My CMS The View from a New City

Here is something worth watching. Not the answer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBCevwUTj-w

I have not had a near death experience. But watching many of them on the internet has reinforced in me the following theological thesis: Faith, hope and charity is…I have faith that God is powerful enough to fulfill His promises. I hope that I will qualify for his blessings. I feel that the people I know will also qualify for his blessings and should be treated as if they will. This thesis came to me as I watched a steady stream of people walk past my New York City apartment twenty-four hours a day and I realized they had all shouted for joy when they first learned that earth life was in the offing even though very few of them now know anything about that moment and its plan as they walk along the street below my window.

This understanding of faith, hope and charity is very far from the “I’m saved and your damned” theology of some religious people. It is also the opposite of the Nietzschean philosophy that only the “superman” counts for anything. All other humans are only the mush out of which the “Uebermensch” rises.

We just read chapter 5 of the Book of Helaman in the Book of Mormon. I was bothered by the instantaneous conversion and marvelous blessing of those who a minute ago were intent on killing Nephi and Lehi. This is similar to the circumstances surrounding Alma the Younger’s conversion. Thinking about it, However, I came to realize that this is a feature of many of the modern near death experiences. Bad people find themselves in a bad place until they decide to call upon Jesus. Then they are instantaneously caught up to a state of light and love.

Whatever the theology of these cases, and their divergence from the average case of lifelong progress of those who are actively pursuing truth, I have to admit that it is a thing. A thing in the real world, and not a failing in the Book of Mormon.

Saw the movie, Hail Mary, last night. The movie, among its multitude of implausibilities, assumes that intelligent life is a default state in the universe that can only be destroyed by a universe wide catastrophe. The truth is that intelligent life rests on a razor’s edge and the failure on just one of the many elements required for its existence would make intelligent life impossible. I know, I know. It’s just fiction.

Looking forward to a cross country train trip:

Love,
By Billy Collins

The boy at the far end of the train car
kept looking behind him
as if he were afraid or expecting someone

and then she appeared in the glass door
of the forward car and he rose
and opened the door and let her in

and she entered the car carrying a large black case
int the unmistakable shape of a cello

She looked like an angel with a high forehead
and somber eyes and her hair
was tied up behind her neck with a black bow

and because of all that
he seemed a little awkward
in his happiness to see her,

whereas she was simply there,
perfectly existing as a creature
with a soft face who played the cello.

And the reason I am writing this
on the back of a manila envelope
now that they have left the train together

is to tell you that when she turned
to lift the large, delicate cello
onto the overhead rack,

I saw him looking up at her
and what she was doing
the way the eyes of saints are painted

whe they are looking up at God
when he is doing something remarkable,
something that identifies him as God.

Here is a quote from a book entitled Eloquent Witness: Nibley on Himself, Others, and the Temple, which might give a hint as to how to handle the coming recession:

“At UCLA I quickly learned the knack of getting grades, a craven surrender to custom, since grades had little to do with learning. Still, that was during the depression, when people of little faith were clinging to institutions for survival, and so I went along, as timid and insecure as the rest of them.” page 12.

The Odyssey contains a great story about Ulysses and the Sirens. It is too long and complicated to tell here. You should read it. But it contains a deep truth about life.

I suspect we came to earth to get experiences we can’t get in heaven. But there are real risks in the getting. You and your crew could wind up shipwrecked and dead. There must also be a great benefit to justify taking such risks. The good, the bad and the ugly may all contain hidden value.

“5 If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea;

6 If thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can’t you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? and if then he shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to prison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb;

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?” Doctrine and Covenants 122

It is March 6, 2026. I woke up this morning and watched it snow with the happy knowledge that the snow can’t last long this time of year. Then I realized that I can’t last long this time of life. So I started thinking about what is worth doing with my remaining time on earth.

In our town there is a bill board with an advertisement from a group of plastic surgeons that says, “Life is short, buy the lips.” I consider this a classic case of non-sequitur. If life is short, why spend it trying to impress people who care about how fat your lips are?

Someone recommended that I write my memoirs. This is a valuable use of my time if someone is going to read them, which I see no evidence of now. And besides, the real reason I don’t write my memoirs is because there are too many villains. You can’t celebrate the heroes without exposing the circumstances created by the villains. Better to imitate God who “maketh the sun to shine on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

But I will tell one experience from my life, the villains remaining anonymous. I sued a man to collect for his wife’s hospital bill since the law says spouses are liable for family expenses. The bill was for breast implants. The couple had separated but the wife who was not a party to the case was sitting in the gallery when the case was called in court. When the lawyer for the husband said to the judge that the bill was not a family expense for which he should be liable, she bolted to her feet and shouted, “That’s not true, he made me get them.” The judge told the parties to settle the case which we did.

Reading philosophy is like watching people beat a dead horse.

“I have seen the freest and best educated…in the happiest circumstances the world can afford; yet it seemed a cloud hung on their brow and they appeared serious and sad even in their pleasures [because they] never stop thinking of the good things they have not got.” Alexis de Tocqueville