I agree with this young woman 100%. I wish I had that simple faith that she has. Someday, I will. Warning, it's long (a little over 20 minutes), and she rambles a bit (probably because of nervousness), but it's good.
Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose - 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Untitled For Reasons of Randomness
I have made a decision that I think will be hard for me. I am going to erase from my bookmarks all the blogs and websites that I frequent for no real good reason. The list has become waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to long. And, sadly, keeping up with them has become more important to me than spending time with my own husband. Man, I wish marriage came with a manual. No worries, to those friends who keep their own blogs, I will still be reading those. But I've got to break this addiction I have to all things intranets, and become a real girl! We'll see how this goes.
I love this quote by Hugh Nibley. It's from a group I wish I could join on facebook but I'm not going to BYU, so I can't. Poo. They got it from Wikipedia:
I love this quote by Hugh Nibley. It's from a group I wish I could join on facebook but I'm not going to BYU, so I can't. Poo. They got it from Wikipedia:
Here's a passage from wikipedia about one the coolest self-deprecating Mormons of all time, Hugh Nibley:
"Nibley was strongly opposed to the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War during an era "when it was very unpopular in LDS culture to do so." [2] Nibley was also bothered by what he saw as the unthinking, sometimes almost dogmatic application of some portions of BYU's honor code. Nibley had no objection to requirements of chastity or obeying the Word of Wisdom, but he thought the often intense scrutiny directed at grooming (hairstyles and clothing) was misguided. In 1973, he said, "The worst sinners, according to Jesus, are not the harlots and publicans, but the religious leaders with their insistence on proper dress and grooming, their careful observance of all the rules, their precious concern for status symbols, their strict legality, their pious patriotism... the haircut becomes the test of virtue in a world where Satan deceives and rules by appearances.” (Waterman and Kagel, 153)
"Nibley was strongly opposed to the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War during an era "when it was very unpopular in LDS culture to do so." [2] Nibley was also bothered by what he saw as the unthinking, sometimes almost dogmatic application of some portions of BYU's honor code. Nibley had no objection to requirements of chastity or obeying the Word of Wisdom, but he thought the often intense scrutiny directed at grooming (hairstyles and clothing) was misguided. In 1973, he said, "The worst sinners, according to Jesus, are not the harlots and publicans, but the religious leaders with their insistence on proper dress and grooming, their careful observance of all the rules, their precious concern for status symbols, their strict legality, their pious patriotism... the haircut becomes the test of virtue in a world where Satan deceives and rules by appearances.” (Waterman and Kagel, 153)
And here's a link to a talk given by Ann N. Madsen about tolerance and labels. I love it. And I hope that I can take it's message to heart. I'm terrible at labeling people, and avoiding those whose labels I don't like, and then turning around and preaching tolerance. Anyway, here's the link: http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=6835
It's good stuff.
I'm so glad that spring is trying to show up. Now I just hope it dries up in my swampy backyard soon so I can con my husband into raking all the accumulated winter poop from The Dogs. It's hard to scoop poop when you can't see it because of snow. And I bet Dog 2 is chewing on the picnic table again. I had better let them in.
It's good stuff.
I'm so glad that spring is trying to show up. Now I just hope it dries up in my swampy backyard soon so I can con my husband into raking all the accumulated winter poop from The Dogs. It's hard to scoop poop when you can't see it because of snow. And I bet Dog 2 is chewing on the picnic table again. I had better let them in.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Insignificance
This video made me realize how utterly stupid it is to think that there isn't life on other planets. Heavenly Father is freaking amazing.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Vegas, baby!
Pictures from Vegas, baby! There are a lot, so bear with me. And you're not even getting some of them.
One of the ceilings at the Venitian (this was the best picture I had of it, sorry).
Really, how awesome is that teaser line? This was in the hallway to the bathrooms at the Planet Hollywood buffet.
Dog Friend #2 (sorry, the wife is always #1), and The Man, walking to get food.
These flowers looked like they were the same color as the red flowers at the gardens. It was awesome to see that they were actually purple!
The Dog Friends. Well, their backs anyway.
Look, a baby pineapple! I had no idea this is how they grew. And yes, it's real.
An ox bush.
It's a bush, it's a Panda...it's a Panda bush!
Awesome statue in the gardens, standing on a pile of gold. Why can't I be standing on a pile of gold?
This was on the ceiling. Totally cool!
The real silver silverware at the Belagio buffet. Awesome!
The M&M wall at the M&M store. Total tourist trap. Totally cool.
God and Vegas
Now that I am sufficiently rested from my foray into the pit of Satan known as Las Vegas, Nevada, I am ready to recap the glorious funness that we had there.
To start: porn is now officially known in our house as prawn. It's just funnier that way.
They aren't kidding when they tell you it's everywhere. We walked past more prawn passer-outers than you would think possible; a couple of times there were 4 in a row, all working for the same company (I knew this from the T-shirts they were wearing advertising the name and number of the "company", not from the cards). They would slap the cards in their hands right before they held one out to you. Yes, they held them out to me, too.
There were trucks of the semi variety whose only purpose was to drive around Vegas all day with these big billboards on the back with the name and number of their "company" along with pictures of 1-3 girls. (None were pretty, and I remember noticing one had incredibly small boobs.) And there were magazine dispenser thingys with "catalogs" (I guess that's what they were) in them that you could buy. Usually about 4-5 together, a couple of times a block.
One day it drizzled/spit/rained all day, which caused the prawn cards to turn to mush under everyone's feet, turning them into prawn pulp. It was so slick on one sidewalk from these things that The Man almost fell down. We then proceeded to discuss how we would sue every company that passed these cards out if he had fallen down, especially if he had hurt himself. Big Dreams.
That was pretty much it for the sex. Oh, except for the free "pirate" show at the Treasure Island casino. Apparently it used to be a family friendly show, with fighting pirates, explosions and what have you. Now it's just free sex. They changed the show to one featuring the mythical Sirens luring a poor pirate to their boat. They didn't do their research very well, as all they tried to do was take off his clothes and seduce him, when in reality, they should have just sat there and sang until his boat crashed into rocks, drowning him. But that's not fun enough, and there's no sex. So they made the girls not wear anything except some sequins, and they had the pirates who came to "save" their friend decide that sex must not be that bad and climb aboard after putting up a mediocre fight and burning all the clothes in the Sirens' closets (the warmest I was during the whole thing. The fire was HUGE) and thereby pissing them off. Because a girls clothes are more important than anything else, you know.
Except sex.
So we were greatly disappointed. Don't take the kiddies to go see it, as you will be bombarded by "What does she mean, Daddy?" afterwards. I think this is a new thing, as there were a lot of kids there, and a lot of angry comments from adults afterwards. Just go the the Bellagio and watch the water show (which we didn't do, because we were watching free sex).
Other than that, we did a lot of shopping, mostly of the window variety, and ate A LOT of great food.
Now for the God part.
We went to Vegas with The Dog Friends, and at one point we started discussing some of the problems women have with the priesthood and how it works. I have struggled a bit (well, more than a bit, but not greatly) with how it seems the priesthood is set up in the church as a way to get power. How it seems that by having the priesthood, you are superior to those without it because you can, essentially, channel God at times. The male half of The Dog Friends explained how he sees the priesthood to me in such a way that it cleared up more questions than I knew I had. I will try to explain it as well as I can here, because I feel it's important to pass on. This is (essentially) what he said:
The priesthood is not a right. It is a privilege, and one that can and will be taken away if abused.
It is a responsibility. If you have the priesthood, you become responsible for leading those who follow you (mostly your family) correctly. If you don't, and they mess up, you will be punished for it, not them.
Men are given the priesthood (this is his opinion, remember, and not church doctrine. But it makes sense to me.) because they need something to channel their energy towards good (some are better at it than others). Women are generally better at that (some are better at it than others), so don't need it. It also plays into the different roles men and women have been ordained to do.
Imagine that a man and a woman both have cups, and both need to be kept full. The man has so much in his cup, it is overflowing. The woman has a hole in the bottom of her cup; the "liquid" (energy) is constantly being given to others. The woman's cup is there to catch the overflow from the man's cup, and direct his energy towards good things. If the woman doesn't receive anything from the man, her cup is empty, and she goes elsewhere to look for what she needs to keep her cup full. If the man doesn't have the woman to receive his excess, it spills out everywhere, with no direction or purpose.
The liquid in this analogy is energy, whatever kind. A man without a woman has too much, and ends up getting into trouble because he has no one to give it to; a woman without a man doesn't have enough, and ends up getting into trouble looking for something to get it from. This all works in a circle, because the liquid coming from the woman's cup needs to be flowing back into the mans cup, so he can keep filling her cup, and so on. Yin and Yang. The priesthood is given to the men to teach them how to give selflessly to others, something women already know how to do. So I guess, basically, men and women can't work correctly without the other, and men have the priesthood to help them.
He explained it much better than I am, I'm sure. Since I know they read this, if I got any of it wrong, let me know, and I will change it.
Who knew that you could find an answer to prayers in the middle of a bunch of prawn?
Pictures will be forthcoming.
To start: porn is now officially known in our house as prawn. It's just funnier that way.
They aren't kidding when they tell you it's everywhere. We walked past more prawn passer-outers than you would think possible; a couple of times there were 4 in a row, all working for the same company (I knew this from the T-shirts they were wearing advertising the name and number of the "company", not from the cards). They would slap the cards in their hands right before they held one out to you. Yes, they held them out to me, too.
There were trucks of the semi variety whose only purpose was to drive around Vegas all day with these big billboards on the back with the name and number of their "company" along with pictures of 1-3 girls. (None were pretty, and I remember noticing one had incredibly small boobs.) And there were magazine dispenser thingys with "catalogs" (I guess that's what they were) in them that you could buy. Usually about 4-5 together, a couple of times a block.
One day it drizzled/spit/rained all day, which caused the prawn cards to turn to mush under everyone's feet, turning them into prawn pulp. It was so slick on one sidewalk from these things that The Man almost fell down. We then proceeded to discuss how we would sue every company that passed these cards out if he had fallen down, especially if he had hurt himself. Big Dreams.
That was pretty much it for the sex. Oh, except for the free "pirate" show at the Treasure Island casino. Apparently it used to be a family friendly show, with fighting pirates, explosions and what have you. Now it's just free sex. They changed the show to one featuring the mythical Sirens luring a poor pirate to their boat. They didn't do their research very well, as all they tried to do was take off his clothes and seduce him, when in reality, they should have just sat there and sang until his boat crashed into rocks, drowning him. But that's not fun enough, and there's no sex. So they made the girls not wear anything except some sequins, and they had the pirates who came to "save" their friend decide that sex must not be that bad and climb aboard after putting up a mediocre fight and burning all the clothes in the Sirens' closets (the warmest I was during the whole thing. The fire was HUGE) and thereby pissing them off. Because a girls clothes are more important than anything else, you know.
Except sex.
So we were greatly disappointed. Don't take the kiddies to go see it, as you will be bombarded by "What does she mean, Daddy?" afterwards. I think this is a new thing, as there were a lot of kids there, and a lot of angry comments from adults afterwards. Just go the the Bellagio and watch the water show (which we didn't do, because we were watching free sex).
Other than that, we did a lot of shopping, mostly of the window variety, and ate A LOT of great food.
Now for the God part.
We went to Vegas with The Dog Friends, and at one point we started discussing some of the problems women have with the priesthood and how it works. I have struggled a bit (well, more than a bit, but not greatly) with how it seems the priesthood is set up in the church as a way to get power. How it seems that by having the priesthood, you are superior to those without it because you can, essentially, channel God at times. The male half of The Dog Friends explained how he sees the priesthood to me in such a way that it cleared up more questions than I knew I had. I will try to explain it as well as I can here, because I feel it's important to pass on. This is (essentially) what he said:
The priesthood is not a right. It is a privilege, and one that can and will be taken away if abused.
It is a responsibility. If you have the priesthood, you become responsible for leading those who follow you (mostly your family) correctly. If you don't, and they mess up, you will be punished for it, not them.
Men are given the priesthood (this is his opinion, remember, and not church doctrine. But it makes sense to me.) because they need something to channel their energy towards good (some are better at it than others). Women are generally better at that (some are better at it than others), so don't need it. It also plays into the different roles men and women have been ordained to do.
Imagine that a man and a woman both have cups, and both need to be kept full. The man has so much in his cup, it is overflowing. The woman has a hole in the bottom of her cup; the "liquid" (energy) is constantly being given to others. The woman's cup is there to catch the overflow from the man's cup, and direct his energy towards good things. If the woman doesn't receive anything from the man, her cup is empty, and she goes elsewhere to look for what she needs to keep her cup full. If the man doesn't have the woman to receive his excess, it spills out everywhere, with no direction or purpose.
The liquid in this analogy is energy, whatever kind. A man without a woman has too much, and ends up getting into trouble because he has no one to give it to; a woman without a man doesn't have enough, and ends up getting into trouble looking for something to get it from. This all works in a circle, because the liquid coming from the woman's cup needs to be flowing back into the mans cup, so he can keep filling her cup, and so on. Yin and Yang. The priesthood is given to the men to teach them how to give selflessly to others, something women already know how to do. So I guess, basically, men and women can't work correctly without the other, and men have the priesthood to help them.
He explained it much better than I am, I'm sure. Since I know they read this, if I got any of it wrong, let me know, and I will change it.
Who knew that you could find an answer to prayers in the middle of a bunch of prawn?
Pictures will be forthcoming.
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