A Curious Instrument

I feel the need to reveal something to those who comment on my posts here:  I don't read them.  To be more honest, I actually CAN'T read them.  That sounds weird, so let me explain. I wrote some time ago on the subject of internet comments and the fact that I had turned this feature off when I began using Blogger some six years ago.  As time passed, several features have been added to Blogger and I was put in the position to have to re-enable comments to make various features work as intended. I still feel the same way about comments - I don't really want them. I try to keep commenting features disabled to avoid the inherent rudeness of giving the impression that I encourage comments when I actually don't want them at all. A strange thing happened though - commenting here on my blog is still enabled, but it is broken! I couldn't see people's comments even if I wanted to do so (which I really don't).  However, I see statistical evidence that people leave...

I am going to reiterate, yet again, that although I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) and the basic outline of the afterlife that it espouses is the basis upon which I draw, I cannot say that what I present below is either factually true or an accurate depiction of the official LDS conception of life after death. I just love coming up with fresh ways of disclaiming everything I say! I got so excited about sharing my thoughts of the telestial (lower), terrestrial (middle), and celestial (higher) rewards that God makes available to us that I forgot that I am describing the after-life out of order!  These rewards come at the far end of a rather drawn-out after-death process. I think a lot of things I was taught in relation to the after-life were allegorical, especially if it is drawn from biblical descriptions. As an example, the whole concept of Hell was apparently based on a burning canyon of refuse a bit away from Jerusalem that was pret...

In the previous installments of this series of posts on the Plan of Happiness and the different "glories" to which one can aspire, each had a short descriptor: the telestial was a state of "no consequences" and the terrestrial had "no responsibilities" . Now, I will attempt to describe the highest or "celestial" reward which I have chosen the phrase "no limits". I can't find a cute description or picture for the celestial reward - there is very little recorded about it. It is compared with the light from the sun as compared to the light from the moon (representing the middle reward). Brighter! Warmer! Bring sunblock? As I have described each reward, one may have noticed that the lower and middle rewards constitute a freedom "from" something: a condition where something that was undesirable in mortality is no longer present. The telestial glory eliminates culpability for actions. The terrestrial eliminates the need f...

My maternal grandmother (Gran) was a good Christian woman. She believed that her afterlife would be filled with harp-playing and quietly praising Jesus while floating in a cloudy heaven, protected from the riff-raff by an ever-vigilant Saint Peter who ran a portal called the "Pearly Gates". It was her Christian duty to denounce The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints  (LDS) (to which her daughter and grandchildren had converted) and to fib to her friends and family that my mother and her children (including me) actually went to another congregation of Gran's chosen non-LDS denomination because of Sunday timing preferences. Again, Gran was a good woman and accustomed to hard work, likely a product of her upbringing in the highly religious and relatively hard-pan frontier of west Texas and eastern New Mexico. She never thought much of her progeny's religious choices, but she was kindly and loving regardless. I knew her primarily in her retirement, where she wa...

You remember that funny and touching Harold Ramis movie Groundhog Day ? Phil Conners, played by Bill Murray, lives through countless renditions of the same day. Philosophers, theologians, and psychologists have cheered the movie and its message (intended or not by Ramis and Company) for all sorts of reasons, from the idea that we should "live in the day" to the benefits of the concept of reincarnation.  In that grand tradition, I offer my own take on the premise of the movie and how my wonderful wife helped me see such things in a wider context. Mormons believe that God has a plan for us, often called the Plan of Salvation.  The official plan from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is HERE and my own interesting adaptation can be found HERE . ( Please understand that what follows is my personal concept of the afterlife and doesn't necessarily reflect the doctrines of the LDS Church.) At the distant "end" of this salvation process, every person ...

My wife and I have read through the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling . It was the first time for me as I avoided it during its publishing heyday. It was good together time for us and ended up being quite thought-provoking for me, which was a surprise. For instance, I particularly enjoyed the character of Luna Lovegood . She is a transcendent person already in her teens, rising above the pettiness of her cohort, speaking truth and kindness when everyone else choose the paths of covering their egos and nursing their hatreds, wearing their hearts on their sleeves. She will tell you what you need to hear in such an unassuming way that it bores into your soul past your typical defenses. Luna was almost ethereal yet unbendingly upbeat compared to those around her, reliable in her honesty and thoughtfulness. I consider her an excellent role model. Luna, as a character, represents one of those people that it is an uplifting experience just to be near. Although she is initially od...

If you haven't already noticed, I am a classical liberal in my political bent and I most greatly appreciate the political philosophy of the late Harry Browne , who was the Libertarian Party candidate for POTUS in 1996 and 2000. Although I support many of the principles of the LP, I am not a member nor do I particularly support the ideas of Gary Johnson or Bill Weld.  However, I tend to vote for libertarian candidates when I am given the option because I want to record my desire for very small government, greatly expanded liberty, and the original intentions of the writers of the founding documents of the United States of America. Given all of this, my attitude about much legislation these days reflects a desire that federal governments not be run by zealous social engineers of any stripe, right or left.  Individual choice is good and should be given as free a rein as possible.  Although children should be beholden to their parents until they reach maturity, adults sho...