NeuroTypical

It's a fine question. I think one without any doctrinal answer, but one we can speculate and opine about. I think about dispensations and folks setting off into new uncharted territory needing guidance from the Lord. We are a relatively young restored church - a scant 200 years. The restoration kicked off something that doesn't need a bunch of changes. The D&C is a record of those changes. I think about how things get canonized, sometimes a lifetime or three after the record is actually made. It makes me wonder, as the Proclamation on the Family approaches turning 30, if it might become part of the D&C eventually. I also think about Enos, Jarom, and Omni, books documenting ~300 years of BoM history, and how they get only 3 short chapters. Enos gains a solid testimony. The Lamanites resist missionary efforts. Prophets keep prophesying same old stuff. Oh look, it's Zarahmelans. 3 centuries, that's it. Omni gets 3 verses. One verse saying "I'm writing something because my dad told me to." One saying "I fought a lot, and wasn't a good person." One saying "Lotta peace, lotta war, nothing much else to say. Wrote this down because it's tradition, so here's my son Amaron for you." Amaron's record is equally as short and unremarkable. Holy, sacred scripture at it's most routine and unremarkable. Omni certainly didn't think anything about him or his record should have been thought of as holy or precious, other than he was an unimportant part of an important story. It makes me think about what 2020-2024 would look like in scripture. "A new plague crossed the entire world and killed many of the old and sick. In the church, there were some disputations about how the sickness should be dealt with, but mostly the saints did their best to practice their religion in safety. I, Russel M. Nelson, being a doctor by trade, urged the world to receive a medicine, but nevertheless to love all no matter their choice. The sickness did not stop us from our missionary work, nor did it slow our work of building new temples at a fast pace across the world. Nevertheless, the dark one took advantage of the disruptions caused by the sickness, sowing much confusion and dissention among the children of men, with some men crying "lo, I am a woman", and others crying "because of injustice of one, it is not just to be subject to laws enforced by many". And these notions did confuse and anger many, including amongst the saints." A heck of a lot more interesting than Omni, if you ask me.

By per capita GDP: Temple Uturoa, French Polynesia 20000 Chihuahua, Mexico 10000 Florianópolis, Brazil 9000 Rosario, Argentina 10000 Edinburgh, Scotland 45000 Brisbane Australia South Area 55000 Victoria, British Columbia 50000 Yuma, Arizona 63540 Houston Texas South Area 63540 Des Moines, Iowa 63540 Cincinnati, Ohio 63540 Honolulu, Hawaii 63540 West Jordan, Utah 63540 Lehi, Utah 63540 Maracaibo, Venezuela 2400 4, maybe 5 of those 15 announced temples happening in countries where the tithe-paying members couldn't have possibly hoped to fund their own temple. Yay tithing!

What do you call a lady with one leg shorter than the other? Eileen.

Eating my lunch and scrolling, and I came across an example of what I’m talking about: https://youtube.com/shorts/GMq9NalMTp8?si=JGF6ByKYshz-JJ2I it is nice to see younger folks arrive at a little bit of wisdom on their own. Completely secular viewpoint being given here.

Meanwhile on the TravelerCam, we see him sitting on his front porch watching some teenagers.

The notion of being "in error" has always interested me. We're humans for pete's sake. Being occasionally wrong is part of our mortal probation. God does not take the humanity of His prophets/seers/revelators away, just because they get called to the work. From what I can tell, the brethren have spent decades taking great care to make sure their opinions are presented as opinions, and their prophetic declarations are presented as prophetic declarations. And even taking that into account, I've done better aligning with the brethren's opinions than I have being out of alignment with them.

Yay - preggo privilege! My wife has stories too.

Very true, and probably why the church has preached so hard, for decades and decades, for it's women to get lots of education and marketable skills. We can social program and UBI and food stamp and welfare as much as we want to, but the life of a single mother can be rough, and getting torn between raising your kids and getting a crappy job can be soul-crushingly rough. It's also true that 7 out of every 10 divorces in the US are initiated by women.

Facebook's "Violent or Graphic content" filter might need a little work... https://www.facebook.com/LatterDaySaintsStandingUnited/posts/pfbid0iuoehCnzBVYqKq96azhRvhTuCNRpXapYYcuMYfijaxFvS7VswzYRuth6mCtMWsAzl

Sometimes I feel like the last guy out there in a family where I was always the worker and my wife was the SAHM. I have to be careful telling stories because of the awkward silences that ensue. However, I'm hearing a new phrase in social media: "Trad wife". It's used both favorably and critically, but there are an awful lot of GenY folks out there wanting to live the lifestyle. I'm ok with younger generations finding it appealing to have the dude be the main provider and the chick be the main kiddo nurturer. Next year is the 30th anniversary of the Proclamation on the Family - it has weathered startlingly well, and new humans in the US are coming up with some of the principles here on their own without ever being LDS. But yeah, the "I'll find a man and will never have to work" notion should be dispelled. The SAHGirlfriend thing is troubling. ~15 years ago, my bishop asked me to give a talk about the importance of women gaining an education and job experience. Basically, how the women in our church need to prepare for a future where they'll get married and never have to work. Statistics, even 15 years ago, stated that most of them would have to work for at least part of their lives.

I've been off arguing church finances with the critics on another board for a few years. I did a little research on where we stick our temples, measured by the GDP of the country where they're built, and I made this chart: Each dot represents all the temples in a certain country. So those two dots at the bottom right represent Brazil's 22 and Mexico's 25 temples, both horrendously poor nations with a per capita GDP of under $10k per year. Temples are a massive investment of funds. Maybe ~$60 million each to build, and maybe ~$3-4 million per year to operate. Yes, roughly half of the temples are built in happy rich 1st world high GDP USA. Because that's where roughly half of the worlds' saints live. But with only two exceptions, every other temple we build is built in a nation poorer than the US. 158 temples are in countries with under $40k per capita GDP. 150 in countries with under $20k. 131 in the world's poorest nations, with the crushing poverty of under $10k per capita GDP. If the saints in those areas had to rely on their own tithing donations to fund their temples, they couldn't hope to ever pay for one. If you're a church critic with issues on how the church uses it's wealth, even you are forced to admit that half of the temples cost more than they bring in. We're currently seeing exponential growth in new temples. When I ask myself how long that exponential growth will continue, one possible answer would be "as long as we can afford it". Someone with a background in monitoring how large wealthy organizations run their charitable endowments ran the numbers. Their back-of-a-napkin numbers said the church might be able to fully fund roughly ~2500 temples in poor areas who can't afford to pay for it via tithing. At the current rate of growth, we could reach that in the year 2067. Imma be paying attention in General Conference when they announce new temples! Hoping for 18-20 or more! And every time a poorer nation is named, I'll be rejoicing!

Related: May all your YouTube ads be unskippable.

Pix or it didn't happen! My buddy in Seattle made it to the last one - he made it a big family camping trip somewhere in the mountains. Got there 3 days early into a secluded meadow. The day before, the population grew 10x and they named it "solar town". The day of, the population grew 50x. He also stayed another day or two and watched folks leave. Remember, the moon is a jealous deity. Her sister the sun casts quite a long shadow, which falls dark upon the heart of the lesser moon. Eon after eon the sisters have reigned, with the sun getting all the attention and praise. When the moon has finally had enough, she might just stick herself in the way, blotting out the sun. Perhaps this time she'll stay there, until she gains the adoration she believes should be shared equally with her sister. Now the hour has come at last, the soft and fading light Has crossed the west horizon and has bidden us goodnight And what a lovely night it is to walk a moonlit field To see the softer shades that are by starlight now revealed So why is it that now when all is quiet and at rest When candles glow and all the world is at its very best The children of the earth should hide and lock themselves away To shun the moon and wait instead for Sister's sunny day? Am I so wrong to wish that they would see things like I do? And am I so wrong to think that they might love me too? Why shouldn't they adore me? Is it not within my right? I'll not be overshadowed! Mine is not the lesser light! I've waited long enough now for them all to come around And though the Sun may plead and threaten, the Moon will stand her ground! It comes to this at last I will no longer yield the sky. If they can't love but one goddess alone... See the moon is rising, she has come to claim the heavens for her own! And all will know the wonder of my dark bejeweled sky, When all the world is wrapped in an eternal lullaby. So say goodnight to this, the final setting of the sun. Tomorrow dawns in darkness! The Nighttime has begun! [evil laughter] You get bonus points if you time your singing to shout "Begun!" at the exact second of totality. Again, pix, or it didn't happen!

Oof. Someone failed to do their homework. Or was out intentionally trying to sabotage things.

We finished Masters of the Air - miniseries following the actions of the 100th B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber unit in the Eighth Air Force in eastern England during World War II. How refreshing, after 4 years of woke progressive DEI/LGBTQIIA+ messaging, to see a return to sanity from Apple TV. The show helped me to instill a healthy respect for the US and WWII allied forces in my daughter, just at the right time. Here in a culture where 'genocide' and 'fascism' have become common political insults, it was important to be reminded about what real genocide and fascism actually is. It was similar to One Life, a bit more gory and swear-ey. Still a bit less traumatizing look at things than Saving Private Ryan or Schindler's List. Balancing the horrors with the good things. Wife and I also went through 2 seasons of Halo on Paramount+. XBox HALO was an early activity we enjoyed when we were first married, and it was cool to see a live action version of it that did justice to the original.

Only 12? We've announced more than 13 for the last 5 general conferences...

Dang - are you sure you aren't me? I had a startlingly similar experience when I was 6, and then again when I was 7, and then throughout the rest of elementary and middle school. My elementary school was in the '70's, middle/high school in the '80's. And you had this experience in the UK? I grew up in Salt Lake City. Well, we're all born stupid. I guess there are recurring themes as kids form social circles and look for things to include and things to exclude. From what I can tell about today's kids, it's now trendy and cool to be part of the alphabet and feel guilty about being white. The bad kids are transphobes and fascists and haters.

I don't have any immediate thoughts, but I'll add the phrase to my General Conference bingo card.

Hey now, no need to escalate things that far. For that offense: May your car develop a squeak when it backs up. May you dust your ceiling fans, only to discover one blade was missed, and now it wobbles, and you have misplaced your stepladder. May you insert the USB cord the right way on the first try, and spend the rest of the day worrying how the universe will get revenge on you.

You sound like someone who jumped ship before Red turned gay. We stayed until shortly after that.

Take my anecdote for what it's worth: Years ago, wife and I helped put a Utah child molester behind bars. He was accused of a dozen counts over the span of a year - abusing his niece. It was an "aggravated" felony because he was in a position of trust. Basically, extra horrible, carries extra penalties than just plain old child sex abuse. He pled guilty to one count, the sentence was 5-life. He was up for a parole hearing 4 years in, but he hadn't availed himself of any of the programs for sex offenders who want parole, so it was not granted. He made parole the next year, a few months shy of a full 5 years. I've heard stories of similar sentences for similar crimes in other states.

We have a new "puppy". Yes, very young, in the same way baby elephants can be very young too. When she gets zoomies the house shakes and the furniture gets rearranged. We also have an elderly cat who is so utterly disgusted at the new arrival, she can't even. We thought she might be reaching the end of her life and not make it through the winter, but she seems to be running strong on her endless hatred of this doggo.

The fam went and saw One Life last night. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Life_(2023_film) I can highly, highly recommend it. Everyone should know the story. Inspiring and important reminder of how average folks can rise to the occasion. Anthony Hopkins and all the other actors did an amazing job. Easier to watch and less traumatizing/extreme/violent/shocking than Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan. Excellent movie for older teens on up. In my life, as the son of a WWII vet, I've felt the pressing need to preserve and pass along the lessons my dad's generation learned. This movie really really helped me forward that goal with my older daughter.