Browsed by
Month: March 2014

Titanism

Titanism

Illustration from Dante’s Divine Comedyby Gustave Gore First Published March 20, 2014 at Modern Mormon Men In the October 1964 General Conference, Sterling W. Sill made this bold assertion: “Certainly the greatest problem of our generation is its titanism, as shown by our enmity toward the Almighty.” I have to admit that I had never heard of titanism prior to reading his talk (which immediately made it into my General Conference Classics file). In classical Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of…

Read More Read More

Enduring Wisdom: Rudyard Kipling

Enduring Wisdom: Rudyard Kipling

Portrait of Rudyard Kiplingby John Collier, 1891 I have posted on Rudyard Kipling before. He’s right up there with Ben Franklin on the quotability scale.   On Self“For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.” “Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves.”  “The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no…

Read More Read More

Atavism and the Lithuanian Holocaust

Atavism and the Lithuanian Holocaust

1941 Nazi propaganda poster in Lithuanian language. Top: “A Jew is your eternal enemy.”Bottom: “Stalin and Jews — one big gang of scoundrels!” I’m excited about our trip to Lithuania this Spring and having been trying to come up with a bucket list for our time in Vilnius. In doing so I read this book: The Hill, by Antanas Jonynas. It is the story of the murder of Dr. Schmidt and his family by his patients and neighbors during the Lithuanian Holocaust….

Read More Read More

Lessons in Fauxcabulary: Embiggening the Soul

Lessons in Fauxcabulary: Embiggening the Soul

Jebediah Springfield Originally Published at Modern Mormon Men February 28, 2014 ___ I recently came across a couple of neologisms (newly coined words) that expanded my vocabulary in a good way. It certainly isn’t the only time that The Simpsons was the source of my inspiration. The words are: “embiggens” and “cromulent”. As it turns out, the town motto for Springfield comes from Jebediah Springfield who said: “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man”. When Mrs. Krabappel said she had never heard…

Read More Read More