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Parables & Poems, Literature Springs Forth in Maxwell Institute Discord

July 1, 2012 by Bryce Haymond 3 Comments
Pasadena Fire Department and local gardeners respond to a house fire

Pasadena Fire Department and local gardeners team up to rescue an elderly woman from her burning home on June 11, 2012. (Click photo to learn more)

It’s amazing how people wax literary in climates such as these.  Sometimes common language just doesn’t do the subject matter justice, and understanding is not well communicated.  Thus the use of parables and poems.  One of the reasons Christ taught in parables was so that people could learn about different gospel topics by using their everyday vernacular, which could increase understanding (for some it actually hid the truth).

Here are a couple parables and poems that have been written in recent days about the current Maxwell Institute events, or because of them:

  • The first is actually a poem, “The Charge of the FARMS Brigade,” by William Hamblin.  Well done!
  • The second is a parable from Hamblin, “The Parable of the Football Team.”  Very well said, and which I alluded to in my analogy.
  • Thirdly, I entered the fore with “The Analogy of the Basketball Team.”  (It’s not really a parable, but an extended analogy.  Perhaps I should have put it in parable form.)
  • Fourth, I was quite inspired on Friday by David Bohn’s article at Times & Seasons, whereafter I wrote “On the Creative Gift.”
  • Fifth, today Pahoran at the Mormon Dialogue & Discussion Board (MDDB) wrote “The Parable of the Fire Brigade & Gardener.”  I thought this was very well done, so I asked Pahoran permission to repost it here:

    “Once there was a city that had no fire department.  A group of public-spirited citizens banded together, bought a good second-hand fire appliance, began training together, and pretty soon had a rather good working volunteer fire brigade.

    “There was in that same city a loosely affiliated group of semi-professional arsonists.  Naturally, they were angered by the appearance of the volunteer brigade.  They began opposing its activities, muttering loudly that the fire brigade demolished more buildings than it saved, and that bystanders at fires sometimes got wet.

    “Nevertheless, most of the citizens appreciated the work of the brigade, and eventually the mayor of the town approached the volunteers and invited them to come under the umbrella of the city administration.  The volunteers at first resisted these overtures, but eventually they agreed, and the new fire department was constituted, under the oversight of the deparment of Parks and Gardens.

    “Time passed, as it always does.  The arsonists stepped up their campaign of disinformation.  A new mayor was elected.  The fire department increasingly came under the control of Parks and Gardens people who wanted more resources to beautify the city by planting flowering shrubs.  Some of these listened to the murmurings of the arsonists, not realising their true source.  Eventually they succeeded in getting rid of the original fire chief and began to divert the resources of the former fire brigade to their pet garden projects.”

I should note, sometimes firefighters and gardeners can team up, in very rare circumstances, but it’s pretty unusual when it happens (like a transit of Venus?).  And of course, firefighting and gardening are both honest, requisite, and noble fields of work in our world.

Any other good literary works emerge from the past week?  Please let me know, and I’ll add them to this list.

P.S.  On the other hand, if you want to see a remarkable piece of truly refined ad-hominem literature, certainly an epitome in the genre, take a look at this by Edwin Firmage.

Posted in: Scholarship, Texts Tagged: analogy, art, learn, literature, maxwell institute, parable, poem, truth, william hamblin

Alethiology – How to Know the Truth?

June 29, 2012 by Bryce Haymond 8 Comments

I posted this originally as a comment on a blog post over at Times & Seasons, by David Earl Bohn.  I thought I’d share it here:

I understand David Bohn. Scholarship in general does not represent an unassailable uncontested platonic absolute truth, no matter the source from whence it comes. It may be trying to get at the truth, from many different angles, but it can’t quite reach the destination, ever. How close it gets is entirely subjective in each person absorbing it, depending on their experience and resulting perspective.

Truth is like an opaque cloth bag with an object inside, but no opening. You can poke, prod, twist, squeeze, kick, hike, spin, sit on, stretch, slam, or feel it through the bag for eternity, but you won’t know for certain what is inside that bag until you take it out, or ask who put it in there (which still involves some doubt, because now you must judge that individual). You may have an excellent idea, but no certainty. What is its color, for example? No one will ever know, while its still inside the bag.

In terms of religion, I would argue that God is inside the bag, and in Mormon-speak that bag’s the veil. He may also have been the one that put Himself there, or know who did. And this for a reason, perhaps only He knows (another bag). Some day the veil will drop, and we will Know Him.

Alethiology, or the study of the nature of truth (related to epistemology, the study of knowledge its acquisition), would be a good topic to bring up in these discussions. How do we come to a knowledge of truth, in whatever degree? Scholarship certainly helps, but is not an end all. It provides evidence, up for the taking in a never-ending discussion and debate to determine its truthfulness.

Of course, some “truth” is more “simple” than other truth. The fact that I drove a car to work today is pretty incontestable, you’d think. But was it really a “car”? Did I really “drive” it, or can my Utah driving even be considered by that term?  Was it even in the past tense, “drove” (to God it was likely the present)?  Can a rusted out 1993 Honda Civic with malfunctioning speedometer, odometer, A/C, radio, steering fuel leak, and tail lights still be considered an automobile? Is what I do at “work” really work, or is it unrelated blogging on an online Mormon forum?

This is part of the reason I’ve stopped blogging, as of recent. Too distracting from the truth in my work, but often worth it for the truth in the subject matter. Which is more true? Which should be true? Which would I like to be true?

Back to work…

I need a sabbatical all of the sudden.  I feel completely overcome (literally trembling right now) by the creative muse which seems to have engulfed me.  I don’t know where it is coming from, but this isn’t standard Bryce.  And I’m not talking only about what’s been happening in this Maxwell Institute debate.  It’s flowing like a fire hose into all areas of my every day life, from my work, to my home life, my children, my hobbies, my calling, my wife, my language.  Where is it coming from?  I feel incredibly sharp, and quick.  Words are coming to me that I haven’t ever before envisioned or had slip from my tongue.  It’s an amazingly transcendent feeling, which I can’t fully explain.  Maybe I can, but maybe not right now.

Another time when I felt so inspired was when I spouted a sonnet, “A Reply to Sonnet 18.”  I don’t write sonnets folks.  I leave that up to my wife!  See also my post on the hymn “Oh Say, What is Truth?”

Ok, now!

The Creative gift, where does it go?
From the mountains on down, through the rivers flow
Flow through my head, without end
Out of my fingers, without pen
I don’t know, and can’t explain
That which so engulfs me again
The Spirit bloweth where it listeth
To and fro, it  won’t ceaseth
Overcome with thought, I imagine
I’ve been here before, my King!

Posted in: Scholarship, Tidbits Tagged: alethiology, analogy, blogging, comment, discussion, eternity, experience, metaphor, online, origin, religion, scholar, scholars, source, true, truth, veil

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