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If Andy Warhol is right, everyone will have fifteen minutes of fame. This takes on various forms for different people. For some, it is a stint on MTV’s The Real World. For others, it is YouTube stardom. I’ve always wondered when my fame would come and in what form. Well, the moment has finally arrived, and I must say I’m underwhelmed. Read more »

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When I turned 18, I honest to gosh thought all my pimples would clear up magically. When I turned 21—hey, I’m a grown-up! Then I thought maybe at 30, I’d magically mature. So far, it isn’t happening. I find myself turning to much younger people all the time for advice and wisdom. Maybe some people never grow up. But I still repeat my mistakes and create wreckage in my life. Maybe 60 will be the magic age.
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We have this little pecularity in the English language when it comes to the names we use for our parents. As nouns, Mother and Father are equals and partners. Mother and Father appear to be on par with each other and, without specific information, we would assume they have similar commitments to their family roles. But look what happens when we turn these into verbs: Read more »

“A poor, humble man is a powerful tool in the hands of the Lord. A rich, humble man is an even more powerful tool in the hands of the Lord.”

True?

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There was a recent Wall Street Journal article discussing the number of friends one can have in one’s circle. Robin Dunbar, an Oxford anthropologist whose 1993 research gave rise to the magical count of 150, which was generated by observing social groups in nonhuman primates, then giving humans a multiplier for our larger cortex (brain).

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The countdown has begun: my son has one more month before entering the golden age of Nursery. I have served in the nursery before, and I want my kids to be Nursery ready. So far, my son has a few skills under his belt that will serve him well:

1–Clean-up. He is great at picking stuff up and has pretty good aim at getting it in the desired basket.
2–Sit on demand. He doesn’t always STAY seated, but he will sit when you tell him to, in basically the right area, oriented in the correct direction 80% of the time.
3–(Most importantly) Fake eating. My son has perfected fake eating wherin he brings fake or imaginary food near (but not to) his mouth and makes eating mouth motions and sounds.

He isn’t as verbal as I would like, but I think he is headed in the right direction. What are other important nursery skills you think kids need to be successful?

I guess I better gear myself up for a return to Sunday School.

I’ve spent most of my married life in two major metropolitan areas: Boston and Washington, DC. (If only NuSkin would build another tower, I might have a case for including Provo…) Living in a big city is great. I love the energy, diversity, and range of opportunity that often accompany big city life. When we began having kids, we were sure that we could make the city work for them, too. Surely they’d love all the museums, zoos, parks and other things the city has to offer.

And they did love those things, but eventually the reality began to settle in: living in the city is really not that great for kids. Read more »

I’ve been reflecting recently on the need that groups of people have to demonize those they perceive as enemies. We as LDS are not immune from this tendency.

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I rode the bus from one city to another. When we boarded in the capital, one young woman got on in extremely “liberated” attire for that country: she wore tight pants, a revealing tank top, and had long extensions braided into her hair.

As soon as the bus got going, she started her transformation

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On Saturday, I had to go to a managment retreat for my work. While there, my wife talked me into getting a massage (paid for by my work). When asked if I preferred either a male or female therapist, I asked for a female, but there were none available, so I had a male therapist give me a massage.

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In the news and even in the lives of some people around me, I’ve been observing a number of recurrent issues that all seem to point in a similar, negative direction. Here are just some of them: Read more »

When I served in Japan 10 years ago, there was a well-known Japan-Payson connection. I only had one Paysonite companion, but there were five (5) Paysonite elders in my MTC district and many more in my mission. Read more »

Living with large numbers of men in college prepared me for marriage.

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Mormon Mentality is happy to have DCcLemon as a guest blogger.  DCcLemon is a long time lurker, first time poster.  She’s looking forward to leaving lurkerhood and joining the conversation.  Perhaps her example will encourage other lurkers to comment on occasion.

A bit of background information would perhaps be useful.  She’s a married mother of three, works part-time, and her current priority is getting her youngest to sleep through the night.

and everyone else, for that matter, to offer your best legal opinions and/or satire.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080423071943AAWAwJY

Some time ago my little branch got a new leader. He was, in my opinion, an unlikely suspect, but frankly the likely suspects had already taken their turns.

Soon after he became branch president, this man spoke of a rash of near misses. Most of these included recreational vehicles and, ahem, stupidity Read more »

Margaret Young wrote to tell me that on her recent trip to China, she discovered how ubiquitous pirated DVDs are in China. Everything in American theaters is available — even Mormon Cinema movies.

She suggested that this is part of God’s plan: “We get the Chinese people to steal LDS DVDs and sell them to each other, and voila! We’re in!”

In this spirit, she suggested the following poll:

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Last night a companionship of three sister missionaries came by to visit with us.   We enjoyed having them in our home and the message they had to share with us.

In the midst of our discussion, the topic of the recent events involving the FLDS arose and the sisters related to us that they have seen a noticeable and negative change in the way some potential contacts respond to them.

Specifically, one of the sisters said she is seeing a lot more of the “don’t even talk to me” reaction from those she tries to contact.  While the sisters were upbeat and positive, it saddened me to hear that they were having this experience with people.  It’s not surprising if one thinks about it - but this conversation brought into focus for me the realization that this whole controversy places (unjustly, I think) a skeptical spotlight on not only the LDS Church but also, more particularly, on LDS women.

I don’t have any special wisdom or ideas to deal with this situation.  All I can really say is if there are missionaries (particularly sister missionaries) working in your area, this is probably an important time to show some extra support for their efforts.