The Mormon History Association conference was remarkable. I am offering here a bit from LaJean Carruth’s paper which quoted Orson Pratt, with her permission. LaJean did the laborious task of deciphering the shorthand comprising Pratt’s words. I find it refreshing to see Pratt’s anti-slavery sentiments at a time when the issue was so volatile, and soon before Governor Brigham Young would offer his “An Act in Relation to Service”, which led to Utah being considered a slave-holding territory. The full... Read more

This is yet another guest post by my brother, Dell Blair. His writing is too good for me not to share. I remember the day of his great tricycle adventure. I remember the devastated look on my young mother’s face. I remember some men talking about “dragging the canal.” But Dell remembers it from his unique perspective, and tells about it magnificently. Dell Blair: Mother’s day May 10, 2014 at 6:11pm Mom extended her index finger for me to hold... Read more

I don’t understand how these little miracles happen. I have had some jaw-dropping right time/right place miracles, but more often the little ones—which I might miss if I weren’t committed to noticing them. A couple of months ago, I met a lovely redheaded woman—age 27—in the local gym’s hot tub. Her smile was magnificent. I thanked her for being a redhead, something I say to most redheads because there are too few of us and we need to appreciate one... Read more

This is a guest post by my brother, Dell Blair. Beneath the haze of an induced coma a glimmer of awareness illuminates a single ray of reality penetrating the heavily medicated fog and compelling my eyelids to part. Through a filter of lashes and desiccated tears an image emerges more dreamlike than real with impressionistic strokes smeared and rippling across the panorama. There are shadows. There are lights. There is a woman with dark hair standing in the threshold of... Read more

April 1, 1949: My dad is taking a shorthand class at BYU. His sister, Carolyn, appears at the class door asking him to come out. He hesitates because he’s not yet finished with the assignment. She beckons more urgently. When he steps into the hall, she says, “Bobby, Daddy has died.” They go to Santa Barbara, their hometown. My grandmother has been put on tranquilizers. Grandpa had died of a heart attack. Dad takes care of funeral details and late... Read more

Several people have asked that I publish this poem, which I wrote as part of I am Jane. The poem is set up by Jane asking Elijah about all the talk she has been hearing of curses, Cain, Ham, etc. She says, “I’ve never felt cursed by God, only loved so deep, seemed my bones might melt.” Elijah replies, “I feel, Sister Jane, that ours is… Not a curse but a gift t’us, The best path we could seek A... Read more