This last week has again brought into sharp focus one of my more important discoveries of the past decade. It is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Muddle\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and I am surprised and appalled that I was so old before I figured it out. On the off chance some of you have not yet figured it out, here is my take on the subject.<\/p>\n
Almost ten years ago I was working with the people at the Family History Library on some projects for the Olympics and beyond. As part of that process they suggested that I read, as background, a 100 year history of the Utah Genealogical Society which was written in 1994. The book was basically a chronology\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthis happened, then this happened, then this happened and so forth. When I finished I thought, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well that was a hundred year muddle!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And it was. I myself remember the rigid, even draconian, rules for submission of work in the 60s that turned off a whole generation of all but the most dedicated and compulsive of family history folk. BUT in spite of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153muddle\u00e2\u20ac\u009d they have actually accomplished a lot. Then I thought of my favorite \u00e2\u20ac\u0153whipping boy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the Church bureaucracy\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe Missionary Department. Now there was an outfit in a muddle! (Although I will allow that they have improved a bit in the recent past.) And then they send 19 and 20 year old BOYS out to implement the muddle. However \u00e2\u20ac\u0153miracle of miracles\u00e2\u20ac\u009d it does succeed, at least to some degree. I then I thought if I am honest about it, my part of the world, both personally and professionally, is almost always in a muddle too. Yet many good things have happened.<\/p>\n
SO\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmaybe \u00e2\u20ac\u0153muddling\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is just the modal category of the Telestial Kingdom and what is really remarkable is when we aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t muddling. And perhaps you, like me, when those crystal clear moments happen, have assumed that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153now I have finally figured it out and I am not going to be muddling in the future.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Alas, those crystal moments are almost always brought to us by the Spirit and I (and probably you too) do not live my whole life on that plane. But in spite of the muddle good things can and do happen as we seek to move forward.<\/p>\n
Now that I have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153discovered\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The Muddle I see it everywhere. Perhaps the apostle Paul was describing The Muddle when he said that we see through a glass darkly.<\/p>\n
The best thing to come out of this for me, is that I have lightened up on myself and almost everyone else too. Folk I used to critically roll my eyes at, I now just smile and say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Muddle.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d For example last year about this time as I got off TRAX by the corner of South and West Temple to walk to the Museum. I noticed a strange blue light on the North Visitors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Center on Temple Square. In the past I would have said to myself, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tacky, tacky, tacky.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This time I smiled and said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, somebody\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s muddling.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n
I have come a long way. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m even usually willing to give a pass to all the folk who say the oddest things in church about women, although to my sadness I still have no idea how to explain in any credible way, such statements to the bright and thoughtful women I sometimes encounter outside the Church and inside too. (Although for members I usually say something like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Spirit has witnessed the truth to our souls and so we had just better stay on for the ride. And besides, truth will prevail!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This last week has again brought into sharp focus one of my more important discoveries of the past decade. It is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Muddle\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and I am surprised and appalled that I was so old before I figured it out. On the off chance some of you have not yet figured it out, here is my take on the subject.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}