2017 rang in quietly at my home. We watched a DVD someone got for Christmas. Five minutes before midnight, we shifted to TV.

We opened a couple of bottles of Welch’s Sparkling Grape Juice and poured it into cobalt blue goblets in preparation for the countdown. Then it was 3, 2, 1… And we all hugged and kissed as appropriate.

This was the baby’s first New Year celebration, but she’s always up for consuming food and drink. So she eagerly downed a tablespoon of white grape juice, her emerging teeth clinking on the glass.

A minute or so later, the juice came back up, with a bit more from other adventures in eating. Her father, duly decorated, went down to shower and clean both of them up. Then they fell asleep. And baby’s mother snapped a photo of her sleeping loved ones.

In a prior age this moment would have been remembered only briefly, possibly forgotten the next morning. But now we have a photograph. And now there is IMGUR.

“At our New Year’s Party, A girl drank too much, puked on my husband, and then fell asleep with him… Best night of my year!”

To the baby mother’s initial delight, the post started getting traction. Then IMGUR told her it was officially viral (at 300 likes). Then she started getting Facebook comments from friends who asked, “Is that your husband and baby on the front page of IMGUR?!?!?!?”

Less than a day after going live, the post has over 10,000 likes. And the author is both delighted and a bit anxious, because her IMGUR persona is a bit more outré than even the persona her friends knew in college.

May your New Year be delightful. May you have those around you to love and cherish. May you find deep truths that fill your soul with joy and peace. And may you live a life that in reflection brings a smile to your face.

175 years ago Brigham Young reportedly attempted to convince Martha Brotherton to be his “wife.” The conversation between Martha and Brigham Young reportedly occurred in the Red Brick Store (pictured above). The exact date is not know, but the conversation almost certainly occurred in the latter half of December 1841.

Many have presumed that the conversation was a “legitimate” proposal that Martha become Brigham’s plural wife within the context of Joseph Smith’s teachings regarding Celestial Marriage and the New and Everlasting Covenant. After all, Martha claimed that Joseph Smith was one of the three men who spoke with her that day, urging her to accept Brigham’s proposal.

However it should be remembered that Martha placed Joseph Smith at the scene in an affidavit written at the express invitation of Dr. John C. Bennett, who was attempting to tarnish Joseph Smith’s reputation. From the contemporary journal of a faithful Mormon, it appears Joseph Smith felt Brigham’s attempt to coerce Martha Brotherton was a transgression so serious that Joseph feared Brigham would be struck down and die.[ref]Clayton, William, journal entry of June 23, 1843. See An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton, George D. Smith editor, Signature Books, Salt Lake City, UT, 1995, p. 108. [/ref] As discussed in my post Saul, Alma the Younger, and the tale of Martha Brotherton, it is plausible that Martha’s account was largely based on actual events. However the third man participating in the conversations Martha described was likely an unwitting Hyrum Smith, rather than Joseph Smith.

Continue reading →

In DC, one of the highlights of the holiday season is the Festival of Lights lighting ceremony, where the Church honors a featured world ambassador and invites the rest of the diplomatic community to participate as the 650,000 lights decorating the DC temple grounds are illuminated.

This year the honored ambassador was His Excellency Kenichiro Sasae, ambassador of Japan. As Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has spent many years in Asia and Japan, we were honored to have Gary and Lesa Stevenson visit with us.

The lighting ceremony was covered by Deseret News <ref>If you look carefully you can see my knee in the picture of soloist Sandra Turley. I was playing violin but also sing in the choir, so was not dressed in black.</ref> but perhaps a more delightful evening was the annual Temple Workers’ Christmas Devotional, held the previous Sunday evening in the Solemn Assembly Room of the DC temple. As Elder Stevenson was planning to be in town to honor His Excellency Kenichiro Sasae, he arranged to participate in the devotional.

That is where Elder Stevenson told us the story of the Christmas Tree Rock. Continue reading →

Sully is Clint Eastwood’s September 2016 film about the pilot that landed an Airbus A320 passenger airplane in the Hudson River off Manhattan on the afternoon of January 15, 2009. Both engines of the plane failed after a flock of geese collided with the plane shortly after takeoff. All aboard survived. The surprising “success” of the response was primarily attributed to the calm reaction of Pilots Captain Chesley Sullenberger (Sully) and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles.

The core conflict in Sully involves the tension between the seemingly obvious success of the response to the engine failure and the second guessing that occurs during formal investigations of any event, which in this case was being performed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The film also portrays Captain Sully questioning his actions, with dream sequences showing alternate outcomes, such as the plane crashing in the heart of the business district of New York City. Had Captain Sully been found to have erred in landing the plane in the Hudson, his career as a pilot and aeronautic safety expert would have ended, resulting in personal ruination.

The movie is relatively short. As a movie-goer, I would not expect Tom Hanks to play a protagonist who was ultimately found to be a failure. Yet Clint Eastwood does heighten the conflict enough that the pain the main character experiences feels real while we watch the film.

Sully provides viewers a chance to experience the roller coaster ride of fear and despair with Captain Sully while knowing that at the end the ride will come to a safe and happy ending. Continue reading →

Today congregations throughout Northern Virginia were told their boundaries would be changing effective 11/27/2016. Each congregation was only provided information for their own ward. It isn’t yet clear to members how the overarching shifts affect the five existing stakes reportedly altered in this large change, although we are given to understand that each of the dozens of congregations will be changing boundaries.

Change is upsetting. I am surprised to see how much sorrow today’s announcement is evoking. In the case of my ward, all who were in the ward previously will still be in the same stake. The new ward that absorbs the neighborhoods that were previously to our east will even meet in the same building (starting at 1100 to our 0900). So we’ll still even see each other in the halls and at Stake activities.

This caused me to reflect on Nauvoo in 1841-1842, Continue reading →