Ordinary Light
April 1, 2018One hour of a particular day,
like a sudden flu it descends upon you
the first time.
You could not have known.
DiaBLOGue
A Dialogue Retrospective
April 1, 2018Looking back at Dialogue from a perspective of six years seems to me a lot like looking at my six-year-old child and wondering how she grew so fast and unpredictably while pondering where the time…
The Times — They Are Still A’ Changin’
April 1, 2018When Allen Roberts and I began our tenure with Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought in 1992, it was a craze-filled time, not unlike that of the 1960s—the debate over academic freedom at Brigham Young…
Fact of my life
April 1, 2018My job was once threatened if I published a poem.
I lived in another place
but in America and knew my rights.
I let the poem wait. Oh, I read it aloud once
Multi-Faceted and Extraordinarily Capable | Harvard S. Heath, ed., In the World: The Diaries of Reed Smoot
April 1, 2018To most people, Utah’s apostle-senator, Reed Smoot, seems one-dimensional. Most Latter-day Saints re member him as a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles and as a senator from Utah. Some have heard of the…
An Extremely Consequential Contribution | D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, and The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power
April 1, 2018These two volumes aim to describe the development of the hierarchical leadership and organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon) as well as certain related issues. They begin with…
Observing the New West | Brady Udall, Letting Loose the Hounds
April 1, 2018Since easterners first invested the West, the landscape and inhabitants have generally been viewed through the lens of a movie, television, or tourist camera. Everybody from eco-terrorists to wise-use ranchers, from politicians to military officers,…
We Write What We Want to Know
April 1, 2018I want to know why water has the right of way
where God dwells near zenith or nadir
why you see stars better peripherally
why some people have a fear of trees
Northing by Musket and Sextant
April 1, 2018Steven whistled Neil Young songs to himself as the pickup sped north towards Saltillo. From the truck’s open bed, he commanded an obstructionless and enviable view of this Mexican wilderness’s enormous sterility. For some, it…
A Sunday School Answer
April 1, 2018Just another day in paradise in the Garden Park Ward. It was a spring morning that felt more like summer, and Sister Conway, our Sunday school instructor, was gracious enough to leave the door open,…