12/2/24
I almost forgot to write something today, but then my joint heir reminded me. You have him to thank for today's content. I have officially returned to the land of the free: Lindon, UT. I arrived Wednesday evening, ate dinner, and promptly went to sleep. I awoke and surprised my siblings for Thanksgiving at my pop's, because they had no idea what happened. It was nice to see them again; I missed the children a lot.
Picture a Honda Pilot. Now picture it in ugly 2000s automobile gold-ish tan. The interior is held together by the atomic attractive forces between dirt molecules. The outside looks like the budget version of Iron Man's mask. This is my car. When I went to start it to drive back to mi madre's, it didn't start. I expected this. We jumped the battery and I drove it to a gas station, where the battery promptly died. I jumped it again and drove it home. I thought twice and backed it into the driveway in case the battery died again. I turned it off and the battery died again. I borrowed a battery charger, added power steering fluid (power steering works now, I think), and replaced the dysfunctional wiper blades. It drives and major systems are working. I need to sell that car. If anyone wants to buy a... on second thought, you don't.
Apparently the bishop in the YSA I was serving in rounded up the new missionaries in the ward and basically told them to get their act together and fix everything because he didn't want missionaries in the ward. I still don't like that guy much.
I went to sacrament meeting in my home ward. It was a little weird, 'cause it kinda felt like everybody was staring at me. Nobody said anything, but I stopped to say hello to my Sunday School teacher and she said some things that were good for me to hear. I escaped the hour unscathed and went to meet with my stake president. The meeting was fine. It was not uncaring and accusatory like my last few meetings.
I have to find things to keep myself busy or I go crazy. Music is a good one; I want to try to finish a song and post that sucker to Spotify. I 3D printed a clone trooper helmet before I left, so I'm painting and finishing that. Any ideas? I'm trying to find cool projects. I think I might make a new kind of picture hanger that I thought of, or a rolling puzzle cover. I don't know. I like coming up with product ideas or things that would make life a little easier. I think I'll draw another portrait soon. Any requests? I need someone recognizable.
I've really liked the book I've been reading, "The Power of Myth". It is a transcription of conversations between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers from a PBS documentary shot on Skywalker Ranch, CA, in 1988. Campbell was a leading expert in mythology, and Moyers was a journalist. They tackle many questions and explore different themes present within mythology. Campbell explains how myths often contradict themselves and have multiple themes. There might be 5 myths within a culture and they all contradict each other, so how can they be true? He uses King Arthur as an example: one can appreciate the legends of the Knights of the Round Table without believing they are exactly correct, then points out how religious people often emphasize the belief over the lesson it has. Is the statement of belief more important than the belief itself? That doesn't seem quite right to me.
I like this way of thinking because it addresses much harder questions. For example, we believe Joseph Smith was a prophet because of the Book of Mormon. However, he also practiced plural marriage (or attempted to practice it) which we now recognize as wrong. We can sit and say "oh, we have to trust God and his ways", or we can say "what's more important, the lessons or the events themselves?" What's more important about the Book of Mormon: the words and events that occured or the lessons they teach? I'm gonna go with the lessons. Even if it was all made up, you can still say that good lessons can be found in the teachings. We have changed lots of things in our church in the last 40 years, many of which were claimed to be exact. However, the lessons underneath those things should still be the same. Some very central parts of our religion came from what was going on at the time. Standing on a box and literally proclaiming repentance to people probably worked great in the Great Enlightenment period, but it wouldn't work so well today. I can attest to that statement.
Does each detail have to be exactly correct to lend value to the overall message? Ask Copernicus. The geocentric model of the solar system was popular until Copernicus realized that a heliocentric model more accurately described the heavens above. Giordano Bruno was executed for teaching this model in the year 1600. He also taught that the universe was infinite. The Catholic church was incredibly against this view at the time because it meant there was not a single place for heaven, and God couldn't reside at a single physical location. This also meant there was no physical hell, which was working great as a way to keep people from stepping out of line. However, it is clear that the heliocentric view and the infinite nature of the universe are true. The geocentric view was a necessary step on the path towards understanding. How does that apply to the church? How does that apply to your development in emulating the things that Christ stands for? There are steps. As a person figures out what really matters and how to treat other people and how to get more from their life through their actions, they are completing those steps. As the church changes things little by little, we hope that they move in a direction closer to what is true. Doesn't mean that they will, but we hope so. It is each person's responsibility to learn things in context and to understand what exactly is going on so that they can go out and teach other people what they've learned about helping other people and bettering their own lives.
Part of the power of being human is the ability to hold multiple perspectives at a time. You can choose to be offended by something someone says about the church, or you can listen. You can find out exactly why that is claimed and evaluate how it fits in with your understanding. It isn't apostasy to consider other perspectives or to look into your questions. I think part of the reason so many people have these huge 'faith crises' is because they have been taught in a way that ignored context for so long. When something finally comes that they can't ignore or can't dismiss, they suddenly question their entire basis. If they had been taught in context the whole time, they'd be able to appreciate the good and recognize the bad. This is why I find it so critical to learn in context. If you don't, you just set yourself up for disappointment later. This is true in everything: the gospel, politics, science, life, etc. You must learn lessons in context. It is the context that gives them power.
Context is the reason why my MTC group was so close. We were open with what got us to where we were. I recall one night in which we each shared something hard we had overcome. We learned that while we had slightly different contexts, we had gone through very similar things. Context fuels exigence, and exigence gives weight to a situation. I noticed that as each person shared the person they used to be, I could contrast it with the person that sat beside me, and it made them that much more impressive. With context, almost everyone becomes a hero. It also explained some of my questions about each of them. Why are they a certain way? Why do they behave like that? Context. Context explained the negatives in a way that didn't damage my view of the person.
I spent way too long writing this. I'm gonna go to bed now.
Goodnight.
Will Ott
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