Green Oasis

Blank Canvas

2009-07-10T20:51:42Z

This is the chronicle of one Mormon boy’s iconoclastic quest to remix and rectify his notions of truth, mind, myth, love, life, and transcendence.

To a large degree, this blog has been true to that initial vision. (How could it not with such a broad definition?) Yet the blog seems to gravitate to one word in that definition: Mormon. That albatross has hung around my neck long enough, but I can’t seem to free myself from it while I write here. This blog’s audience has been primarily interested in topics surrounding Mormonism. I need to be free from the constraint of being topical.

Hence a new blog is born. The new blog’s topic is a complete lack of topic, except whatever random things interest me. I define its success by its power to please me. I won’t be checking its stats or waiting for comments. I just want a place to say things.

I will write here when it seems appropriate. I don’t expect anyone to follow me there, but I thought it would be polite to tell you where things stand.

Happy Second Blogiversary to Me!

2009-01-10T15:45:05Z

It’s been two years since I started this blog and consequently two years since I began my official journey to “remix and rectify [my] notions of truth, mind, myth, love, life, and transcendence”. It’s been good fun so far. Here’s to another year! May it bring us all a little closer to the truth.

Taking Care of Business

2008-09-23T16:16:22Z

I try to scan the spam comments that Akismet catches once a week just in case some ham snuck in (yes, I said “snuck”). I’ve recently been inundated from one or two IP addresses so I am now blocking them from using the comment form. If you experience any wonkiness, let me know.

Signal to Noise Ratio

2008-08-22T16:50:04Z

My little experiment in reclaiming my time and focus got me thinking about the time I spend reading blogs. I’ve been a lot more productive in my non-blog life now that I’ve ignored 168 Mormon-related items in my feed reader in the last two weeks. I’m now also reconsidering many of the other blogs that I read.

To be fair, I also wondered what value I’m providing to the literally dozens of you who read my blog. I’m not sure my own blog would make the cut on my team anymore. It’s losing the focus that brought many of you here in the first place. This change in focus mirrors my own, so I won’t do anything to prevent that. C’est la vie.

I would also like the freedom to litter my blog with random thoughts and miscellany that would certainly be of little interest to you. I hesitate to decrease the signal-to-noise ratio because I respect you and your time. You should be doing better things with your life than wading through my stupid random thoughts.

So I’ve created a “Signal” feed which will only include the stuff that I’ve put time and thought into, stuff that I suspect might enrich your life. You can safely ignore the rest.

Bob

2008-06-30T16:08:24Z

It’s funny the things you get famous for. More people have linked to my blog for this image of Bob from the movie Black Hole than anything else that I’ve done. I checked it out and (at least for me) my image was the first result for an image search for “bob black hole”.

Blogiversary

2008-01-10T18:58:34Z

Well, I’ve been blathering on for a year now. Happy First Blogiversary to me! I wonder if I should start celebrating unblogiversaries.

I’m not in much of a retrospective mood (which gets me off the hook of reading back over 212 posts), but in reading my very first post I ask myself whether I made the right decision a year ago. Did I do the right thing in leaving the church?

We lay aside the expectation of a particular result,
and do the right thing because it is right.
We do our duty, we stand and fight.
We do not do so without profound compassion for others.
(Krishna to Arjuna, Bhagavad Gita)

Without question, the past year has seen a lot of growth for me. I believe that I’m a better person for having made the choice that I did. I only regret any turmoil and suffering my actions caused and secondly that I didn’t see my way to do it sooner. C’est la vie. Forgiveness is letting go of the hope of a better past.

I echo this sentiment again:

Others may say that I allowed myself to be seduced by falsehoods. It feels more like I was seduced by the truth. Letting go of the bogeymen in my head led me to greater peace, greater clarity, more happiness, and more power to do good. This change of heart is delicious to me.

Instead of looking back over my shoulder, I’d much rather look prospectively. I hope the future will see me continue to gradually wean myself of concerns about Mormonism and religion. I love to learn things. I would like to move on to subjects that I have neglected because of the time and effort I have put into religion in my life. I know enough about religion to satisfy me for a while. Let me devote more of my time to other things. Yet I have a desire to show others what I have found, especially my children. Maybe I need to set down my thoughts on the subject and close the case for a while.

Let’s see what the future brings.

A Word About Our Sponsors

2007-12-19T21:38:27Z

I’ve been meaning to mention this for a while, just never got around to it. I see a primary audience for this blog to be my posterity. It’s an online journal for the thoughts that I hope to share with them. This will often lead me to knowingly do things that are probably not the best to attract readers. Things like erratic posting styles and subjects, long dissertations on Mormon apologetics, making many updates to a post causing some feed readers to list multiple small revisions, etc. I realize that these might be annoying, but I’m trying to serve two masters. I enjoy the thoughts that others share here which help to enrich the offering. Just know that you’re not the only ones I’m talking to, and please forgive the annoyances.

Contact Me

2007-06-06T22:38:09Z

One thing I regret about the blog format is that I set the direction for discussion. I want people to have more power to bring up topics on their own and challenge me to face ideas that I haven’t considered. I wanted to have an email discussion group associated with this blog (at the very least Green Oasis Discussion lent itself to an awesome, ironic acronym), but lack of participation has dampened my grandiose plans. Maybe someday…

In the meantime, I’ve now provided a way to contact me on the sidebar. Messages can be sent completely anonymously if that’s what you want. Acceptable messages include (but aren’t limited to):

Hate mail
Recipes
Offers for penis enlargement devices
Love notes
Directions to buried treasure
Job offers (please include salary range)
Confessions of your darkest secrets
Request for technical support
Links to websites that I must see
Topics for discussion
…

If appropriate, I’ll post about your message.

Or, if you like, you could send a message to GOD instead.

Have it your way!

Caveat Lector II

2007-02-14T05:22:47Z

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
(Hebrews 4:12)

I hope that you have read all of my story. This is the point where I change modes. My focus will shift from building bridges of understanding between us to building a bridge of personal understanding between me and the truth behind all things. I want to understand life, the universe, and everything. That’s a large task and time’s a wastin’â€”I’m not getting any younger.

This is where I unleash my hardly restrained missionary zeal. I will seek to speak through love and respect, but I will not, however, shy away from truths that may offend. As a more specific warning, I will not spare the teachings of the LDS Church or any other religious body from all due, respectful scrutiny. In fairness, if I find my own beliefs to be wrong, I will not hesitate to change them. I’ve done it before.

I want to think dangerous thoughts. I wish to lay all things as a sacrifice on the altar of truth. The truth is delicious. The truth is freedom, light, life, and joy. I will treasure up every scrap of it that I can find. How we confront the truth says a lot about who we are. The truth is indeed a sword poised to divide us asunder, â€œa discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heartâ€. I hope that the pursuit of truth brings us together, but I understand that some may wish to stop reading at this point.

Please stay.

I hope to have an open and honest discussion, and I can’t do it without you. At least not without being mistaken for mentally ill.

There are tons of books that I’d like to read, so it feels natural to make this something of a book club where we can read and discuss books on a wide range of topics. I’ve collected some books that I’m interested in reading, and started on the book that interests me most at the moment (which I will introduce soon).

Please stay here with me and make this an oasis flourishing around the fountain of truth.