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I’ve mused that physical matter is different than spiritual matter because it is bound by an uncertainty principle. This principle generates unexpected outcomes. And a small percentages of unexpected outcomes have value. It’s possible that something like soy sauce, kimchi, paella, maple syrup, or bacon pecan pie is the kind of currency that makes Earth valuable. Perhaps it’s the Star Wars saga. But then again, I hope than the lightsaber is a common elegant weapon that Celestials employ. Perhaps George Lucas’ story was inspired. And if there are an infinite amount of ‘Earths’ then the art, cultures, cookbooks, etc. available in heavenly libraries must be extensive. Can’t wait to get my hands on an Urim and Thummin. D&C 130: 10-11 Another good reason to shoot for the Celestial Kingdom instead of a lesser kingdom. Can’t imagine using imitation maple corn syrup on crappy pancakes for the rest of eternity. Talk about hell…

In theory I'm with you, but I honestly don't know how to make that happen beyond the obviously bad teachers. I think @Traveler has some good ideas, but even then I can think of too many exceptions (we'd have to scrap IDEA and other laws to even start). I fear the complexity would be a hard road to travel. And I don't mean to mean this defend-the-teachers, just that this is another thing I see parents getting up in arms about, plus the number of administrators needed to arrange and implement all these standards.

Ooh, I definitely see mob mentality happening. I believe that the minor years are a nice time to, if one must, make all the mistakes without major consequences. But recordings could affect it.

I think that's something kids would adjust to. The question is if we are okay with them being watched Big Brother style.

We had it as part of a fireside event at Scout camp. Same program for years. I love it. I associate it with trying to get my guys organized as we manuevered canoes, tiki torches, and worked with the flaming arrow people.

I tagged along to the Taylor Swift concert movie. I owned like two of her early albums, but pretty much ignored her over the past decade. I admit I get the appeal. This past week I discovered I may like Pink.

Finely questioning... if I am my own worst...

Finely - I understand. 🤢 The Traveler

Hmmmmmm -- still not worth it. The Traveler

I'm glad to support and defend anyone who declines to use social media of any kind. Here's the full video - no signing up necessary.

Definitely not.

Really --- I have to have a facebook account to access this??? Not worth it. The Traveler

Jokes, yes. Definitely jokes. No, the scarce thing is souls who are willing to live the Celestial Law. Thus the only currency, the only true sacrifice we can give the Lord is our broken heart and contrite spirit.

Humans have always lived in scarcity. Humans have developed many ways to deal with scarcity. Historically, there have been two always-present methods: - Grab a club and maybe some bros and go take what the other humans have. - Grab your black clothing and kidnap the other humans' women, and ransom them back for stuff you want. A thing called "civilization" brought some new options. Some still involved force and the threat of force, but others did not: - Use manipulation and leverage to get others to give you what you want. - Barter and trade. When you have something they want, and they have something you want, make an exchange. - Use some sort of agreed upon medium of exchange that represents a mutually held belief regarding value. Mediums of exchange include precious minerals, the cows in Johnny Lingo's village, and currency. And bitcoin. An interesting truth that I believe is correct: If there's no scarcity, there's no currency. So in the eternities, what's scarce? God's glory? Knowledge? New jokes with funny punchlines nobody ever thought of before? The materials needed for eternal increase? StarTrek tells us a lot of worlds have reached some sort of utopia where money is no longer needed. Energy was so cheap it was essentially free, and there's a magic box called a replicator that can make anything. Eventually, they had to build the idea of scarcity back into the ST universe. And the currency used there is "gold-pressed latinum". Something with inherent value, that a replicator can't make. SciFi/Fantasy tells me that whatever gods or deities are there, value things like a good story, or an act of heroism, or art.

Im also impressed to consider all the parables that deal with currency and wages. And Mosiah 2 wherein King Benjamin states that we are all unprofitable servants.

I get the joke, but I think “trauma” is a harsh word. You weren’t traumatized because Daddy didn’t buy you a Porsche on your 16th birthday @NeuroTypical. 😜

Thank you. I appreciate your kindness. But I know better. A pearl of sarcastic wisdom dropped out of the internet into my lap many years ago. A character was complaining about her need for therapy to deal with her neuroses and obsessive need to succeed for parental approval. The response: "Everybody traumatizes their children. The secret is to do it in a way that motivates them."

A publication about mothers is upset by the fact that mothers actually want to be mothers? We can hope. I don't know if those small changes in numbers necessarily represent a pattern yet. But we hope. I've been hearing a LOT about the MGTOW movement. And, apparently, single women are beginning to get it. They realize that the trad way has some merit to it. They are beginning to realize women need men as much as men need women in a civilized society. But again, we can only hope this is a trend, not just a blip.

I'm not sure if this is what you had in mind. But it is related and has been weighing on my mind. About 6 months ago, we accepted a young adult into our home because she had no place to go. Her parents had kicked her out. And by all accounts, they were abusive. She was very damaged by all that happened. Since she's been living with us she has eased up a bit and found herself. The problem is... "herself" is not someone that has it together. She's not grateful. She's not humble. She is not responsible. While my wife has tried to work with her on the emotional/social side, I'm trying to teach her financial literacy. My kids have actually been instrumental in helping her on the spiritual side (mind you, she is nominally LDS). Unfortunately, all of our efforts have been in vain. It seems that due to all the gaslighting she experienced in her family, she developed the self-defense mechanism of giving a knee-jerk reaction to any new information with "Well, that is not true for me because..." Needless to say, we have made zero progress with her from making any changes to her decision making or behaviors. ******************* Now, I am trying to avoid blasphemy here. But the following stark comparison has been on my mind. And it involves a situation where I would be "the Lord" in this parable. When we took her into our home. We had it in our minds to possibly adopt her. But we'd have to see how things go. How would she fit into our family in the long run? Is she willing to be part of our family. To help her out, I bought her a beater so she could get to and from work. The agreement was that she would pay me back over the course of 6 months. With her salary, she should be able to pay me back in three or four months. The deal was that all the payments would be considered "rent" until she pays it off fully. Then I would sign the car over to her. And it would be hers. Fast forward. She has skipped a few months payment. She now still owes me about $1800. She is scheduled to leave for her own apartment at the end of June. By then she will owe me about $2000 because we agreed that I'd begin to charge a small amount of rent ($100/mo) beginning in April. She said that she felt she had to leave around now because "Carb is going to start taking my money." As you can imagine, I found that disturbing on several levels. Because she has been a less than stellar worker, her boss reduced her hours. So, she is now making much less money. There is no way she can pay me back anymore. She wants to move into an apartment with a friend of hers. But she's "having trouble getting the deposit together because I'm giving all my money to Carb." Note; She hasn't paid me a penny in two months. I'm now expecting that she will have to take all the money and put the deposit down on the apartment and leave without paying me back. I'm probably not going to make much of an objection. But I feel like I'll have to point out a few things. We invited her into our home and wanted to adopt her after a testing period. But she never wanted to learn what it was to be a part of our family. This would include making her an heir to my estate when I died. But she didn't do the things we did. She didn't learn the things we learned. She didn't accept the principles which we believed. She wanted a posh life without taking on the responsibilities of that life. Instead of paying $100 rent (because I was "taking" her money) she CHOSE to pay $700/mo for half rental on an apartment. Her parents stole $2000+ of her money. She is now defaulting on her obligation to me for $2000. The thing is that I knew this was a possible eventuality. And I was prepared to take the hit if it came down to it. So, I'm going to forgive her the debt. She can no longer blame her financial woes on her parents' mistreatment. I've paid their debt to her. She now has her own life to live and cannot blame anyone for the choices she makes. When she realized what was happening financially, she never bothered to come to me and ask for a different deal or schedule or anything that might make it more financially feasible for her to pay me back. She just chose to bad-mouth me to my children. So, she's going to blame me for all her financial woes. She made nearly $20,000 last year and has nothing to show for it because she spent it all despite having no expenses other than her phone and gas for the car. She spent it on frivolous living. The parallels with her irresponsibility with money vs our irresponsibility with "glory" (as you - Traveler- put it) is really clear in my mind. The Lord wants us to inherit all He has. We want that posh life. But we often are not willing to learn and do what it takes to get there. Often times, we think the Lord expects too much of us. But what we choose to do instead will be even harder. In fact, it is impossible. (c.f. C.S. Lewis wheat, grass, egg) We have been wronged by so many parties. But the Lord has paid the debt so that all things are equal. We can't blame any of our bad choices on what wrongs we've been subject to in our lives. The Lord has cleared it all and given us a fresh start. We spend way too much time trying to justify, or cry foul, or simply denying, instead of going to the Lord and asking for forgiveness. We need to ask him to lift us up. But many of us tend to now blame the Lord for all our problems as if they just came out of thin air. We have so many blessings which we squander like the prodigal son. We could have done so much with our time, talents, and everything that the Lord has blessed us with. But we choose to waste it all far too often. I don't like losing $2000. And it hurts. But I'd be glad to pay it, if it meant that she would turn around and figure things out, and begin to live a happy life with no exuses. I just want her to learn correct principles and live a happy life. I'll gladly set things up so that she has no excuses. But she is just continuing to make bad choices because she has never accepted the lessons we tried to teach her. The primary principle behind economics is not the currency. In the end, "economics" is the science of "making choices."

Moses 1:3 And God spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty, and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or end of years; and is not this endless? 4 And, behold, thou art my son; wherefore look, and I will show thee the workmanship of mine hands; but not all, for my works are without end, and also my words, for they never cease. Also hymn 284 If you could hie to Kolob Endless commodities are an interesting concept.

Earth's economy is driven by limitation - without limitation, things are seen as having no value. The things of heaven (aka the things of God) know no limits, only increase: God gives us knowledge and now that knowledge has increased. God teaches us to love, and now there is more love. The same with all virtues, God shares them by offering them to us and teaching us to embrace them and they increase. The phrase "economy of heaven" as used in many a General Conference talk seems to equate to "efficiency of heaven" and also "rules of interaction" or "who should be doing what".

Irony? Not quite the word I would use. Perhaps: Self-defeating behavior. Self-defeating prophecy? For much of European History Jews were hated and discriminated against. One characteristic was that (for quite a long history) they were not allowed to own land. Therefore, they could not grow their own food. This forced them to make money through business in order to buy food. Being in finance and business required brains. Those who survived while maintaining their Jewish identity had to be among the smarter people. To be highly successful, you had to be really smart. But the average European had to go into farming. Through the centuries, Jews became smarter. The native Europeans became dumber. Unintentional consequences: Natural selection by human edict. Then they also developed the most amazing education system that you can imagine. And it leans heavily towards verbal reasoning, logic, reading, and memorization. Aside: Freedom Toons has a video of "dinner at the Shapiro house." It depicts the extended family making fun of Ben Shapiro for being the intellectual runt of the family. His response is, "I realize all of you are more accomplished and all. But in other circles an IQ of 215 is generally considered pretty respectable. OK?"

There was only one perfect man. We all make mistakes and the good ones learn from our mistakes. Looking back on my life I made lots of boneheaded mistakes that I wish I could take back. I’m lucky that my wife and kids put up with a bunch of my garbage. But they did and they still give me World Greatest Dad mugs and shirts. Even though we both know I don’t deserve them… I still accept the gift with a thankful heart.

Lucifer did not under basic glory & honor economics. Glory and honor cannot be given away. It can only be earned. And curiously when Jehovah said the glory be thine. It seems like Jehovah thought that He was going to vector all the glory to the father. But it don't work that way. The glory that Jehovah accrued was multiplied and shared with his Father. Moses 4:1-2 It’s like being given a $100,000 dollar samurai sword - without any training or experience. That person would be more likely to hurt themselves then do any harm to an opponent. And a true warrior would be deadly with a wooden spork.

Recently I was having a discussion with my brother, and he introduced to me an idea that I had not thought much about – divine currency. Because currency is closely associated with the economy – I thought defining economy would be a good place to start. Among the definitions of economy – I would project that economy is, in essence, the practices, discourses and expressions associated with the production, use and management of resources (copied from Wikipedia). The word from scripture that seems to deal with G-d and his overseeing of resources is, in scripture, the term “Glory”. In the councils of our pre-existence, it seems that the focus of Lucifer was on two principles or things. One was the empowering of individuals with agency (Lucifer strongly opposed this) and the second was that Lucifer wanted G-d’s glory. I have understood that Lucifer intended to utilize G-d’s glory to take over heaven and place himself as the supreme Suzerain of the Kingdom of Heaven. With G-d’s glory Lucifer would oversee, manage and control all the resources of the universe – both physical and spiritual. Here in mortality and on earth – our currency (wealth) is associated only with physical stuff like silver and gold. But silver and gold is such a limited commodity that we use the glory of our government to print and distribute dollars – which are guaranteed by our government rather than actual gold and silver. If our government loses its glory the money will be worthless. It would seem that anyone with unlimited access to dollars has the ability (power) to do purty much whatever they want. I am still in the process of thinking this through – any input would be appreciated. Anyone willing to discuss with me and deal with questions would make me very happy. If you have better ideas – it would be better than gold. The Traveler