How to Train Your Dragon (in 3D). More...

"We claim the privilege of worshipping almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may." (11th Article of Faith)

Three vignettes in no particular order.

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Priesthood meeting on Sunday started on an odd note when the instructor told us to gather our chairs in a circle. Long tradition held that the chairs remain in the six long rows used for opening exercises there in the cultural hall, and that the 8-15 elders who stayed for quorum meeting spread out in those rows according to the dictates of their own conscience.

My conscience demands that I sit near the back where I can read on my iPod, read my lesson manual, or read my book (currently Rough Stone Rolling) without drawing anyone's attention. I'm listening carefully, but I also get a little fidgety if I don't have something else to do while I listen. I try not to talk much because I tend to run on at the mouth, then feel bad for being a blowhard.

I also tend to quip quietly to myself about what the teacher says. It's not heckling--I don't intend to be heard by anyone except myself and those sitting very close by--but it is usually responsive, if tangential, to the lesson. It's a bad habit I picked up years ago and have never been able to consistently rid myself of. I literally think out loud, with the effect that I mutter nearly constantly in response to the teacher's points. More...

Since this will be the last new blog post before the fact I wanted to remind everyone that the annual AML Conference is this Saturday, February 27 in the library at Utah Valley University. It's a great opportunity to meet people, hear fascinating presentations, and share interesting conversation. If you can make it, I highly recommend the event. Registration starts at 8:00, so get there early.

On to the post proper.

Despite its reputation for hostility toward organized religion, science fiction has a storied history of directly addressing issues of ethics, philosophy, spirituality, and transcendent experience. As often as not the harsh treatment of institutions of religion is designed to point out that meaningful experience comes from the inside out, not by being pushed down from a homogenized organization. We discover who we are and what we believe (or at least who we want to be and what we hope is true) by personal exploration, not prepackaged dogmas.

Sf is just as hard on corporations and government institutions—and for largely similar reasons. More...

I've always assumed that given equivalent access to the same facts, reasonable people will tend to come to similar conclusions--perhaps differing in approach, but not in core concept. All that's required is a desire to learn, a willingness to listen, and a modicum of goodwill.

As such, I've watched with dismay as public debate over topics like health care, political appointments, California's Proposition 8, and the propriety of HBO airing dramatized excerpts from the LDS temple ceremony in its popular Big Love series have rapidly devolved into exasperated exchanges of established and well-rehearsed positions lobbed across a vast conceptual chasm with little apparent effort to trace the steps in between.

While writing my own exasperated response last year to a friend regarding Big Love--someone who just refused to see what I was saying--I began to wonder whether we were actually participating in the same discussion. We seemed to perceive the basic idea of what constitutes the sacred so differently as to beg any hope of shared understanding.

As I explored that idea, a series of my own experiences came together in my mind to recast the question--and my ideas about ways to approach an answer.

More...

My original intent for this post was a very lengthy essay I wrote earlier in the year about color blindness, Schroedinger's Cat, and perception of the sacred. Then I saw how (relatively) short the other posts have been and began to wonder if I had properly understood the forum. But when I saw that I was scheduled for Christmas day, that plan went out the window—wrong subject, wrong length, wrong day.

These days it seems nothing is working according to my plan or my timetable.

We normally spend Christmas day at my in-laws' house, and most of my wife's eight brothers and sisters show up with their families for a massive gathering where we open gifts and play games and generally enjoy each others' company.

Unfortunately, that won't happen this year; Mom is far too radioactive at the moment. More...