Columns Archive

9August 19, 2011
The Unbearable Lightness of Being

I am here one day, and on the next, I am gone. Yet I am part of a community, a...
19August 18, 2011
“The 2011 OB Drink Give-away”

I’ve spent almost all my 38 years in Texas or Louisiana, so I’ve weathered some bad summers. The summer of...
10August 17, 2011
Saving Her Pennies

When my kids were younger, I naively fantasized about how great it would be once they got out of daycare...
12August 16, 2011
When We Lived in Uncle’s Hat

When We Lived in Uncle’s Hat explores what makes a home or a family — the family goes through many...
4August 15, 2011
Place and Grace

My fondest childhood memories are on a boat. Nearly every summer time was spent at a lake or reservoir swimming,...
4August 14, 2011
Stephanie’s Walk to “Church”

Today’s “Ride to Church” comes to us from Stephanie Durden Edwards of Missouri. Stephanie writes: ; My Sundays used...
11August 13, 2011
07 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Spiritual Pinball

These strategies are how we self-soothe, in a spiritual sense. They are the pinball bumpers of Mormonism-bumpers that will...
6August 12, 2011
The Rabbit Hole

Today’s guest post was written by Amanda Mixon, a graduate student of English at Texas State University in San Marcos,...
6August 11, 2011
Window to Utopia

What would heaven be like, for a teenager?
9August 10, 2011
Around the Dinner Table: Do What You Are

; [This is kind of cheating because it didn’t actually occur around the dinner table. It occurred in our mini-van,...
10August 9, 2011
Husband and Wife Book Club: The Road

Read The Road only if you can handle the bittersweetness of life. Read The Road only if you can bear...
11August 7, 2011
Fast (?) Sunday

It is the first Sunday of the month. In many Mormon families that means one thing: no breakfast! Well, that’s...
5August 7, 2011
Ride to Church + in Snake River, Idaho

Today’s post comes to us from Sean whose personal blog can be found here: www.inlimine.blogspot.com To fully enjoy Sean’s...
54August 6, 2011
06 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: The Real Story

We learn the mental gymnastics of religious apologetics like Hispanics learn soccer.
6August 5, 2011
The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life begins with a quotation from The Book of Job: “Where were you when I laid the...
2August 4, 2011
The Nursery Window

“Long ago,” he said, “I thought like you that my mother would always keep the window open for me, so...
10August 3, 2011
My Little Red Book

I recently re-read a book called My Little Red Book-a compilation of first period stories written by women from all...
21August 2, 2011
The Husband and Wife Summer Book Club

I’ve written in the past about how different our literary taste tends to be. We are reliable (and not always...
7August 1, 2011
Like a Virgin

“10% of yoga is the outfit, 10% are the poses” the teacher joked at the beginning of class, then followed...
9July 31, 2011
10 Seconds with Tinkerbell

This week I found myself in that place Tinkerbell is so fond of — the place between asleep and awake....
7July 31, 2011
Ride to Music and the Spoken Word

Today’s Ride to Music and the Spoken Word comes to us from Katrina Barker Anderson, who took pictures of her...
19July 30, 2011
05 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: On Testimonies

I like fast and testimony meetings. I like them even though I sometimes feel like I’ve wandered into a UFO...
20July 29, 2011
Mormon Film Pioneers

I believe we have stories to tell and if we don’t do it, it will be done for us.
4July 28, 2011
We Are Pioneers

As I was telling my Kindergartner earlier this month that we’re all pioneers in some way. Whenever we stand up...
2July 27, 2011
A Twist on “Pioneer Day”

When it was announced that gays and lesbians would be allowed to marry in New York beginning on July 24,...
15July 27, 2011
Letters to My Polygamist Ancestors

By Dayna Patterson ; Letters to My Polygamist Ancestors Dear Charles, What was it like to have three wives? It...
15July 26, 2011
But With Joy Wend Your Way

Few hymns seem to capture the Mormon spirit so completely or at ts best. The steady beginning building to the...
12July 25, 2011
Trekkie

Those who weren’t too busy, too judgmental, too self absorbed and too self-important to drop everything to help someone else...
11July 24, 2011
O Pioneers!

One year we had a brown horse in the church parking lot. Bonnet-wearing girls and cowboy-hatted boys took turns “riding”...
3July 24, 2011
Trek

Mormons all over the U.S. (and elsewhere, perhaps) gathered yesterday to celebrate Pioneer Day–commemorating the entry of Brigham Young...
16July 23, 2011
04 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Build Out, Not Up

Can a religion be built on faith? Just plain faith? Faith that isn’t looking for a promotion, or...
6July 22, 2011
Eat, Bray, Shove: Two Men’s Mimicry, Mockery and Mastication Across Northern England

What would you get if the producers of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” combined “My Dinner with Andre ” and “Easy Rider”...
10July 21, 2011
The Gluttonous Baby

For as long as humans have made objects, there have been baby dolls. It’s an almost universal phenomenon that...
18July 20, 2011
I, Heather Kathleen Olson Beal, Being of Sound Mind and Body

A few months ago, Brent and I finally managed to complete a task that has been on our to-do list...
14July 19, 2011
Return and Report: The Murakami Edition

Four novels later, I find myself firmly in the critical admirers’ camp.
6July 18, 2011
Austin Eateries: We Are What We Eat (?)

It’s really cheating for me to write anything for The Wayfarer because I’m a big fan of my comfort zone...
20July 17, 2011
Claudia’s Ride to Church in Moelv, Norway

Today’s Ride to Church comes to us all the way from Claudia (Faithful Dissident) in Moelv, Norway. Claudia writes:...
3July 17, 2011
Great Expectations

In 2006, Elder Nelson spoke of his first wife saying, “When people have asked her how she managed with ten...
10July 16, 2011
03 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: From Kolob Wikileaks

“The iron rod should only go halfway through the mist-just HALFWAY, not all the way. It’s clear from the...
4July 15, 2011
Operation Stop Arm

My neighbor Sheri and I watched motorists pass our children’s school bus for years. We took video, called the police,...
170July 13, 2011
Modesty, Mormon-style

We try not to rant here at Doves & Serpents. We try to discuss things we’re thinking about, exchange ideas,...
15July 12, 2011
Staff Stacks

What the writers of D&S are into right now.
2July 11, 2011
Earthy Soulful Awakening

I grew up road-tripping to my dad’s favorites: Johnny Cash, Trio: Linda Rondstadt, Emmylou Harris & Dolly Parton, and AM...
6July 10, 2011
Healing Waters

“You’ll only be baptized once in your life, so it is a very special experience,” my grandmother said, speaking at...
9July 10, 2011
Walk to Church/Synagogue in Krakow

Today’s Walk to Church/Synagogue comes to us from Jacob Baker, who recently attended a conference in Krakow, Poland. This is...
14July 9, 2011
02 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Our God is Too Small

The problem is that our assumption of order and constancy doesn’t match the diversity, incoherence, and contradictions of lived religion.
2July 9, 2011
Considering James Bond in a Post-Mad Men World

You, the audience, look through the barrel of an assassin’s rifle at a circular white space as a smartly dressed...
1July 7, 2011
Needing it Now and the Eye of the Storm

As I watched from my TV with a newborn baby, I was physically ill at the sight of those not...
6July 6, 2011
Passing up Girls’ Night Out

I consider myself a friendly, outgoing person. I had a great group of girls I was friends with in high...
10July 5, 2011
Rasputin Records

My husband and I both enjoy a really broad range of musical genres. As such, I’ve often wondered — how...