A Thanksgiving Prayer from Henry Vaughan

These lines from my distant cousin, the Silurist Poet Henry Vaughan, match my sentiments on a Thanksgiving Day morning. From his poem, The Bee:

The truth, which once was plainly taught,With thorns and briars now is fraught.Some part is with bold fables spotted,Some by strange comments wildly blotted;And Discord—old Corruption's crest—With blood and blame hath stain'd the rest.So snow, which in its first descentsA whiteness, like pure Heav'n, presents,When touch'd by man is quickly soil'd,And after, trodden down and spoil'd.

O lead me, where I may be freeIn truth and spirit to serve Thee!Where undisturb'd I may converseWith Thy great Self; and there rehearseThy gifts with thanks; and from Thy store,Who art all blessings, beg much more.
Give me the wisdom of the bee,And her unwearied industry!That from the wild gourds of these days,I may extract health, and Thy praise,Who canst turn darkness into light,And in my weakness show Thy might.

Welsh Black Bee

A Prayer for Election Day

Dear Father of All,

We thank Thee for the blessings of living in a land of liberty where are free to govern ourselves for the good of all.

We pray that we can elect honest and wise people to assist us in our self-governance, that the purpose of the Constitution may be established that man not be in bondage one to another.

We are grateful for the inspired Constitution to protect us in our rights to worship Thee and to join with others in free assembly of all varieties for doing good and for open discussion of ideas and petitions to our government.

We are grateful for the results of a tragic Civil War for a more perfect Union that allowed our forebearers to prohibit slavery and establish that all people of the United States share the same rights of equality and fair treatment regardless of their station and conditions of life.

Why Do You Keep Bringing Up Abortion?

A female friend of mine shared a thought:

Getting a little tired of the narrow-mindedness that thinks women's rights, women's concerns, women's interests begin and end with abortion.

Somehow the issue of abortion keeps coming up, most recently with some who question what the Women's March of last Saturday was all about. It was about a lot more than abortion.

Since this is a blog of an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or Mormon Church), it would be good to check out what the official policy of the Church actually is:

South Wales

On my key chain - To remember . . . .

Checking through the interwebs and iTunes to add to my collection of Welsh Music, I came across this modern classic:

Pit shaft wheels turn for the last time
In the Rhondda tonight
The Davey lamps that shone so brightly
There's no more need for their light
As the last piece of coal is cut
From the belly of the black seamed hole
A man walks home alone
Past a church full of mourning souls
Throughout his lifetime he has fought
He has given his life
In tears the congregation sing
Cwm Rhondda, Oh my Lord!

Great is the rape of the fair country
To Botany Bay for my Great Grandfathers
Deportation sailed

Great so great is the fair country
GREAT IS THE NEED FOR A NEW SOUTH WALES!

Nearly Dying by Lightning, Falling, or Exposure - A Typical Scout Adventure

Lightning would have been the quickest. Falling most painful. And exposure takes a while but you usually fall asleep first which I didn't that night as I kept arranging my heat-reflective space blanket to alternate sweating and freezing. And we somehow survived.

My Facebook Scout Challenge led me to seek out the Scouts from when I was an Assistant Scoutmaster in Bountiful, Utah, Stone Creek District, Great Salt Lake Council in the late 1980s. We worked with our boys on hiking and camping and did a pretty good preparation for a 50-mile hike across the Uintah Mountains, North to South, Wyoming to Utah.

Day 3 of the 50-miler. Two passes and a day of high altitude adventure. "Nephite Altar" circled in red upper right.

A feeling of dread woke with me on Day 3. We were camped above 11,000 feet on the slopes of Mt. Lovenia. I had discovered "the Nephite Altar" as we called it the bright and sunny evening before. You need to see it yourself to understand. That block of rock will not be going anywhere as it hasn't for a few thousand years. But that next morning, the pass above us was fogged in.

The "Nephite Altar" from Camp No. 2 facing East, of course.

Elder Larry J. Echo Hawk at Our Stake Conference

Elder Larry J. and Sister Teresa Echo Hawk

We had Stake Conference in the Centerville, Utah South Stake this weekend. That's when all the members in each of 11 wards or local congregations of 300-400 members each meet together wih the leadership of the Stake for religious instruction and inspiration. These days, we don't always get visitors from the General Authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that's not because we're just a few miles north of international HQ. There are just many more stakes these days all over the world than there are GA's to go around.

Elder Echo Hawk indicated in the Saturday evening session for adult men and women that he sees the stats from a Stake before he visits a conference. Ours look pretty good, probably the best he's seen in his travels. That probably does come from being a few miles up the road from HQ. We're well settled in. It's not that we don't have room for improvement; he noted that we weren't ready to be translated beings and lifted up into heaven. In fact emphasis on basic principles of faith and the atonement of Jesus Christ and seeking after all our friends and neighbors who do not fully participate in the principles was a strong challenge.

Ancient Books Become More Real Ankhs to King Hezekiah

There was news this week of an amazing archaeological discovery in Jerusalem. A personal seal of King Hezekiah of Judah (about 739-687 BC) imprinted in clay.

Actual size about an inch across.
(Courtesy of Dr. Eilat Mazar; Photo by Ouria Tadmor)

According to Hebrew University, the writing says, "Belonging to Hezekiah [son of]Ahaz King of Judah." It depicts a winged sun with ankhs on either side. On the reverse there is evidence of strands of binding that likely went around some document.

The image of the ankh really astounded me. I knew it from my grade school fascination with King Tutankhamen and all things Egyptian. (There it is again right in the middle of King Tut's name!)  It is the symbol for "life." As it is often associated with gods, pharaohs, and funerary ceremonies (as most things are in Egypt), it is a symbol of "eternal life."

The winged sun is pretty interesting itself. It doesn't take a lot of extrapolation to interpret a celestial sun directed upward flanked by symbols of eternal life. Tell me if I'm stretching any here.

I'm no Hebrew expert so I have to trust the translation of the ancient script provided. The mix of Hebrew letters and Egyptians symbols are no surprise for the historical era as Egypt was rather dominant in the region with the Kingdom of Judah squeezed between it and Assyria.

And as much as I hate apologetics, I love Hugh Nibley. Am I going too far to notice "the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians?"

We're Not Done Yet!

"I'm not dead yet . . . . I feel happy. . . .I feel happy."

[Clonk]

Yeah, I can cut and paste more email with Anonymous/D. As long as I don't have to address the Republican clown car with Romney waiting aside the road for it to crash.

Grant Vaughn
to D

While still not blogging, and enjoying telework especially when I can't link to office computers, I note this for the record that there will at least be half a win for same-sex marriage.

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. US Cons. IV.1.

That's pretty clear and concise language from the Constitution even if there is nary a word in there about marriage. If same-sex marriage is legal in one state, it has to be recognized in all just like they have for Nevada and Maryland quickie weddings (there used to be blood tests, etc. in most states). So, it they have to be recognized in all, some states just won't allow it to happen in that state - the wedding, that is, not the state of marriage.

Simple and straight forward preserving both the right for whomever to marry, and states rights, to some degree, in a federal union (of states - not gays)

Anonymous D Revealed as Tevye from "Fiddler on the Roof"

This is sort of a Guest Post from our good friend D. It is significantly altered and cut down not just in changing names to protect the innocent or guilty, as the case may be. Neither of us are the ultimate Judge and should only engage in "righteous judgment" as we navigate this world of sorrow with our individual agency trying to keep our souls intact. But he has shared some interesting insight with me that I cautiously share here:

The Mormon thing I find frustrating is the idea that all of us don’t fight against our darker sides all the time.  Men are carnal, sensual and devilish after all, the fall of our natures making us that way. So, all of us fight against those things all the time as we are supposed to. The sin, then, isn’t to have a fallen nature, the sin is to stop trying to throw that nature off and become a Saint knowing full well that we are going to fail a good deal of the time. The Church's stance on Boy Scouts is in line with that doctrine, that you can put off the natural man and become a Saint through the atonement of Christ. [Mosiah 3:19]  You have fight against those things that keep you away. Hetero men as well. We should invite every sinner of every stripe to come and join with us with the one stipulation that all of us are trying to throw off our sins not that we’ve actually done it, and that by trying and having faith in Christ he makes us clean every wit. Perhaps some future day, far off in the eternities we’ll be able to say that we now stand on our own being full of grace and truth, but we’ll never be able to say that we did it alone.

That course of action, repenting, isn’t available to you if you insist that you did nothing wrong in the first place of course.

With regard to a certain, ongoing critique of Hugh Nibley on another blog:

Live-Blogging Conference (from California) Saturday AM

So, forgetting that we were now on the West Coast not the East Coast where my son & family used to live, I  got the times all mixed up and slept in. But here we are. [Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle were up late babysitting the Princess who isn't used to being without her Mom]

President Thomas S. Monson announces two new Temples! Rio de Janeiro!! and Cedar City, Utah! Both places I like.

My Son, the Dragonslayer

In honor of my youngest child's fifteenth birthday, I present perhaps the oddest thing I have ever written, but also the most muse-inspired. All I will say for explanation is that he was born at serious risk to his mother and self. One day, near the end of this crisis, I sat down at my in-laws and began to write the following that just flowed out of me. It is all absolutely truth-grounded (whatever that means). I will provide some photos that might help explain even if in some contrast

THE DRAGSONSLAYER

At the thirteenth hour of the thirteenth day of the thirteenth month he was born in the Castle of St. Vincent under the shadow of the Mountains of the Sacred Blood. He was cut from the womb of his Mother to save the Mother’s life. 

The beautiful Enchantress Ligiv had known the Dragon was seeking the Mother and child. The spells she cast prophesied of the miraculous birth. Long had she tended the Mother, a sacred vessel of the Hero to be born. The Father had known too. It was given him by the Spirit to know that the son would come and the Dragon would seek him. 

Federal Government Attacks Religion

Actually, not.

In Gospel Doctrine Sunday School class today, some rather typical comments surfaced about how the government tries to destroy religion. I was just about to say something, but then the topic changed and the teacher asked me to read a scripture on pride and riches. Fine by me.

But my response would have been some sense of befuddlement. I have been a federal employee for 28 years now and I can't think of a time when the government has in anyway prohibited my belief or practice of my religion in the workplace. I have prayed at work--a lot--if only silently (that whole praying in the closet thing). There have been times, too many to count, where I actually closed my office door and knelt in prayer like Washington maybe didn't even do at Valley Forge. (While a praying man, many historians maintain he wasn't a public kneeler).

LIVE BLOGGING! LDS General Conference Notes: Sunday Afternoon, October 2, 2011

Sorry. I'm not asleep. Dinner was late. So, we're back at it: See it live here.

Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Spoke about covenants [I was listening]
If I got this right, he said the visit of the Father to the Prophet Joseph Smith was to restore the Abrahamic Covenant.
We take on the Abrahamic Covenant by entering into sacred covenants in this life.

The Miracle of the Scout iPod

Sometimes as a Scout leader I pray for really strange things.  Even stranger, sometimes someone is actually responding. And that's absolutely humbling especially when it comes after my own mistakes.

Yesterday afternoon I went with a group of 14/15-year-old Varsity Scouts backpacking in the Canyon just up the hill from us. With the extremely high snow pack this year in the Wasatch, the water was just roaring down Deuel Creek. I've never seen it raging like that. We thought it would be a great time to get up to the waterfall with such a flow.