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<\/a>Becoming Brigham<\/em>, the new series of mini-documentaries produced by the Interpreter Foundation and Red Brick Film Works, will launch tomorrow, Monday, 26 January. \u00a0Its first episode will be posted to YouTube at, I think, 12 noon Utah time. \u00a0I hope that you\u2019ll give it a look at your earliest convenience \u2014 the episodes will typically run about fifteen minutes in length \u2014 and that, if you feel at all so inclined, you will bring it to the attention of others (e.g., family, ward members, neighbors, colleagues, and friends) who might be interested.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve been working on Becoming Brigham<\/em> for well over a year now. \u00a0At this point, we simply hope that it will (a) attract an audience and (b) prove informative and enjoyable. \u00a0I\u2019m pretty confident about (b) and cautiously optimistic about (a). \u00a0But we shall see!<\/p>\n I sometimes encounter the complaint from some atheists that they don\u2019t even\u00a0desire<\/em> immortality because, they say, eternal life would be unendurably boring.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t take the complaint very seriously. \u00a0Maybe they\u2019re tired of life, but I\u2019m not. \u00a0On any given day, if I were to be told that I could choose between my life ending (even painlessly) 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\u00a0Canon<\/em>, one more viewing of\u00a0Groundhog Day,<\/em> that really interesting book that sits still unread on my bookshelf, that great novel that I\u2019ve been meaning to read forever but still haven\u2019t managed to open. \u00a0I\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 touring the same places again and again to grow boring. \u00a0But I always enjoy introducing people for their first time to the pyramids and Caesarea Philippi and the Hagia Sophia.<\/p>\n There\u2019s much more that could be said, of course, in response to the claim that immortality would be or 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\u00a0<\/em>(1908) a few months 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>\n<\/blockquote>\n One of the great passages in Latter-day Saint scripture is this, in which the Lord himself is speaking:<\/p>\n And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine.\u00a0And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no endto my works, neither to my words.For behold, this is my work and my glory\u2014to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life\u00a0of man. (Moses 1:37-39)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I can imagine that bringing about the immortality and eternal life of intelligent persons would be at least as absorbing and fulfilling for a perfectly caring Person as introducing tourists to the Old City of Jerusalem or to the ancient walls of Constantinople is to a reasonably decent retired professor. \u00a0Moreover, I have no conception at all of the enjoyments, satisfactions, and joys open to an exalted being. \u00a0The gap between fallen mortals and deity is surely vastly greater than that between beginning piano students, barely coping with Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star<\/em>, and accomplished virtuosi. \u00a0The former cannot really imagine what it\u2019s like to play, say, Beethoven\u2019s Emperor Concerto<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Given all of the tumult and distractions in the current headlines, here\u2019s an important news story that you might easily have missed: \u00a0\u201cFirst Astronauts On Mars Greeted By Mormon Missionaries\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Perhaps you\u2019ve already seen this announcement: \u00a0\u201cFirst Presidency announces 1-hour sacrament meeting to commemorate Palm Sunday in 2026: Easter Sunday this year is the same day as the final day of the Church\u2019s April 2026 general conference\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 What is striking to me about the announcement is not only the idea of a one-hour sacrament meeting on the Sunday prior to Easter and General Conference but the fact that we\u2019re now referring to that day as Palm Sunday<\/em>. \u00a0I\u2019ve long advocated more emphasis not merely on Easter, standing alone in splendid isolation, but on Holy Week, which culminates<\/em> in Easter \u2014 or, as Claudia Bushman prefers, in \u201cResurrection Day.<\/a>\u201d \u00a0See, for example, \u201cThe days leading up to Easter Sunday\u201d<\/a> (a Deseret News<\/em> column from 2011) and \u201cHoly Week aids Easter reflections\u201d<\/a> (a Deseret News<\/em> column from 2014).<\/p>\n If you thought that Sunday would be a day when you would be spared the horrors of the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122, you thought wrong. \u00a0Here\u2019s something that I just retrieved from its seemingly infinite (and yet ever increasing) collection of outrages: \u00a0\u201cHow the Church Is Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the United States\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
(Chandra X-Ray Observatory\/Caltech\/NASA public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
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Wikimedia Commons public domain image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a>