I jog some days. When I do, generally I have something playing in my ears. This morning, among other things, I listened to one of my regular podcasts. It’s called Nature Podcast and is published by the scientific journal called Nature. This particular episode is titled Audio long read: So you got a null result. Will anyone publish it? The article was written by Max Kozlov and read by the podcast host Benjamin Thompson. What an interesting concept. Most journals, including Nature, are looking for scientific studies with some sort of positive correlation outcome. Something that has a new or novel conclusion. However, experience teaches that most scientific efforts result in a negative correlation, or null outcome, just like any other human endeavor. I’m reminded of how many failures the Edison company had coming up with a working filament for the lightbulb before finally getting one that worked. We now tell ourselves this famous story, but until there was a working light bulb, nobody had any interest in telling the story of all the other versions that didn’t work. Had they never gotten it write would there be any interest in the failure and likely death of the company? Even with success, are there articles that review each failure and speak to why they failed? I believe not. It seems like we just lump all the filament failures into a number to show how many times the experimenters in Edison’s employ failed as a tail about persistence paying off.

Kozlov points out, among other things, how journals are in the business of attracting readers. The article notes how there are some sites in cyber space where these negative results are published, but with few submissions and little readership. As I listened to the long read, I was reminded of several other famous arguments made in the past. For example, Robert Merton famously wrote on scientific norms in an attempt to explain what motivates scientists. Many have since argued that Mertonian norms depict an optimistic list and suggest counter norms that seem more realistic to the authors. One could make the argument that any set of norms ascribed are a function of the subjective preferences of the list constructor.

Another argument that came to my mind was that of the 'Matthew effect', an idea also coined by Robert Merton. This assertion touts that those who get published gain some sort of credibility which then makes their future findings more likely to be published. The idea is from the biblical book of Matthew when the statement in one of the parables asserts to him who have shall be given more, and to him who has not shall be taken away even that which he has. Now, of course, these New Testament ideas were not about scientific credibility, nonetheless Merton makes hay from the idea. Taking it a step further, Margaret Rossiter added a feminist perspective asserting that women in this predicament are even less likely to get published or recognized for their scientific research, dubbing her argument the 'Matilda effect'.

The Nature article shares several unintended consequences of this propensity to only publish positive findings and ignore null outcomes. In the environment of ‘publish or perish’ people who have null research outcomes are likely to drop efforts and not document them. There is a reinforcing relationship between readership levels and publication levels of negative findings. Also, there are likely missed opportunities in that some researchers might find inspiration in null findings to move the research in a different direction. These avenues could be missed if they don’t hear about the research. When such findings are not shared, others may also waste time by conducting the same failed research unawares. As with Nature, it seems to me there ought to be some way to encourage publication and consumption of null-finding research. 

Pausing is something I’d like to mention in this note. Reading in the book of Moroni (within The Book of Mormon) I recently noticed something. In Chapter 2, Jesus gives the apostles power to confer the gift of the Holy Ghost. He tells them that before they enact the ordinance they should, “call on the Father in my name, in mighty prayer; and after ye have done this ye shall have power…”. In Chapter 3, He gives them power to ordain brethren to the priesthood. Verse 3 notes, “After they had prayed unto the Father in the name of Christ…”. In both cases the holders of the priesthood are to pause long enough to pray before they enact the ordinance.

I have often done this myself, and have seen others do it also. I hadn’t thought of it as an instruction or requirement to do so, only a way to bring the Spirit. Yet in both of these chapters, saying a prayer as a precursor to the ordinance is part of the ‘manner of’, meaning part of the expected process. In the first case, Jesus specifically instructs the brethren to do it. In the second case, it is written as one step in the process.

The practice of making time to pause and pray can be applied to anything we face. It could be for seeking guidance and assistance in completing a difficult task like taking a school exam, giving a speech, discussing a family problem, or approaching the bishop for repentance. Taking a prayerful pause can also be taken after getting through something such as any of these same examples. Taking pause can be done during a moment of pondering, or while noticing your blessings. Pausing and praying doesn’t have to be something prescribed. We don’t have to go find a place to formally kneel if it’s not available. We can just take a moment to bow our head, whisper our prayer, and collect our thoughts wherever we are. We can also consciously seek a moment of privacy where kneeling and verbal prayer are possible. In my mind, the latter is preferable.

As an example, in my recent working life I have been a speaker at meetings of a committee of the NPR Board of Directors. It was a part of my job I did almost every month. Some time just before the meeting starts I would close my office door and bow my head to ask for Heavenly Father to inspire me with the right words. I did that even though I already did as part of my normal morning prayer. I still had to do my part to be prepared for the meetings, but He helped me recall the information I needed during the presentation and in response to questions that will come up from board members.

I recommend we each take advantage of the blessing God has given us, the blessing to pause and pray with whatever life brings us. Even when we are in a hurry and have little time, taking a moment will make the outcome better.
​

When our children were small, we had a series of home evenings in which we created a family vision statement. After a few discussions, we came up with this: “Wisdom through knowledge, integrity, and service.” We called it the ‘we kiss’ rule since we arranged it in a way that the first letters of each word formed the acronym WKIS. I’ve written several articles over the years related to this statement. Generally, anything I write to the family eventually ends up on this web site. I always thought we left out something spiritually inclined from the statement. To be fair, in our discussions the word ‘integrity’ was intended to include living a Christ-like life.

Fast forward some decades and in 2022 I had been thinking a lot about it. I listened to people (including family members) who say something like, ‘I’m a spiritual person but not a religious person’. By this they would clarify that organized churches are not for them. I considered how to add something about spirituality to round out the ‘we kiss rule’ with the second ‘s’. I thought also about just saying ‘and the Spirit’ meaning the Holy Ghost since I have been very focused on the need for the influence of the Spirit in our lives to help see our way through the fog of human reason or rhetoric. I finally decided that the Spirit is not our focus, but the Savior is our focus. I updated for myself the statement to be ‘Wisdom through knowledge, integrity, service, and the Savior.’

For those who may argue that being spiritual is good enough and I might have used it for my final ‘s’, here is the way I argued this point to myself. The reason I think I was uneasy with the long-standing earlier version is that while the goal of wisdom is what we agree upon, the mechanisms of knowledge, integrity and service are all three about characteristics I might develop in myself. In other words, the goal is to be achieved through my own efforts. Sadly, one need only to look around and realize readily that dependence solely on oneself only gets you so far. So many people essentially follow that method and yet arrive far short of what could be called wisdom. Just the fact that they all seem to land at a different idea of what is wise or true is evidence enough of variation from a universal. That we’ve even come to use phrases like ‘my truth’ or ‘your truth’ for what we used to understand as one’s perspective regarding truth, not universal truth itself, shows that such an approach is insufficient.

So, Mike, why not then just add spirituality at the end of the phrase? Isn’t that what you want to encourage in people? Well, surely spirituality is important, but it seems to be not enough. I would argue that for the same reasons as above. Organized religion, too, can be a seen as insufficient if one looks at how many different churches exist, even just within the Christian community. Here is where I would argue that we cannot then depend on just adding one more personal characteristic such as spirituality or religiosity since doing so still means we seek wisdom only through developing our own personal characteristics. In that way of looking at things, we are simply deciding which personal characteristics should be on our list of wisdom-getting tools. Since none of us is perfectly equipped with any characteristic we might add to our list, this approach of self-growth simply isn’t, and will never be, enough. That’s why this last letter in the new and improved ‘we kiss’ acronym has to represent something or someone outside of ourselves that does represent a perfect knowledge or understanding. I argue the scriptures point us to Heavenly Father, but through His son Jesus Christ. For Christians (and in truth which I could argue another day), His is the only name given to us that will lead to perfect wisdom, perfect truth. Adding spirituality assumes we can achieve the goal of wisdom alone. I am arguing that if we approach it that way then the amount of wisdom we gain will be severely limited. When we include the Savior, a perfect being can make up for our shortfall and bring us closer to perfect wisdom despite our imperfection.

Sorry if these babblings seem trivial or rambling. For an old, slow guy like me, these thoughts hold weight and are important. I’m sure you will read this and either say to yourself something like ‘no duh Mike’ or will instead judge me off point. I hope someone reading this will at least find it confirming of their own thoughts even it is not new ground.

​I was recently reminiscing about our family reunion last summer. What a joy it is every three years when we get our children and grandchildren to join us in some location. The rotation is designed to give them years for their own family to do something, or to get some time with their in-laws. What a blast it was this time in southern Colorado near Mesa Verde National Park. We saw Native American cliff dwellings and kivas. We enjoyed 4th of July fireworks in one of the local towns. We rode horses, did some whitewater rafting, spent too much money, and rode the old-fashioned steam train from Durango to Silverton. Most of all we hung out together and had fun. One of the highlights turned out to be when we all formed teams with little Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars to conduct a Junkyard Joust. You can see the original version we modeled after on YouTube. We made so much noise cheering our respective teams that the next day the ranch management asked us to keep it down a bit.

Like most families, we are a diverse bunch of nuts. We live on both coasts, the intermountain west, and in Europe. With Michelle and I, our six children, their spouses, significant others and children we totaled 27 people. As with our normal tradition we had t-shirts designed just for us. It makes it easier to not lose each other in a crowd.

One of the things I enjoy most about being out in nature, especially with those I love, is to be reminded of how small we seem in the larger scheme of things. At the same time to be amazed by the fact that Heavenly Father put it all in place especially for us and our progress along the plan of salvation.

I’m reminded of Ether 12:27.

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

The first line says ‘weakness’ not ‘weaknesses’. In other words, as we approach God, or His creations, we understand a little better our relative position, our weakness in comparison. Next, we learn that God gives us this weakness to help us become humble. As we recognize our position, we are naturally less prideful. In fact, we often see our weakness as a sign that there is something wrong with us. We think we are somehow broken. Yet this scripture is very direct. He gives us our weakness. Then the promise. His grace, His power, is sufficient, good enough, strong enough. For what? To lift us from our relative weakness to the blessing of a Celestial sphere. But how? If we humble ourselves and exercise faith, then He strengthens us.

This last point is an important one. Much of my life I viewed becoming stronger as a sort of natural consequence of our own efforts. If we work at something long enough and focused enough, then we would eventually strengthen ourselves in that thing we work at. That’s a very Franklinesque way of thinking. Benjamin Franklin even wrote about how he would put down on paper areas he needed to improve on, and would put his efforts into them one at a time in an effort at self-improvement. There are entire industries these days making a similar argument. There are self-help gurus of every sort, each with their own approach they will happily sell to you for a dollar or two. The scripture, on the other hand, makes it clear that our efforts don’t turn our weak things into strengths. Rather, our efforts are a show of faith, a willingness to do our part. In the end, our efforts of themselves are not what brings strength. Though our efforts take us part of the way, it is the grace of Jesus Christ, His atoning sacrifice, His power, that brings about our ultimate strengthening. He multiplies our efforts.

In a recent Sunday School class, we were discussing the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I noted something different that had escaped me in the past.

Luke 22
41 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
45 And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow,
46 And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.

He prayed on his own. In prayer he reconciled his will to that of Heavenly Father. Maybe that is the point of prayer. Not to ask God for what we want, but to come to understand what he wants and then adjust our perspective.

After Jesus bent his will to the Father’s, then God sent an angel to strengthen him. How often do things work out better for us once we choose to accept his will over our own? Then as the agony increased so did the earnestness of the prayer of Jesus. Similarly, sometimes life has to become more challenging for us to find inspiration by praying more earnestly.

Finally, when Jesus turned to his disciples he found them asleep. Do we sometimes feel like there is nobody to help us? Others often seem unwilling or unable to assist in our hour of need. Yet, in this case it says they ‘slept for sorrow’. I’m not completely sure what that means, but perhaps it means they were overwhelmed by all that was happening, and did not have the strength to continue. How often do we assume that when others don’t seem helpful, it means they are not motivated or don’t have sufficient faith? In some cases that may be true, but it is just as likely they have some burdens of their own preventing them from helping to lift our burdens.

The pattern that Jesus experienced on the night he spent in Gethsemane can be a pattern that we ourselves might consider.

​As part of my efforts at a PhD from Virginia Tech (VT), I recently completed a major milestone. They call it the preliminary exam (or prelim), but it comes at the end of all course work, just before starting the dissertation process. I assume the word preliminary means at the start of the dissertation, but it feels more like an uber final to me. The process is challenging. I was given a large list of books and papers to select from. These published works were divided into the four disciplines of the program I’m pursuing. It’s called Science, Technology, and Society (STS). The disciplines include sociology, philosophy, history, and policy. In each of these disciplines, the topics studied all relate in some way to science and technology. For the prelim I was directed to select three of the disciplines, then select 20 books from each of the three, or 60 books. The instructions also allow for a substitution of five papers or book chapters in place of one book. I stuck with just books. Based on my list of 60 books, the committee (four professors) created four questions per each of the three disciplines I selected. I was to select two of the four questions from each area for a total of six questions. I then had two weeks to write a 2000-word essay for each of the six questions. This is the standard prelim process for the STS program at VT.

Writing was certainly a challenge. I was only taking one course per semester as a full-time employee at NPR, little more was possible. That means that some of these works and ideas I hadn’t thought about for as much as three years. Again, this is not unique to me. Most of my fellow students in my classes are in the same boat. In fact, the program I’m in is specifically designed for the working professional. After writing the essays the prelim was not done. The committee took a few weeks to review my writings, then they had two hours to discuss my essays with me in an oral exam. That happened two weeks ago. Thankfully I passed.

One thing I was thankful for. When I turned in my list of readings, they had me include a writeup on what I was likely to research for my dissertation. They created the questions with my dissertation topic in mind. The result was not only were the questions helpful at thinking about topics to address in my future research (including the questions I didn’t use), but also my actual exam essays can also serve as impetus for future chapters. That was their intention, of course.

I have attached both my book list, and the essays that resulted. In their feedback they felt I struggled with the essay on risk. I agree. My perspective on risk often gets caught up in my past experience as a project manager. STS considers risk differently, and so that essay is my weakest. They encouraged me to read again the book on risk by Lupton. I have it on my task list this summer. They also recommended another book titled Carbon Democracy by Timonthy Mitchell. I have since gotten a copy as another part of my summer reading. The point of reading Mitchell is that he approaches a specific topic from one framework. In my essays I tend to review multiple readings and frameworks. I thought that was a preference since the exam is supposed to be about showing I understand the material well enough for them to allow me to move into the ‘all but dissertation’ (ABD) phase of my studies. They made it clear that the preference is for me to argue for one framework over another in each essay. The challenge there is that each essay is only 2000 words and the time to write is short.

The end result, as I mentioned, is I passed and will now begin to form a dissertation proposal. That’s not the research itself, but rather a project plan as to what I’ll be researching and how I’ll approach the work. It will likely take a good three months just to get the proposal written and accepted. Wish me luck. 

​This is a slightly modified version of a story I wrote back in March of 2008 for the print version of the BHP.  Enjoy.

Fairview. It's interesting how a single word can churn up so many thoughts and memories. In a small town in eastern Pennsylvania in the early seventies life was blue collar. Houses were old and small. The people were wonderful and terrible.

Much of my life on Fairview Avenue revolved around the alley behind our house, the open grass lot next to the volunteer fire station just down the block, and Fairview Elementary.

Fairview Elementary was an old box of a building. It was solid red brick. The front doors were at the top of a tall set of concrete steps. The basement was half above and half below ground. It housed the cafeteria and the boiler room. The other two stories were classrooms, hallways and bathrooms. We didn’t get lockers. Each classroom had its own closet where we each had a hook for our coat and shared shelf space for a lunch box if we didn’t eat the cafeteria food that day. Most of the building was surrounded by an asphalt playground. It was on a street corner and the property stretched from Fairview Avenue to the alley. Behind was an empty grass lot across the alley. On one side was a neighbor’s house. In the narrow strip between the school and the house was a bit of rocks and weeds bordered by a tall chain link fence. Poplar Street ran the length of the playground and crossed Fairview Avenue. This is where I learned to fight. It's where I learned to avoid some people. It's where I fell in love the first time. It's also where I learned the nature of a lie.
 
I was ten. During the summer I had my first broken bone. Along with friends, I had been jumping off the banister on the front porch of our house. I'd done it hundreds of times before. Then came the one time when something didn't go the way it had so many times in the past. My arm went down before my legs. When I picked up my arm to look, I saw a perfect Z shape before the swelling started and turned it into a grapefruit. Both the bones in my left forearm had been broken.

The plaster cast went on. It went from my hand all the way above my elbow. Over time the cast filled with signatures of friends and family. It was my first real experience with a hospital. I remember sitting forever with my balloon arm wondering when they were going to do something. I remember being asked if I wanted my name in the paper.

I had never thought of such a thing. My name in the paper. Wow! Looking back, I understand this was just a standard hospital blurb in the weekly paper. In the more modern time of confidentiality and HIPAA this would likely never happen, but back then in small-town America it was business as usual. The idea both flattered and repulsed me. I would be known by all, but what would they say? Keeping my mind busy helped me to lower the crying and whining I had been doing because of the pain. I survived. Six weeks later, after all the itching, the saw came out, the cast came off and the summer went on. Then came fifth grade.

Fifth grade. The same kids were there from fourth grade. Radell Harding was there. She was a typical blond skinny, budding young lady to others. To me she was sighs and blushes. The game of the school day was kick ball. This was no wimpy little kids' kick ball. This was cut-throat and blood-loss-at-every-game kick ball. Bruises and scrapes were common. Glory and shame for the entire school year road on every game. Fights broke out every couple of weeks. It was wonderful for ten-year-old boys. I got my licks in like the rest. I also sometimes took and gave during the occasional spill-over fight that happened in the neighborhood when all the teachers were gone.

One of the best things for a boy to be able to do at Fairview was to work with the Janitor. I was on the crew. It was great because we could get out of class for the work. We also stayed some extra time in the boiler room. When the work was done, we'd sometimes agree that we were still busily working when we were really tossing paper into the boiler and watching it catch fire, or concocting other risky and destructive behaviors. The janitor was crotchety and rebellious like we were, and we all loved it.

Sometime just before Christmas my name came up for another fun assignment, milk detail. As fifth graders, we all got the chance to get out of class for fifteen minutes or so to go get boxes full of milk cartons and distribute them to the classrooms just before milk break. My turn would begin just after the holiday break in January. I was looking forward to the excuse to escape class each day, but not as much as I was looking forward to the holiday break. I had two things in mind for the holiday, sleeping in and snowballs.

At church there was a buzz. It was Sumo Tom, an unusual name for an unusual boy from an unusual family. The Tom family and our family were good friends. Their kids and those of my family were roughly the same age. Sumo was a year younger than me. They had horses and dogs. We had a dog, but that was it. Jesse Tom was the family patriarch. He was Hawaiian, real native Hawaiian. I was told he was some relation to Don Ho. His wife was Ethel. She had fire-like red hair that matched her personality from my childish perspective. I always thought she looked Irish, but I don’t really know. Sometimes our church put on talent shows. She would dance Hawaiian dances. It always seemed odd to me. She just didn’t look the part. All the kids in the family had cool sounding Hawaiian names.

Sumo fit his name. He was large and round shaped like the famous wrestlers. He had a happy disposition, and all us kids at church liked him. It was Sumo that caused the buzz at church. Just as school was getting out for vacation he had suffered appendicitis. He had to go to the hospital and have his appendix removed. We all got to see the scar. The girls were repulsed. We boys were sudden admirers of the cool stitches. Over the break I thought about appendicitis. Why couldn’t I have it too? I could be cool like Sumo when I went back to school. Oh well. Too bad.

After enjoying our week of frozen heaven, it was back to the grind of Fairview Elementary. My home room teacher was Mrs. Stout. I remember the name because just like Sumo, her name matched her person. She was older, probably not too far from retirement, a real seasoned and experienced teacher, a real veteran. We all knew that she knew her business.

“Welcome back class,” said Mrs. Stout. “How was your vacation?” The conversation went on between the instructor and her students. Each kid was taking their turn describing their Christmas presents, or visits with relatives. I kept thinking on what I would say. Then it struck me. Just one person ahead of me the wild thought crept in. I had no real time to actually think it through. I probably wouldn’t have anyway. Then my turn came. “I got my appendix out,” I blurted. An excited rustle passed through the nervous class.

“You did? When?” She asked.

“Just after Christmas,” I returned. I could see the admiration building in the faces of the other kids.

“Hmm, I didn’t notice your name in the paper.”
Bang! You could have knocked me over with a feather as the saying goes. All I could say was a weak, “What?”

“The paper. When someone goes to the hospital, they write something about it in the newspaper,” she said quizzically.

My face must have changed several colors. My heart raced. My mouth got dry. I was searching. Then it came to me. When I had broken my arm I remembered they asked me if I wanted my name in the paper. “Well, I told them not to print it,” I answered.
“Why not,” she continued.

Heart thumped and sweat came again, then a flash. I got it. “Well, I didn’t want anyone to worry about me, so I told them I didn’t want my name in the paper.”

Whew! I’d dodged a very big bullet. How did I manage that? Someone was looking out for me. Later that day came bullet number two. It happened during recess. One of the kids had a brother who earlier had  his appendix out. He told of the stitches and the large scar that resulted. “Hey Mike, show us the stitches!” I hesitated. They weren’t necessarily looking for proof. I wasn’t before the Inquisition, but it felt that way. Of course they were just being like I had been with Sumo. They wanted to see it because it would be cool. My mind again had to race. My heart was thumping. My body heated as I trudged through the sticky swamps in my mind pushing for the answer. The answer as to why I couldn’t show them my stitches. Then it came. Sumo was again my inspiration. I remembered he had to pull off a rather extensive amount of bandages to show us his stitches.

“I can’t. It’s all buried in bandages, and they told me I can’t take them off,” I proclaimed.

A collective sigh from my admirers was followed by my own sigh of relief. They seemed happy with assurances they could see the scar later whenever the doctors let me take off the medical wrappings. I was hopeful that I could push it off long enough that they would all forget about it and not ask later. In this I was right, but as it turns out, I was not out of the quagmire yet.

Milk duty, important words. Mrs. Stout reminded us it was time for the new roster of assignees to take on the responsibility to make sure we all got our daily dose. Ah, that half-pint of cold delicious vitamin D and calcium. She read the names then stopped when she came to mine. “Oh Michael, you can’t do this can you?”

“Why not?” I quizzed.

“Didn’t the doctor tell you no lifting until you were all healed up from your operation?”

“Wadaya mean?!” I’m sure she caught the frustration in me.

“Whenever a person has an operation like yours, they are not allowed to lift heavy items for fear the stitches might rip open when you strain your stomach muscles.”

“But the milk crates aren’t heavy!” I grimaced.

“Nonetheless I can’t let you do it. You’ll have to bring in a note from your parents when it’s OK for you to lift things again. When I get that I’ll try to work you into a future milk detail schedule.”

“How long will that be?!” I protested.

“Well, I’m no doctor,” she replied, “but I’m pretty sure the normal time is six weeks.”

I don’t know how many shades of red my face turned. I was red from fear of being found out. I was red from anger because I couldn’t get out of class for milk detail. I was red because I had no idea how I could convince my mom to write a letter that I was over my nonexistent operation enough to get on a future milk detail.

Six weeks! How could she know that? It couldn’t be that long, could it? Six weeks is forever! My thoughts kept stirring. Then I remembered it was the magical six weeks I had to wear that plaster cast when I broke my arm. Maybe Mrs. Stout was right about that. Dang, why do grownups always have to know so much? The solution was going to take me some time. Six weeks of time to be precise.

So, I needed a note from Mom. Hmmm. This would be difficult. How can I get this done? Well, I was sure she wouldn’t write it. So I guessed I’d just have to write it for her. This would take some real finagling. I needed something that she would write so I could copy it. I needed something that said more or less the same thing as a permission note.  Then it hit me. How many times before had Mom written an excuse for my being out of school? Every time I was… SICK! Of course that was it. I had figured it out.

I picked a day to be sick. I did a great job at being sick. I don’t know if she completely bought it, but she bought it enough to let me stay home. Of course, while my parents were at work I had all day to figure out what my milk-carrying, no-appendix-problem note would say. I was smart enough to have my “sick day” about a week before the six-week banishment was up. Sure enough, the next morning before going to work, Mom wrote my excuse for being home sick the day before. I had about an hour from the time she left until I had to be at school. I spent the whole time feverishly creating my forgery for milk duty. I carefully wrote over and over again using the sick note for my model. After what seemed like about a hundred tries, I got a version I thought sounded like the sick note and looked like her hand writing. I went to school and hid the forgery. A week went by. I handed in the permission slip “Mom” wrote. Mrs. Stout added me to the next rotation of milk duty. I was saved.

This is a totally true story. Well, I suppose a few caveats to that assertion would apply. Remember I was a 10-year-old. So the perspective of exactly how things were came from the limited understanding of someone of such a tender and inexperienced point of view. Adding a sort of questionable-ness to all of this is the fact that decades have come and gone since these events. If my understanding was shaky to begin with, it’s even worse now.

As I have recollected this experience in life over time, I’ve decided that in all likelihood Mrs. Stout understood what was really happening from the very start, or at least early on. I can envision in my mind teachers hanging out in their hallowed lounge where no student can enter. I see them in my mind laughing as they told and retold the story of the kid who pretended to have his appendix removed. In fact, I’ve even gone so far as to imagine my masterful forgery hanging on the lounge bulletin board for a reminder to all the teachers.
​
I did learn something from all this. As it turns out you can’t tell just one lie. Usually lying is an attempt at gaining something when, in reality, by lying you lose freedom. Trust is easy to lose and hard to regain. I wish I could say I never lied again after all that, but I can say it’s been a very long time since I’ve lied. Telling the truth, as it turns out, takes less work. You don’t have to remember what you said to whom. You just have to tell things as you remember them. That’s what I hope I’ve done here. No foolin’.

During conference last April I had an interesting experience. On that Saturday I was traveling from Washington DC to McDonough GA on my motorcycle. In my helmet I have wireless communications with my cell phone. While riding down the freeway I was able to listen to conference. In particular, while listening to the portion of conference when we are asked to sustain general offices by raising our hands, I did so at 70-ish miles per hour on the back of a large motorcycle. It may sound silly. Nobody knew I was raising my sustaining hand. It was not being recorded anywhere, yet I think it was.

Revelations 20
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Though nobody in this life is recording everything I do, there is a record kept in heaven. I want it known that on that particular Saturday I sustained those called to lead our church. I don’t do so blindly. I’m well aware that like all of us, none of them are perfect. I have also spent some time reading biographies and listening to their teachings, and I’m always amazed at how blessed we are as a church to have God select such wise people to lead us. Not only do they have wisdom, but they also clearly have the Spirit about them to elevate their words.

Why else do we sustain leaders in the public ritual the way we do? We are exercising ‘common consent’ (for example D&C 26:2). Not that we are voting, but are choosing to accept. More than accepting, we promise to sustain through our faith. Pres. Eyring’s talk in April 2019 really clarifies for me.

Here is the link: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/04/34eyring?lang=eng.

Among other things, he notes, “By raising your hand to sustain, you make a promise. You make a promise with God, whose servants these are, that you will sustain them.” He explains that sustaining means acting in faith to support them. If I receive a calling or assignment from a Bishop, I sustain the Bishop by doing my absolute best to fulfill that calling or assignment. Here are a few examples he shared directly related to missionary work, “When you accepted a missionary’s challenge to pray to know that the Book of Mormon was the word of God, you had the faith to sustain a servant of the Lord. When you accepted the invitation to be baptized, you sustained a humble servant of God. When you let someone place hands on your head and say, “Receive the Holy Ghost,” you sustained him as a holder of the Melchizedek Priesthood.”

Raising my hand that day while riding down the freeway on a motorcycle was my way of renewing my covenant with Heavenly Father that I have faith in Him by sustaining those He has called as leaders of His church. It doesn’t matter if one listens live, or a recorded version hours, or even days later. In my mind making the commitment is important, so I raise my hand.

My wife and I try to attend the temple together when I’m here in GA, then I do what I can to attend in Washington DC when I’m up there on my own. I’ve had many wonderful spiritual experiences in the temple over many decades now. I think lately I get even more from it. This is because since my mom passed away some years ago, I have shifted from doing work for those ancestors she has found, to doing work for ancestors I myself have found. When she would supply the names, I felt happy to represent my ancestors, but I would say I feel closer to those whose work I’m doing now. It’s clear they are aware and helping me figure things out with their records. Michell is helpful when documents get more complex. She has been doing family history for as long as we’ve been married. She was even director of the family history library in Lincoln, NE for a number of years when we lived there.

To me, the temple is a blessing both because of the family connection I feel, but also because of the gospel insights and spiritual lift that comes from the work. This is true even on days when I leave the temple late in the evening and have a tiring drive home after. I really don’t seem to notice the fatigue until I get home. I assume that others have had similar experiences in their gospel-related work. I feel close to those I serve directly, and despite long hours, I often feel carried by the Spirit. Wearing ourselves out in the service of Heavenly Father is the best way to use the gifts He has given each of us.
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Earlier this year I had the assignment to speak in the Centerville Georgia Ward of our church. The assigned topic was about being spiritually prepared to receive revelation. There were several specific recent quotes from President Nelson included in the note assigning me to speak. Aside from sharing several personal experiences, below is list of notes I used to form the heart of the talk.
 
We Believe
All God has revealed, all he does now reveal, and we believe he will yet reveal many great and important thing pertaining to the kingdom of God

• Revelation is not just to the prophet for the church, but for ourselves in our own individual lives

 
Need Holy Ghost
"Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory. But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost." President Russel M Nelson April 2018
 
Seeing miracles won't be enough.
Faith precedes the miracle. We recognize miracles as miracles when we have faith to see them.
There are many scriptural examples of people who saw miracles, then explained them away.
 
President Russell M. Nelson, has said: “We live in a world that is complex and increasingly contentious. The constant availability of social media and a 24-hour news cycle bombard us with relentless messages. If we are to have any hope of sifting through the myriad of voices and the philosophies of men, we must learn to receive revelation."
 
1 Nephi 8 (Book of Mormon)
26 And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth.
27 And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit. (meaning the gospel)
28 And after they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost.
 
1 Nephi 11 (Book of Mormon)
35 And the multitude of the earth was gathered together; and I beheld that they were in a large and spacious building, like unto the building which my father saw. And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Behold the world and the wisdom thereof…
36 And it came to pass that I saw and bear record, that the great and spacious building was the pride of the world…
 
My work experience has been in media and academia. Many among those I have associated with there are honestly looking for truth but are limited to intellect and reason only. Like the three blind men and the elephant one can be factual and miss truth. Some once-accepted facts are later shown to be not factual. We must rely on the Spirit.
 
Science example:
Law of gravity – man cannot fly - lesser law (less information) - Newtonian physics
Laws of aerodynamics – man can fly - higher law (more information)
 
Gator Navy approach - The 4 A’s of Operations

• Plan - consider options ahead of time - study it out - seek, ask, knock, feast - to Oliver Cowdary "you took no thought save it were to ask me" (Doctrine & Covenants 9)
• Arrive - here you are, be present in family, church, work, studies, whatever you do (put aside distractions)
• Assess - look, listen, ponder and pray
• Adapt - align more with God

Isaiah 55 (Holy Bible)
8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

• Act - keep the commandments, fill callings, serve others, fill ministering assignments, be in it

John 7 (Holy Bible)
16 Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
17 If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
 
Go and Do
Want spiritual experiences in the temple? - go to the temple
Want to see miracles? - serve
Want clarity/truth? – it comes ‘line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little there a little’ - work for it every day
 
Think verbs, not nouns - act, do but don't overdo
Doctrine & Covenants 10
4 Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided to enable you to translate; but be diligent unto the end.
 
The Savior is our example:
John 5 (Holy Bible)
17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Acts 10 (Holy Bible)
38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good,
 
Our actions don't save us, but they show and grow our faith. More faith means more gift of revelation by the Holy Ghost.
The key is faith that the Savior will make up the difference after all we can do.
 
Where much is given much is required. - so where less is given less is required
Revelation comes at the level we are ready to receive it. People who are new to the gospel can receive revelation even with little knowledge or faith.
 
President Russell M. Nelson has extended a simple, powerful invitation: “My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation. … Choose to do the spiritual work required to enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost and hear the voice of the Spirit more frequently and more clearly.”
 
 

As Christmas quickly approaches, I hope each of you is also able to enjoy the spirit of the season. It’s the time of year we remember the birth of Jesus Christ. I remember my experience as a missionary at Christmas in Spain. Though it’s been more than 40 years ago, the memories are clear. It was both trying being away from family, and wonderful watching the gospel at work in the lives of people. I remember similar times away from home in the Navy, or for work, but nothing matches my time serving God.

I’ve been thinking about the talk Pres. Russell M. Nelson shared in 2022 titled ‘What is Truth?’. This topic has been close to my heart for a long time. It’s what drives me to seek wisdom, ‘even by study and by faith’. My PhD studies focus a lot on the intersection of facts, perspective, and truth.

About five years ago I noticed a bump on my forehead. It grew slowly, but noticeably. After nearly a year I had a doctor take a look. It was clear that it was under the skin and attached to my skull. As the doctor looked it over, he called my bump a lesion. He ordered up an ultrasound followed by an MRI. After the ultrasound, the bump/lesion name changed again to an occlusion. An ultrasound essentially looks at one side of the occlusion. That was the incentive for the MRI. After the MRI, the name changed again to an osteoma. It was described to me by the doctor in another way. He called it a benign bone tumor. The nature of the thing on my head never changed, but the technical tools used to look at it, and the names those tools inspired changed. So too did my level of stress over what it might mean for my future health. In the end, there is no health risk. Its growth stopped. If I ever want to have it go away, they can cut open my forehead and grind the bone. Sounds gross, and it’s not all that noticeable as it is. In fact, if I don’t mention it people generally don’t even notice. However, if I point it out, a person can’t help but notice.

This all seems analogous to truth to me. Truth does not change. It simply is, regardless what we call it, what we use to discover it, or how we feel about it. In my academic studies a large question is whether truth is 'discovered' or 'manufactured'. In the gospel sense, we seek truth through study and faith. For me, faith means doing. We can certainly understand some things intellectually. I assume you have met people who are ‘convinced’ of gospel truths, yet fail to commit. That’s because they are not willing to exercise faith by acting on invitations. What one believes is not the same as truth necessarily. It’s our individual responsibility to seek. Just like my bump, people often don’t notice the gospel until someone points it out to them. Then they can’t ignore it. They are forced to accept or reject. They can’t not consider it once they hear the word. That’s probably true of any idea, whether it be true or false, but gospel truth is only confirmed through BOTH study AND taking faith-based action.
​

On occasion I consider my blessings. So many of those thoughts can easily turn to worldly things. Quickly overshadowing such ideas is recognition of all of my family. More joy and challenge comes from them, and the way Heavenly Father has chosen to bring each of them into my life.

I want to point to something I am particularly thankful for. It is my testimony of the influence of the Holy Ghost. Here is why. Over the years of my academic, work, and church life, and just my life-life, I’ve heard so many ways of thinking, so many ideas about what evidence is and what it shows. I’m convinced we can be convinced about almost anything when we rely solely on logic and reasoning. Which facts are actually factual becomes more and more in question when one turns them around from many angles. I’m thinking about the lyrics to a Doobies Brothers song that says “The wise man has the power to reason away what seems to be.”

This is where the Holy Ghost comes to be so important to me. When it comes to the most important issues, those that have to do with the eternal, knowing truth from ideas is critical. There are plenty who question whether truth is real or just a social construct. Is truth independent of us? Can ‘your truth’ and ‘my truth’ in some way coexist? I put these words in quotes because the idea of relative truth is so prevalent in American culture these days. The plea for us to coexist more and more becomes ‘you should just accept me as I am.’ Many of these same coexist-proponents become the opposite of tolerant when others express opposing views. I’m not necessarily talking about politics here, though it certainly plays out in that arena. Rather, I’m talking about just about every idea in any arena that people hold dear to themselves. I’m also not considering in this short note ways we can all get along.

What I’m more focused on here is how I try to ferret out truth. Understanding ideas implies taking the time to understand them; study, not shallow study. I personally don’t expect the Spirit to testify about every idea I hear in order to know if it’s true or false. When I stack up ideas about what I already know to be true, then I don’t need constant reassurance, though occasional reassurance is welcome, and it happens. When I consider ideas that are interesting, but not overly important from an eternal perspective, then I don’t seek spiritual confirmation. I also don’t assume that God wants me to gain all knowledge in this life. My mortal capacity is just too limited. I take that to mean it’s ok that there is way more that I don’t know than I do know today. There is time for much of that learning later. All that said, I regularly seek and receive truth affirming guidance from a loving and living Heavenly Father by way of the vitally important gift of inspiration that comes through the Holy Ghost. At this point in life, I believe without that comforting, still, small voice I would be lost in many ways. There are too many conflicting ideas purported by apparently reasonable people using apparently sound reasoning. One can’t even judge ideas solely by the people who advance them, meaning ‘good’ ideas come from ‘good’ people. That puts one in the difficult position of deciding who or what is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. For example, the founding fathers of the United States are favorite targets these days, yet the ideas of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are strongly persuasive if one actually takes the time to read them.
​
For me, I’ve learned to discriminate truth from ideas in terms of the gospel through study, living the precepts, and listening to the whispering of the Holy Ghost. I see this as building on a sure foundation.

Back in 2019 I posted a review of this book. I'm reposting it here as the entire work is a testament to when the stated outcome of a technology in fact has the opposite effect. As technology entered the home with the intent of making work for mother become easier, in fact all the it tended to do is lower work for everyone else in the home. While 'mother's' work surely changed, it did not abate. In deed, work may have increased for her with each new invention. Below is what I published back then.

MORE WORK FOR MOTHER
By Ruth Schawartz Cowan
Free Association Books, 1989, 257 pages

​Most Significant Arguments

In More Work for Mother, author Ruth Schwartz Cowan links changes in domestic work with changes brought about by technological advancements. She speaks to the separation of labor into work for women, men and children. As technology makes tasks easier, or even not needed, Cowan notes how most of the advancements replaces work done by men and children. Those technologies that do help with “woman’s” work removes the “need” to keep other women help in the home.

Examples of taking away work by men and children are often around cooking stoves and ovens. As gas and electricity replaced wood and coal, the need for gathering and preparing wood dissipates. The cooking work still exists, but the help to mother by father and children is lessened, or even eliminated. Washing machines are another example. As machines came into the home there was no longer a perceived need for sending laundry out or having a laundress come into the home. Although doing a load of laundry was less strenuous, at the same time expectation for cleanliness also increased so the amount of laundry work increased. The effect of both of these examples was that work eased, but for mother workload increased.

In the post-war era of the 1960’s and 1970’s work for women outside the home became more normal. Unlike when this happened during the depression when poor women worked outside the home out of necessity, women in general felt either need or opportunity to do so. In this case not just poor women began to work outside the home, but so too middle-class women. Despite this, the housework did not shift off of mother and onto the rest of the family. Cowan argues this is because the division of labor, masculine and feminine work, has been firmly entrenched in American culture. Entrenchment of the single family home and self-sufficiency in America also keeps alternate arrangements from succeeding such as communal work sharing.

Comparison with Other Readings

Jesse Adams Stein addresses the idea of masculine and feminine work in the piece Masculinity and Material Culture in Technological Transitions. She points to the government press operations in Australia to show how cultural assumptions mold division of labor. Unlike the Cowan work looking to the home, Stein is looking at work outside the home, in the printing press. There was a division of “men’s work” in the press at the time of the letterpress. Generally the argument was that running a letterpress machine took physical strength and the ability to know a machine’s quirks so well as to be able to run it properly. Both of these aspects were thought to be beyond a woman’s ability. In fact a few women here-and-there did run these machines, but found other ways of approaching the need to load type if the weight was too much for them. Then the disruption came was letterpress was supplanted as a technology by offset lithography. Male machinists fought moving from the heavier manual process as they defined themselves in that role. Even when offset lithography became the norm, pressmen still defined their role in masculine terms. Less skill was needed to run the machines, but the tradition of working a press had been masculine and change was slow. Similar to Cowan’s argument that housework was primarily looked at as feminine culturally, Stein argues that press work was primarily looked at as masculine culturally.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Cowan’s arguments are well laid out. The technical migration and the corresponding correlation to changes in housework seem natural and logical. Even her arguments about why some technologies or processes were chosen over others seem to work.

One area I question was her depiction of the shift from mother as consumer of services to mother as producer of services. The “products” of mother were keeping the family fed, healthy and clean. As the specific work to accomplish this shifted from others to mother, and the quality and quantity expectation rose, the result was increased work for mother. Cowan gives examples of the shift from consumer to producer such as less delivery to the home with availability of the car. Mother now had to go to the supermarket to get the food rather than having it delivered, or going to a local market by walking there. The supermarket came about because increased use of refrigeration allowed for more variety of food out of season. As expectation to deliver health and food to family included a more varied diet, mother produced transportation of food stuffs by driving to a supermarket that was not close enough to walk to, and would not deliver. She also needed the car to allow for larger loads of foodstuffs required by the increased variety in diet.

I would argue that it is a little more complicated. For example when mother walked to the local market to pick up food, that act is not unlike driving to the supermarket. She was a consumer of delivery before the car (delivery to home, delivery to local market). She is a consumer of delivery after the car (delivery to the supermarket). Like drawing lines in a system between what is in and out of the system, the line between consumer and producer can be difficult. Mother was, and is, both consumer and producer of food delivery both pre- and post-car. The question is where does one draw the line? One could pick at similar arguments given by Cowan on healthcare (doctor home visits vs mother taking a child to the clinic), education (home schooling vs getting the kids to a public school), etc.

The ideas in this work could appeal to students of history, technology, sociology, gender, etc. I think there is appeal here to lay readers as well. The conversations sparked between my wife and I were interesting. My helpfulness with Thanksgiving preparations certainly increased, but I found her unwilling to allow me to get involved in some of the work which seem to support Cowan’s culture entrenchment arguments. Spouses and children should be more aware of the burdens on mothers whether they work outside the home or not.

This post relates to the Sunday morning October 2022 conference talk by President Nelson titled, “Overcome the World and Find Rest”. There were probably four parts to the text. I will focus on two that linked together. The fist was about power. I’ve always felt uncomfortable with the idea of power as it relates to the gospel, because I always thought of power from the world’s perspective, as in gaining power over others. After reading the book Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister I've changed my mind some. Callister wrote of power from a Godly perspective. He notes how God has all power, and part of why we are here is to learn to be like Him. He notes how spiritual gifts are forms of godly power. Callister encourages each of us to seek spiritual gifts as a way to become more like Heavenly Father. President Nelson’s talk lasted eighteen minutes. In that time, he used the word ‘power’ or a derivative fourteen times.

What is God’s power? To what power should we aspire? I argue it is faith. Hebrews 11 for example gives a long list of miracles wrought through God’s power, the power of faith. Obtaining faith in this life is so important that our memory of pre-earth life has been removed specifically to help us develop it. President Nelson encourages us to overcome the world through Christ. Overcoming something implies gaining power over it. President Nelson equates overcoming the world with 'putting off the natural man'. Those of you who have read former blogs may remember some time ago when I gave my way of thinking about doing just that. Here's the link: 

​https://bhaven.org/blog/natural-man

President Nelson's talk could be framed in the language of ‘will’. The natural man says, “I do my will because is it my will.” In putting off the natural man, we say, “I do His will because it is His will.” In this case we recognize the difference between Him and us, and we want to change. So, we try. Trying is repenting, failing at times, and repenting again, pinning our hopes to the power of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord, Jesus Christ. So long as we try and repent, we are in the act of putting off the natural man. This is my understanding of ‘enduring to the end.’ At last, Christ lifts us to the Celestial in which we can say, “I do His will because it is my will.” At this point we are not putting off the natural man, but have come to put on a different nature. A godly nature. A nature no longer to be ‘put off’. 

​One Sunday last year in the Stockbridge GA ward we discussed Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. One of the many topics we touched on were the ideas around justice and prayers for justice. My experience has been that when one cries for justice, it usually means some sort of punishment or accounting by someone else who has hurt the person praying. For our children, and now grandchildren, the idea may have been expressed in the words, “That’s not fair!”. Our normal retort as parents might be something like, “Life’s not fair.” Does this sound familiar to you?

In the tension between justice and mercy, of course it is the Messiah who reconciles these two seemingly opposing forces. In my own self-accounting I find that if justice were fully applied in my case I would owe way more than I might receive in terms of recompence. I also read in the Lord’s prayer that we should seek to be forgiven as we forgive others. Such thoughts over the years have tended to shift my personal way of thinking to seek more mercy for others and myself. I can at times judge harshly, and I can’t help but wonder if I too, then, would be judged harshly. If I am judged as I judge then I must learn to be more merciful if mercy for myself is what I seek, and I certainly need plenty of mercy.

When praying for intervention with others, then, I hope that I will focus more on mercy and less on justice (if I focus on justice at all). This sounds simple enough, yet for our naturally judgmental selves, such self-mastery may be slow in coming.

I continue to work in Washington DC, and trek back and forth to GA. When spending a weekend in DC, I attend church at the Aquia Ward in VA. When I’m not in GA, I stay on our boat that we keep in a marina on the Chesapeake Bay. The commute into DC takes about the same amount of time as it did from our home in Stafford, VA.

Last year, I had an assignment to speak at the Twin Oaks ward, discussing the Plan of Salvation. The week before, as I trekked from Solomon’s Island (where the boat is) to attend the Aquia ward, I was thinking about all the change in life, and how it relates to the Plan of Salvation. My basic conclusion is that the Plan of Salvation is the definition of change.

Change can be positive or negative. Change implies a shift in direction, scale, or both. For change to be considered positive or negative depends on the relationship between where you are and what your goal is. You may remember the concept of a vector from your high school geometry class. Words like positive, progress, improvement, etc. all imply that a change, a difference, a delta, is taking you closer to your ultimate goal. Words like negative, destructive, variant, etc. imply change is pointing you toward some place different than your goal. What makes the difference between positive and negative is what your stated goal is.

Heavenly Father’s goal for us is to learn to become as he is. You know, “For this is my work and my glory…”. Part of that process is for us to experience and learn through that experience. Learning only helps if the result is a changed trajectory that takes us closer to His goal for us. Our goal should be the same as His. If we change our goal either deliberately, or through our little choices every day, the resultant change is negative from Heavenly Father’s perspective. Positive change is good in that it draws us closer to His goal by aligning our goal and actions to His.

In the pre-earth life we progressed (changed) through choices and learning, but without a body we could only go so far. Here in mortality, we continue the process through choices that include repentance, gaining the covenant path, then continuing along that path. If the goal is to become like Heavenly Father, and we were not fully that way as spirits (no physical body for example) then change was a must. If we are not like Him here, then change is still a must. Another word for positive change could be ‘growth’. If we are to grow to become as He is then change must be continuous until we reach that goal. The changes required of us are defined in the plan of salvation to include faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring as we continue along the covenant path. This is how I have come to consider the plan of salvation as the plan exaltation, or the plan of change, or the plan of growth. The covenant path then, is a part of the longer path of exaltation.

I don’t know if that makes any sense, but it’s how I’ve come to think about the role of constructive change from a gospel perspective. I’m sure you will have even better ways to understand the plan and our part in it.
​

I serve on the board of the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA). It’s an industry group that addresses international government policies that relate to television and radio broadcasters. The board meetings are often in NYC at the headquarters of NBC at ’30 Rock’. I’ve been there many times before for similar efforts. When I travel between DC and NYC the train is my preferred way to go. It’s just as fast as going through airports, and it gets me closer to where I’m going in Manhattan. It’s also much cheaper. Since the train offers Wi-Fi, I can be productive as well. On one of those trips last year I decided not to concentrate so much on work and took some time for pondering. What follows is not new, nor profound, but is a sketch of where my thoughts led that day.

​Many years ago, I saw an amusing note on a gas-station bathroom wall in Wyoming. It said something like, “The bottoms of our septic tanks are higher than the top of the tallest building in Denver.” Having lived in Leadville, CO in years past, I could appreciate the sentiment. My mind then recalled when our children were young, and we visited Mount Rushmore. Up close it is very impressive. As we left the site, we stopped at a roadside lookout a few miles away. From that distance the carvings seemed quite small in comparison with all the mountains and largess of the surrounding nature-scenes as a whole. In essence, on the train to NYC my thoughts revolved around perspective.

Immediate demands for one’s attention are at times necessary, such as earning a living. When those demands are less necessary they seem fleeting, such as checking on the number of ‘likes’ on a recent post. What about long-term focus? These attention-demanders can help us grow. The risk is they can become too worldly. Examples include exercise for better health or financial management for stability later in life. Not bad. Maybe even important. Yet, again, do we think long-term about worldly issues only?

What about an eternal focus? Does it cause us to ‘forget’ the things of this life? I would argue that eternal perspective makes our insights on the other two foci (immediate and long-term) more truthful. If we manage to have an eternal perspective, at least occasionally, our immediate demands might also include daily spiritual efforts like living the commandments, reading scriptures, and praying. You know, the ‘primary answers’. In terms of making our long-term investment of time more truthful, an eternal perspective might entice us to consider more effort with family history, attending the temple, fulfilling and magnifying our church callings, or finding ways to offer service. In my train-thoughts I was equating eternal perspective with the idea of being 'in the world but not of the world'.

I think maybe the immediate and long-term life demands are about the ‘what’, while having eternal perspective might be more about the ‘why’. Both the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ can be summed up in the two great commandments to love God and our neighbor.

My first introduction to the idea of perspective that I can actually remember came from a song and cartoon on Sesame Street. It was called “That’s About the Size”. The song is all about our physical perspective in relation to physical objects. It can equally apply to our philosophical perspective in relation to ideological subjects.

Here is the link to the Sesame Street song from all those years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ABxl46Ovv8
​

Bibliography
​Bhattacharjee, Y. (2020, January). A World of Pain. National Geographic.

Reading a deep-dive article about pain studies in the January 2020 issue of National Geographic, I noticed two instances describing how virtual reality (VR) was used to counteract pain successfully.

In the first, a patient is awake during surgery. A picture shows the person on a gurney with a surgeon hovered over him. Metal probes are sticking out of the man’s midsection. His face is covered with a VR headset. The note next to the picture describes how the patient plays a VR game called SnowWorld. The note further explains that during the procedure “he had one stabilizing pin removed from his pelvis” (Bhattacharjee, 2020, p. 49) with and another without the VR. The study “suggests VR could decrease the need for general anesthesia, reducing risk and cost”. 

In the other example, a chronic pain sufferer “watches a mesmerizing motion of jellyfish on a virtual reality headset” (Bhattacharjee, 2020, p. 61). This approach was said to help regulate “body responses to pain, improving mood, and reducing anxiety”.

VR displays at different media conferences I’ve attended for decades now, have been all about transporting a user into other worlds, be they natural like viewing ocean creatures or man-made like a video game. That’s been the base intent all along. I might argue it is likely that VR creators did not consider the pain-reduction potential of this particular technology. Mood modification is a part of the approach of most media. For example, music can pump up or relax the listener. Movies can evoke fear, excitement, sadness, or romance. Media as a form of escapism has a long history, but escaping pain might be a new take on the specific tech of VR.

Last May, my wife Michelle and I were supposed to speak in the King George Virginia Ward of our church. Sadly, they had some sort of sewage issue in the building and church was cancelled that week. The topic was to be about how when we receive a calling or assignment in the church we also receive all the priesthood authority and power that goes along with that calling or assignment. I think perhaps the concern for this topic is that some may feel that if they are not an ordained holder of a priesthood office they are somehow ‘less’. Of course nothing could be further from the truth. A calling or assignment by definition is a delegation of priesthood authority and power.

What is priesthood authority but the freedom to exercise all the rights and responsibilities we have in a given capacity? We find those rights and responsibilities given in the church handbook of instructions and in the scriptures. I can look in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C) as well as in the handbook and find all sorts of definition around my role as a member of the stake high council and as the then stake young men president. Some of these are very specific, others are written with a lot of leeway allowing me to seek revelation and take action without constantly seeking specific guidance from the stake presidency for example. A person who does not hold priesthood office is limited from some delegated authority such as conducting some ordinances, but that does not mean they have no priesthood authority. Even those who do hold priesthood office do so also through delegation and are limited in some things.

What about priesthood power? That’s not the same thing as authority. The authority describes our rights and responsibilities. The power is the capacity to carry them out. The power of the priesthood is God’s power delegated to people in order to serve. Hebrews 11 is an example of a description of what God’s power is. It starts right out explaining that God’s power is faith. Verse 3 reads, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” We can read that as through our faith we come to understand, or that through his faith He did what he did. I would argue both interpretations are true. How did He frame the worlds? By faith! Then the chapter goes on to share a long list of men and women who did great things through faith, which is God’s power shared with them. We can all exercise priesthood power in our callings by exercising faith through acting in our callings to the best of our ability, then having the confidence that the Lord will step in and make up for when (not if) we fall short. This post is a perfect example. I’m sure my words leave much to be desired, yet I have hope that the Spirit will spark within the reader unique thoughts that are much better communicated than anything I might write.

I thought I’d take a stab at sharing ideas around a specific area that has long been an interest of mine. It’s probably fair to say that each of us has had to make decisions based on fewer facts than we would have liked. Even if we have a large amount of data, inevitably we can’t think of every possible effect our decisions have. We stumble along doing the best we can with what we know, and hope things generally turn out for the better (whatever we think ‘better’ means). Some of the results of our decisions are like medical side effects. Most of those side effects seem to be all about potential problems, but sometimes they result in a whole new area of benefit we hadn’t thought of.

Not all ‘unintendeds’ are ‘consequences’. That’s why I will stay away as much as possible from the moniker of ‘unintended consequences’. I’m sure in this new blog thread many of the stories will speak to such consequences, but there are also other unintended areas. For example, in the world of technology where I butter my bread, there are also often unintended uses that result from user experimentation. I supposed one could argue that’s a consequence, but I think of a consequence as an outcome, not as a ‘next step’ such as in the world of technological innovation. In that sense, targets of technology use the artifact in ways designers did not intend. That’s some fancy jargon to say ‘necessity is the mother of invention’.

Like most things I produce, this thread will be something my narcissistic side will create for myself. If someone out there is masochistic enough to follow along, I apologize in advance. Writing has become a sort of cheap therapy for me. If you choose to waste your time with this, think of it as me simply thinking out loud in an attempt to understand something of interest to myself. If that’s not the very definition of egocentric then I don’t know what is.

Let me start with a straight forward example. For years we lived in northern Virginia and I rode a commuter train into Washington DC for work. The train is called the Virginia Railway Express (VRE). From my stop on Brooke Road to Union Station in downtown DC the ride took about an hour. All sorts of people got on and off along the way. For example, it seemed like most riders I got to know were federal government employees of one sort or another. There were many military folks who wore uniforms. Tourists or visiting families were an obvious stand out on some days. People studying college courses of one sort or another could be identified with their books out and laptops busy doing homework. Dress ran the gamut from very casual to very formal.

I usually sat on one of the upper tier seats. You get a better view of the Potomac River from there. One day I noticed a young lady of maybe late 20s or early 30s sitting across from me in a similar seat position. After a while, she pulled out her phone and began staring at it and moving her head in the way one does while taking a selfie video. My old man eyeroll went unnoticed. My judgmental attitude was of course behind it. A few minutes later I glanced back and everything changed. My ‘get off my lawn’ brain had faded and my ‘techie’ brain engaged. She was obviously in the act of applying her makeup in preparation for the work day. Her clothing was quite professional, and everything about her seemed the opposite of my original assumption.

I am quite sure the inventors of the cellphone camera did not imagine themselves to be providing a makeup mirror when they added it to the base product. Yet, here it was. In the world of the swiss-army-knife of electronics, a tech user had managed to remove the jangling burdens piled into her purse by one more item thanks to the unintended use of the cellphone camera. Her makeup mirror has no doubt been relegated to the back of one of her bathroom drawers, and will likely never see the light of day again. A quick scan online these days produces a long list of makeup mirror apps that are downloadable to any 'smart' phone.

​Maybe in a future writeup I'll try to unpack the idea of the phrase 'smart phone'. At least I may have the intention to.

Bibliography
​Vifell, A. C., & Soneryd, L. (2013). Organizing Matters: How 'the Social Dimension' Gets Lost in Sustainability Projects. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 41(2), 104-113.

Review by Michael Beach

The authors examine sociality in sustainability projects from a specific framework of their own design. “We argue that the way sustainability projects are organized will affect how the social dimension is taken into consideration” (Vifell & Soneryd, 2013, p. 104). They describe projects based on three dimensions they call pillars: economic, ecological, and social. They note how organizations often have set project group forms and structures so reflection on whether those set social forms meet project requirements of the task at hand “is a rare phenomenon” (Ibid.). The authors assert that “a practice cannot be fully sustainable until all three dimensions are fulfilled” (Vifell & Soneryd, 2013, p. 106) meaning the three pillars, but they don’t really define the dimensions beyond their basic titles.

In order to examine the social dimension, they examine two case studies in Sweden: The Action Plan 2010 to Increase Organic Consumption and Production of Food Products and A Safe Radiation Environment. The first is a non-governmental campaign by The Ecological Forum to encourage increased ecological food production and a varied agricultural landscape. The second is a government response by The Swedish Radiation Protection Authority to public opposition to increasing 3G cellular services throughout the country of Sweden. Yes, this is about 3G cellular, but remember this study is from 2013.

The authors assume tasks associated with the two case studies are organized into projects, and that the sociality of groups working on the projects are reflected in the group ‘mind-set’. They examine how such mind-sets are defined and incorporated into project teams. The forms of mind-set they define are: open or narrow framing, action orientation, participation, and lastly knowledge gathering and production. The authors spend several pages defining in their own way what they mean for each of these dimensions. The paper then reviews each of the four dimensions are they are exhibited in the two specific cases.

Open/Narrow Framing - In the food production case, certain farming approaches were excluded as they became politically charged in Sweden. As a result, some specific groups advocating these farming approaches were also excluded. This leads the authors of this paper to put the effort more on the side of narrow project scope definition. There was no definition of ‘sustainable’ given as part of the project charter which made this part of the process more on the open side. In the radiation case, social sustainability was never specifically addressed. The points to be addressed by the project were given in a very specific list. The list related to already ongoing projects, so the authors consider that project as operating in a narrower frame.

Action Orientation - This question is couched by contrasting what might be done as opposed to encouragement to do what has already been decided to be done. In the food case, there had been several failed projects previous to this one. The steering group of the first version of this project resigned as a result. The new project focused on moving forward to finish the original plan, so clearly a desire to take some measurable action as a project group and not just encourage others to act. The action, though, was to complete previous decisions, so not necessarily action to come up with new approaches. In the radiation project, the group in charge, called the SSI, came up with a clear project plan that included tasks. Before they even involved other groups, they had an idea of what needed to get done.

Participation - As mentioned above, there were a number of organizations that participated in the agricultural project, but some specific ones with agendas that seemed to be too entrenched on politically hot issues in Sweden at the time were excluded. There was a steering group that headed the project with representation from more than one concerned organization involved in the related topics of encouraging increased food production at all levels. In addition, there were synthesis groups used to gather relevant knowledge. No socially focused group was created as the goal was to find equilibrium between food supply and demand. When the first steering group felt as if they could not meet the goals they dissolved. The second group did not change the focus, but sought to complete the original approach. They felt like the most extreme views were getting in the way of the first steering committee and decided to take out group members with those views to allow progress. In the radiation case, all the participants were officials at SSI so they invited some additional actors with a wide range of perspectives to join the conversation. The idea was to create an approach as “a forum for tuning the suggested measures or new or re-formulated objectives” (Vifell & Soneryd, 2013, p. 110).

Knowledge Production - In the agriculture example, content was produced by the six synthesis groups on various topics. The group indicated a need for some statistics to help inform decisions. As it turned out, industry organizations were skeptical the data could be produced. The second steering committee took the synthesis group reports, tacked them onto the end of the steering committee plan as appendices, then stuck to their own plan. Knowledge was a highly contested issue in the radiation case. Trust in information from specific organizations was deemed suspect by some committee members. The group organized sub-groups to participate in brainstorming sessions on specific topics, noting problems and potential solutions. Later ideas were distilled to more realistic approaches. Since the goal was to reduce or control radiation, in the end, social issues raised were simply declared as out of scope.
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The paper’s conclusions are helpful if one adopts the specific three sustainability dimensions and the four frames as the authors describe them. It’s one way to try to account for the aimed-for social dimension of the two projects reviewed. It could be more helpful for project teams, such as those involved in the agriculture and radiation projects in Sweden, to include some similar framework in their own up-front project planning. Even if such a project team chooses to ignore social factors on their decisions, at least they would be doing so consciously.

 

About a year ago, my wife and I had a bit of an adventure. We were driving from our home in VA to our other home in GA, moving some of our stuff. She was in our little Subaru pulling our smaller open trailer with parts of our bed in it. I was in the Jeep with the enclosed trailer with a bunch of other furniture. About an hour before the end of our trip I heard a loud bang. I looked in the mirror just in time to see several large chunks of rubber bouncing in the road behind me and other cars swerving to avoid it. There was a loud thumping noise and I knew instantly I had a blown tire. I called my wife on the phone as she was ahead of me so she would pull off the road. I did the same but was able to drive far enough to catch up to her. The rear tire on the driver side was still inflated but there was no tread left on it. I was planning on replacing them all after we got done moving everything in another month as the tread on all of them was getting worn. This just moved up the time schedule. I changed the bad tire with the spare and we got through the rest of the journey with no issue. It cost us nearly $1200 to replace all four tires. There was more damage I needed to fix as well. The back door handle was gone. The rear light on the driver side was shattered. The plastic fender disappeared with the tire parts. The license was gone along with half of the plate holder. The zip-in side canvas window was ripped up. The trailer has a dent in it, but no real damage and I can eventually get in there and hammer the dent back out. I’m glad I have some basic skills to deal with these fairly easy repairs.

Both our cars are getting up there. Her Subaru is a 2018 and already had a little over 100,000 miles on it. My Jeep is a 2010 and just crossed 195,000 miles on this specific trip to GA. Having cars get up there reminds me of an old truck we had back in the day. We bought it when we lived in CA and I was in the Navy. It was a 1974 Ford F-150. We bought it about 1990 and it was pretty beat up. It lasted until about 1996 while we were moving to NE from CO (yes that's CO and not CA). Suddenly, while we were in the middle of NE and a long way from our final destination in Lincoln, all the electrical went out on it. It drove fine, but night was falling and we had no lights. It was full of household effects as part of our move. We decided to stop and stay in a hotel for the night so we could drive the rest of the way in the daylight the next day. That truck had failed bad once before on a trip with the church young men in CO. There was a crack in the manifold and it blew hot air onto the electrical stuff. We were going from our home in Leadville, CO to Lake Powell in southern UT pulling a sailboat and hauling half a dozen young men. We had to be towed the last 20 miles or so and had the garage near the marina fix it while we spent a few days sailing and camping.

That last story is only the latter half of the trials of that trip. We had a Suburban that we had started the trip with and the engine blew up. It cost about $2000 to repair the Suburban and another $500 to fix the F-150. That was by far the most personally expensive church trip I was ever involved in.

That old F-150 inspired a poem. It was showing its age, and so was I, or so it seemed. It makes me laugh now at nearly 60 to think how in my 30s I thought I was getting old. Thankfully for you I won’t make you suffer through reading the poem. In any case, it’s easy at times to think of all the little things in life that seem burdensome. So I’ll leave you with better language from the Master than I could ever muster.

Matthew 11
28. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

The other day I was considering personal struggles I see in the lives of people I know, and occasionally in my own life. My mind was led to an idea I worked on many years ago. I jokingly called it the ‘faith-o-meter’. The idea is a sort of continuum that spans from no faith on the left, to the prophet Alma’s entreaty to find a “desire to believe”, to having belief. Next comes faith, as in acting on the belief. Then finally at the extreme right I put ‘knowledge’. My positioning ideas on the faith-o-meter continuum is not a political statement. One of the points I came to back then was that we are not always in the same place in the continuum on all things. We might have faith in the Plan of Salvation, a belief in spiritual gifts, and a knowledge of the Law of Tithing. Alma’s faith-as-a-seed sermon speaks about coming to a “perfect knowledge” of “that thing” (Alma 32:34). Where our focus is, there is where we progress from left to right on the faith-o-meter.

So why did this trigger in my mind over the trials I’ve been seeing. In a word, hope. Back when I came up with this faith-o-meter idea I struggled a lot with where hope fits in. There is hope the verb, and hope the noun. For me, hope the verb is weaker, as in ‘I hope it’s true’. In that sense it seems somewhere on the left side of the continuum, maybe between a desire to believe and belief? The noun version, however is something I’ve struggled with for a long time. The word turns up in many places in the scriptures. For me, I’m thinking the noun version is not in one spot along the continuum, but is the outcome of the continuum. The further one moves from no faith, toward ‘a perfect knowledge’, the more hope one has. For example, Alma also says “if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true” (Alma 32: 21). In this case the verb hope means to me that one has hope (noun) as an outcome of faith.

The news of the world and what we see around us in the personal lives of others or ourselves can cause discouragement. That’s the opposite of hope. The phrase that came to my mind in this string of thought was in 2 Nephi 31:20 “Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.” The verse goes on to talk about enduring.

​I hope each of us stays grounded in the truths of the gospel and we don’t allow the ‘wisdom of the world’ to discourage our faith that leads to a “perfect brightness of hope”. 

I continue a lot of back and forth between DC and GA. One positive about driving all that distance is I get about 10 hours of alone time since I’m almost always by myself. I take advantage of listening. Sometimes that’s the radio. Sometimes it’s a podcast or music. I have a lot of reading for my school so I sometimes download a softcopy of an academic paper or two, then allow my phone to read them to me as I drive. At times I pray and ponder. In those moments I have felt Heavenly Father share some insights that have been important to me, if meaningless to others.

At times both the drive and my listening are interrupted. On one trip, Michelle and I were in separate cars. We occasionally chatted with each other through calls and texts. Don’t worry. We both have the tools we need to do hands-free texting. I would also get messaged from others at work asking about one thing or another. Those communications make the drive less burdensome, but can also interrupt my train of thought, my listening. Yet, sometimes those interruptions themselves can be an answer in one way or another. This particular drive was interrupted twice with backed-up traffic. Once in NC and again just south of Fredericksburg, VA. It was tempting to be grumpy. If we had some sort of deadline I might have been. We had no deadline and neither of us let the backups throw us. Thankfully we didn’t. In both cases the traffic was backed up because of pretty bad accidents. We could see just how bad as we slowly passed by each accident eventually. Clearly, those involved had more to worry about than we did with our minor inconvenience.

Not long after the drive, my stake assignment at the time took me to the King George ward conference. One of the speakers was Sister Avery from the Hartwood Ward. She is the Stake Relief Society President. She is also a bee-keeper. In her talk she noted that she has four hives and something like 40,000 bees. Her operation is small from her perspective. By small, she means her bees produce about 60 pounds of honey in a year. To me that sounds like a lot of honey. But what does it take for the bees to make that amount? Sister Avery described how each honey bee will create only about one-twelfth of one teaspoon of honey throughout its lifespan. The honey each creates is not even for itself, but for the next generation of bees in the hive.

There are a number of lessons this example immediately brings to mind. For Sister Avery, bees represent industry and sacrifice. The conference theme was ‘one work’ meaning any effort we do for others on either side of the veil is all part of the same work. Missionaries are focused entirely on bringing others unto Christ with love, sharing, and an invitation to those who have not yet accepted the gospel. They likely also do some of that same work among less-active members. The other area of focus we should all typically look to is family history and temple work.

Two ideas came to my mind as Sister Avery spoke. One reminder to me was that this is His work. We do our small little part, our one-twelfth of a teaspoon, but it is Him who enables the 60 pounds. The other idea that came to me was how this sort of ratio holds true for us as individuals as well.

2 Ne 25: 23
… “for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”

Even for ourselves, we do our best, but our efforts are such a small amount compared to what He does for us through His grace. 
​

In a church talk late last year I had an assignment to share something from fall 2021 general conference that particularly touched me. (Yes, I know this is now 2022. I originally wrote this entry a year ago and I’m just now getting it uploaded.) God speaks in all languages. By languages I don’t just mean English or Spanish. I also mean the languages of our thought process. For example, some think in the language of the arts, or of administration, or of science, or of any of the many ‘ologies’ of study. Each discipline of thought has its own language and way of understanding. So too is the language of the gospel, but truth shows up in each of these may disciplines. God speaks to me in several languages, but one of the languages he uses at times is math. The talk by Elder Clark G. Gilbert is an obvious choice as he used math explicitly in his talk about “The Parable of the Slope”.  As true principles turn up over and over again in every discipline, I managed to see math in other talks at conference as well. Since we all think in different languages I believe that is why we have been encouraged to “liken the scriptures unto ourselves.”

The talk I referred to in my talk was the shortest of them. It was President Nelson’s welcome to conference. He said, “I invite you to listen for three things during this conference: pure truth, the pure doctrine of Christ, and pure revelation.” Where is the math in that? Again President Nelson, “Contrary to the doubts of some, there really is such a thing as right and wrong. There really is absolute truth—eternal truth.” Do you hear the math now?

In electrical engineering we often use tools called “truth tables” and “statistical analysis”. In the last quote above both are referred to. A truth table is a list of several independent variables, typically discreet variables such as true/false, on/off, 1/0, yes/no, +5V/-5V, etc. When each input variable is “true” or its equivalent, then the output (dependent variable) is also true. A discreet variable has a limited number of potential values. In the case of electrical truth tables each discreet variable is limited to two states. President Nelson noted two specific examples, right/wrong, truth/error. The idea of error is implied since if there is absolute truth, then anything else is not.  Here is an example of a gospel version of an electrical truth table. If the Book of Mormon is true scripture then Joseph Smith is a true prophet since God would not reveal scripture to a false prophet. If both the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith is a true prophet, then The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is His true church since a true prophet would not be the means to establish a false church. You see how that logic form works?

Then what about statistical analysis?  Where was that in the talk? Well, that comes from another form of dependent variable. Instead of discreet variables that have a limited number of values, continuous variables have an infinite number of values between two extremes. Each extreme is referred to as an absolute. There’s that word President Nelson used. The example I used speaking in church was the amount of food I planned on eating at Thanksgiving. One absolute could be zero. I might choose to eat nothing. Well that certainly wasn’t going to happen. The other absolute would be the maximum capacity of my old-man stomach. Between these two absolutes is an infinite quantity of potential food amounts I could consume. I’ll get to where this part fits the gospel in a minute.

I’ve heard people say that Heaven is like the top of a mountain. Any path to the top is ok so long as the goal is the same. I remember many years ago when Adam Savage, one of the hosts on the TV show Myth Busters often wore a shirt that said, “I reject your reality and substitute my own.” In the field of Philosophy of Science a prominent practitioner named Thomas Kuhn coined the idea of scientific paradigms. To Kuhn our current paradigm explaining what we see in nature stands so long as it seems to answer our questions. Eventually we raise questions our current paradigm does not explain. Then, some smart person comes up with another paradigm that does explain our questions and that becomes our new truth until we find more questions the new paradigm does not explain. Each change in paradigm is called a scientific revolution or a paradigm shift. For Kuhn, then, we are not considering truth, or even if the new paradigm brings us closer to truth; only that it seems to answer the questions we have today. A paradigm is a story we tell ourselves, an agreed upon context. 

Are we not blessed with the combination God has given us, the combination of the scriptures and the Holy Ghost? One could argue the scriptures are simply a form of paradigm, but that idea leaves out direct revelation through the Holy Ghost that testifies of truth to each of us in the language God knows we will understand.

So what do the scriptures tell us about truth? Here are a few samples:

• “Straight is the gate and narrow the way”
• “That no man shall come unto the Father but by me, or by my word”
• “I am the way, the truth, and the light”

Many truths or one truth? Many paths or one path? May ways or one way? Truth, the path, is measured as a discreet variable. There is only one absolute truth, one path. Our alignment (our variableness) with that discreet truth is continuous.  We may wander in the space between true and false. Our understanding of truth could be represented as a percent of the whole. Do we have all truth today? No. “We believe all God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” All the gospel we have received is true so the truth of the gospel is 100%. Our understanding individually is between 0% and 100%, and the total truth received through the gospel so far is also between 0% and 100%.
In Star Wars, one of the famous sayings of Yoda was, “do or do not, there is no try.” Does that jive with the scriptures? Such a phrase seems like an attempt to change our performance or understanding from a continuous variable to a discreet variable. In other words, if we fall short by even a little, it is the same as if we have failed completely. Such a philosophy is tempting, but in the world of discreet variables, it is false because it leaves out repentance and the atonement of Jesus Christ. Do we fail to make 100%? Yes, all the time. What are we to do then in gospel terms? When we repent, the grace of Savior moves us from the continuous variable space between truth and error to the discreet of absolute truth. The atonement makes us holy. To be made holy means to be made whole, or complete, or sacred. In every case we fall short on our own, but are made whole through the power that comes from His sacrifice. As with Elder Gilbert’s talk, the trajectory or slope matters, not a particular position along the slope. So using Yoda’s vernacular, alone we ‘do not’. Only with the Savior can we ‘do’.

Pres Nelson stresses this paradigmatic shift from Yoda’s absolutes of self pass/fail to the gospel’s absolutes of fail alone, pass with the Savior. In his talk he said, “There has never been a time in the history of the world when knowledge of our Savior is more personally vital and relevant to every human soul.”
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So there you have it. Math in what seemed initially to me as a simple welcome-to-conference talk of only about five minutes. As I thought about it, the talk for me had much more depth than it at first appeared.