rongo

I chose cosmological balance, by which I mean, the eternal intelligences.

I was just thinking --- do you think that "toughing it out" while sick is a thing of the past now? Are people going to freak out because they are shell-shocked because of this past year if someone tries to work, perform, or play while sick? Will people in "irreplaceable" roles be tempted to not say anything and put on a good front so people don't get mad or scared? I wonder if many people are so accustomed to cancelled performances, seasons, etc. from this year that they will be conditioned to do so easily in the future "out of an abundance of caution."

I definitely think a flu shot in your situations is a good idea. I'd almost rather get the flu as a "calibration." I literally haven't had the flu for years. I know that I'm in contact with it, but I don't get the fever, aches, cough, etc. I've never been a "stomach-sick" person (which I'm grateful for --- that's really not fun). When I get sick, I just get the flu aches and feel lousy. All of our kids were really sick back in February for like three weeks. My son and daughter were in Newsies, and it was "tech week," so they had mandatory rehearsals with a lot of stress because the

I think you're right about loose and tight being the two options. Why doesn't it make sense if both are correct at times? Why couldn't it be loose, unless the Spirit at times made it clear that it had to be that way (such as with certain spellings, or the odd words)? I don't see a reason why it can't make sense for it to be mostly loose, but tight at other times --- I think that's what the textual evidence indicates. I'm not a fan of the EmodE fad theory. I don't think it fits reality, I don't think it's compelling, and I think it adds a bunch of other things that need to be defended and

Very true that your spouse can give it to you if he/she is violating the law of chastity. I had a sister in a previous ward whose husband was disfellowshipped in a different stake for an affair with two women in that ward. She had to have a hysterectomy (or maybe just the cervix, I don't remember exactly) because of cervical cancer that he gave her via HPV. She was very bitter about it, which I empathize with. They were still married when I left them, but it wouldn't surprise me if they are now divorced. Hypothetical risks aside, we feel that it's best for our kids not to get the Gardasil

True. Our son just got a glimpse of the sun this week, after months, he said. There are valleys in Norway where you never see it for half the year, because even when it rises it's close to the horizon.

This is us in spades (minus being vocal on Facebook. This is really our/my only vocalization here). We have our school/mission vaccinations, and I even had to renew my MMR to attend ASU for a year in 2006 (so, maybe that isn't up-to-date any more). We just don't want this particular vaccine. Interesting you brought up Gardisil (Gardasil?). They always are really mad at us when we decline that for our kids, and think we are such naive parents thinking that our morals/mores are going to protect them from it. When I was at ASU, they estimated that 75% of the 75,000 students already had HPV.

That's included with the "get sunshine" part. I'm not sure that vitamin D supplements, which are all the rage, (or Vitamain D3 fortified milk) are better than the Vitamin D our body makes upon exposure to UV rays. I'll bet at least some supplemental vitamin D is excreted, even though it's fat soluble. It has to be taken up in the GI tract.

I'm in a high spread area in a high spread state, and we're having seating chart quarantine protocols for the first time (students sitting within 6 feet of positive-testing students are home for a week). Masks are also up to the individual, so I am confident that exposure is pretty constant. ETA: Eight cast members in my son's play are in quarantine until Monday, and I had six absences in a class for the first time. The whole year, I've never had so many perfect attendance periods, or only 1-2 kids absent. Many of the absences are precautionary, not because they are necessarily sick.

I tell people taking vitamins and supplements that they have expensive urine. I'm with you. If you have a good, balanced diet, adequate sleep, exercise, and drink a lot of water (I started taking water seriously after my kidney stone), that's the best thing you can do for your health. And sunshine --- taking care not to get sunburn. I don't have any "studies" to back it up, but it makes sense to me that getting your vitamins through food (and sunlight) is more effective than swallowing pills. I think you eliminate most of it that way.

During the year and a half between when I was bishop of two different wards, a member called me with some questions she had from talking with another stake member. I asked her if the other lady was quoting Roger K. Young, and she didn't know. Is there a picture of a blue sky with clouds on the cover, I asked, and she said, Yes! How did you know? Because it sounds like Roger K. Young. The bishop who replaced me called and asked for my thoughts on a couple in his ward. They hadn't done anything while I was there, but were apparently hard-core tent city people and trying to gain followers. I

May you not encounter more. There is a high affinity with Julia Rowe, Chad & Lori, etc. among these types. And, they think putting peppermint or lavender oil on your wrist or wherever can cure absolutely anything. We've had some in every ward. They are everywhere.

Question: I know I and my family had it around the week of Christmas. We only had loss of taste and smell (and hives, in my case), but the ER informed us of my wife's positive result from when I took her in. But, no fevers, no cough, no malaise, etc. I am convinced that I and the boys are constantly being exposed to it at school (really high community spread right now). My question is, if one recovers from it, and has antibodies that last an indeterminant time (it is unknown at this point how long the antibodies remain effective), but is constantly being exposed to it, shouldn't that sig

This was an interesting post to me. The balance between faith and common sense (using all scientific advances at our disposal) is interesting, and varies by person. I think for a lot of people, Orson Scott Card's entry in his "Mormon dictionary" under "blessing" is eerily accurate, even though it's tongue-in-cheek: "The ordinance of anointing by the laying on of hands to heal the sick; most commonly done to those not sick enough to need a doctor or so sick the doctors have given up hope." Some people give or seek blessings for every little thing, and others give or seek them in sort of Catholi

My family and I are not anti-vaxxers (we serve missions and attend school, including college, after all, so we have to have up-to-date vaccines), but we will not be getting the Covid vaccine. We all had it starting on December 21st, for one thing. My wife and the two boys at home completely lost their taste and smell, and it was fun experimenting with that. They couldn't taste or smell anything, not even cut onions. I had a bad outbreak of hives, which is a more rare possible symptom, I came to learn. My daughter had no symptoms whatsover. My wife and the boys had no symptoms other than the lo

That tracks with what the Ivory Coast elder told us at the NAU institute last week (Africa-bound missionaries in February). Any news on Brazil? Currently, they're only allowing 90 day visas, and my info has it not until summer at the earliest. Our close family friend is in West Virginia waiting to go to Brazil.

What do Adam-ondi-Ahman, Garden of Eden, the Restoration (including the plates in Cumorah), New Jerusalem, etc. look like without "American Exceptionalism, @2BizE? Is it possible to believe in these things without it being what you call "American Exceptionalism?" If so, how? I could be wrong, but I think 2BizE thinks the only way for this not to be "American Exceptionalism" is for one to believe that they are all made-up nonsense.

When the Church budget system was overhauled in 1990, there were a series of meetings and broadcasts for then-regional representative and stake presidents. It was emphasized that there should be no monetary cost for church activity, and that time and money costs on members should be reduced in favor of the home. It was also emphasized that they knew that leaders and members would try to find ways around this, so leaders would need to stay on top of things to prevent "mission creep" and going back to the old way. One thing that struck me was the discussion about how our teachings on thrif

Yes. President Widtsoe told him things like "There is a scripture in the first half of D&C that is the key to that," or "There is a scripture in the last half of the Book of Mormon that answers that," so as you mentioned, he had to really search and read with those questions in mind. I first encountered it when I was doing splits with one of my greenies, and he said they had something in the apartment that he really liked, but he didn't know who it was from. It was a typed transcript, and there were clues in it that it was Cleon Skousen. I really like the explanation of how and why,

I don't think anyone has ever said that American Saints get a free pass merely by virtue of geography. In my view, those who run down (even to the point of celebrating) what they see as the decline of "American Exceptionalism" don't like the extreme focus on America in the Restoration, and they want this to be de-emphasized as quickly as possible. I think there is embarrassment on the part of some in the Church about what they perceive as the "weirdness" of things like Adam-ondi-Ahman (e.g., how Mitt Romney refused to answer when asked about Adam and Missouri. It would have been less awk

The two biggest red flags for younger couples I've found are inability to have children, and divorce. A lot of people shake their fist at God over these, and becoming disaffected with the Church is one way they feel subconsciously that they can "get back" at Him (by depriving Him of their belief). It doesn't mean that everyone facing these is in danger (not by a long shot), but it is often a strong contributing factor when there is faith crisis. The pernicious effects of pornography (and I always include masturbation; we seem to always euphemize it as just porn. Porn is very rarely withou

I think it's a case of misapplied causation. Many people whose faith crises become irreconcilable end up "sinning" in various visible ways, but it's not the "sinning" that was the cause of the leaving; it was the leaving that was the cause of the "sinning." There seems to be a psychological reaction by many, a subconscious (or maybe sometimes conscious) desire to visibly go back on things like the Word of Wisdom, law of chastity, etc. once they make the final break in their hearts and minds. People trying to help need to be aware of this. What we think are good answers aren't always g

New Jerusalem will be in America. It's hard to have America completely decline in favor of non-America with that being the case. That is not to say that the Constitution won't die and America won't decline, big-time.

My thought? In order to fully understand us and our motivations (especially concerning weakness in sinning), wouldn't He have to know what it is like to feel ashamed, embarrassed, jealous, furious, lazy, annoyed, resentful, and all the other in the long list of human emotions? These things are directly linked to a lot of the pain we feel in mortality, and I don't think He could take our sins upon Himself without also taking these things upon Him. They are the root of why we sin.

I have a lot of experience with this (as a helper, not as a doubter). Listening, being empathetic, and not hitting the panic button and acting weirdly towards the doubter goes a long way towards helping people not throw the baby out with the bathwater when they are in faith crisis. That said, it's even more helpful if the helper/leader knows the issues and can intelligently discuss them. This builds confidence, at the very least, that there are reasonably intelligent and competent people out there who know the same things the doubter knows, but aren't thrown into doubt. It is very common