Indubitable

A sinuous dragon disgorging a leafy, flowering stalk, itstail terminating in another leafy vine, forms this letter “S” on the titlepage of the Third Epistle of St. John the Apostle. Rochester New Testament, 1130 AD. Preeminence is one of those superlatives to which we can only hope to aspire.  A word with universally positive connotations: distinction, excellence, prominence, renown, superiority, supremacy, transcendence. If someone or something is preeminent ina group, they are more important, powerful, or capable than other people orthings in the group. The word preeminence…

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My recent visit to the American invasion beaches of Normandy was unbelievably moving.  I’d recently finished Stephen Ambrose’s best-seller D-Dayto try and be ready for the experience. Despite almost 600 pages of minute by minute detail about the invasion, I wasn’t remotely prepared. Our guide was simply fantastic and I can’t imagine trying to do this without someone like him (Eric Le Deux-Turnbull) to put it into perspective (more on this another day). A haunting picture of SS-Panzergrenadiers Sepp Bund,…

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Sometimes you run into the darnedest people in the parking lot! Tate took these pictures of the Big Guy’s plates while he & Tiff were shopping at Fry’s Electronics (I hesitate to call them vanity plates–He’s not at all like that once you get to know Him) . I’m sure I could wax eloquent about this picture for a long time. I was pleased to see He was in a domestic Minivan rather than a stretch Maybach limo. It is also noteworthy that these…

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For the Zoramites, the Rameuptom was all about indulging their pride. Yet everything was tidily packaged into something much more socially acceptable: worship. It is SO much easier to rationalize when couched in these terms.  While teaching Sunday School recently, we spent a few minutes talking about the Rameumptom. Paul Riddle leaned over to Tate and indiscreetly pointed out that my Rameumptom was my new bike. It was pretty funny, and spot on. All I could say was Touche´.[1] It’s sobering to…

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I’m struck with some of the similarities in the principles of Zoramite religious thought and contemporary thinking. I guess there truly is nothing new under the sun. Alma and his Dream Team [1] were blown away by the Zoramite concept of religious worship. Worship for them consisted of a highly ritualized prayer that never changed and lasted about a minute, once a week. Once completed, your religious obligations were finished until next week and you could carry on without feeling further restrictions…

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Ty & I fished the Bow River on July 5 right before SPF 2012; it was a great prelude to the family reunion.  It is the first time I’ve fished the Bow since I was a Resident a gajillion years ago. Another fine walk down memory lane. This season’s heavy rains and runoff made for high water and challenging fishing, but we still managed to catch about a dozen fish, all thanks to our guide from Country Pleasures. All were decent…

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Another rider from Cofidis booted out of the TDF, all while the names of who’s who of American cycling for the last decade are tossed about as dopers. Paul Riddle took 2nd in Saturday’s local triathlon behind a guy who has been sanctioned by USA Cylcing! It makes it hard to still believe in the spirit of the sport. But there is still a few of us die-hard tifosi out there (as evidenced below, Mochi is the number one tifosa in…

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I’m still thinking a lot about Demas . . . For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world [νῦν], and is departed unto Thessalonica . . . 2 Timothy 4:10  It is noteworthy that νῦν (Strong’s G 3568; pronounced noon), which is here rendered ‘this present world’ is frequently translated as ‘now’ in the KJV. Demas’ downfall seems to been a full-on love affair with now—this  present world. Early morning bike rides, desert monsoons and killer sushi rank right up there…

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Monsoon season in Las Vegas is awesome. We’ve had rain for a couple of days.  There’s something magical about rain in the desert that’s hard to describe to non-desert dwellers. Robyn I & saw a complete rainbow the other evening (and found our pot of gold in the hand of a Mexican sushi chef named Juan at our favorite haunt: I Love Sushi) and a proper downpour and lightning storm that night.  The bike ride Saturday was cool and clean–a…

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Sometimes a scriptural phrase will catch my attention and I can’t let it go, and before I know it I’m off on a tangent.  So it is again.  This time it’s a phrase that Alma was fond of using: meet for repentance. As Alma scurried about the cities of the Nephite nation trying to fortify the church, he used this phrase repeatedly. This phrase is unique to Alma in the Book of Mormon. [i] In all 4 of Ama’s uses of ‘meet for repentance’,…

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