President Paul H. Dunn, Part Two: Harry Emerson Fosdick and a Reference Within a Reference

For a peek back at Part One, click the link.

We continue today with President Paul H. Dunn's talk, "Young People - Learn Wisdom in Thy Youth", where President Dunn talks about the importance of knowing who we are:

 

The Quote (with context) 

As with the bud, so with the blossom. 

A boy is the only thing known from which a man can be made. 

I hope that we as parents are teaching our children 

that they are the sons and daughters of God, 

and that they have the capacity to become like him. 

It was the old Edinburgh weaver who prayed, 

“O God, help me to hold a high opinion of myself.” 

Likewise I would counsel young people 

to hold a high opinion of themselves, 

to remember who they really are, 

and to put their faith in their Heavenly Father.

Once again, the origins of this quote, and also the identity of the old Edinburgh weaver, are shrouded in history, if he ever existed at all. 

There's a similar quote, undoubtedly the source Elder Dunn took the reference from, in a book called Twelve Tests of Character, by the preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick, written in 1923.

The interesting thing about this quote is that, the original quote has another quote within it. Meta quoting! We've gone down another layer! Here's the original quote, slightly paraphrased in President Dunn's talk:

 

"Every right-minded person feels horrified 

at the banditry that has disgraced our cities since the war (meaning World War I). 

When one stops to analyze the reason why we feel that horror, 

the explanation is clear. 

The bandits have exhibited a character in whose eyes little, if anything, is sacred. 

Human life itself is not sacred - they murder for a song. 

Truth is not sacred - they lie with ease. 

Friendship is not sacred - they betray their own without a qualm.

In what sharp contrast, on the other hand, stand the men [and women] 

who respect life's sanctities. 

An old Edinburgh weaver used habitually to pray, 

"Oh God, help me to hold a high opinion of myself." 

One imagines behind that old Scotchman's life 

such a home as Burns described in "The Cotter's Saturday Night", 

where the profound meanings of religion and right living 

were bred into the very marrow of the children. 

And this was the practical issue in the weaver's case - 

he felt in his life things too valuable to be misused, 

too fine to be profaned, 

and remembering them, 

he held a high opinion of himself."

 

In case you yourself wants to go deeper, here's a copy of "The Cotter's Saturday Night" by Robert Burns - I know I'm looking forward to reading it. 

Any further references in the poem? You're on your own.

President Paul H. Dunn, Part One - A Tribute to Churches

 For Part Two of the references in this talk, click the link.

 Been a heavy couple of days. I could use a little levity. At least a tiny bit. Hopefully it's not too soon.

Conference isn't always serious - Elder Paul H. Dunn, in his talk "Young People - Learn Wisdom in Thy Youth" really tries to reach out to the kids with a little levity around going to church.

 

The First Poem

“One day for church

Six days for fun.

The odds of going to heaven,

Six to one.”

The Second Poem (attributed to his father),

“Whenever I pass our little ward,

I like to linger for a visit,

So that when I am carried in

The Lord won’t say, Who is it?”

Who Wrote These?

We don't always know. Looks like both of these are folk proverbs or anonymous verses with no attribution whatsoever.  

Not that that's a bad thing - how many anonymous works are floating around out there in the world? Quite a few.

They sound like something you might hear in the Book of Proverbs - wisdom passed down through an oral tradition until someone thought to record it.

Did you know that some people go to college to study proverbs in particular? They're called paremiologists. I'm sure they're lots of fun at parties. Maybe.

 

A Moment for Church

I realize that some may see this post and call it poor taste to post this, so close to such a disaster as we've experienced this week. I do apologize if anyone felt this way. But I felt something needed to be said in defense of going to church. 

Despite the news and everything that's going on right now, I'm still going to church. Nor am I bringing a gun to church after this, even though I am licensed to carry one and fully able to wield one. 

There might be a taser or some wasp spray in my grandma church bag. Not against fighting back in nonlethal ways, but I'm leaving the gun-wielding to the off-duty police officers and military members that are sprinkled here and there throughout our congregations. You can bet they'll be carrying, and I'm glad they are.

Others may feel different, and that's okay. I feel that there's a good reason for going. Going to church is something I need - something I went without during COVID for nearly two years, and I missed it badly.

Sure, people can be annoying. And there's lots of people at church - way more than is comfortable for an introvert such as I sometimes. But when I see them, and we smile and hug (some of the people I hug are so alone that church is the only place they get any sort of human contact) - it's important.

It's a place where I can go and be taught by the Lord through His spirit, and where I can be around people who are trying to follow Jesus Christ. It's where I can hopefully do some good for others. Yes, we're all failing to live up to His mighty example, but we're sure blessed for trying.

We in our faith like to call ourselves children of God, and I think of that in a literal sense - God is the literal father of my spirit. While I'm middle-aged in mortality, I'm little more than a toddler in my spirit. Church is one of the places where my Father holds my hand and helps me learn to walk better. No one is taking that away from me with a mere gun. 

It's so important to me that it's worth risking my life to go, and it's hard to believe that I live in a world now where I have to make that choice. 

But I do, and I am. 

And because I go, the world is a little less evil each week than it could have been.

If we all stop going to church - whatever church we go to - who wins? The question of whether evil is real has already been clearly answered, this weekend and hundreds of times over. 

But if evil is real, doesn't it make sense that love and light - that God - is also? And if we all go to church - whatever church we go to - then we're all too busy to shoot each other, and the world gets that much less evil? 

I love my Savior Jesus Christ, and He commands that I go to church. I've learned to trust Him and do what He says, and if I die doing what He says, what have I lost really?

 My life?

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: 

and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."

- Matthew 16:25-26 

 

I found God at church. 

I hope He'll always find me there. 

Some Thoughts on the Grand Blanc Shooting and Fire

To those who've gone,

We share in pain

And share your choice as we remain - 

Become the monster inversed

Or care -

 

We will never reach the seventy times seven

If love is to come - 

Love enough to release ourselves

From this sphere of the stars

And allow the Father's will be done - 

 

He is nothing, but a child like we

Brought to face the glory

The justice

The volcanic fire of His eyes,

Alone, wrapped in a millstone,

Reduced to defiant ash -

 

And we 

In the light of the green tree

Beneath His mighty wing 

Clear away the debris

And roll on. 

 

I was ready - and then I wasn't ready...RIP President Nelson

 He made it to 101, and still it was hard to lose him.

My son called us at 1 in the morning on his shift to let us know. It was the first thing I saw when I woke up this morning.

I learned so much from him. I admired him so much as a person, and revered him as a prophet of the Lord. The COVID pandemic would have crushed me without his calm and steadying influence. He's my honorary grandpa, and I miss him as much as if he were really my grandpa.

 

My favorite quote of his of all time: 

“Brothers and sisters, 

we can literally change the world — 

one person and one interaction at a time. 

How? 

By modeling how to manage 

honest differences of opinion 

with mutual respect

 and dignified dialogue,” 

“If you are serious 

about helping to gather Israel 

and about building relationships 

that will last throughout the eternities, 

now is the time to lay aside bitterness.  

Now is the time to cease insisting that it is your way or no way.  

Now is the time to stop doing things 

that make others walk on eggshells for fear of upsetting you.  

Now is the time to bury your weapons of war. 

If your verbal arsenal 

is filled with insults and accusations, 

now is the time to put them away. 

You will arise as a spiritually strong man or woman of Christ.”

 

May flights of angels send Thee to Thy rest. You have more than earned it, President Nelson. 

Elder Thomas S. Monson, Part Three: Mary Dow Brine's "Somebody's Mother" and Vintage Stories

For Part One or Part Two, click on your link of choice. 

For the final quote in this talk - Elder Thomas S. Monson's talk, "Lost Battalions" - he goes back to poetry, and brings in this piece to remind us to look at others as Christ would:

 

The Quote 

“The woman was old and ragged and gray

And bent with the chill of the Winter’s day.

The street was wet with a recent snow,

And the woman’s feet were aged and slow.

She stood at the crossing and waited long,

Alone, uncared for, amid the throng

Of human beings who passed her by

Nor heeded the glance of her anxious eye.

“Down the street, with laughter and shout,

Glad in the freedom of ‘school let out,’

Came the boys like a flock of sheep,

Hailing the snow piled white and deep. …

[One] paused beside her and whispered low,

‘I’ll help you cross, if you wish to go? …

‘She’s somebody’s mother, boys, you know,

For all she’s aged and poor and slow.

“‘And I hope some fellow will lend a hand

To help my mother, you understand,

If ever she’s poor and old and gray,

When her own dear boy is far away.’

And ‘somebody’s mother’ bowed low her head

In her home that night, and the prayer she said

Was, ‘God be kind to the noble boy,

Who is somebody’s son, and pride and joy.’”

 

This poem is called "Somebody's Mother" by Mary Dow Brine - always happy to come across a woman poet in my investigations. The poem gives a good perspective shift on helping others.

I was pleased to see that she was mostly an author of children's stories, and a pretty prolific one. I'm looking forward to this particular rabbit hole when I get there. Vintage children's stories can bring special delights.

Speaking of vintage children's stories, it's that time of year where I go Over the Garden Wall - I just get into a mood, and this show really speaks to me in a deep way.

It even references the McLoughlin Brothers, who published a lot of early children's stories in the end of the 19th century. The entire show runs in the tradition of Grimm's Fairy Tales, and it's so compelling with a funny Gen Z sensibility, while still teaching the importance of helping our brother. Totally recommend for anyone to watch, if you haven't already seen it. 

 

Elder Thomas S. Monson, Part Two - The Lost Battalion of World War I and Choice

For Part One or Part Three, click on your link of choice. 

For a change, we have a historical reference to follow up on today. Elder Monson mentioned a story he enjoyed as a child in his talk, "Lost Battalions" - a story about the 'Lost Battalion' in World War I.

The Quote

As a boy, I enjoyed reading the account of the “lost battalion.” 

The “lost battalion” was a unit of the 77th Infantry Division in World War I. 

During the Meuse-Argonne offensive, 

a major led this battalion through a gap in the enemy lines, 

but the troops on the flanks were unable to advance.

An entire battalion was surrounded. 

Food and water were short; casualties could not be evacuated. 

Hurled back were repeated attacks. 

Ignored were notes from the enemy requesting the battalion to surrender. 

Newspapers heralded the battalion’s tenacity. 

Men of vision pondered its fate. 

After a brief but desperate period of total isolation, 

other units of the 77th Division advanced and relieved the “lost battalion.” 

Correspondents noted in their dispatches 

that the relieving forces seemed bent on a crusade of love 

to rescue their comrades in arms. 

Men volunteered more readily, fought more gallantly, and died more bravely. 

A fitting tribute echoed from that ageless sermon preached on the Mount of Olives: 

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” 

 

I think I found something similar to the story he read in this book - The Lost Battalion by Thomas Johnson and Fletcher Pratt. Just reading the introduction was an insight into the story, and a harrowing story it was, like all the stories coming out of World War I.

There's more to the story than Elder Monson related - particularly in terms of the leader of the Lost Battalion, Charles W. Whittlesey, who seems to have died of undiagnosed depression due to war trauma after he came home. A sad end to a very selfless and brave man. 

I have mixed feelings myself, having read and learned so much about these historical wars - there was plenty of opportunity for valor and bravery and for men and boys to prove themselves and protect those they loved - lots of those stories. And then there's the tragedy and madness of war in general, and the loss of those same said great men. 

In a sense, these sorts of war stories have an echo in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I guess that's why we keep telling them. Christ came down in a very contentious time and place, and gave His life for everyone who will accept His sacrifice - laying down His life for His friends.

The tragedy of violence is still something we struggle with today, even if we aren't directly touched by a formal war. We don't always get to choose what world events touch us - but it's good to remember that we always get to choose our response. 

Elder Thomas S. Monson, Part One - Sacrifice and John McCrae

For Part Two or Part Three, click your link of choice.

I so love this next speaker - Elder Thomas S. Monson. No one quoted so widely and extensively as he did, particularly poetry. Here's the first of many quotes from his first talk of April 1971, entitled "Lost Battalions".

 

 The Quote

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 

“We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.”

—John McCrae

 

Of course, this is a famous poem about World War I, called "In Flanders Fields". John McCrae was a soldier and physician and poet who passed away near the end of the war himself. 

Elder Monson talked about memory and watching out for those in our lives who might be forgotten - enough people to make a battalion themselves, like the battalions from World War I who left home and were lost, who ended up in Flanders Fields. We need to take the time to seek out those who are lost, like Christ said for his people to do.

The third verse of the poem encourages us to do the same - to sacrifice for others as they did - we may not be required to die, but to live a decent life requires some sacrifice of comfort in order to help others:

 

"Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

    The torch; be yours to hold it high.

    If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

        In Flanders fields.

 

Elder James A. Cullimore and Henry Watterson - What to Compromise and What Not

The next quote I came across was in a talk on marriage by Elder James A. Cullimore. He talks at one point about the importance of compromise in a marriage, and the quote speaks to this:

 

The Quote 

Henry Watterson has said: 

“I would compromise war. 

I would compromise glory. 

I would compromise everything at that point where hate comes in, 

where misery comes in, 

where love ceases to be love, 

and life begins its descent into the valley of the shadow of death. 

But I would not compromise Truth. 

I would not compromise the right.”

 

Henry Watterson was a regional journalist and one of the first syndicated columnists in the United States. He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and won a Nobel Peace prize for columns encouraging America to enter World War I. Mildly ironic, but okay.

He wrote under the pen name of Marse Henry.

The full quote comes from The Compromises of Life, published in the early 1900s. The full quote is worth including here - he had a gift for imagery:

 I would compromise war. 

I would compromise glory. 

I would compromise everything at that point where hate comes in, 

where misery comes in, 

where love ceases to be love 

and life begins its descent in the shadow of the valley of death.

I would not compromise Truth. 

I would not compromise the Right. 

I would not compromise conscience and conviction 

in any matter of pith and moment involving real duty. 

There are times when one must stand and fight, 

when one must fight and die. 

But such times are exceptional; they are most exceptional; 

one cannot without making himself ridiculous 

be always wrapping the flag around him and marching down to the foot-lights, 

to display his extraordinary valor and virtue. 

And, in the long intervals, 

how often the best of us are mistaken as to what is Truth, 

as to what is Right, 

as to what is Duty. 

Too often they are what we would have them to be. 

Too often that which we want to do becomes that which we ought to do.

 

Elder Marion D. Hanks and Matthew Arnold on Peace

I went through about four more talks - all of them excellent, and some of them still relevant. Not all these older talks age well, but that's the point of General Conference - those talks are for the time that they're given in. Ongoing revelation adjusts us as a church for changing times. All those four will full of scripture - we have so many scriptures to pull from, all of them wonderful.

I was suprised in Elder Marion D. Hanks' talk, "Practicing What We Preach" when he quoted Matthew Arnold, someone I was already familiar with from my exposure to Arthur Henry King's work when I was young, around eleven years old. 

I included a little bit of the talk itself for context:

 

The Quote 

"Our ties with God and each other are everlasting. 

Our homes are sanctuaries from the things and cares of this world. 

Our family is the heart of our eternal hopes. 

Our love is the tender thread that ties us to an endless, creative, increasing union. 

These are the things we believe and preach. 

Can we do more to enjoy the blessings of such concepts in our lives, 

in our homes,

in our families? 

Can we do better while there is time at practicing what we preach?

Matthew Arnold wrote, in Empedocles on Etna:

“We would have inward peace

But will not look within.”

This quote speaks to regular repentance and turning toward Christ and asking His help in our lives. 

Matthew Arnold was a professor and poet (and maybe a wolfman, judging from his picture on Wikipedia) who did frequent commentary on social issues of the day. He is also the first atheist quoted to my knowledge. Conference quotes can come from anyone and everyone.

The story Empedocles on Etna sounds like a real downer, to be honest. It should probably come with a trigger warning, since Empedocles does eventually have an incredibly dramatic death, throwing himself in the volcano - Mount Etna in Sicily. Consider yourself warned, and despite knowing the ending, he was a pretty good poet you could enjoy along the way.

I found the quote - here's the wider thought from the original source. It rings true to the context of Elder Hanks' talk:

The world's course proves the terms
On which man wins content;
Reason the proof confirms —
We spurn it, and invent
A false course for the world, and for ourselves, false powers.

Riches we wish to get,
Yet remain spendthrifts still;
We would have health, and yet
Still use our bodies ill;
Bafflers of our own prayers, from youth to life's last scenes.

We would have inward peace,
Yet will not look within;
We would have misery cease,
Yet will not cease from sin;
We want all pleasant ends, but will use no harsh means;

We do not what we ought,
What we ought not, we do,
And lean upon the thought
That chance will bring us through;
But our own acts, for good or ill, are mightier powers.

Maybe if Empedocles went to the trouble to take his own advice, he could have skipped the volcano. In my experience, anything good in my life comes from constant work and deliberate effort, while everything bad is always the easiest thing to do in the moment, but it eventually circles me down the drain.

 

Elder Loren C. Dunn and Paul Wohl on the Rise of Religion in Russia

Elder Loren C. Dunn came out with a talk in April 1971 called "Drink of the Pure Water" which compared the gospel of Jesus Christ with other worldly philosophies of the time:

 

The Quote

"...In studying religion in Russia today, 

journalist Paul Wohl states that 

“socialist morality has been accepted 

as the official yardstick of good behavior, 

but whether Soviet man is more harmonious than his predecessor 

 is a moot question. 

A scientific outlook is there,” says Wohl, 

“but so is religion. Its comeback,” he says, 

“is a phenomenon which the ideologists of communism cannot explain 

and about which they prefer to remain silent.” 

He states that the move toward religion is primarily sparked 

by young people.

The writer tells of a simple Russian woman 

who received the visit of her neighbor, a young engineer-physicist. 

“I know you are a believer,” said the engineer. 

“Can you tell me about God? 

The philosophy of dialectical materialism does not satisfy me. 

I would like to know the viewpoint of believers.”

 

Paul Wohl? 

The journalist Paul Wohl is not an easy man to find. He was born in Germany, and wrote for many prominent newspapers, so a quote like this is likely, but cannot currently be corroborated without a lot (A LOT) more research.

It's cool that he helped ghostwrite a former KGB agent's book, "In Stalin's Secret Service". Very interesting. 

Also interesting that he was an amateur herpetologist and had about 47 turtles and tortoises in his home in Greenwich Village. He died leaving behind no wife and children - which makes sense. For some rather obvious reasons.

The quote is also interesting from its perspective of how Marxism as a philosophy is on the rise again amongst young people in the Western world, when the opposite seemed to be happening around 1971. Following these historical cyclical patterns have been invaluable to me personally. 

When we do not know history, we are very often bound to repeat it. 

Elder Hartman Rector, Jr and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

The talk "Eternal Joy is Eternal Growth" is a good talk - all scriptural references. That is a very legitimate thing to do in a talk, and we'll skip that one to the next - Elder Bruce R. McConkie's talk, "The Lord's People Receive Revelation."

He references in his first example, the sacred English oratorio The Messiah by George Frideric Handel, but it's not a quote per se, so we skip ahead to find any other quotes?

There are none in this talk either. Great talk, and all scriptures again. It was good to read it again, and now, we move on.

Finally, Hartman Rector, Jr. delighted me with a quote from Shakespeare in his talk, "Ignorance is Expensive" - namely, a quote from Julius Caesar: 

 

 The Quote

"Then Cassius’s words to Brutus in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar apply equally to us. 

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 

But in ourselves, 

that we are underlings.” 

We must look to ourselves for the reason for our ignorance."

 

Elder Rector is speaking of the importance of learning for ourselves where truth lies, or else face its consequences. Nature and God are both just. If we break a law, even if we don't understand the law, we must face the consequences. If a baby falls off a mountaintop, not knowing about gravity won't save the baby from an inevitable end.

But in addition to justice, we have mercy in Jesus Christ. That was why He came here, gave his life, and rose again, a victor over the laws of nature, himself being the god of nature.

 

How many of you knew the title for the novel/movie, "The Fault in Our Stars" came from Shakespeare? You're quite welcome. Truthfully, I didn't know it either, but there's so much in our history and culture that springs from the world's greatest playwright (and the husband of my first cousin fourteen times removed on my father's side, Anne Hathaway).

The quote itself comes from Act 1, Scene 2 of Julius Caesar, in an exchange between Brutus and Cassius. Brutus worries about Caesar accumulating more and more power and honors, and Cassius proclaims that Caesar's rise is their own fault:

 BRUTUS  Another general shout!
I do believe that these applauses are
For some new honors that are heaped on Caesar.

CASSIUS 
Why, man, he (Caesar) doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

Cassius dares to think that they can do something about their position beneath the most powerful man in the world - that they are just as worthy of honor and greatness as Caesar himself. They are not rocks that are acted upon, instead of acting.

(Spoiler alert if you haven't seen the play yet) Unfortunately, they seek that greatness by killing Caesar - so they had the right concept initially, but became negative examples through their actions. 

(Spoiler alert again if you haven't already seen the play...you should see it, really!) Nature and God brought about Brutus' and Cassius' eventual downfall due to their tragic choices.

We can always choose our paths, that much is true. Even if Brutus and Cassius chose an evil path (or a good path, depending on who is commenting), we can always choose the good. Life or death.

I highly recommend choosing life. Not as dramatic, maybe, but much more satisfying.

 

Elder Harold B. Lee, Part Five: The Mysterious English Novelist

 For Part One, Part Two, Part Three, or Part Four, click on that part to go there.

 And now, we've come to the final cultural quote from Elder Harold B. Lee's second talk in this Conference, "The Iron Rod". Can you believe there used to be a time where people had to give two and three talks during Conference? Man, the stress of that!

The Quote 

It was an English novelist who was quoted as saying: “He who seeks God has already found him.”

 

What English novelist???

 Granted, this was not much to go on. And my search again came up empty.

What this turns out to be is an unsubstantiated quote - a quote that just circulates in the ether and no one knows for sure who said it.

Some sites attribute the line to Graham Greene , so we'll pretend it was him, and we'll talk about him today.

Not the Graham Greene the Native American actor who just passed away, though I liked him as well. 

This Graham Greene, apparently, was a tremendously notable writer, and produced many novels and screenplays. His Catholic faith came through in many of his works, so it's very likely this was the person actually quoted, though we'll never know for sure unless I read all of his public and private works.

Not likely to happen.

ChatGPT could do it, but would it tell me the truth if it did?

I don't know.

So this one remains a mystery for now, although some of Graham Greene's work may very likely end up on my reading list in the near future.

Elder Harold B. Lee, Part Four: Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Joys of Doing Good Work (Without Hoarding)

  For Part One, Part Two, Part Three, or Part Five, click on that part to go there.

Another presidential quote comes upon us in Elder Harold B. Lee's talk "The Iron Rod", in context of having the courage to do what you feel is right despite what others may say. This is the second one I've encountered so far from Dwight D. Eisenhower:

 

 The Quote

"The late President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote this: 

“Any man who does his work well, 

who is justifiably self-confident 

and not unduly disturbed by the jeers of the cynics and the shirkers, 

any man who stays true to decent motives 

and is considerate of others is, 

in essence, 

a leader. 

Whether or not he is ever singled out for prominence, 

he is bound to achieve great inner satisfaction 

in turning out superior work.

“And that, by the way, 

is what the good Lord put us on this earth for.” 

(“What Is Leadership?” Reader’s Digest, June 1965, p. 54.)"

 

A magnificent quote! 

I went looking for it...and this time I found it!

And then I realized that that wasn't it! Dang!

Then I found another article - a PDF of the article. I skimmed it for the quote above. Nothing. Who decided it was a great idea to scan part of an article???

Apparently I can buy the original Reader's Digest magazine from EBay for 6.99, should I ever choose to. 

But looking at the cover of that magazine, like so many covers I remember from my childhood, I also remember going to the houses of my mother's friends, and seeing stacks of these magazines over my young head. My fear of hoarding slaps me in the face (we threw away literally nine tons of junk when my father passed away), and I must resist the inclination to chase down this original quote simply for the sake of having the original source.

I enjoy the content of this tidbit for what it is - a thoughtful pondering on the joys of making something of quality - something that means something to me. 

This blog means something to me. It has brought me joy during a dark nebulous waiting time in my life - one of many. It's reassured me that however many views I lack on the work I'm doing are irrelevant as long as what I'm doing has intrinsic value to me, and as long as I'm listening to the Lord and doing the best I can for myself and others, I'm living the life I was meant to lead. I'm a leader, even when I'm mostly leading myself.

And let me tell you - knowing that means everything. 

 

Elder Harold B. Lee, Part Three: The Hermit of Mount Vernon Who Maybe Existed

 For Part One, Part Two, Part Four, or Part Five, click on that part to go there.

In the next part of Elder Harold B. Lee's talk "The Iron Rod", he talks about someone I've literally never heard of:

 

The Quote

"I read recently from a column in the Washington Post, by George Moore, 

who styled himself as the “hermit of Mount Vernon.” 

(Mount Vernon, of course, was the ancestral home of George Washington.) 

In this article he said, 

“I have spent the last twenty years of my life at Mount Vernon 

reducing my ignorance.” 

He claimed that a person never learns anything 

until he realizes how little he knows. 

In this article he makes this most illuminating observation about George Washington:

“Washington never went to school. 

That’s why he was an educated man, he never quit learning.”

What George Moore said of himself 

I suppose could be said of many of you and of myself: 

“I have spent more than three score years of my life reducing my ignorance.”"

 

Never has a person been so forgotten as this one... no trace of him anywhere online. Sadness.

The thought of being a hermit for 20 years at Mount Vernon, I will say, is a terribly attractive one to someone as introverted as I.  There would be plenty of places to hide on a 500-acre estate, no doubt. Who was he? How did he do it? Why did he never write a Walden-style book? What a story that would have been! I'm still on the hunt for the Washington Post article about him, but I may not be able to find it.

And I do fully concur with the idea that we should never stop learning. Sometimes attending school and then not attending school leaves us with the idea that schooling should end, but it never does. At least, it never should.

As soon as I discovered public libraries around the age of three, my education began, and it continues to this day.  I use my library card more often than any other card in my wallet. 

There's definitely a kinship between me, George Washington, and the elusive George Moore in this regard:

"Remember, as George Moore said of Washington, 

“We can become educated persons, regardless of our stations in life,

 if we never quit learning.”"

Elder Harold B. Lee, Part Two: Conversion and a Tale of Two Cyprians

 For Part One, Part Three, Part Four, or Part Five, click on that part to go there.

 We continue with Elder Harold B. Lee's talk, "The Iron Rod". The title references a vision of the prophet Lehi in the beginning of the Book of Mormon, where those who were seeking the tree of life held onto a rod of iron to help them get there.

Conversion is part of that process, as the quote below says: 

 

The Quote 

"To become converted, according to the scriptures, 

meant having a change of heart 

and the moral character of a person turned from the controlled power of sin 

into a righteous life. 

It meant to “wait patiently on the Lord” until one’s prayers can be answered 

and until his heart, as Cyprian, a defender of the faith in the Apostolic Period, testified, 

and I quote, 

“Into my heart, purified of all sin, 

there entered a light which came from on high, 

and then suddenly and in a marvelous manner, 

I saw certainty succeed doubt.”

 

Who is Cyprian? WHICH is Cyprian??

It's a great conversion story, but it looks like there are two prominent men named Cyprian in Catholicism. Finding the source of this quote turned out to be tricky.

Was it from Cyprian the bishop of Carthage, or Cyprian the magician? Pretty sure it was Cyprian the magician, but I can't prove it.

The story goes that Cyprian of Antioch, formerly a sorcerer and servant of the devil, converted after witnessing the faith of the virgin Justina. 

I searched Cyprian the magician's Confessions, where such a quote seemed most likely to be, but found nothing that matched the quote from the talk. 

Man, but that was a crazy read! If you've ever wondered what a few thousand years can do to society, try reading that, and you'll see just how different the world is today.

The bishop's writings seem not to talk about his conversion at all, so the source of the quote remains a mystery for now... 

 

 

Elder Harold B. Lee, Part One: Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg and the Garden of Identity

 For Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, or Part Five, click on that part to go there.

Time for a visit to Elder Harold B. Lee's next talk in the April 1971 Conference - remember when sometimes people had to speak multiple times? Those were intense weekends for them, no doubt.

This is from his talk, "The Iron Rod.":

 

The Quote

“What people come to religion for, 

is an ultimate metaphysical hunger, 

and when that hunger is not satisfied, 

religion declines … 

the moment that clerics become more worldly, 

the world goes to hades the faster.

“… Religion represents the accumulation of man’s insight 

over thousands of years 

into such questions as the nature of man, the meaning of life, the individual’s place in the universe. 

That is, precisely, the question at the root of man’s restlessness.

“Man seeks something to end his state of confusion and emptiness … 

in the latest parlance, an antidote for aimlessness. 

We do not know if the truths of religious tradition 

can be interpreted to satisfy this need, 

but we are sure that here, 

not in political activism, 

is religion’s path to relevance.”

Okay y'all - this quote happened in the 1960s - over sixty years ago!  Do things ever really change? I've seen issues with this concept into at least 2022. What's going on?

 

Take a Look at Identity

I could not locate the original quote from Rabbi Hertzberg - not at Columbia University, not at the Wall Street Journal - but he wrote many other books relating to his Jewishness and the importance of knowing and respecting the tradition you hail from.

I doubt highly there's any one pure tradition any of us can pull from at this point. There's always something to celebrate and something to feel sorry for in any tradition. In my own faith, we have had our moments as well. 

People are people, and even a perfect tradition with people in it is going to go askew sometimes. Particularly when it comes to politics. 

Religion fulfills a certain role in life. Science fulfills a certain role in life. Politics fulfills yet another role. Yet if we try to confuse one for the other, we get ourselves in trouble. They all have a place, and an order that needs to be respected. I think we're getting better at recognizing that over time. I know I am.

It all comes down to identity, really, and we all carry multiple identities. My main ones are child of God, child of the Abrahamic covenant, and disciple of Christ. From there, I carry woman, wife, mother, sister, grandma, science fiction writer, health nut, and any number of others as I join different groups where I feel acceptance. 

These identities can change to some extent, but certain parameters come with each one. Accepting those parameters, instead of seeking to destroy and remake them before we really even understand what we're doing, is usually a better way to go if we want the full benefits of those identities. 

 

If we're unsure if a particular belief system or faith works for us, we can always try it on, and see what comes of it. Time will provide a way to tell if it works for us, or not. Like a flower growing in a garden is proof the seed was good. If we get weeds instead, no bueno. Easy.

Did I say easy? Scratch that. Not always easy, but a very worthwhile endeavor.

 

 

Elder Richard L. Evans, Part Five: Marcus Aurelius Probably Had Great Teeth...

For Part One, Part Two, Part Three, or Part Four of this talk, follow the appropriate link.  

Finally, the end to the culturally-rich talk from Elder Richard L. Evans at the April 1971 Conference, "Where Are You Really Going?".

The talk concerns the common, often unanswerable questions of 'Where did we come from?", "Why am I here?" and "Where am I going after I die?" 

These questions do actually have answers, and those answers lead to lots of other questions about how to best live so to be prepared for what comes after life. The final cultural quote comes from one of the great Stoic masters - Marcus Aurelius:

 

The Quote

O let us think and live and teach the power of prevention. 

“If it is not right,” 

said Marcus Aurelius, 

“do not do it; 

if it is not true, do not say it.” 

 

Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius

Dear Elder Evans points us right to the source of this one - Book 12, Section 17, line 68.

But it wasn't.

Finding these quotes in the wild turns out to be not such an easy task - nor is every book translated in the same way - but I found it in an older translation than the one given, because the language is more antiquated.

But still, the same idea is there.

In Section 12, Section 13 of this translation, I found this:

 

"If it be not fitting, 

do it not. 

If it be not true, 

speak it not. 

Ever maintain thine own purpose and resolution 

free from all compulsion and necessity"

 

And there we go! 

 

Can you imagine what life would be like if we never did anything that wasn't right, or said anything that wasn't truth?

The world has explored the possibility of this, and always assumes that it would be impossible, or even dangerous to life and limb.  At least, maybe in the physical world. 

Sometimes the world creates those circumstances, where physical survival requires deception and lowering our personal standards. 

For those of us who assume a spiritual world, there is no question that cultivating honesty (delivered as kindly as possible) and doing what's right is always the best course to take, if for no other reason than to become more like Christ. Those who make themselves over in this way are in the best position to progress in the next world, and to live comfortably with God again - a period of time that will last much, much longer than mortal life. 

But since we are all imperfect creatures, repentance will always be necessary. 

 I think of repentance, not as whipping and castigating myself for sinning, but like brushing my teeth. If I catch cavities when they're small, they never grow to be a big problem. If I'm diligent in daily taking care of my teeth, the future result grows into a great blessing to me.  

 Not right? Don't do it.

Not true? Don't say it.

Oh, if it were only that easy...but the freedom that comes with daily, small repentance has always been worth it in my life.

Elder Richard L. Evans, Part Four: The Ever-Epic Cecil B. DeMille

For Part One, Part Two, Part Three, or Part Five of this talk, follow the appropriate link. 

Still reeling a little bit from the news of this week. Despite my best intentions, I ended up going down one or two disturbing rabbit holes on September 11th. So I'm glad to be back into Elder Richard L. Evans' talk, and on to the next cultural reference that's been canonized, so to speak, into the doctrine of my faith.

Fun fact - did you know that Elder Evans, my eighth cousin three times removed, used to be the voice of Music and the Spoken Word for the Tabernacle Choir, years and years ago, when I was young? Also, the same year he gave this talk was the same year he passed away.

Oh man, there it is again...death. 

Can't escape it. 

Can only prepare for it - as we're reminded in the following quote of the day:

 

The Quote 

Why run against the laws of life? 

Why run headlong into ill health and unhappiness? 

Why live contrary to conscience? 

Think of the heartbreak and waste and regret 

that could be prevented by living as we ought to live. 

No one can set aside consequences. 

As Cecil B. DeMille said: 

“We cannot break the … Commandments. We can only break ourselves against them.”

 

And speaking of the Ten Commandments...

Cecil B. DeMille directed the classic Hollywood epic, "The Ten Commandments". For years as a little girl, going to church, I thought Moses was actually Charlton Heston, who played Moses in the movie. We still break it out and watch every Easter or so. It's aged remarkably well.

But I digress...

The quote comes from a speech Mr. DeMille gave at BYU in 1957. He and our current prophet at the time, David McKay, were great friends, as he mentions in his classic talk. BYU keeps a record of their devotional speeches from way back, and fortunately I was able to find this one. 

He gives some interesting autobiographical details of himself, and talks more about the Ten Commandments. The expanded quote is below:

 

"If man will not be ruled by God, 

he will certainly be ruled by tyrants—

and there is no tyranny more imperious or more devastating 

than man’s own selfishness, without the law.

We cannot break the Ten Commandments. 

We can only break ourselves against them—

or else, by keeping them, 

rise through them to the fullness of freedom under God. 

God means us to be free. 

With divine daring, He gave us the power of choice."

 

As epic a quote as the man himself! :-) 

 

 

9/11 and the Bells - When Tragedy Strikes

 The world is on a certain trajectory.

I think most of us feel it.

Charlie Kirk died yesterday. I wasn't one of his devotees, but he died in a place that was supposed to be a safe place, where a lot of my family lives. I still haven't heard from my youngest son, who was hoping to interview at UVU for some jobs. Was he there? Was he in the middle of all that? Or is he just sleeping in and not calling his mother like he should? 

He's a good boy - he'll call.

Today is the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

It's become a day of regular reflection for me, and a day of deliberately turning away from looking at certain things - falling people, fire, buildings falling - and trying to help people instead.

But I can't help but remember sometimes - mostly, I remember the bells.

 

My oldest son had just started kindergarten a few days before - he's nearing 30 now, with a toddler son of his own.

My mother called. Something had happened to the Pentagon, and she was stuck on the subway, trying to get home.

We turned on the TV - and everything unfolded as it did, in front of all of us.

For three weeks, the media couldn't seem to talk about anything else. Everyday, I watched fire and buildings falling. The feeling of dread and fear in the air kept a tight fist around my heart.

Then our prophet at the time, President Hinckley, called a special session for all members.

We went to the church under a deep grey rain. He talked of prophecy, of the world unfolding in a certain way. It's no great surprise that bad things happen to good people now. That's what happens in the world.

But there's something more to it than that.

The prophet pronounced a blessing upon all of us - I don't remember the words now. All I remember was the feeling - the dissipation of the iron fist of sadness around my heart, and the lightness and relief that came. And the last moment of the broadcast, where they rang the bells at the Nauvoo temple - an ancient symbol of calling to prayer, calling to come to Christ, in my faith's history.

When we walked out of the church after the service, the sky shone bright blue with bright fluffy clouds. My mood was the same.

Despair always comes. But despair doesn't have to last. Jesus Christ provides healing and meaning and strength to continue on.

I will always be grateful for that moment, as well as so many other moments where He lifts and carries my burdens for me, and gives me space to heal. For giving me my soft heart back after taking away the heart of stone.

The world will go where it goes. I don't have to go with it. I'm glad. 

 Listen for the bells.

 

Elder Richard L. Evans, Part Three: Juvenal and Being Our Own Worst Enemy

 For Part One, Part Two, Part Four, or Part Five of this talk, follow the appropriate link. 

 The next quote from Elder Richard L. Evans' talk, "Where are You Really Going?" concerns the guilt we feel when we do wrong, mistreating either ourselves or others:

 

The Quote 

But it isn’t only physical punishment 

that comes from departing from the laws of life, 

but also mental and spiritual punishment, 

and the anguish of the soul inside. 

As Juvenal said:

“The worst punishment of all 

is that in the court of his own conscience 

no guilty man is acquitted.”

 

 Who is this Juvenal?

Juvenal was a Roman poet, whose full name was Decimus Junius Juvenalis. There is no real reliable way of telling whether or not he's my ancestor, since he was born a scant 55 years after the death of Christ, and there's no firm family history sources we know of that go back that far.

I'm still excited though, because I found his Satires online, in the original Latin. Some obliging nerd spent his life posting these, and I'm so happy about that, because I've been trying to learn Latin here and there, and finding good reading material can be challenging.

If I didn't have to earn a living myself, I would totally retranslate these. 

 

I would agree with Juvenal AND Elder Evans on that sentiment - no one punishes me harder than I do when I do wrong, it seems. I'm so incredibly human, it seems, and when trying to live up to high standards, it's hard not to see the gap between where I am and where I'm trying to get to.

It can be easy to try and give up when I see that gap...but I don't have to be perfect. Christ has bridged that gap for me, and for all of us, if we choose Him and follow Him, which I do. My gratitude for what He's done for me comes out in all my pathetic efforts to follow Him, like my toddler grandson holds my hand when he tries to walk. 

Still got a long way to go, but there's no other hand I'd rather be holding. He keeps me walking, and there's no guilt anymore...well, not as much anyway. :-) 

Elder Richard L. Evans, Part Two: George Eliot and the Wasted Opportunity

 For Part One, Part Three, Part Four, or Part Five of this talk, follow the appropriate link. 

On to the next part of Elder Richard L. Evans' talk, "Where Are You Really Going?" Elder Evans emphasizes that this life is critical to determining where we go in the next - that what we do here shapes us for what comes after.

And then comes our next reference:

The Quote 

"And I would plead with you, 

wherever you are, 

to prepare yourselves for opportunities that await you here and now, 

as well as for a future that is forever. 

“What is opportunity,” asked George Eliot, “to the man who can’t use it?” '

 

George Eliot

The above reference comes from the author George Eliot, which as some of you know, was only a pen name for Mary Ann Evans, a writer who wrote when women writers were frowned upon, and so overcame this difficulty by writing under a man's name.

She is known largely for novels like Middlemarch, Adam Bede, and Silas Marner, but the above quote comes from another book entitled Scenes from Clerical Life. It was the first book published under her famous pseudonym.

It consisted of several short stories, and the one the quote comes from is "The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton." 

The actual quote in context comes from the narrator of the story, describing the Reverend Amos Brown in a terrible predicament that's only getting worse. A woman from the village has moved in with him and his wife, and the entire village assumes the woman is the Reverend's mistress.

 

Then the narrator proceeds to say, 

And now, here is an opportunity for an accomplished writer 

to apostrophize calumny, to quote Virgil, 

and to show that he is acquainted with the most ingenious things 

which have been said on that subject in polite literature.

But what is opportunity to the man who can’t use it? 

An undefecundated egg, 

which the waves of time wash away into nonentity. 

So, as my memory is ill-furnished, and my notebook still worse, 

I am unable to show myself either erudite or eloquent 

apropos of the calumny whereof the Rev. Amos Barton was the victim. 

 I can only ask my reader,—

did you ever upset your ink-bottle, 

and watch, in helpless agony, 

the rapid spread of Stygian blackness over your fair manuscript or fairer table-cover? 

With a like inky swiftness 

did gossip now blacken the reputation of the Rev. Amos Barton, 

causing the unfriendly to scorn 

and even the friendly to stand aloof, 

at a time when difficulties of another kind were fast thickening around him. 

 

Man, but there are some big words in there!

To summarize as far as I can see it, the narrator refuses to be disgusted with the reverend's situation and behavior, and simply compares what is happening to the poor reverend to an accidental ink-spill that ruins all the nice things it touches.

The writer says he's not expert enough, nor does he have the moral high ground enough to be disgusted at what's happened to the reverend, because similar things have happened to him as well, and to a lot of other people. Or rather, her, as well.

Opportunity then becomes an egg - something of potential and newly born - that's let go and goes off into nothing. 

While George Eliot chose to deliberately let that opportunity go for reasons of intellectual and moral honesty, what becomes of us if we have good opportunities and we let them go for less vaunted reasons? We've been put here on this earth by God, and Jesus Christ came to provide salvation for us, and do we just let that go? Out of lack of interest, or fear, or distrust, or tiredness? Or whatever reason.

That's a question each of us will one day have to confront.