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<\/a>I sometimes encounter the complaint from some atheists that they don\u2019t even desire<\/em> immortality because, they say, eternal life would be unendurably boring. \u00a0I don\u2019t take the complaint very seriously. \u00a0On any given day, if I were to be told that I could choose between my life ending at midnight, on the one hand, and, on the other, having at least one more day, I would always choose the latter. \u00a0I would prefer to think of the next day, of the next minute, rather than of \u201cforever\u201d as some sort of concrete and monolithic reality, and I\u2019m always up for the next minute and the next day. \u00a0I\u2019ll always elect for yet another dip in the pool, yet another Alpine panorama or tropical seascape, tomorrow\u2019s chocolate milkshake or chicken coconut kurma<\/em>, one more repetition of Pachelbel\u2019s Canon<\/em>, one more viewing of Groundhog Day. \u00a0<\/em>I\u2019ve always found it difficult to call it quits and turn the lights off at night. \u00a0Am I bored by tours to the Middle East? \u00a0I can see why one might imagine it to grow boring. \u00a0But I always enjoy introducing people to the pyramids and Caesarea Philippi and the Hagia Sophia for the first time.<\/p>\n There\u2019s much more that could be said, of course, in response to the claim that immortality will be unbearably dull. \u00a0And I suppose that the claim does raise a serious issue. \u00a0But I ran across this passage from G. K. Chesterton\u2019s classic book Orthodoxy <\/em>(1908) a few moments ago, and it seems cheekily relevant to the topic:<\/p>\n Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, \u201cDo it again\u201d; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, \u201cDo it again\u201d to the sun; and every evening, \u201cDo it again\u201d to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We had reservations for a session at the L\u0101\u02bbie Hawai\u2019i Temple the other day but, for previously unforeseen reasons, we had to let them go. \u00a0(We also had to cancel our reservations for a whale watching cruise, for the very same previously unforeseen reasons.)<\/p>\n Today, though, we had lunch at the home of a friend across the island in Kahuku and, thereafter, we at least had the chance to drive over to the Temple and to spend just a few minutes walking around its extraordinarily beautiful grounds, and then to drive for just a bit around the Hawai\u2019i campus of Brigham Young University. \u00a0There is a special spirit in and about L\u0101\u02bbie that I\u2019ve felt every time I\u2019ve visited. \u00a0Including today. \u00a0Perhaps it even antedates the Temple and the Latter-day Saint settlement there since, in former times, it was \u2014 very appropriately, I think \u2014 a pu\u02bbuhonua<\/i><\/span>, a sanctuary for fugitives.<\/p>\n I had hoped to touch base with Professor Matthew L. Bowen<\/a>, who teaches at Brigham Young University\u2019s Hawai\u2019i campus and who is a still relatively recent addition to the board of directors of the Interpreter Foundation. \u00a0Unfortunately, we were unable to make it work. \u00a0But he was able to be in our home back in Utah just a few days ago for the first Interpreter Foundation board meeting of 2024, so that will have to do.<\/p>\n Dr. Bowen has published numerous articles<\/a> as well as these two books through the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n I commend his work to your attention.<\/p>\n For reasons that will shortly become apparent, I\u2019ve lately been reading a fair amount about New Zealand history and the history of the M\u0101ori. \u00a0And I can\u2019t help but contrast the attitudes of the nineteenth-century P\u0101keh\u0101<\/i>, the New Zealanders of European descent, toward the \u201cindigenous\u201d peoples of the country with the attitudes of Latter-day Saint leaders that led them to found the Polynesian Cultural Center (the PCC) in L\u0101\u02bbie. \u00a0The Brethren were, of course, concerned about the costs to students \u2013especially, then, to (often impoverished) Polynesian students \u2014 of an education at BYU-Hawaii. \u00a0They believed that the PCC would help those students finance their schooling. \u00a0But they were also concerned that the traditional cultures of not only Hawaii but Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, Fiji, and other Pacific islands (including Aotearoa or New Zealand) were in danger of disappearing. \u00a0So they created the PCC to preserve, showcase, and \u201cincentivize\u201d the cultivation and conservation of those cultures. \u00a0In New Zealand history, however, a recurrent theme among P\u0101keh\u0101 politicians and leaders in the 1800s was that it was the destiny (and, perhaps, even the duty) of the M\u0101ori to assimilate if not altogether to disappear. \u00a0This is no longer the attitude, of course. \u00a0And happily so. \u00a0But I\u2019m proud that Church leaders took practical steps all the way back in 1963 to try to preserve the cultures and traditions of the island peoples.<\/p>\n<\/a>
(LDS Media Library)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/a>\n
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It looks a bit faded, doesn\u2019t it? \u00a0Nevertheless, I (for one) remain a fan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n