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Recent Posts
- Psaltery & Lyre’s New Site
- 123 Psaltery & Lyre: “Agricola Dreams of Flying” by J. Rose Lara
- 122 Psaltery & Lyre: “Communion: a love poem (a villanelle)” by Rachel Bollinger
- Book Review: Philip Metres’s Sand Opera
- 121 Psaltery & Lyre: Rachael Matthews, “Horsehead Nebula”
- Book Review: Monica Ong’s Silent Anatomies
- 120 Psaltery & Lyre: Rachael Matthews, “Return, pt. III” and “Gaia”
- Book Review: Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely
- Book Review: Matthea Harvey, If the Tabloids Are True What Are You?
- Book Review: LoterÃa Cards and Fortune Poems: A Book of Lives
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Tag Cloud
Book of Mormon books children church Cipher on a Wall creative death epistemology equality faith fakebook families family fear female ordination feminism gender Grondahl homeless humor Joseph Smith kids lds life love marriage memories mind mormon mormonism motherhood music nature ordain women parenthood parenting photography poetry priesthood religion service sex sexuality spirituality women
Columns Archive
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Crazy all of the time
Posted on November 21, 2010 | 2 CommentsA friend of mine recently said, “None of us gets the luxury of being independent of our context.” As much as I try not to be a victim to my context, I must agree that the world around me, as well as the context of […] -
Device
Posted on November 20, 2010 | 5 CommentsBirthdays are a natural time to put one’s current moment into the perspective of history. This past week I’m realizing just how much history has slipped by in so little time. I guess all I can really ask is to live an eventful life, so […] -
Revolutionary Road
Posted on November 19, 2010 | 13 CommentsWhat does it mean to be a woman? -
What if God Were One of Us?
Posted on November 18, 2010 | 2 CommentsWe try to equalize as much as possible, because I know that's how God sees us. There is not a difference in God's eyes. And you'd be surprised how much we really do have in common. -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 19
Posted on November 17, 2010 | 1 CommentTommy's always been a one for cheerful status updates. -
“Aren’t you afraid you’re going to turn him gay?”
Posted on November 17, 2010 | 23 Comments“Aren’t you afraid you’re going to turn him gay?” I’ve been asked this question many times. The first few times, I was speechless (which pretty much never happens to me). After those first few times, my canned response became: “Well . . . if […] -
Seminal Works — Gilead
Posted on November 16, 2010 | 11 CommentsThis meditative novel is an examination of faith, humanity and the unbearable beauty of everyday life; it is impossible to overstate the spare, lyrical beauty of Robinson's prose or the complexity and intellectual rigor she brings to her writing. -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 18
Posted on November 15, 2010 | 2 CommentsElijah Abel sees something unexpected on Brigham's 'feed'... -
Not Dead Yet
Posted on November 15, 2010 | 5 CommentsI’ve come to believe I must be half Mormon-girl, half rebel. I’m a sucker for a theme, a central idea to focus my efforts, yet the traditional “charity never faileth” or “kindness begins with me” just don’t seem to inspire. So when choosing a theme […] -
The Places That Scare You
Posted on November 14, 2010 | 7 Comments“Confess your hidden faults. Approach what you find repulsive. Help those you think you cannot help. Anything you are attached to, let it go. Go to the places that scare you. – advice from her teacher to the Tibetan Yogini Machik Labdron In 2009, fresh […] -
Blessed Eve, Mother of All Living
Posted on November 13, 2010 | 8 CommentsThe opposite of life is not death, rather never knowing. Yet knowledge has been called a forbidden fruit and a poison … the root of all evil … a bitter token of death. And Eve, she who was tempted to partake, has been made to […] -
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Posted on November 12, 2010 | 15 CommentsWe all occasionally construct protective layers around our emotions, convinced that forgetting will negate the trouble of pain, the complications of connecting. But is that how we want to live? -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 17
Posted on November 11, 2010 | 9 CommentsIt's an apostle. It's a vegetable. It's a heavenly combination! -
To Hear and Be Heard
Posted on November 11, 2010 | 5 CommentsDeparting from the standard brief personal essay, today I’d like to introduce you all to my friend Allison Mitchell, founder and Executive Director of Lazarus Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia. On Thanksgiving Day, 2000, Allison and a friend committed to spend the day serving the […] -
Care to join me for guitar practice, anyone?
Posted on November 10, 2010 | 8 CommentsBut when you have three kids who all have to be in three different places at the same time, the babysitter plus me still doesn't cut it. I often attempt to do way more things in a short period of time than is humanly possible -
Being Awesome
Posted on November 9, 2010 | 17 CommentsYou cannot try to be awesome, you must be awesome....that is the law of awesome -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 16
Posted on November 8, 2010 | 3 CommentsWilliam Law is 'linking' to the Expositor. -
Enough is enough
Posted on November 8, 2010 | 6 CommentsWherefore do ye spend money for [that which is] not bread? and your labour for [that which] satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye [that which is] good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. -
Top 10 Principles of Happiness That I was Never taught at Church
Posted on November 7, 2010 | 30 Comments1. Don’t believe everything you think. Putting aside all past conditioning — if that’s even possible – ask yourself, “Who am I?” At the core of your human experience, who or what are you? As you engage the question, attempt to answer it without […] -
A Man of Letters
Posted on November 6, 2010 | 24 CommentsEverything I have learned about God is written in a book. In fact, it's difficult to imagine how my worldview might differ had certain ideas not been memorialized, glorified, and canonized in the form of holy books ... -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 15
Posted on November 5, 2010 | 4 CommentsLeisure time for the Prez. -
The Exorcist
Posted on November 5, 2010 | 10 CommentsFriedkin's film is trying to tell us this: decay, ugliness, suffering and evil exist. And they're not just someone else's problem. -
Duped?
Posted on November 4, 2010 | 14 CommentsI was pleased to have given away my fourth lunch, but in retelling the story, I began having doubts. Was this person scamming people? -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 14
Posted on November 3, 2010 | 3 CommentsOrson Hyde is goin' on a mission. -
On living my confirmation
Posted on November 3, 2010 | 30 CommentsI took a course as a Ph.D. student called “Engendering Curriculum History.” I was 30-something, had three kids (ages 0, 3, and 6), and fancied myself a good feminist (although also Mormon, which is an oxymoron to many-myself included). An article we read […] -
15 Favorite …
Posted on November 2, 2010 | 15 CommentsPersonally, I'm a sucker for these lists. I seem to be constitutionally incapable of resisting them, even though they're hardly ever revelatory. -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 13
Posted on November 1, 2010 | 5 CommentsLorenzo and GBH have crossed wires! :s -
Sunday Morning Comics
Posted on November 1, 2010 | 5 CommentsTo a recovering claustrophobic , the crowds that day at the national mall were intense, a sea of people so wide you couldn’t see an end to it. Estimates have it at 200,000, but in the middle of it all it could have been a […] -
What is Yoga?
Posted on October 31, 2010 | 11 CommentsIn my experience growing up in America, in my particular demographic, it seemed that everyone knows what yoga is. Most people have taken a class or two at a local gym, or they’ve heard from a friend that they should do yoga as a way […] -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 12
Posted on October 30, 2010 | 3 CommentsGetting to know Joseph through his FB updates. -
Golem
Posted on October 30, 2010 | 8 CommentsThere is a story among my people of the time before. It is a story meant to answer the youthful questions: “Who am I? What am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?” It is a story meant to bind the heart […] -
Quentin Tarantino: ‘Pulp Fiction’
Posted on October 29, 2010 | 8 CommentsTarantino's masterpiece 'Pulp Fiction' explores the space between natural phenomena and those inexplicable events that escape reasoned justification. -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 11
Posted on October 28, 2010 | 6 CommentsCorianton is 'in a relationship'! -
Spreading Good Cheer
Posted on October 28, 2010 | 4 CommentsI called out- "I have a lunch!" With out missing a beat, he replied, "Not anymore you don't!" -
Fei Hua (Chinese for “wasted words”)
Posted on October 27, 2010 | 15 CommentsI got to my office one morning and this cartoon was taped to my door: I knew right away who had put it there. It was Co-worker A, a man who shares many of my parenting frustrations. We often trade eye rolls about […] -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 10
Posted on October 26, 2010 | 6 CommentsZelph has something to add. -
A Guide to Life
Posted on October 26, 2010 | 11 CommentsOne day, when I was about nine-years-old and in this mode, I came across a book that would change my life -
Drawn Like Moths to Light
Posted on October 25, 2010 | 10 Comments. . . if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. . . 1 John 1:7 I squirmed in my seat when I heard the words “I am Jesus,” exclaimed from the pulpit. The woman […] -
The Secret Power of Yoga
Posted on October 24, 2010 | 9 CommentsIt's easy to see the obvious benefits of yoga: a supple body, increased strength, and stress relief to name a few. But there's more - yoga changes us internally as well. -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 9
Posted on October 23, 2010 | 5 CommentsBrother Brigham has been updating his FB sidebar... -
Seeing
Posted on October 23, 2010 | 18 CommentsClouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line ... -
Arranged
Posted on October 22, 2010 | 19 CommentsStefan Schaefer’s Arranged (2007) is a beautiful presentation of the ordinary life of women in patriarchal religions, and gently portrays the way that they find choice in their religious adherence. Based on the real-life story of Yuta Silverman, Rochel Meshenberg (Zoe Lister-Jones) portrays a young […] -
Do-er or Hear-er?
Posted on October 21, 2010 | 4 CommentsWhat in your life shows that you are a do-er, and not just a hear-er? -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 8
Posted on October 20, 2010 | 2 CommentsAn image has been discovered in the FB archives. -
Urban Camping Part II
Posted on October 20, 2010 | 13 CommentsMy husband had just offered me the deal of the century: one month, completely kid-free, so that I could focus all my attention and energy on writing my dissertation proposal. Of course I took him up on his offer ... -
Keeping My Hand In
Posted on October 19, 2010 | 18 CommentsFour years on, I'm in a slump and I'm really just keeping my hand in. -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 7
Posted on October 18, 2010 | 2 CommentsWhere's Noah this time? Pics are on FB! :) -
I’ll Have What She’s Having
Posted on October 18, 2010 | 29 CommentsA friend of mine in college told me he could never marry a vegetarian because he loved to explore different kinds of food too much. In his mind, someone who had restrictions in the food department just couldn’t be a match. I on the other […] -
The Go-To Goddess
Posted on October 17, 2010 | 24 Comments“What does God look like?” I asked my little girl as I tucked her into bed. “Well, he is old, and he has a beard, and wears a. . ..a white dress,” she said. “A-ha,” I answered. “How do you know that?” “That’s what they […] -
Foreplay/Long Time
Posted on October 16, 2010 | 14 CommentsHow the mind trips on time. This message was set to appear live on the web at 11 AM GMT on Saturday, October 16th 2010. If all went well with so many machines and algorithms, at precisely the planned moment a bit was flipped* and […] -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 6
Posted on October 15, 2010 | 9 CommentsRecommendations from the Prophet Joseph's 'visual bookshelf'. -
Werner Herzog: ‘Grizzly Man’
Posted on October 15, 2010 | 20 CommentsHerzog's journey into the 100 hours of film footage taken by the 'Grizzly Man' Timothy Treadwell offers us an expedition into our own relationship with silence, animal majesty and murder. -
Anticipation
Posted on October 14, 2010 | 9 CommentsWe were on our way to church as a family, and I thought it would be a good opportunity for everyone to share in the 'lunch experience." So I was a bit disappointed when no one was waiting at the I-20 exit ramp like I anticipated. -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 5
Posted on October 13, 2010 | 10 CommentsSpecial post-Conference access to the President of the LDS Church's Facebook account has been acquired. -
Urban Camping Part I
Posted on October 13, 2010 | 34 CommentsMy husband and I have tried lots of different divisions of parental responsibilities over almost 14 years. When we started out, he was a student and I was a teacher, so I was the primary breadwinner. He was responsible for getting Kennedy (our […] -
Follow the Prophet
Posted on October 12, 2010 | 10 CommentsWhen we enter the world of art, we are at war and our choices can either be an act of brilliant heroism or pathetic cowardice. When you look back at the music you have listened to, are you filled with the pride a veteran might have for the medals he's won, or do you quietly brush off your associations with the bands you used to listen to? -
Mormon Fakebook Update: 4
Posted on October 11, 2010 | 4 CommentsFacebook updates from upstate New York, in the early nineteenth century. -
Everyone Loves a Parade
Posted on October 11, 2010 | 12 CommentsBacked by a clear blue sky, the sun shone down as if to bless the events from on high. Thousands gathered along the streets and sidewalk. Speeches were given recounting the legacy of the brave men and women who sacrificed so much for the community. […] -
Chasing God
Posted on October 10, 2010 | 25 CommentsThere are times in our lives when we shift. When we become so aware of the beliefs in our lives that are not helpful and we are able to find the courage to release them. Many of us have experienced a crisis of faith, or […] -
Forgotten
Posted on October 9, 2010 | 34 CommentsLight of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul laments Humbert Humbert. The recollection of Lolita draws Nabokov’s unreliable narrator far back in time as the middle-aged man, now grown old with memories, paints a portrait that pleads for pity and argues […]