Sunday, January 15, 2012
Biking AROUND Mt. Timpanogos
One of the more insane things I did in 2011 was biking all the way around Mt. Timpanogos in late November. It was something like 35 miles and 8,000 feet in total elevation gain. Only the first few miles were on road. Honestly, I don't think I'll ever do it again because, well, there are more fun long rides. It was epic and it was brutal. The photos below are in order. They show the mountain from the road on the way up (east side). We rode around the north side and then all along the west face. We had gorgeous weather and there were still leaves on some of the trees. Then we dropped down the southwest face back to our starting point on the south side, with one last photo of the beastly mountain we had conquered! Now I've been on top of it and around it. I declare victory and quit!
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Eternity and Exaltation
My lesson in high priests quorum the week before Christmas was on exaltation. The promises of exaltation have mystified me for some time. D&C 132:19 promises "thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions." As one quorum member observed, it sounds like a lot of work, and as another observed, these rewards are not very motivating. In fact, I had started the lesson asking each quorum member in turn what they valued, before they knew what the lesson was about. No one valued ruling others, which is the essence of the blessings, at first glance. After all, as I suggested, who wants the United States and its headaches, let alone a place like Afghanistan.
We puzzled on this a while. Obviously, countries are not what is promised, but I suppose worlds might be, and those are pretty similar. But as we talked about it, I began to realize, thanks to the comments of others, that this scripture must tie in with D&C 121:41-46. In these verses, we are told that if we live righteously, we will influence others for good. Perhaps the promise of exaltation, then, is that we will live so well that others will want to be like us and will improve their own lives as a result.
This is an amazing blessing! I think of all the times that I make imperfect judgments, that I hurt (or at least fail to lift) others through misplaced words or ill-considered actions, or that I am too slothful or short-sighted to see the needs of others and how to aid them. If I can rid myself of these imperfections and instead influence others for good, without compulsion, just by example, then, yes, this is something that is motivating and worth lots of work.
The scriptures also talk about priesthood power being used to move mountains or rivers. I think mastery of elements must come along with the sort of righteousness necessary to achieve exaltation. Such mastery is also motivational to me, but for more prideful reasons. I just think it would be really cool to manipulate elements to see what is possible.
In the end, all of this ties into the idea that the glory of God is intelligence. Exaltation must therefore be about perfect intelligence: an ability to fully understand people and nature, their makeup and trajectory. As a social scientist keenly aware of our limitations in understanding and predicting human behavior, such a state of affairs does indeed seem heavenly. As a human being who marvels at nature and who takes deep satisfaction from the shape of ice in a stream and the color of a flower, it is doubly awesome. I can really place my hope in such a vision of heaven.
We puzzled on this a while. Obviously, countries are not what is promised, but I suppose worlds might be, and those are pretty similar. But as we talked about it, I began to realize, thanks to the comments of others, that this scripture must tie in with D&C 121:41-46. In these verses, we are told that if we live righteously, we will influence others for good. Perhaps the promise of exaltation, then, is that we will live so well that others will want to be like us and will improve their own lives as a result.
This is an amazing blessing! I think of all the times that I make imperfect judgments, that I hurt (or at least fail to lift) others through misplaced words or ill-considered actions, or that I am too slothful or short-sighted to see the needs of others and how to aid them. If I can rid myself of these imperfections and instead influence others for good, without compulsion, just by example, then, yes, this is something that is motivating and worth lots of work.
The scriptures also talk about priesthood power being used to move mountains or rivers. I think mastery of elements must come along with the sort of righteousness necessary to achieve exaltation. Such mastery is also motivational to me, but for more prideful reasons. I just think it would be really cool to manipulate elements to see what is possible.
In the end, all of this ties into the idea that the glory of God is intelligence. Exaltation must therefore be about perfect intelligence: an ability to fully understand people and nature, their makeup and trajectory. As a social scientist keenly aware of our limitations in understanding and predicting human behavior, such a state of affairs does indeed seem heavenly. As a human being who marvels at nature and who takes deep satisfaction from the shape of ice in a stream and the color of a flower, it is doubly awesome. I can really place my hope in such a vision of heaven.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Chilling over the Holidays
Well, this is the first time in a long while that I’ve bought a technological gizmo in its first month or two of release. For Christmas we got two new Kindle Fires. I’ve been hearing about apps and games like Angry Birds forever, but until now had never actually played any such game or used any apps. It turns out the Fires are pretty fun toys. The games are pretty entertaining. I think Cut the Rope is especially clever. Ellen loves sitting in bed watching episodes of TV shows, her latest love being Downton Abbey. I like checking my sports teams without having to kick someone off a computer. I’m also enjoying reading news and analysis from various sites as compiled by Pulse.
I really miss reading a newspaper or news magazine regularly. I need to make more time for that. I used to read the NY Times pretty regularly, but haven’t since I’ve been department chair. I still enjoy the Times when I catch glimpses of it, but would also like to branch out a bit to the Economist, the New Yorker, the Atlantic and perhaps others. I’m not much of a blog person. I try out blog sites from time to time, but usually find the analysis pretty superficial, and often referring to some more in-depth story published in one of these sources or something like them.
I really miss reading a newspaper or news magazine regularly. I need to make more time for that. I used to read the NY Times pretty regularly, but haven’t since I’ve been department chair. I still enjoy the Times when I catch glimpses of it, but would also like to branch out a bit to the Economist, the New Yorker, the Atlantic and perhaps others. I’m not much of a blog person. I try out blog sites from time to time, but usually find the analysis pretty superficial, and often referring to some more in-depth story published in one of these sources or something like them.
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