Being my savior

Ok, sorry I am distracting myself from the third part of my exegesis but look I found something to distract you too. It is taken from The Marriage of Reason and Nightmare by Theodore Dalrymple

"The British state, for its part, is able to bully and regulate at will, thanks to technology—yet it seems to carry out these actions for their own sake, not for any higher purpose. The privatization of morality is so complete that no code of conduct is generally accepted, save that you should do what you can get away with; sufficient unto the day is the pleasure thereof. Nowhere in the developed world has civilization gone so fast and so far into reverse as here, at least to the extent to which civilization is made up of the small change and amenities of life."

Distractions with Dostoyevsky

“Never be frightened at your own faint-heartedness in attaining love. Don’t be too frightened even at your evil actions. I am sorry I can say nothing more consoling to you, for love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on the stage. But active love is labor and fortitude.”(Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

Man has this malady of being passionate in theory. Dreaming passionately but living in complacency and listlessness. In me this takes a form where I quite often prefer anticipation of something more then that something itself. I get excited to see a movie and that anticipation is much more satisfying then actually watching said movie. This is why I prefer to cook a meal on a date rather then going out to eat, or why the first kiss is so much better then the rest especially when said kiss is illicit in nature.

Our idea of passion is slightly flawed in that passion alone cannot sustain itself. Passion becomes impatient and burns out quickly. The euphoric preoccupation that comes with passion will over time, succumb to a sense of familiarity and boredom. How can we expect to sustain a job, a relationship or a goal on passion? Certainly there can remain enjoyment but it becomes commonplace, normal and expected.

Sometime we may have to learn that to really pursue a passion that we will also have to toil thru times of drudgery and despondency. Times when passion has momentarily fled and being able to say I want this even without the rush of rainbows brought on by passion.

Avoiding Salvation (part two)

Salvation seems to be universal, even though there are a few conditions.

Outright rejection of the Holy Ghost, the Lord and all goodness and becoming as a son of perdition.

“All sins and all blasphemies, every transgression, except one, that man can be guilty of, may be forgiven; and there is salvation for all men, either in this world or the world to come, who have not committed the unpardonable sin.” (The King Follett Discourse – Joseph Smith)

Even though there is never a time when the spirit is too old to approach God there are some things that need to be done here in this physical realm. We have the requirements of ordinances. I am unsure as to why these are necessary but they are so essential that if we miss these ordinances when we are alive then they must be done in proxy for us after our death. Missing out on salvation because of lack of ordinances I don’t actually consider a valid reason, for we are incapable of falling prey to it. These ordinances are guaranteed to be done for all those who are dead and need it.

“This doctrine presents in a clear light the wisdom and mercy of God in preparing an ordinance for the salvation of the dead… Those Saints who neglect it in behalf of their deceased relatives, do it at the peril of their own salvation.” (History of the Church 4: 425-26)

Rejecting the Holy Ghost, refusing the ordinances, or neglecting the salvation of others. The only way that universal salvation is taken from us is by our own choice.

Breaking the Rules (part one)

How many rules are so firm that we cannot make exceptions for them? Every rule seems to have an exception. Nephi slaying Laban, or that women should cover their heads and keep silent in church. Even the word of wisdom is “adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of saints,” (D+C 89:3) and is not an immutable law but a guiding rule for our time. Rules are put in place to direct us from where we stand towards god and heaven. As Paul states “It is good neither to eat flesh, nor drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak” (Romans 14:21). If rules fail to point us to God then they are useless and we become as the Sadducees and Pharisees during the time of Christ. Sure they kept the law but the law no longer pointed towards God and therefore lacked the powers of salvation.

But what is salvation and, by extension, what is exaltation. How do we distinguish between the two? And most importantly how do we achieve them? I was arguing with the idea of how the church teaches its members to become exalted. The church has a role to bring the gospel to mankind. And so is focused on teaching the basics of truth and salvation. I have at times past optioned the idea that we should create an advanced Sunday school where we can explore greater depths and move beyond salvation into exaltation. This however may be a false presumption and may not lead where I wish it to go.

And so over the course of an as yet undetermined number of posts I will explore this idea.

Clarity

I was driving into Lethbridge. It was later in the evening, you know that particular time when the sun has just gone down, when everything is darkening but not yet dark and you flick on your headlights. They don't help but you feel better with them on. On this night I was afflicted with a state of glum introspection. And while contemplating I became strangely captivated by the lights of the oncoming traffic. Here were these brilliant points of light, moving along dark road, they like I had somewhere to be. These were my brothers, my comrades, making our ways to our respective goals. Sure we had different paths to take but we were sharing a common pursuit. As our paths briefly crossed we were friends. yet my melancholic reverie persisted. A persistent beast it is.

But then everything changed, with a haste unimaginable everything was different. There in front of me sat a thing, a thing that so thoroughly hijacked my senses and captured my mind. There behind the cars and above the road lay the sky. Suddenly the night was no longer dark, and I became elated. And slightly ashamed. For the sky did not at that moment suddenly spring into existence, but I had failed until that time to see it. In my reflexive state and with my focus upon my immediate tasks there did not exist a sky. It lay right behind what I saw, I stared towards it and it did not exist. But it sat with patience and waited, waited for me to notice. To discover.

So I apologize to all my friends, and to all those that I have loved, or more importantly who have loved me. I apologize for anytime that you have felt shunted, ignored, ridiculed, passed over, forgotten, and disappointed. But mostly I apologize for all those times I remained apathetic when I should have been shouting, laughing smiling and crying. When you felt pain and I let you, when you felt sad and I left you.

It's official we are all freeking nuts

Ok, this is bizarre and slightly disturbing. Is this a sign of how socialistic the world is becoming, when not only are we told what we cannot smoke, but now also what we must.

I am now finding a rock to hide under, after everyone else dies of lung cancer perhaps I will come out.

Officially Nonplussed

Today I spent the evening with a friend and his family, during the evening his little brother, who I would place at 5 possibly 6, came up and stated in that slightly slurred speech of a child not able to enunciate properly "Not to be mean, but seriously, you are weird."

Uh, eeh wow, Well. I suppose that settles it. Giving up, giving in, shutting up and shutting down. I love you all, goodnight and farewell.

three things

I have heard mention that i often come across as dark and depressive. This may be true as i often feel like writing when such moods strike me. I also like the starnge dark humor that crops up in it, even if i am the only one who see's it. So i decided i was going to take a cue from my good friend Raine and occasionally write three things which i love.

1. Waking up early on a sunny morning and not being rushed to get out of bed.

2. A firm squeeze on the shoulder by the hand of a man i respect.

3. Fire, the warmth of it on a cold winters day, the look of it during a dark night, and the smell of it, when it is not burning down your house.