- RLD on Variety in our Meetings (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 8/16: “I started sacrament meeting tired and frazzled, partially the result of Church service that morning and the day before, but mostly because I hadn’t taken care of myself properly that week. The two talks were on the law of sacrifice and the law of consecration, and the brother who spoke on the law of consecration made the case that, while sometimes consecration requires us to push ourselves to our limits, usually it requires us to take care of ourselves and get proper rest so that we can continue to be useful to the Lord and his kingdom long-term. I immediately recognized the word of the Lord for me that week. The sister who spoke on sacrifice told about a time when she made a sacrifice pretty much automatically, because it was expected of her, and then resented it. But someone’s offhand comment made her realize she had made that sacrifice willingly–that it was her choice. That changed her attitude immediately. I’ve had similar experiences. Sometimes we fail to take ownership of our good choices!” Aug 18, 08:17
- on A Review: Picturing Christ: Understanding Depictions of Jesus in History and Art: “ideasnstuff, I love that song! I actually quoted it when I wrote about Jesus’s appearance several years ago: https://archive.timesandseasons.org/2021/09/they-saw-the-lord/” Aug 18, 07:59
- on A Review: Picturing Christ: Understanding Depictions of Jesus in History and Art: “Some children see Him lily white, the baby Jesus born this night. Some children see Him lily white, with tresses soft and fair. Some children see Him bronzed and brown, The Lord of heav’n to earth come down. Some children see Him bronzed and brown, with dark and heavy hair. Some children see Him almond-eyed, this Savior whom we kneel beside. some children see Him almond-eyed, with skin of yellow hue. Some children see Him dark as they, sweet Mary’s Son to whom we pray. Some children see him dark as they, and, ah! they love Him, too! The children in each different place will see the baby Jesus’ face like theirs, but bright with heavenly grace, and filled with holy light. O lay aside each earthly thing and with thy heart as offering, come worship now the infant King. ‘Tis love that’s born tonight! Carol by Alfred Burt” Aug 18, 07:06
- on Handbell Music and the Latter-day Saint Hymnbook: “That’s outside any ward’s or even stake’s music budget, but very much within the range of what some people spend on hobbies – look at what people spend on nice pianos or string instruments for home use. It just takes a ward with enough musical talent and one motivated financial backer (who would own the bells). That’s a real possibility in some areas.” Aug 17, 23:37
- on Handbell Music and the Latter-day Saint Hymnbook: “In looking on Ebay, I see a set for $5,000. (Compared to $14,000 for a new set.) The good thing about handbells is that new ringers can pick up the basics really quickly, so that idea is very possible.” Aug 17, 19:53
- on Handbell Music and the Latter-day Saint Hymnbook: “Interesting. In some wards, you could probably find four people with some musical background who might give it a reasonable effort. How much would a decent quality small set of 25 bells cost?” Aug 17, 17:54
- on Handbell Music and the Latter-day Saint Hymnbook: “The answer is complicated. If you’re looking at bells, the smallest set is usually a two octave span (so 25 bells). That’s like having both the black and white keys on a piano between the G above middle C and up for two octaves. If you’re doing a simple piece with no accidentals, you can get away with using as few as eight to twelve of those bells. As far as number of people, there are advanced ringers who do solos on a set of bells, usually with piano accompanying. So, one person is the minimum. For the bells by themselves, though, I would usually say four people is the minimum to get a full sound. Accompaniment for a choir can usually be done by people in the choir, just with the bells distributed amongst them.” Aug 17, 14:27
- on Handbell Music and the Latter-day Saint Hymnbook: “What’s the absolute minimum size of a handbell choir/handbell accompaniment for a choral choir?” Aug 17, 13:19
- on Variety in our Meetings (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 8/16: “Here’s a few of my thoughts in reaction to what I experienced in Church yesterday (8/16): One speaker in sacrament meeting compared family members to stereotypical film roles—the disgruntled old man, the perpetually peppy young woman, etc. This made me wonder about these roles. How often do we accept the stereotypical roles that are thrust on us by friends and family? Are they true to who we are? Are they eternal? Or in the eternities will we become ALL roles and none of them as well? How much are such roles consistent with eternal life? Another speaker spoke of looking for mentions of Christ’s titles while listening to General Conference, and surprisingly suggested that looking at this became distracting and overwhelming. It seems to me that these titles are usually metaphors for some aspect of Christ. I think merely listing them instead of looking at what they mean doesn’t help us learn anything or get closer to Christ (although it’s certainly better than checking out of conference altogether). But, like most things in life, its also easy to look at the representation, or metaphor, than at the meaning that they point to. Another speaker mentioned “going down the rabbit hole” in studies, leading me to think about this idea of “going down the rabbit hole.” It has a kind of negative implication, suggesting that the items in the hole aren’t worth looking at. Perhaps that’s true, but in my experience it’s often hard to tell when a line of investigation or surfing is worthwhile or not. Believe it or not, sometimes what seems like a “rabbit hole” ends up being an expansive new world, full of fascinating or inspiring material. A speaker also said that they based their talk on a 2025 conference talk, “so, a little while ago.” Since I’m old, 2025 doesn’t seem ‘a little while ago’ to me, and I wondered if there is some recency requirement for source talks. Can we be assigned talks from 2020? Or 2000? Or 1950? What about 100 years ago? If we need to use recent talks, why are we using the scriptures? They are MUCH older!” Aug 16, 20:18
- on Tangled Assets and Legal Erasure: Emma Smith’s Fight for Financial Survival: “I think this proves that JS assumed he was going to live to the second coming. He did what he liked with other people’s money as he saw fit because he was THE prophet, laws and fiduciary integrity be damned. Then when he dies, the mess is left for other people to fix. Is it any wonder Emma fought tooth and nail to secure assets she could support her family with? Why would she want to be the third, seventh, or tenth wife to someone else in hopes they would be merciful enough to keep her children fed, clothed and housed. The coverture law saw to it that independence was illusory. Then there’s Joseph’s, get in personal debt and put the property in the church trust ploy. Have the wealthy always tried to do this kind of shell game? And what does that say about current church finances today? So taking care of widows and orphans take a back seat to protecting church assets. Got it. Everyone fend for themselves I guess.” Aug 16, 15:37
