Clean Slate

I love the whole Halloween to New Year's stretch of the calendar. It's my favorite time of the year.

Why limit a favorite holiday to just one holiday? Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve, Festivus—they're all fantastic. I enjoy each and every one when its turn comes around, and I also enjoy the time spent with family members and good friends.

There is a certain sense of letdown upon waking up on January 1, to be sure. The hangover for the last great party (or parties) of the year that was, however you chose to celebrate, is about to begin, and there is also the very real sense that my next "favorite time of the year" won't begin for about another nine months or so. But there is also something about the New Year that brings a sense of "clean slate" with it.

It's almost like that blog post you wrote in a moment of utter loneliness and/or frustration two days ago never even happened!

Admittedly, 2013 was not the greatest year for many people I know, and they are glad to see it go. For me, it was, well . . . good and bad both. It was a year like many other years, in other words.

I am one who makes New Year's resolutions but who also ends up breaking them far more often than I keep them. Even so, I still a fan of the idea of self-improvement and of setting new goals. I have one for 2014 that I began to work on yesterday. I won't go into the details of it right now, but one of my siblings is helping me out, and we're going to try to keep each other accountable for our goals.

Additionally, I believe the concept of a clean slate is a gospel principle. Each Sunday when we take the sacrament, we're recommitting ourselves to follow Christ, to repent and try to improve upon our shortcomings, and to be a better person than we were the week before. It's one of my favorite things about the gospel and my faith. And it's something that's available 52 weeks a year rather than during a three-month span (well, 48 really, if you take away general conference and stake conference).

Another great thing about slates: breaking them over the head of Gilbert Blythe at school!

Unless movies and TV have lied to me.

Religion, Politics, the Great Pumpkin . . . and Misery

Like it or not, Facebook has become a part of pretty much all of our lives. Chances are, you are reading this post right now because I posted a link to it on my Facebook profile.

Facebook is great in that it is a good way to keep in touch with long-lost friends living on the other side of the world or those who may be too busy with the many comings and goings of their spouses, children, careers, etc. to visit with in person. Some of the cons include all of those Farmville invitations I keep getting on a daily basis, people who still use the "poke" option, and, admittedly, discussing politics, religion, and other hot-button topics, which usually never turns out well for everyone who becomes involved in the discussion. I've not yet stuck my foot into a political discussion in which a person on the other side of the argument has concluded: "You're absolutely right, and I was wrong. I am making a 180-degree turn and now see things your way." It just doesn't happen.

In the perennial Halloween special "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," Linus sums it up well: "There are three things you must never discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin."

Though the AWL sometimes delves into matters of politics and religion, that's not what today's post is about. Sometimes, he reads a Facebook post that just ends up making his blood boil. That, or he just ends up feeling sorry for the person who wrote it. A post he read tonight ended up causing both reactions. The post in question was made by a friend who referenced a well-known Old Testament story, and the friend then wondered aloud why a "God of love" could care so little about His creations.

Over time, it has been sad for the AWL to watch this friend slowly drift away from the LDS Church and its principles. Little by little, this person's posts have grown more bitter, more angry, more difficult to respond to - the AWL finds himself ignoring this person more often than not in order to keep the peace - and, above all, more miserable. It is not uncommon for this person to post status updates about how sad and depressing his life is in addition to all of the angry questions and rants. Not only has this person drifted from the LDS Church he grew up with, he also appears to be drifting toward atheism and abandoning Christianity as a whole.

Not coincidentally, this person's other common posts deal with, for one, such matters as his love for a recent Broadway musical that directly and openly mocks the LDS Church and its members (hint: Its name rhymes with "Nook of Norman"). The language in his posts is often crude and vile, and the words are frequently sloppy and misspelled even though they come from what I know to be a sharp mind. I saw a recent photo of this person after not having seen him in person for more than a year, and it has become apparent that his hygiene and personal grooming habits have become about as lost to the world as the 116 pages of the Book of Lehi. From what I know, he doesn't socialize or get outside of the house much, either.

The AWL sees a direct correlation between these behaviors and this person's misery and feeling of being alone in the world. If this friend happens to read this post, the AWL would even go so far as to suggest that reading the real rhymes-with-"Nook of Norman" would go a long way to making this person happier than would listening to the songs of the sad, pale imitation lauded by the people of the "great and spacious building" and now selling out to capacity audiences on Broadway.

The truth is, folks, that the AWL doesn't know that much, but he does know that happiness comes from keeping the commandments, prayer, scripture study, kindness, gentleness, seeking good and wholesome entertainment, cleanliness of body and mind, and so forth - the very basics we first learned about in Primary - while misery and sadness result from not doing those things (see Alma 41:10). Further, I would have to add that picking an obscure story or point of doctrine and complaining or fretting about it, pretending to know God's motivation(s) involved, is not a good use of one's time and effort.

As Nephi said: "I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things" (1 Nephi 11:17).

Even though this friend has lately proven himself to be just about one curse word away from being unfriended, there is something inside the AWL that still thinks this friend is worth keeping and encouraging to hold onto the Iron Rod. I honestly don't know the answer. But I do know where the answers that truly matter can be found.

The Man with the Plan

“As man now is, God once was; as God is now, man may be.” -Lorenzo Snow

I'm always amazed when people criticize what they claim to be this so-called "ridiculous" statement of President Snow's and of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, scoffing at the very idea that any human being would dare to claim that such might be the goal of our existence. In fact, I heard a non-LDS friend of mine say so over the previous weekend.

Very well, then. Before I go further on this point, let's take a look at the other side of coin.

What do most other Christian denominations think the afterlife is going to be like? I have been acquainted with a large number of them in my travels, and a surprising quantity, in spite of what the Bible and their churches teach, don't believe in any afterlife at all. The ones who do believe in an afterlife have broken it down into two starkly contrasted perceptions:

1) Hell: where the bad people and L.A. Lakers go to roast forever in the fires of damnation and sorrow, much like a typical August day. All the while, compounding their torture and misery, they are forced to listen to death metal and must attend planning meetings. (Well, that's hell to me.)

2) Heaven: where the good people go to get fitted with a pair of wings and a halo, then spend eternity playing a harp and walking around on clouds and . . . well, that's really about it.

I believe that the Buddhists, for example, have a much cooler belief of the afterlife than do these other Christian churches. The idea of building up good or bad karma and then being reborn into a new life or as a new kind of animal has far more appeal to me than sitting around on a cloud playing a harp all day, every day - because at least it's progression of one kind and not stagnation.

By contrast, there is a Man with a plan, and he has revealed through his Latter-day prophets that there is much, much more for the faithful to do, and there is much more awaiting them in the great realms beyond than playing stringed instruments.

Not that there's anything wrong with stringed instruments. Because there isn't.

At any rate, the LDS idea of eternal progression is a mindboggling one for me. I don't know that I fully grasp the concept at this point. Nevertheless, however long it may take - in my case, we're talking tens or thousands of years at the very minimum - the goal of each of God's children is to one day, however far off, become like him, just as caterpillars are reborn as butterflies and puppies grow up to become dogs.

Not cats, though. They belong in hell.