I LIKED Harold B. Lee; my family knew him. He actually ate dinner in my grandparents' farmhouse, cooked by my grandmother.
He knew my family and liked my father and told my mother he was a great man (he was).
When I heard about him and the link to correlation I felt dismayed.
He was, after all, a public educator. I have always 'heard rumors', just here and there, that he was trying to untangle the church from financial Babylon and that his heart attack was questioned, since he had had no previous heart problems.
He is an example to me of how someone can be trying to do something right and get something else terribly wrong. I think of that all the time. And look inwardly. Am I trying to get something really right and not seeing something I am doing very wrong?
I guess *we* won't know the entire story right now.
Thank you for sharing your personal connection with President Lee, he must have been a very kind and loving person. I really bear him no more animosity than I would feel toward any friend who inadvertently caused me harm while trying to do something nice for me.
I am still learning the history, but I have no doubt that President Lee really felt like he was doing the right thing with correlation. And it did eventually eliminate the confusion that seemed like such a bad thing at the time.
The last frame of my comic might come across as President Lee intentionally doing something that he knew was wrong, but that was not my intent. The sentiment "We will save them all", is obviously offensive to us as Mormons because those words evoke Satan's pan. I think correlation is a lot like Satan's plan, but the comparison wouldn't have been articulated so clearly for President Lee. Instead, I think he would have seen it as "let's eliminate the clutter, so people can focus on what really matters."
So many bad things in the world are accomplished with the best of intentions. Most of the time, the problems arise when someone "knows they are right", and doesn't allow space and consideration for dissenting voices.
This is one of my chief personal concerns right now--
that in the process of trying to do good, I might actually be doing evil.
I know that most of *us* at one time or another go through a time of self-evaluation on various things, but this is what I am focusing on right now.
It's quite paralyzing. I can easily believe that his training as a public educator (I am descended from many of them) led him to want uniformity, at any cost. He simply didn't question it.
I still wish I knew what happened with the financial angle and his sudden, inexplicable death. It seems too much like what happened to Wilford Woodfruff, who also had a very dichotomous nature.
Why am I laughing, Martin?
ReplyDeleteI LIKED Harold B. Lee; my family knew him. He actually ate dinner in my grandparents' farmhouse, cooked by my grandmother.
He knew my family and liked my father and told my mother he was a great man (he was).
When I heard about him and the link to correlation I felt dismayed.
He was, after all, a public educator. I have always 'heard rumors', just here and there, that he was trying to untangle the church from financial Babylon and that his heart attack was questioned, since he had had no previous heart problems.
He is an example to me of how someone can be trying to do something right and get something else terribly wrong. I think of that all the time. And look inwardly. Am I trying to get something really right and not seeing something I am doing very wrong?
I guess *we* won't know the entire story right now.
LDSDper,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your personal connection with President Lee, he must have been a very kind and loving person. I really bear him no more animosity than I would feel toward any friend who inadvertently caused me harm while trying to do something nice for me.
I am still learning the history, but I have no doubt that President Lee really felt like he was doing the right thing with correlation. And it did eventually eliminate the confusion that seemed like such a bad thing at the time.
The last frame of my comic might come across as President Lee intentionally doing something that he knew was wrong, but that was not my intent. The sentiment "We will save them all", is obviously offensive to us as Mormons because those words evoke Satan's pan. I think correlation is a lot like Satan's plan, but the comparison wouldn't have been articulated so clearly for President Lee. Instead, I think he would have seen it as "let's eliminate the clutter, so people can focus on what really matters."
So many bad things in the world are accomplished with the best of intentions. Most of the time, the problems arise when someone "knows they are right", and doesn't allow space and consideration for dissenting voices.
Oh, I agree, Martin.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my chief personal concerns right now--
that in the process of trying to do good, I might actually be doing evil.
I know that most of *us* at one time or another go through a time of self-evaluation on various things, but this is what I am focusing on right now.
It's quite paralyzing. I can easily believe that his training as a public educator (I am descended from many of them) led him to want uniformity, at any cost. He simply didn't question it.
I still wish I knew what happened with the financial angle and his sudden, inexplicable death. It seems too much like what happened to Wilford Woodfruff, who also had a very dichotomous nature.
I wonder where 'everyone' is. Probably just busy. Not everyone is an old person like me with computer time on Sunday. :)
ReplyDeleteHow did you make this? That's awesome.
ReplyDeleteBitstrips.
ReplyDelete