Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…

It seems like God is always proving how much better he is at lifting up the downtrodden than man is. The Children of Israel, the early Christians, the United States, all of whom seemed destined to live a very short time to be swallowed by a bigger, older, better equipped military force that literally promised […]

Rough Stone Rolling

The prophet Joseph Smith said that he felt worn and shaped like a rough stone rolling, with all the rough edges knocked off of him. I feel like that a lot – like a rock in a tumbler, with no control over who/what I hit in the process or where I will rebound. How strange […]

The Pride Cycle

A long time ago, I recognized a pattern. Maybe I recognized it because I was taught it in Sunday School, but it should be pretty evident for those who have studied history. In Sunday School, they called it “The Pride Cycle.” Historians would call it they cycle of civilization, or some such (like such as). […]

Book of Mormon Stories (that my lover told to me)- Blurb

Thee I Love Joshua had been wounded in the Civil War much more deeply than his splinted arm indicated. He wouldn’t lose his arm, the Army doctor had assured him of that, but he might have lost his soul. He was raised a good Quaker boy, his mother was even a Sunday Meeting Leader, and […]

The Information Is Out There

What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty & Learning, each leaning on each on the other for their mutual and surest support? – James Madison Information leads to freedom. It has always been so. When North Korean Concentration camp prisoner, Shin Dong-hyuk, decided to try and escape, it was […]

What Warm Bodies teaches us about American Values

The clan went out for a movie last night, and to satisfy all the varied tastes of the clan, we saw Warm Bodies. The blurb about the movie on imdb.com reads: After R (a highly unusual zombie) saves Julie from an attack, the two form a relationship that sets in motion a sequence of events […]

American Values – Divine Providence (Divina Providencia)

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. –Declaration of Independence The first Thanksgiving was a testament to the idea of Divine Providence, which is the idea that God has a vested […]

American Values – Industry (diligencia)

Jamestown as it may have looked to the Pilgrims Industry, in the context we will be addressing it, according to Mirriam Webster’s Dictionary is: diligence in an employment or pursuit; especially : steady or habitual effort systematic labor especially for some useful purpose or the creation of something of value All Early American colonists struggled. […]

American Values — Good Works (viendo el bien que ustedes hacen)

I asked my kids what they thought the most important American Value was, trying to get a feel for what kids thought about these sort of things, and they both gave me the same answer: Good Works, BUT… They both meant something different by it. So I will address both in this post: When my […]

Evolution of a Sidekick – Why Does A Hero Need One?

Why does a hero need a sidekick? I think we can sum this up PERFECTLY by going to the first story to introduce a sidekick: The Creation Genesis Chapter 2 20 …. but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon […]