Lindsey Memory > Recent Status Updates

Is this a YA book? I was unaware. It feels written at the YA level. I don’t care for YA fiction, but I’m working to stay with it, because I appreciate the world-building. I’m already sick of the not one but two handsome young men who clench their jaws a lot around our young protagonist…

I thought the son’s section would never end, phew. He reminds me of Marion in Cutting for Stone, and I have to co life that Abraham Verghese has a great commitment to exploring the weaknesses of masculinity. Super painful and infuriating but he does the topic justice.

I’m so freaking excited!

Marriage is long. ALL the seams get tested.

To err is to wander, and it is how we discover the world. To err is to be lost in thought, which is the way we discover ourselves. Don’t cling to the worst possible moral frame for error. Embrace its capacity to lead to creativity and insight.

The scientific method is essentially a 400 year old monument to the utility of error.

The Catch-22 of “wrongology”: in order to eradicate error, we would already need to be infallible.

Ugh a love story where two people absolutely can’t communicate with each other, and you want to scream at both of them and fix it for the . I want to stop listening but I can’t. The Irish accent of the narrator is so soothing!

There is no such thing as a feeling of being wrong. There is only the experience of *realizing* you are wrong. As you go about your day being wrong, it actually feels to you like… being right. You are like the road runner in Bugs Bunny who has ran off a cliff, but doesn’t realize it yet.

This fundamental Christian proclamation, that the grave have no victory, is the ultimate reality. It reaffirms the indestructibility and immortality of each human soul, and becomes the foundation for social and political ethic rooted in human dignity. Resurrection extends the timeline for the achievement of Martin Luther King Jr.‘s assertion that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.

Virtually every culture has perpetuated, a myth of redemptive violence in which violence saves, might makes right, and war brings peace. The crucified Christ gives lie to this myth. If Homer or Hollywood had written the story, we would expect the innocent victim would show a mighty display of power, and avenge himself. Instead, Jesus goes way off script. He offers forgiveness. And above all, he dies.

Note that Jesus did not declare the soldiers’ actions to be morally neutral. By extending forgiveness to them, Jesus was explicitly declaring that their violence was offensive. A dual message of condemnation and reconciliation. His words suggest that ignorance and distance do not excuse us from at least partial moral accountability for acts of violence committed in our name.

In the ultimate reversal, the cross, followed by the resurrection, became the means by which the influence of Jesus Christ became an everlasting dominion. Exercised without compulsory means, true power began to flow unto him forever and ever at the very moment the world considered him most powerless.

Jesus purposefully, confronted the ruling religious and political authorities, knowing he would pay for it with the ultimate penalty. He voluntarily proceeded from the garden. For Jesus, the public spectacle of the cross was a deliberate destination. Crucifixion’s brutality and injustice revealed the violence of the worlds kingdoms, while simultaneously proclaiming the nonviolent character of Christ’s kingdom.

Politics. A toy for little rich kids, that they won’t let anyone else play with.

Compulsion, no matter how powerful and seemingly total, can be merely temporary. Only trust, gain through persuasion and reciprocity, is enduring.

There were parts of my mother that I might never fully get a handle on, aspects that had come to life upon her return here to Alabama, and that would go dormant again once we were back in California, but wasn’t there a way to see all of that as a good thing, to take it as proof that we are, all of us, made up of near infinite facets? It wasn’t a calming thought, but I wasn’t in need of assurances.

All humans are inherently divine and eternally interrelated. Enduring power can be achieved only through persuasion and love. Conflict is built into creation and can be constructively transformed for positive purposes. Zion is an achievable aim for this world if individuals and societies embrace principles taught by Jesus Christ: love, equality, justice, and peace as a way of life.

Once traveling, it’s remarkable how quickly faith erodes. It starts to look like some thing else – ignorance, for example. Same thing happened to the Israelites. Sure it’s weak, but sometimes you just rather have a map.

“ it is possible to be overly tolerant. But this doesn’t mean we should be intolerant. Perhaps the prophet was sending a warning to those who might twist brother Packers words in an unintended ways. Many of us, myself included, see ourselves as peacemakers, even when the stability we seek is making life miserable for money.”

“ rational, self interest, and goodwill for all are not the same thing. The limits of human intelligence are obvious and heartbreaking. Were not for the reality of inspiration, I might very well feel compelled to give my allegiance to positivism. The love of God is abundantly given to anyone who has a mind to perceive it. I have come to understand that doubting too, is a divine gift, a path to what is real.”

“As Bashō would say, fueki ryūkō, there exists the unchanging, even within constant change. Good poetry is written at those moments when we perceive the constant forms that exist within this ever-changing reality, when moments of truth, make a mark on our trembling hearts and minds.

“the bitter man who said he believed in ideas, not in people, came to trust his cookie-baking neighbors, and their kind gods. They, both gods and neighbors, learned to call him by his name. They loved him and his family. I’m not saying that ideas are unimportant. But the ones that matter most are embodied by the people who anchor them in the world of things.”

we fold back the sheet. We remove the rings from my mothers fingers. It reminds me of a movement I’ve seen before. When and where? I realized. My mother has taught me this final lesson about Jesus. I can’t take the sacrament without thinking of her life of sacrifice. Someone has to do the breaking in the pouring so his body and blood can be shared. We give the self away. We share a name and an identity.

“there probably aren’t many things more potentially confusing than studying the Scriptures. How could I have not realized this before? More study does not guarantee more understanding and clarity. If anything, raking is a surer way to the kind of knowledge that matters most. The truth is something to practice, not something to think about.”

“ bye and bye, I also come to understand that, for teaching to be effective, the Spirit us to be present. Good teaching happens when *all* are edified (D&C50:22-23). I eventually figure out that this applies to the university classroom as much as it does to the Sunday school classroom. Authenticity, yes. Manipulation, no.”

“On the face of it, nothing is so false as assigned friendship. Yet me being home teacher to Ruby is a godly way to help me overcome a tendency to avoid others. I know that, left alone, my life would become increasingly limited. For most people, this poverty experience is what adulthood is all about. Bring one thing, we stop being another. Few things are as depressing as the way life narrows as we age.”

“What just happened? Look, Charles. Think about what you know, not about what you don’t know. Keep the focus on loving others, and someday you’ll have all the answers you need. I promise. Until you truly learn to care for others, you’ll never be the person you want to be.” What gentle instruction! For the second time, Jesus‘s voice speaks directly to my heart. I change the course of my life—Once again.