Book of Mormons or Books of Mormon?

At church today, our teacher in Sunday School was sure to tell us (in the middle of lecturing about missionary work), that when talking about more than one copy of The Book of Mormon, that it's "Book of Mormons," not "Books of Mormon" because that is the right grammar stuff. As is always the case when someone presents something as fact, I thought on it for awhile to see if I agreed. After some wordplay, I decided that if we're going to be grammatically correct, then it is neither "Book of Mormons" nor "Books of Mormon," but "copies of The Book of Mormon."

How did I arrive at this conclusion? It's quite simple, really. Think about another title of a book. Perhaps Inkheart or The Book of Virtues. Any title will do. Now try pluralizing it in the first instance, and see how it sounds. So instead of "We gave out Book of Mormons," we'll try this: "We gave out Inkhearts." It sounds a little strange. It can work, but it doesn't seem exactly right. So then we try the second instance. "We gave out Books of Virtues." Again, it can work, but it is still only second-rate, at best.

This leads us to my own contribution. "We gave out copies of Inkheart" and "We gave out copies of The Book of Virtues." In the end, it is the only thing that truly makes sense. In the other cases, the meaning is understood, but it isn't really correct. A similar case would be if I were to say "That car don't work" or "I be a girl." You would understand what I was trying to say, but it wouldn't be the correct way to say it.

Something I'm Starting to Realize...

I have always had a strange relationship with the world. I never thought it was at all out of the ordinary and thought what went on in my head was commonplace. That everyone else thought the same.

I never thought about the world in a childish way. Up and down were always there. I am told I never displayed many behaviors young children are supposed to exhibit. I could add (and possibly subtract) at one year of age and nobody taught me. I taught myself to read at age four/five. At eight I was reading The Chronicles of Narnia and all the books we had by Louisa May Alcott who was my favorite author at the time. Yet I could never say the alphabet all the way through without the song to help me until I was eleven or twelve. I sometimes wrote my letters backwards or with extra limbs. It wasn't dyslexia because I knew what they were supposed to look like, I just sometimes forgot that an 'E' only had three shelves rather than four or five. At seven years, I could multiply and divide a little, but I've always had trouble putting math work on paper even though I can do it in my head fairly easily.

I have been both homeschooled and publicly schooled. At home, school was more like unschooling most of the time. At school, I played around and still passed every test and got straight A's. I have been the only person able to teach me because no one ever understands my questions. Probably because they're not normal questions most of the time. Most of the time they deal with a little, little detail that I wonder about after researching every other side of the subject. One little detail covered nowhere else because it's not important to anyone else...or maybe it never occured to anyone.

My relationship with teachers has always been unique. Other students treat them as authority figures to be outsmarted, kissed up to and/or obeyed. I have always treated them as equals paid to teach.

I am starting to realize that the ways I am different is a positive thing. I didn't notice the differences at first and when I did, I hid them because of other people's reactions. I still hid a lot of my discovered capabilities because they scare me and because I am trying to mostly fit in. I have never been able to hid enough, though. People label me smart and I hate it. I'm "intelligent" not "smart."

Why is nudity such a big deal?

Another interesting question located here. And so I am, of course posting my specific take on the question here on this blog.

I think there are at least five reasons we wear clothing:

Firstly, for protection from the elements. How would you feel about trekking through the snow wearing nothing at all? Or how about having your sensitive parts sunburned? Appealing, no?

Secondly, to create a mystery. If guys and girls walked around naked all the time, I believe it would take away some of the mystique and desire us hormonal teens so enjoy (and are sometimes also tortured by?

Thirdly, to preserve feminine mystique. What would the world be like if a woman couldn't tease a man with just the teensiest bit of cleavage in order to fabricate desire and excitement for nightly antics?

Fourthly, to keep controversy alive and well. What on earth would we do if nobody wore clothes? How could we argue over how sexy is too sexy? If girls under sixteen should be allowed to showcase their stomachs, backs, legs, shoulders, and breasts? All that paranoia, gone!

Fifthly, for intimacy's sake. When you are naked with someone else, it is a way of getting closer to them. When two people who love each other make love, it is a way of expressing love and getting closer and more intimate. Not only because of the sex, but because your clothes are off and all your secrets uncovered. Even without sex, showing someone all of your naked body parts isn't normally something you'd do for just anyone (except for three year olds who all seem to go with the nudist philosophy). If you like, you could think of it as a metaphor. Baring your body as equal to baring your heart, mind, and soul.

Also see this poem here.

If God is the One Who "Birthed" Everything...

...into Existence and Men Are Created in Gods' Image and likeness, Why is it that Women Are The Ones With The Power to Birth New Life and Not Men if Men really are modeled After the Force which Creates All?

I found that interesting question here. And so I am posting my personal take on the answer in this blog.

I agree with most of what Bright said with a few exceptions. Yes, I think mankind being created in God's image means the whole human race; that is, God is humanoid in appearance. As are we. And, depending on your belief system, He probably looks exactly like a man of our species or She looks like a woman of our species...depends on your religious take on it all.

I don't believe it always hurts every woman to give birth. Some women can give birth with only physical exhaustion at most (Before anyone slams me because of that verse in the Bible, "I will multiply thy sorrow and conception," let me say that the Original Hebrew term that in the KJV is translated as "sorrow" can also mean "compassion" or the ability to empathize with others. "Conception" can alternately be translated as "the tightening and loosening of the joints and sinews").

I don't believe in "original sin." Adam and Eve are responsible for their choices. We are responsible for ours. We do not, as their progeny, carry the blame for their decision to leave Eden.

I believe that Jesus was conceived the same as the rest of us, with the exception that his Father was a God. (Yes, my dear, that means with sex. And it also means Mary was no longer a virgin after Jesus' conception.)

To answer the original question, I think that God and Jesus and the rest of us in our pre-physical forms created the earth together. Then each gender was given the job that they were best equipped for. Men get to protect and provide for the physical needs of those they are responsible for (which may or may not include various family members and friends, depending on their unique familial situation). Women get to nurture and care for the spiritual, mental, and emotional needs of those they are responsible for (which may or may not include various family members and friends, depending on their unique familial situation).

The Reason Behind the World (IMNERHO)

I am LDS. That is my religion and that is how I live my life. But that doesn't mean I close my mind to other religions just because I already have one. Rather, I like to study other people's belief systems because I believe that every viewpoint has truth that I can adopt into my life to make me a better person and help me understand the world better. As I have previously discussed on another blog, Paganism fascinates me. I would almost be Pagan except they only have Dieties...nothing like a Devil or anything. And I am a firm believer that there is both a force for good as well as evil.

You see, I believe in the innate goodness of each and every human and that means that I also believe that the world wouldn't be such a horrible place for so many people unless there was a dark force feeding our darker sides. I know humans are weak and often relent when they shouldn't, but some things I do not believe even the worst of us would give into unless acted upon by an outside force. I know it sounds like fiction, but that is what I truly believe.

Another New Blog by Your Favorite Blogger!

Please Note: the title of this post is dripping with sarcasm.

I decided to start yet another blog because I need a different kind of blog.

Rocky Mountain High is about my life in the country and my quest to be a homesteader someday in the future. As it says in the header, "This blog details a teenager's quest for the good life as she comes of age in the Rocky Mountains. The teenager being me. This is my beginning of a journey to one day be a homesteader. I expect plenty of roadblocks. And I have to grow up first and that sort of thing, but eventually, one day, I will be a full-fledged homesteader with animals and a garden and all that. Wish me luck!"

World of Stone is more personal. It's a place for me to rant, to cry, to yell, and all those other personal things. It's more of a journal. I, of course, refer to my family and friends by names other than their own for privacy reasons. If you don't want to hear my insane mind at work, don't read it. It's full of human weakness and irrationality and as such is not the most professional blog.

This new blog is for some new purpose. I can't be totally sure what I'll do with it, yet, but I feel I need to start it, and so I have. Let's just see where this goes, shall we?