Robert Blair: Mormon Scholars Testify

Last updated on: April 18, 2016 at 7:47 pm By Margaret Blair Young

A Linguist’s Perspective on Things Beyond Understanding I don’t think that the universe with its billions of galaxies, trillions of stars and planets, and a huge assortment of other objects and phenomena, together with the laws that govern their precise movements, came about by accident. Many scientists conjecture that it all came out of an infinitesimally tiny speck so dense that it contained all that was to become the elements of matter. That out of that submicroscopic particle came all... Read more

Burning Bush

Last updated on: March 19, 2016 at 3:20 pm By Margaret Blair Young

I talked with my father about death quite often. I was always with him at the end of dialysis, which was sometimes a scary time. I would sit him up slowly, knowing that if it was too fast, he would faint. He did faint many times, and I simply rubbed his calves and said, “Dad? Are you with me? Can you come back?” Eventually, he would regain consciousness. He said sometimes that he wondered if he might die during one... Read more

Robert Blair Obituary, Part 4: The Story Teller’s Last Stories

Last updated on: March 11, 2016 at 4:42 pm By Margaret Blair Young

Note: This post includes a photo of Robert Blair’s lifeless body in the last part. If photos of dead bodies cause you anxiety, please do not continue. I have written the previous obituary segments in third person. This one will be in first person. In 2005, Mom and Dad were in China, where they had taught English for five years. Dad had lost most of the function in one kidney. Now, the second kidney failed. All of us Blairs... Read more

Death of a Latter-day Saint

Last updated on: March 10, 2016 at 9:04 pm By Margaret Blair Young

Embedded in this post is a youtube link to my father’s funeral. This is something I would want everyone studying the Latter-day Saint faith to listen to as an example of what a Mormon life is or can be. My father, Robert W. Blair, was born Mormon, but was planted deep into his faith through associations with many religions and cultures. His earliest experience of devotion happened after he viewed the Catholic film Bernadette, and, on his way home from the... Read more

Obituary for Robert Blair – Part 3: The Baltics

Last updated on: February 25, 2016 at 1:51 pm By Margaret Blair Young

Robert Blair’s first mission call from the LDS Church sent him to Finland, a land far removed in every way from his home in Santa Barbara, California. He became well acquainted with winter. When he arrived in Helsinki, he could look across the Baltic Sea and gaze at the somber lights of Estonia, which was now part of the USSR‘s expanse. Russian was spoken there (though the Estonians resisted it), but Estonia was a world away. No missionaries would be... Read more

Robert Wallace Blair Obituary, Part 2

Last updated on: February 24, 2016 at 3:08 pm By Margaret Blair Young

The title for Robert Blair’s PhD dissertation could compete in “Most Impressive.” The title was Yucatec Maya Noun and Verb Morpho-Syntax. He himself forgot the title in his later years, and said, “What on earth does that mean?” when his daughter reminded him of it. Robert got his BA at BYU in English. He did not realize it at the time, but he was already headed into linguistics when he pursued his MA—again in English, but with a twist. He... Read more

Obituary for Robert Wallace Blair – Part I

Last updated on: February 21, 2016 at 9:46 am By Margaret Blair Young

Robert Wallace Blair passed away in his sleep on February 19, 2016 at age 85. Robert was born on September 25, 1930 to Wallace and Gladys Marguerite Green Blair in Santa Barbara, California. He joined his sister, Carolyn, in that family and lived a childhood filled with disciplined freedom. He trotted through Mission Oaks Lane on his horse (Jupiter), with his dog (Trixy) running beside him, and his goat (Bambi) bawling by her pen. He was Bobby in those years,... Read more

Jane Manning James: Her Life Story in Her Own Words

Last updated on: February 12, 2016 at 10:03 am By Margaret Blair Young

When I publish anything about Black LDS pioneer Jane Elizabeth Manning James, people from around the world express a desire to know more about her. Last night, I recorded her life story as she dictated it to Elizabeth J.D. Roundy. I have included photos from the last production of my play I Am Jane. It would have been nice to have one of Jane’s descendants do this recording, or to have a black voice artist. Since I have no money... Read more

We Tend to Resurrect in my Family

Last updated on: January 31, 2016 at 1:14 pm By Margaret Blair Young

We have frequent resurrections in my family. My brother Bobby suffered a hip-pulverizing injury in 1982 when a stadium gate fell on his pelvis. The doctors did not think he would survive, and my mother called my dad from the ER waiting room: “Bobby is dying.” Dad ran to the hospital and into the room where his semi-conscious son lay. From the ganglia of tubes and wires, Bobby reached his arms out to Dad. “Hug!” he said. That was the... Read more

Risen and Rising

Last updated on: January 26, 2016 at 10:10 pm By Margaret Blair Young

My fundamental belief as a Latter-day Saint is that we are continuously in process of either blossoming or withering, that our potential is infinite and our mortality only one phase of our eternal learning. I have often said that mortality is pre-school, in which we learn (or refuse to learn) the basic principles of the gospel—faith, repentance, forgiveness, charity. I believe that most religions espouse these virtues, and that eventually all will become one, with Christ at the head. In... Read more

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