Useful quote of the day...

[nibbler]

The Church is not called to be an enforcer of rules but an outpost of grace.

[Over43]

Carl Sagan wrote in his book The Demon Haunted World, "The World needs fewer business majors and more History majors."

I was fortunate to earn a Bachelor of Arts in History from BYU in 1989. After that I went on to earn 2 Master's in Instructional Leadership and Special Education. Looking back I regret that choice in post Bachelor's education. I wish I had stuck with History. The last three or four years I read quite a bit concerning WWII. During that time I went down a rabbit hole and read several books on Stalin since I new much less about him. Regardless of your station in life, in Stalinist Soviet Union, you were never removed to far form the famines and Great Terror. I think he was the worst of the 20th Century dictators. All that WWII reading came in handy last year when I took a WWII class online from BYU Independent Study. It had been a while since I had taken an academic class that was that rigorous.

Recently I have been trying to get into the Dark and Middle ages. I am just not feeling it. So, I have decided to take the next couple of years and delve into Church History. I have Leonard Arrington's Great Basin Kingdom so I will start with that. I might re-read Rough Stone Rolling as well. The last time I read Rough Stone Rolling I mentioned to fellow ward member that I had finished it. He told our bishop that I had read Rough Stone Rolling. Whatever.

Reading church History will be tough since I will need to tear myslef away from the detective novels I have been filling my time with.

My personal thoughts are, a well read background in history is indispensable.

[Old-Timer]

Be teachable. You are not always right. - Anonymous

Being able to change our minds is a tremendous gift.

Understanding we often are wrong, to varying degrees, is the beginning of grace. - Old Timer

[Old-Timer]

If you are too tired to speak, sit next to me, for I, too, am fluent in silence. - R. Arnold

[Old-Timer]

"In order to empathize with someone's experience, you must be willing to believe them as they see it and not as you imagine it to be."

That applies to church membership and faith from both sides: people who are orthodox judging the non-orthodox but also we who are non-orthodox judging the orthodox.

[DarkJedi]

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

-Friedrich Nietzsche

[Old-Timer]

Don't judge yourself by your past.

You don't live there anymore. - Sushant Shahi

[Roy]

War metaphors give a community a shared foe, a common cause. It feels good to think that the enemy is those bad people over there, while we're in a place of righteousness over here. By focusing our eye outwards, the war metaphor helps us avoid the difficult work of looking within.
Valerie Hobbs

[Heber13]

When you love someone, you love the person as they are, and not as you'd like them to be.

-Leo Tolstoy

[Roy]

As an Apostle, I listen now to the same inspiration, coming from the same source, in the same way, that I listened to as a boy. The signal is much clearer now.

Boyd K. Packer