Bryce Moore's Blog, page 234

Facing Controversy Head On: A New Approach for LDS.org

A few days ago, I read about some new articles being posted on lds.org, the church’s official website. One article in particular was generating a lot of interest–an official church account on its history with racial issues. I read the article with interest and was encouraged to see how open and forthright it was. It didn’t seem (to me) to pull many punches–it’s a clear account of how the church started banning people of African descent from holding the priesthood, the various misguided justifications of that ban, how the ban was lifted, and where the church stands today in relation to that ban. If you’ve got Google and some search skills, none of this information was really earth shattering–but what was impressive to me was the fact that it was now neatly and succinctly on the church’s own site, as opposed to being sprinkled who knew where online.

I read this morning that this is part of a push by church leaders to have more comprehensive information about the church on its website–including areas that have proven problematic for members. (As another example, see this article on the various accounts of Joseph Smith’s first vision.) I’m very encouraged by this new approach. Over the years, the church would publish isolated articles in The Ensign (the official church magazine) on such topics, but actually finding official church teachings on some issues could take even trained researchers a fair bit of effort. It makes sense to me to bring it all under one easy-to-find, easy-to-use umbrella. Why?

Because nothing is to be gained by trying to brush issues aside or ignore them. In fact, a great deal could be lost. There have already been numerous articles written about Mormons losing their faith as they turn to the internet to answer their theological problems. Do a search for “Joseph Smith’s First Vision” on Google right now, and the first result is Wikipedia. Speaking as a trained information professional, a wiki is most certainly not the place you want to be going to for answers about the meaning of life or the existence of God. And yet the first result is almost inevitably where people click to go for those answers.

So the church is now beginning to take ownership of some of these sticky points. That’s good. They’re able to present their history and logic in a manner that doesn’t alienate faith. For a religion that’s founded on the principle that people can find out for themselves what is true, I think it’s vital we put the truth out there. There were very racist statements made by church leaders. Joseph Smith gave multiple accounts of the First Vision, and those accounts didn’t all exactly line up. These are incontrovertible facts–shoving them into a hole and ignoring them isn’t an approach that will work, and it isn’t an approach that should be tried. If the truth can’t stand the harsh light of day, what sort of truth was it?

Anyway–not much more to report on this. Just saw these few articles, and thought I might highlight them for those of you out there who haven’t already seen them. Anyone have any thoughts to add? All I ask is that you keep things civil. I can, have, and will delete comments that get out of hand.

Responsibility is Yucky

I’m on seminary teaching duty again this week, and last night presented itself with a problem. The whole day, the weather forecast had been for 1-3 inches of snow, starting around 8am or so. No big deal. Then last night I checked the weather one more time, and they’d upped it to a storm advisory and were bandying around numbers like 4-6 inches and starting at 5am. That’s a much bigger deal, in my Honda Civic driving eyes. We don’t hold early morning seminary if school is delayed or canceled, but who knew what would happen in the morning. My thinking was that I’d rather cancel the night before if it looked doubtful–going on the theory that the worst case scenario would be we ended up with no snow at all, but everyone got to sleep in an hour longer.

Yay!

And of course that’s exactly what happened. The forecast drifted back to a later start and smaller amounts over the night, and I woke up (TWO hours later, since it’s my night shift and I didn’t have to get up early for work) to feel kind of like an idiot for having canceled. Perhaps it would have been better to make an audible in the morning, but the thought of calling people at 5:30am is something I don’t particularly relish. I can do phone calls when I have to (I’m a big boy like that), but I loathe making calls when I think I might be disturbing people.

The thing is, I know exactly how I’d feel if I were a parent or a student, and the teacher had canceled seminary. I’d be really happy. We don’t have to make up the day–there’s no real “loss,” here–other than me having to try and cram more material into tomorrow. But because I was the one who had to have the responsibility for making “the call,” I can’t help feeling guilty. Like I should have tried harder.

Don’t get me wrong–I think I’ll sleep just fine tonight. I just thought it was an interesting observation–how being on two sides of the same decision can make me feel two very different emotions. Which leads me to my conclusion that responsibility is yucky.

Happy Monday!

A Review of The Sound of Music LIVE! (or undead, as the case may be . . .)

When I saw Carrie Underwood was going to be headlining a live production of The Sound of Music, I was immediately intrigued. I liked Carrie back from the days when I watched American Idol, and the idea of another live musical production was interesting. How would they stage it? How long would it be? I decided to tune in–even put it on my calendar so I didn’t miss it. Last night was the night, and . . . 

It was kind of a wreck.

There were small pools of good in it, but some of the decisions they made just left me scratching my head. First up? Did Carrie have to do anything like . . . I don’t know . . . audition? Because while the girl did great with the singing, when it came to acting, let’s put it this way. She made the girl from Small Wonder look like Oscar winning material.

She got most of the lines right, but there was just no feeling in them at all. It didn’t help that Stephen Moyer was Captain Von Trapp–although it might have if they’d chosen to go the awesome route and made a Sound of Music/True Blood crossover musical.

But alas, it was not to be. No fangs at all. Just lots of blank looks and words from Carrie Underwood. Moyer did an okay singing job and a better acting job–put the two of them together, and you might have a decent performance for the night!

It wasn’t all bad, though. The other roles–the ones filled by actual Broadway stars–were admirable. The kids were on the whole quite good. The staging? Um . . . strange. The “woodland” set looked very fake, and the convent was pretty darn dark and broody. The house was solid. But what I kept noticing more than anything was the lack of an audience. No one to laugh at the parts that are funny, or applaud when someone performs well. That’s kind of a big part of live performance, in my opinion–and by not having it for this production, it hampered them. You didn’t have the polish of a movie adaptation, and you lacked the immediacy and response of a stage version. I kept thinking they would have been better served just performing the whole thing on a stage and filming that, ala the taped versions of Into the Woods or Sweeney Todd.

Was I entertained? Yes. But not always in a good way. Some of it was more like watching a train wreck LIVE. That said, there were still numbers I found moving. Climb Ev’ry Mountain was superb, for example. It’s just that every time a scene without Underwood came up, things got so much better–and then she showed up to ruin the acting again.

I’d tune in for another one of these, but I really hope if they do one, they use some people with solid acting and voice talent for the lead roles, not just the supporting ones.

How about any of you? Anyone else out there catch it? What did you think?

My Son’s First Violin Concert

Denisa and I had the chance to go to TRC’s first concert performance last night, where the fourth grade strings played rousing renditions of “D Scale,” “Pillow Dance,” “Rolling Along,” and “String Progression.” I have video, and it’ll be up on my Facebook page if you’d like to check it out. It certainly was strange being on the other side of the concert scene. The last time I really was going to concerts, I was performing in them. As a proud parent, the feel is different. For one thing, there’s no nerves at all–no rush of excitement to get you through all the other performances. (MC loved TRC’s performance–which happened to be first–the next half hour, she wasn’t quite as big of a fan of.)

I showed TRC the video afterward, and he thought it was really interesting. “It sure does look different from out there,” he observed. I couldn’t agree more. Looking forward to many more years to come, though I’m not sure if he’ll decide to stick with violin or go for a different instrument. I’ve always been a wind sort of a guy, but the school district leans very heavily toward strings. He enjoys violin, I’m happy to report. We don’t have to twist his arm (much) to practice. Now if we could just work on making sure he always remembers to bring his violin to school . . .

And if you don’t want to go over to Facebook to see the video, then here’s a clip that’s always pretty  much summed up my thoughts on elementary school concerts: (sorry–couldn’t find the 1962 original, which I prefer)

 

To the Maniac Drivers of the World

I get it. You’re in a hurry. Believe me–I understand. But just like I wrote up a post yesterday dedicated to slow drivers, I’ve got a few things to say to you maniacs out there, too.

Stop it.

Seriously. Stop driving like an idiot. You’re freaking the rest of us out, and you’re making the roads that much more dangerous. Want to be a better driver? Try following some of the following pieces of advice:

Learn to adjust your driving to the posted speed limit. What I mean here is that if you’re speeding 10 over in a 65 zone, that’s one thing. 10 over in a 15mph school zone? No. Don’t endanger my kid, curse you. My personal rule of thumb for going over the speed limit is as follows. 15mph school zone–never. 25mph-55mph–I’ll go up to 5mph over. Usually around 4 or so. 65mph–I’ll stretch this up to 9 or so over. This is assuming it’s good road conditions, no congestion, daytime driving. Which leads me to my next point:
Learn to adjust your driving to the current weather. Is it snowing? Icy? Raining? SLOW DOWN! Brakes don’t work as well in these conditions, which means that if you’re going to swerve all over creation, you’re significantly increasing the odds that I’m going to get in an accident. Stop it.
You know those things called “turn signals”? Maybe you don’t. They’re those flashing yellow lights you see some people use when they’re turning or changing lanes. I don’t have time to go into details about them, but you really ought to check them out. Find out where they are in your car, and use them.
If I’m already going 5mph over the speed limit, and you’re tailing me so closely I can smell your aftershave or perfume, back off. Don’t flash your brights at me. Wait for a passing zone, and drive by me, by all means. (If I’m going 5mph below the speed limit, you have my permission to get irate. Unless it’s snowy or icy, in which case–simmer down.)
Cars are for driving. Not texting. Not watching stuff on your iPad. Not putting on make up. How about we all stay focused on the task at hand, okay?
Yes, I get that cars give you a degree of anonymity. You’re faceless. You don’t know who you’re cutting off, and they don’t know who you are (usually). But just like with the internet, some anonymity can bring out the worst in people. (I’m guilty of this too–I’ll admit it.) So try not to be a jerk when you’re driving, okay? Let other cars merge into your lane. No need to use certain fingers or choice words. No need to scowl. If it’s not something you’d do when you’re not in your car, why are you doing it when you are? (Can you imagine if pedestrians treated each other the same way drivers do? You’re walking down the street and a guy’s walking one step behind you, shouting at you and flipping you off when you don’t get out of his way fast enough? Just a tad ridiculous, don’t you think?)

My biggest piece of advice? If you’re so late that you have to go 25mph over the limit and be a jerk, maybe what you’ve got is a time management issue. Try leaving your house earlier. #kthxbai

To the Slow Drivers of the World

I get it. You don’t like driving fast. And I’m not here to tell you to just drive faster. You drive how fast or slow you want to.

However.

What I am going to do is tell you how to drive slowly and not irritate me. Because as we all know, everyone’s goal in life should be to irritate Bryce as little as possible. Lucky for you I’m here to help, huh? (Although please note–chances are, if you follow my advice here, you’ll also successfully not irritate loads of other drivers. It’s a win-win, peoples!) So let’s proceed.

You’re driving slow. The first question to ask yourself is, “What kind of road am I on?” If you’re on a road where there are four lanes (two in each direction), then this is what you do: DRIVE IN THE RIGHT LANE. Meaning, the lane on the right. If you have trouble telling your right from your left (hey–it happens to the best of us!), then hold your hands out in front of you, with the palm facing away from you. Keep your fingers close together, and extend your thumb. (Ideally do this when you’re not driving. Thanks.) One of your hands will make an “L” shape. That’s your left hand. Which means that way is left. So drive in the lane that’s not the left lane.

That’s it! That’s all you have to do on a four or more lane highway.

But wait, you say. “What if someone is driving slower than I am in that lane?” I’m glad you asked. In those circumstances, check behind you to make sure no one’s coming up in the left lane. If the coast is clear, signal that you’re switching lanes, switch lanes, pass the car, then signal that you’re switching to the right lane, and switch lanes back–once the slower car is safely passed. (This is why professionals call the left lane the “passing lane.” Funny, huh?)

It seems pretty simple. Try to get that one principle down, and you’re set for most situations. Except . . .

What if you’re driving on a two lane road–one lane for each direction. What if you want to drive slower than a turtle on that road?

No problemo, friend. Drive your pokey little self at putt-putt speed all you want. Just check in your rearview mirror now and then. (You do know how to operate one of those, right?) If you see a cluster of cars behind you, pull over to the side of the road and let those cars pass you by, then resume your turtle-like pace. All we’re asking for is a little courtesy. Let us go on our way. (Note–if you’re going the speed limit, I’m willing to cut you a break. It’s when you’re going 5mph or more below the speed limit that I start to get irate.)

Driving should be a fun pleasant experience for everyone. Let’s try hard to keep it that way, shall we?

 

In Which Bryce Becomes Reflective

Not literally reflective. Because that would just be too cool. But rather, reflective in a thoughtful sort of way. The holidays have a tendency to get people thinking about their lives–as we gear up for the end of this year and the start of another. I went down to Pennsylvania for this year’s Thanksgiving, and for some reason I was looking at everything through a “what’s happened between then and now” sort of frame of reference. Allow me to elaborate.

The basement of my house in PA is where Denisa and I became secretly engaged just about 14 years ago now. She and I were having a chat there a few days ago (right after watching The Hobbit), and a package of thoughts hit me all at once. That room had not changed much at all in the intervening years. The furniture was the same. The layout. It was the same room. But the people we had become were much different. The experiences we’d lived through. Children. Houses. Cars. Education. Jobs. For a moment there, it was like I was looking in a mirror at the me from 14 years ago and comparing myself then to the me now.

It was a favorable comparison. I feel like I’ve grown a lot over those years, and that I’m a better person today than I was then. Not that I was a horrible person then, but still–you get the picture. It was a complex package of thoughts to think all at once, and it relates to another issue I’ve been having:

The lack of permanence.

I don’t know what’s up with me, really–just thinking too much, I suppose. But I keep reflecting on how anything in our lives can change without any notice whatsoever. You can get laid off, become sick, get in an accident. (I’m knocking on wood as I write this.) And so it’s hard to plan for the future. How do you plan for things you don’t have any control over? (I’ve written about this subject before, if I recall correctly.)

Why do I bring this up? Because I had another bit of personal epiphany over this past holiday weekend. (Man–it was an epiphaliffic few days!) It boils down to this–yes, it’s true that each celebration we have might be the last one that’s like that celebration. People move. Disasters strike. Change happens. But it’s really important to sit there and enjoy that celebration for what it is–a chance to rejoice that we made it this far.

Sheesh. This is sounding both sappy and pessimistic at the same time, and it’s not what I mean for it to be like at all. I suppose sometimes there are thoughts we have that make sense to us, and they don’t need to make sense to anyone else. Suffice it to say that I had a good break. Fun times, deep thoughts, and far too much food consumed. (I think I bleed eggnog at this point.)

Hope you all had a nice break, and that at least half of this post made sense to anyone. I’m going to call it a day and go back to unpacking. Till tomorrow!

My Thanksgiving Wish for You

I don’t know if you noticed, but it’s kind of the holidays right now. I’ll be taking the next few days off from blogging, because–you know–Thanksgiving. But I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. May your Turkeys be plump, your cranberries tart, your pies pumpkin, and your afternoon naps long. And may the Bumpus dogs be always locked out of your kitchen. See you all Monday!

http://youtu.be/pPRdj1Ce4ao

Family History is Fun

I work in a library, so I’m well aware of just how many people out there love rooting around in old microfilm and records to find out what their family members were up to in years gone by. And while I’ve dabbled in the practice now and then, it’s never really grabbed hold of me. Part of this is because I come from a long, long line of Mormon stock on both sides of my family, which means that if there’s family history work to need doing, then it’s all the low hanging fruit has long since been picked, eaten, and then gone over a few more times to make sure there was nothing interesting left.  Mormons take their genealogy very seriously.

But the Mormon church’s family history website just came out with an all new version, and I wanted to give it a whirl. (This is the new new version, for those of you playing along at home. About five years ago, the website was familysearch.org, and the church made a big push for a new version of the site, new.familysearch.org. Now it’s a new new push, and it’s back to familysearch.org. What’s old is new again.)

All you need to know is to go to this link. It’s awesome.

Why is it awesome? Well, first a disclaimer. I have no idea if it will be awesome for you. Since I’ve already had other family members do all the research for me, it was the easiest thing I’ve ever done–I just clicked over, and my whole family tree was filled in for me. If you haven’t had people working on your genealogy, then it might be a bit slower for you. But who knows–maybe you’ve got some Mormons or family history nuts related to you, and you’ll tap into some great research.

But what sets this new site apart from the old sites I’d tried before is the family tree fan chart view. The site quickly and efficiently displays you, your kids, your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and great-great grandparents–all at one time. Better yet, it’s all really easy to navigate. Want to find out the same information about your great-great grandfather? Click his name, then click “family tree.” Bam! As long as the work has been done, you’ve got him, his children, his parents, his grandparents, his great grandparents, and his great-great grandparents.

It’s really easy to click click click your way back through history. Really really easy. Using the site, I tried to see how far back in time I could go. The answer? I made it all the way to my 54 times great grandfather Titurel, who was born in 270 AD. That’s pretty far. (It helped that I picked a line that hit pay dirt: Roger Williams (founder of Rhode Island). His five times great grandmother was Joan Tudor, of THE Tudor family. Her great grandfather was Charles VI (nickname? “The Mad.”), King of France. Once you’ve got royalty, you’ve got people who were really serious about their family lines.)

But let’s be honest. Knowing that your whatever-great grandfather was a King of France is cool and all, but it’s not exactly real. It doesn’t connect with me on a tangible level. I wanted to know more about people I could actually visualize how I was related to. So I started looking at my great-great grandparents. And the site doesn’t disappoint on this level, either. It lets researchers (including you yourself) enter information for people–pictures, interesting stories, etc. And you can easily access those stories if they’re there. By clicking through links and looking for stories that are already entered, I’ve found out tons about my ancestors. Not just their names, but who they were and what they did. I’ve read about blacksmiths and farmers and pioneers and polygamists. Read their journal entries about being attacked by mobs or settling the wilderness or fearing Indian raids. And these aren’t just people in a movie or characters in a book–they’re my great great grandparents. They’re people I can actually connect with. And that makes a huge difference for me somehow.

To have pictures of them available to me? Even better. I’ve spent hours on this site since I discovered it, and there always seems to be more to find each time I go back. Will it be the same for you? I can’t make any promises, but I will say that this seems like an example of the best sort of thing the hive mind can accomplish–everyone enters the information they know and find, and everyone benefits.

So give it a whirl. I’d be interested to see what you find.

The Ever-Churning News Cycle

I’ll be the first to admit it: I forget things. I have a fairly busy life, and a to do list that just won’t quit. I do my best to stay on top of what’s happening in the world. Why? Because I think an informed populace is far preferable to an uninformed one. But as I was looking over news stories this morning and saw that they’d finally released a death toll “total” on the typhoon that hit the Philippines (5,200), I had to stop a minute and really try to put that number into perspective. 5,200. (The September 11th attacks killed just less than 3,000. And that’s only comparing deaths to deaths.) Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the storm. The houses lost. Lives destroyed.

That was two weeks ago.

When I think about how much 9/11 affected our country and how far reaching its effects have been, I’m all too aware that the coverage of this current disaster has been paltry in comparison. Why is that?

There are a number of reasons I can think of. First off, our news system is geared toward a “what’s happening now” mentality. We have the build up coverage in anticipation of the next disaster, and then coverage of the disaster itself. There’s a few days (maybe) of follow-up coverage on the aftermath, but then it’s on to the next disaster. The next crisis. Because disasters sell news. Warm fuzzies don’t.

But I think it’s more than this. I’d say some of it has to do with the pop culture we consume on a daily basis. The disaster movies. The horror films. The sordid dramas. We are conditioning ourselves, slowly building up an immunity to real tragedy as reality struggles to live up to the way its portrayed on screen. When Michael Bay can destroy an entire city on film, what’s 5,200 people? And think about how movies handle it: it’s identical to the news coverage approach. The film starts with the first portents of a disaster. It follows that disaster to its culmination, and then it sticks around just long enough to give us some pithy “there’s still hope” message before the credits roll and it’s on to the next movie.

We don’t deal in aftereffects these days. We just focus on the here and now and next.

At least–we don’t deal in them until they happen to us. The news cycle churns on for everyone except the families and individuals directly involved in a catastrophe. For them, those aftereffects can’t be avoided. And it shouldn’t really surprise me, I suppose, if places that are farther away receive less coverage than places that are near to us. If a disaster strikes in the states, that’s going to account for weeks of programming. A disaster in far off reaches of the world? A few days.

As much as we like to think of ourselves as free minded and just thinkers, there’s just no escaping the immediacy of the Other. Stuff happening to people we don’t know and have no connection to just doesn’t matter as much to us as stuff happening close to home.

I don’t mean to be wholly critical of this tendency, because I think in many ways, we need it. If I got as upset about a stranger’s death as I got about a family member’s, I’d be in a constant state of depression. There’d be no avoiding it. And with how good the news coverage has gotten at telling us all about all the tragedies that are happening every minute of every day across (almost) every inch of this globe, how in the world could anyone go on with their lives?

Not that I have any immediate solutions here. I’m just thinking on virtual paper. I don’t know that there is a solution. I do know that it seems to me lately that the tragedies just keep on coming, and I feel bad as they roll across my computer screen, and I send money to the various causes, but then it’s on to the new and the next.

And what is the news supposed to do, exactly? If they followed all the cleanup efforts of all the disasters, soon there’d be no room for new news.

Bah. I started this post hoping I’d come to a nice tidy conclusion, and I’ve ended up more confused than I began. And now I have to end, because I’m out of time, and there’s a new blog post to start working on for tomorrow.

Which kind of proves my point and indicts me at the same time.

And on that cheery note, I hope you all have a nice Monday.