Catchin' Up...

O.k., O.k., so I've had writer's block.

And I've just acquiesced to it; tossed to and fro from the heights of 'hey, I could write about this' to the depths of 'naw, that's just stupid'. Maybe the only sane way to handle this malady is to write your way out of it. So, here I am, pounding the keyboard like Darwin's monkey, hoping something sensible appears on the page.

I've been skirmishing with mormons lately. In the old days of glorious christendom, we'd just have a trial followed by a big bon-fire, but now we have to be polite to all the pagans. What a bloody bore that is. This is probably the worst thing about post-modern America. We hide what we really think behind carefully neutral expressions. We hem and haw searching for words that won't offend. We listen and nod and croon gibberish like, 'if that works for you'. Rodney King is our secular patron saint. Can't we all just get along? Secular virtue consists of three things, and God help you if you don't conform: We must accept everyone's religious view, no matter how stupid, we must always buckle our seat belt and put tots in car seats, and we must never, ever use tobacco. Beyond this, hey, this is America, go do what you want.

I wouldn't care so much, but my dad-in-law is one of them. A mormon I mean, and an American, but not Rodney King. He was brought up in LDS ways, fell away as a young man, and dove back into the slop shortly after my mom-in-law passed away, about 3 years ago. Since then, we've been trying to rescue him. But I gave up today. By which I mean, I gave up trying to win, and gave the whole situation to God, which is what I should have done to begin with. I always make this mistake. I think I can argue and cajole and browbeat and convince. It works often enough to confirm me in my pride, setting me up for a fall.

We've tried everything with dad. We've looked at the Scriptures together, but we can't even agree on which Scriptures are authoritative. For him, it's only the ones that seem to agree with his prophet. He then agreed to read 'The Godmakers' if I agreed to read the Book of Mormon. So I did read it. For the second time; I once flirted with mormonism when I left home. Neither of us were moved. I still consider the Book of Mormon third rate fiction and dad considers Ed Decker a big, fat liar. I'm tempted to ban him and his heresy from my house. But I know this is only frustration and hurt and pride reacting to obstinance.

The only thing I can do is love him. And pray. And hope he eventually understands Galatians 1:6-9.

There's lots I admire about my dad-in-law. He's a great guy, a devoted father and grand-father, honest, principled and wise (about most things). He has a natural ease around tools and is the ultimate do-it-yourselfer, a quality I wish I had. I couldn't have built my house without his advice and help. He's generous to a fault, so much so that I've learned not to muse 'I wish I had one of those.. where did you get that?' because he always responds, 'here, take mine'. He once presented my wife with an $800 digital camera, just because we were going on vacation and didn't have a camera. His work ethic, even now at 70 + years, is phenomenal. Like me, he always has something he's working on. Unlike me, he gets it done.

Hey, look at that... no more writer's block!