zil

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Posts posted by zil

  1. 1 minute ago, Just_A_Guy said:

    And whether men should or shouldn’t learn to get comfortable with that—the simple fact is that most of us haven’t; and we’ll go to extraordinary lengths to make it stop.

    And this was my point - the thing I had been thinking about.  Trying to "make it stop" is actually hindering the solution.  You're seeing the tears as the problem1 rather than the solution to the (second) problem.  The first problem (the thing which still needs solving) is whatever evoked overwhelming emotion.  The second problem is the overwhelming emotion, which is solved by venting (whether the venting is tears, physical activity of some sort, raging, sulking in a dark corner, whatever).  The venting doesn't need to be solved (unless it's abnormal for some reason), but rather allowed to continue until the emotion is spent and reason can then rise again to address the first problem.

    1 Perhaps because "real men don't cry".

    That said, I doubt most people have given this much consideration.  I had no choice as two of my characters were having a prolonged discussion on the matter. :D

    (NOTE: This isn't to say I don't think tears are ever unwarranted, insincere, or not helpful.  In the above, I'm assuming a genuine or normal response appropriate to the emotions evoked by the first problem.)

  2. 8 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said:

    if an adult crying at the first hint of unpleasant news

    Excellent point - tears as a knee-jerk reaction to a guy breaking up with you (assuming you're not married, blah blah blah) probably is over-reaction and evidence that something isn't right with your perspective.  Good rest of your post.

    10 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said:

    hope I didn’t give undue offense

    Never.  I had recently been considering this issue of "a woman crying is something that needs to be stopped", and responded to that issue without considering the fact that in the described circumstance, tears weren't warranted in the first place.

  3. 4 minutes ago, Just_A_Guy said:

    often leads to tears, which tactic

    Maybe stop thinking of it as a "tactic" and instead as a natural hormonal response which doesn't need solving or defending against?  IMO, tears (assuming they're real) in a woman (and probably a male) are generally a release valve for overwhelming emotion.  We all have multiple such release valves, and tears are a more common one in females, but that's exactly what they are.  They aren't something to be stopped or a problem to be solved - they are, in fact, the solution to the problem (the problem being excess emotion which needs release, relief, or expression).  So just let her cry.  Maybe give her some Kleenex® brand facial tissue.

  4. 11 minutes ago, carlimac said:

    This very clearly wasn’t an answer to prayer.

    Erm, is one of them dead now?  Cuz if not...

    (I'm not gonna guess one way or the other what is or is not revelation, just that in addition to all the other ways in which we misinterpret these things, timing and bumps along the way often make us assume final outcome despite the outcome not being final at all.)

  5. 1 hour ago, Anddenex said:

    Something I just noticed in the Book of Mormon, Lehi's vision, is that the messenger from God who bade him to follow him first lead him through a dark and dreary waste, which lead to even further darkness, by which Lehi prayed for mercy and then obtained mercy. Something to think about.

    And the guy in white is not mentioned again once Lehi gets into the dark and dreary waste.  Did the guy leave him there?  Did Lehi get excited to tell the tree part of the vision and forget to finish this guy's story-line?  Did Nephi edit the guy out for the Reader's Digest Condensed version?

    (I noticed this just this morning.  Along with more meaningful thoughts, I had to wonder about the guy in white.)

    </derailment>

  6. This is how government documents have been signed for decades, if not longer - multiple pens, all given out to various folk after the fact.  And the US certainly aren't the only ones who do this.  Not sure how this relates to secret combinations - though the sight of all those ballpoints makes me suspicious.

    That said, anyone who's worked closely enough with the US federal government, and who understands the idea of secret combinations, can't hardly help but believe there are secret combinations therein.

  7. 9 hours ago, Traveler said:

    There is something to reading on your own from cover to cover - for me - I noticed a lot of what I call spiritual connections.  This is where something that was a little vague was made more clear or something added later to a particular subject earlier.

    Yes.  Reading something non-stop allows us to retain more of the whole than if there are breaks between short bursts.  I've always found Isaiah easier to understand if I read it for hours straight rather than in short bursts (which yield little more than confusion).

    This was brought home again last year when I decided to binge-read my favorite novel series - 19 books in 26 days - before the end, I was seeing patterns I'd never noticed before despite having read each of these books multiple times already.  My conclusion is that if you want to find patterns and connections, you need to read everything through as fast as you can (possibly faster).

  8. 9 minutes ago, LugiaLvl138 said:

    Earthbending, Airbending, Waterbending, and Firebending

    Please try not to mix the priesthood with concepts from fantasy fiction or games - IMO, the mixing will only harm in the long run.

    Other than that, I refer you to the hymn "Master, the Tempest Is Raging" (and its linked scriptures) as a starting point.  "Elements" in this context would usually mean the weather - as when Jesus calmed the stormy sea.  But could also refer to incidents such as when the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea on dry ground (and Joshua with the river Jordan), or those described in Moses 7.

    A study of scripture will show more than casual cause for such events.

    IMO, a far greater power would be the power to love God with all your heart and mind, and to then go share that love with those around you.  The sooner one figures out how to gain this power, the sooner one will have more than enough power to do everything one could really want.

  9. 16 hours ago, mordorbund said:

    That's okay. People who participate in these fora know restored scriptures (and the various editions of Gospel Principles) inside and out. We all know what you're talking about.

    OK, first instance: D&C 3:5-15.  I'm sure there are other places where the Lord tells Joseph that blessings are conditional on obedience, but I don't think there's an index entry for that, especially not one specific to Joseph himself, and I can't think of search terms that would find them, so this will have to do.

  10. 45 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

    the art of tact

    tact.jpg.1f6630b5511b52f51a621ab774b3cb3a.jpg

    41 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

    Guided by the Spirit.

    I was guided by the Spirit to take & post that picture. . . . . .  OK, probably not.  It's still funny, though.  (I have a bunch of Garfield post-it notes and can't seem to bring myself to use them as then they'll be gone.)

    </threadjack>

  11. 35 minutes ago, Still_Small_Voice said:

    If you do not mind Microsoft harvesting most of the information on your computer (selling the information to third parties) and forcing software updates into your operating system then Windows 10 is not bad.  I use it at work but I do not like it.

    You can disable that stuff (said the woman still using Windows 7, who used Windows 10 at work and hated it).  Here's the only link I can find at the moment with details on what and how to disable all the junk:

    https://slate.com/technology/2015/08/windows-10-privacy-problems-heres-how-bad-they-are-and-how-to-plug-them.html

  12. 14 minutes ago, Jonah said:

    I read this on https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Joseph_Smith/Martyrdom/Joseph_fired_a_gun,

    "Joseph was not guilty of murder, because no one died from his shots, and his 
    actions would have been justifiable as self-defense and defense of others even 
    if deaths had resulted"

    Did the words of 122:7 ("know thou, my son, that all these things shall give 
    thee experience, and shall be for thy good") have any influence on his decision 
    to shoot those who were trying to kill him?

    I'm confused about the phrase in 122:9 ("... for their bounds are set, they 
    cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less").
    I'm assuming it was said in the context of his being imprisoned.

    What does it mean?

    Please check the headings for D&C 122 (Liberty jail, 1839) and 135 (Joseph was killed at Carthage, 1844).  Two different events, far apart.

    1) I'm no history buff, not even Church history, but from what I know, it seems to me Joseph Smith, Jr. always believed in a person's right to defend themselves, so this doesn't seem out of character.  What influence his experience in Liberty jail had on his behavior in Carthage jail, I couldn't begin to guess.

    2) D&C 122:9 - "their bounds are set, they cannot pass" to me means that there are limits to what evil people will be allowed to do (even though it may not seem that way sometimes), or at least the specific evil people in question.  "Thy days are known..." meant the Lord would preserve Joseph Smith, Jr.'s life1 until Joseph had finished the work the Lord had planned.

    1From elsewhere (no, I don't have a specific reference - the entire D&C, maybe), it's quite clear that this promise was conditional on Joseph's obedience.