Seeing Things from 30,000 Feet—a “How To” Guide

This should be brief, but hopefully helpful. As I type this right now, I’m on a plane flying at 30,000 feet. (Technically, the pilot says it’s about 33,000 feet, but round figures are so attractive.) The plane is experiencing a little turbulence, but, frankly, I like it that way. It reminds me I’m literally flying through the air.

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Blubber Rain: Lessons from an Exploding Whale Carcass

Bone fragments, chunks of rotting whale meat, slabs of stinking blubber, droplets of liquids, and a fine mist of various carcass fluids all rained down from a clear sky. Over the ocean? On a deserted beach? No. On a crowd of 75 fleeing spectators and their cars filling makeshift parking lots outside of Florence, Oregon, in 1970.

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Some TW Goodness: “Should We Kiss Dating Hello?”

It was published back in the middle of 2020 in Tomorrow’s World magazine, but if you didn’t read it then, here’s your chance!

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The first (and second) thing(s) I ever wrote in church services…

Today is the 33rd anniversary of the first time I ever attended Sabbath services in the Church. But rather than wax poetic about it, I just want to share a quick observation.

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Podcast: The Case of the Cud-Chewing Pig

For this second episode of the podcast, we visit a question submitted at a camp Teen Bible Study many years ago that went unanswered at the time: If scientists are able to “create” a pig that chews the cud, is it clean to eat? It may not seem a question of cosmic importance, but diving into the topic generates a lot more worthwhile principles than you might think!

What the first MCU Spider-Man soundtrack taught me about the nature of evil

[Note, 2/17/22: A link in this post was messed up. It’s been fixed!] A month or so ago, Spider-Man: No Way Home conquered the box office, and it seems the right time to unleash this observation I’ve been holding on to since Tom Holland’s first time headlining as the webslinger. (Not counting Captain America: Civil War. That’s why I said “headlining.” Details are important!) I wish I could take full credit for it, and I’d give full credit for the notice if I could, but it apparently began with some Reddit post back in 2017 or so and I’ve since lost any link to the original post.

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“They are fighting over the deck chairs on the Titanic…”

The Church published a fantastic sermon by Mr. Rod McNair that he gave a couple of years ago here in Charlotte titled “What Cause Are You Fighting For?” that is really helpful in helping us find perspective. He emphasized that we live in a world in which people are not only rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic while the ship is going down—they are fighting over who owns the chairs.

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