Missionaries get to phone home on Mother’s Day and Christmas. But fathers don’t get a call.

But it’s still possible for fathers of missionaries to get something on their special day, with our help.

When my daughter first arrived in the airport, an LDS lady took a photo of the arriving missionaries and texted it to all the parents. And I’ve been blessed since then because people in my daughter’s mission will snap pictures and either text us or post them on the mission Facebook page.

I’ve also adopted this practice, of snapping pictures of missionaries and letting them type in the phone number of folks so I can text the picture.

I invite you to make a father’s day and text him a picture of his missionary. And while you’re at it, take the chance to let the fathers in your life know how much you love them as well.

Years past people would take pictures and videotape mission calls, only to put them away in storage. As with just about anything these days, cameras and smart phones are used to capture the event. Then when put up on the Internet it becomes the property of the world. After watching a lot of them by following a rabbit hole of links there are several similarities to all the videos. A particular ritual has formed organically out of the process of opening up the paper delivering a destination. Not every video covers the full process, but they all contain an element of it with the assumption the rest happen off camera. Here is a “perfect” example. Try to list all that happens that can probably be found in others:

To compare the list Continue reading →

Most calories in modern hunter-gatherer societies come from the efforts of women gathering tubers.

If you’re like me and don’t spent much time listening to NPR, you might have missed yesterday’s story (Why Grandmothers May Hold The Key To Human Evolution).

Turns out the “neanderthal hunter-man bringing home the bacon” idea is debunked. The main reason humans evolved to live long (and prosper) was the role of the grandmothers.

Humans are the only primates where mothers let others help. The primary “other” helping raise the new generation is the mother’s mother (grandmother). This placed an evolutionary premium on women living long enough to nurture the child’s children. Men, being part of the same species, got to live longer as a side benefit. It’s interesting to note that women as a population enjoy longer lifespans than their male counterparts.

What does provider-grandmother look like in the nurture of our current generation? Continue reading →

A young Venetian woman, aged 23, depicted circa 1831 before contracting cholera and a quarter hour before her death. Coloured stipple engraving. Courtesy of Wellcome Library

In the early 1800s a new and terrifying ailment swept through large cities. It was first identified in India (1817), afflicted St. Petersburg in Russia (1828), then hit London and New York (1832).

For decades most people were satisfied with their certainty that this ailment was caused by sin. If you were sick, it was your fault.[ref]Harning, Lisa N., Comparing and Contrasting Social, Political, and Medical Reactions to 19th Century Cholera Epidemics in London and New York City (2015). University of New Hampshire Honors Theses. Paper 229, pp. 3-4. Online 23 Mar 2016 at http://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1232&context=honors.[/ref] We know better now, or so we tell ourselves. But do we still have a legacy of believing that anyone who is suffering must secretly be deserving of their pain?

A Current Situation

I have recently had the privilege of helping a few folks who are struggling to make ends meet. One of these individuals was wrongfully arrested[ref]A lawsuit is being prepared. For now I am willing to assert the arrest was wrongful in advance of a court ruling.[/ref] and became extremely ill because of the physical interactions that occurred while in custody. Then they became homeless.

In those first terrifying months, no hand of assistance was offered, even though help was requested.[ref]Since then this individual was assigned to a new Bishop.[/ref]

Why Don’t We Help?

When I type in “obedience blessings” I find all manner of images promising that obedience will bring blessings, that exact obedience will bring forth miracles. Numerous scriptural passages are cited. And I do agree that obedience blesses us.

But do we look at those less fortunate that ourselves and presume that they must deserve to be poor or crippled? Continue reading →

If you haven’t yet read a summary of President Nelson’s comments, don’t read a mere summary.

Go watch it yourself. Experience it. Don’t get it filtered through whatever straw some other person will use to feed you a tiny portion of that message. Because it isn’t just the words. It’s the entire experience.

I’ll just say I’m glad I wasn’t the music conductor for that meeting. Because just as an old person watching it 24 hours later I was crying.