The garden of Uzza

While reading a passage in Kings on Sunday I found myself wondering where the gardens of Uzza might be found.

2 Kings 21:17

…Manasseh slept with his ancestors, and was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza.

This instantly had me wondering where the garden of Uzza was and what exactly it referred to because there is so little mention of the Kings of Judah being buried in that place.  In fact most early burials mentioned happened in the City of David.  According to some scholars this was apparently was too close to the temple and was considered to defile it.  So they put the new complex on the palace grounds.  Though some disagree with this assessment.

Leave well enough alone

this post could also be entitled:

Your so vain you probably think this blog is about you…

I am not one to bring out family dirty laundry via posts.  In fact I have always couched anyone other than my immediate family in vague terms.  My family are not perfect, far from it.  My family converted to the church when I was three.  In that family there was a number of habits which still exist to this day.  Each of us bares our own responsibility for what is our portion of the family problems and we all should be a part of fixing them.

Sometimes this can be confusing and sometimes they can be impossible.  We are all tried by our own hang ups and false impressions.

Given this, my father went to my temple wedding.  He stood outside with those of my relatives that could not enter the temple.   I wished at the time and still honestly feel it would have been united as a family at that time like we were when we were sealed in 1973.  I love my father, I know we have problems but honestly, I am happy I am who I am and I am mindful of what he gave me.  He may not always know that but last year he was a great blessing in giving me a place to stand knowing his respect for me and love.

That may seem sentimental, but for me it is a startling admission.  One I make happily.  We may have fought, we may have come close to a punch out and I was kicked out of my house once, but yet in all that, when my chips were down my father has stood behind me, how can I not acknowledge that.

But this is not about him.

Family -not quite done- history

After nearly twenty years of research.  Off and on again work and guilt coming from the work done by others and not by me I can tell you that family histories are a labour of love.  Twenty years of reading microfilm,  holding records older than my great great great grandfather, and trying to discern names from Welsh language tomb stones are treasures of my life.

Anyone who has had to bend their tongues around names of places in non-English lands knows the pain of spelling and mangling the names our Ancestors bore and lived in.   Often in history there has been a focus on the great, those men and women who bare a significant part of history or played a role in larger events.

There is no crying in Baseball, only annoyance

The boys of summer used to have a different meaning to members of the church not so long ago.   We did not talk about steroids or human growth hormone, unless you power hitter was hitting the hot dogs a little much.  No it was a great way to encourage Mormon youth and adults to participate in the American past time just as others do in the beer leagues around North America in the summer.

For me I remember the MIA games with fondness as the Lethbridge Second Ward bat boy.

I had my own team hat, red, and the rest of the team had uniforms.  It was organized and was a lot of fun.  I still remember the time I went to get a bat to find myself almost wiped out by a teen charging home.

Ah good times.

Morality play

When I moved over to the United Kingdom I was first introduced to Sky satellite system.  It was a digital dish and in 2000 we switched over to their broadcasts after finding cable less than exciting.

It was a whole new world.  They had loads of public history channels including BBC’s UK History and the UK version of the History Channel.  As well there was Discovery Civilization and the main Discovery channel.  As well the main networks did a number of history related programming.  There was lots of stuff for kids and it was all for the grand total of fifteen pounds a month.  For me it was the best service I have ever had.   Save for the small matter of North American sports which was solved by the North American Sports Network (NASN).

Then we moved to Canada again…sigh.

Second chance to do it right

Currently I am doing some research in the history of Southern Alberta Mormonism.   A few weeks ago I found a book which was considered to be a history of Raymond Alberta.   It was a large book, think a National Geographic Atlas with about 500 pages.  In other words it was big.

Reading through it I became very much aware that book was only a loose history.  It reminded me more of those family history books which are filled with “stories” and genealogy.  They are nice if you are a member of that family but not solid history.

The biggest example for me that things had gone awry was a photo.  The photo was of three women bagging sugar from some time early in the 1900s.  The only note on the photo was something to the effect of:

“You can tell these girls like their sugar because they have such sweet smiles.”

For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.

This title comes from the Lord’s instructions to Samuel about looking for a king.  It was as appropriate then as it is today.  So much of our life in the church focuses on the outward appearance.  The Mormon culture is fascinated about creating uniformity.  Even among those on the outside of the culture there is a sense of claiming unity with the church means you are a Molly Mormon or a Peter Priesthood.

These focused arguments are for me tiresome and annoying.  Honestly, tell me what role a white shirt has in the salvation of souls, or why someone needs to shave their beard to be a leader?  It is cultural, not scriptural from what I can see.  I understand that some may find this post surprising but let me tell you it has been something I have said before.

I do think white shirts have their place in our sacrament tables.  I think clean appearance and Sunday best are important.  But I also remember a Stake President who once said, “I love it when I come to church and smell smoke on a strangers cloths.  Because I know they are either coming back or investigating the church. “