Rough Stone Rolling

 
When I turned 40 I started attending an “old school” gym (formerly a Vic Tanny’s) occupied mostly by seniors– serious codgers whose rough, ropy, tanned bodies bore testimony of a lifetime of free weight worship. The oldest among them was a guy named Nick who in his 80’s still trained sweet, young thangs that probably […]

[Read more →]

 
All right, I know it’s been a ‘coon’s age since I last dropped by. Too many distractions have kept me away and when night comes my brain’s just been too fried to compose (resulting in five unfinished entries in the queue). But since we’re going away for a week on a camping trip, I thought I’d sneak one […]

[Read more →]

I know, I did say I was over the subject of gays and the Church. However as an LDS member in California– a state that today legalized same-sex marriage– I’m forced to confront another issue involving these two head-butting entities. Recently a Catholic adoption service closed its doors because it didn’t want to place children […]

[Read more →]

It’s not talked about much, but I think it’s safe to say we assume we look much like we did in the pre-existence– except we looked more like action figures back then, and aspire to go back to looking like that when we cross the veil again.
Besides the expected glorified bodies of flesh & bone, […]

[Read more →]

Our ward’s Annual Taquito Dinner & Talent Show last night proved, once again, to be an evening of wows and wonders. We were entertained by a 3 and 5-year old duet singing “A, You are Adorable” as the older sibling kept scratching himself “down there” the entire time; the bishop’s 13-year old daughter did her […]

[Read more →]

I made the mistake of paying too much attention to the Springsteen song, “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” while in the car with Miss D. last night, coming home from YW. After listening a while she asked, “What’s it about?” I tried to explain how, as we get older we find ourselves looking back on […]

[Read more →]

We woke up this morning to an overcast sky, the smell of smoke and our cars covered with chunks of ash. Universal Studios was burning. The town square and clock tower from Back to the Future (also Clint Eastood’s Hang ‘Em High)– gone. The New York street, used in countless films, gone. The King Kong […]

[Read more →]

 
It’s evident that my faith is far from what it should be.
Saw Million Dollar Baby again last night (that final half-hour is brutal) and my reaction was the same as the before: I saw myself doing for Hillary Swank exactly what Clint did at the end. Turn off the machine, give her the injection. Send her on […]

[Read more →]

In 1974 my parents bought a three-story 3B/2Ba house in the 8400 South 1500 East area of Sandy, UT for $33,000. Perspective: Today you can get a new Toyota FJ Cruiser with GPS and a full-size spare for around that.
As Memorial Day weekend draws to a close, it marks the second straight week we’ve officially […]

[Read more →]

I try to be careful about who I recommend The Passion of the Christ to. It’s a heavy, brutal, unsettling film and loiters around an area that can be construed as either exploitive or inspiring. I happen to be a fan of Mel Gibson (Apocalypto brought the Lamanites to life) and felt Passion was an […]

[Read more →]

One of the curses of my lineage is that, like my father, I got gray early. At age 48 my hair is now completely white– just like Steve Martin’s. My face is still youthful, my demeanor downright sophomoric, but the noggin’s thoroughly Ancient of Days. I went to the local IHOP for lunch today for […]

[Read more →]

I love the moments when I bond with another brother after doing a Church service.
I was driving home from Stake Temple Night Friday, along with a brother who’s a month short of turning 80. It was a particularly good session and we went home with a little more wind in our sails. The brother, a […]

[Read more →]

The touchy-feely sock puppets of the self-help posse will tell you that before you can love anyone else, you have to love yourself (there’s actually a web site called loveyourselffirst.com). My experience, however, leans me more toward the notion that I can’t love myself until I love others. To love me, I have to do […]

[Read more →]

“They shouldn’t do that,” said Miss D, as we got ready to step into the Haunted Mansion’s tomb buggy.
“What’s that?” I asked. I really didn’t feel like being at Disneyland that day, but we were hooking up with D’s cousins. The place was packed, of course. It was a Saturday and spring breaks were still […]

[Read more →]

We don’t hear Matthew Cowley stories much anymore. Brother Cowley, as some of you may remember, was an early 20th century apostle who noteworthily raised souls from the dead– or more accurately, was instrument in the Lord’s hand raising them from the dead. Brother Cowley was also a brilliant writer and speaker, and if you […]

[Read more →]

I believe I mentioned some entries back about the part-member couple I met at the Fast Sunday Post-Fast Evening Mingle– our ward’s response to the stake president’s tyrannical abolishment of Break the Fast (it takes place 4 hours later, thus technically being well out of the range of a punishable Break the Fast)– last month. […]

[Read more →]

Last night I read President Monson’s message in the Ensign entitled “Treasure of Eternal Value.” In it, he quoted a portion of the Savior’s Sermon on the Mount:
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
“But lay up for yourselves […]

[Read more →]

Question: If you TiVo conference and play back the solemn assembly hours later, do you still stand and sustain even though everyone else have moved on to their nachos and naps?  Last week was difficult for my wife and me, regarding different trials we were each experiencing. For the sake of privacy (especially my sweetheart’s) […]

[Read more →]

I wish someone would start a project of taking members aside individually and asking them to describe their thoughts of what the next life will be like, then write an essay with the findings. A favorite LDS cartoon of mine (by Bagley or Grondahl, I can’t remember which) shows a husband and wife in the […]

[Read more →]

I guess everyone’s character is too complicated to be summed up in one or two adjectives. In my case, I’ve learned I have a respect for authority that’s offset by an impish streak of rebelliousness and irreverence. I want to be good, but I don’t like being told what to do.

One of my favorite LDS […]

[Read more →]