Monday, July 31, 2006
Still youthful!
This type of thing happened a few times my first year hear, but hadn't happened recently. Last week I needed to get a copy of a research paper from the library. It was only available on microfilm, and since I hadn't used the library's microfilm readers before, I asked a librarian for help. She started by telling me, "First you have to insert your student ID. It costs to print, though. Do you have any money on your student account?"
I had to break the news to her that I was a faculty member, not a student, and that I consequently unfortunately had no account connected with my ID card. It felt so awful. ;-)
In other news, I also realized last week that in less than two months, I will officially be in my "late 30's". [boggle]
I had to break the news to her that I was a faculty member, not a student, and that I consequently unfortunately had no account connected with my ID card. It felt so awful. ;-)
In other news, I also realized last week that in less than two months, I will officially be in my "late 30's". [boggle]
Mormons and the Bible
Mormons and the Bible, by Philip L. Barlow
Summary by John S. Colton
I recently read the very interesting and highly recommended (10/10) book, Mormons and the Bible, by Philip L. Barlow. Below is a detailed summary I wrote of key points & people.
Barlow tackled the large topic of how Mormons view the Bible, and how Mormon belief has changed through the years. To illustrate LDS points of view, he focused on several “case studies,” going into great detail on the views of nine particular influential and characteristic church leaders. He presented these as historical archetypes, but it’s fascinating to see how just about all of these various viewpoints have existed among present-day LDS people that I personally have known. For what it’s worth, my own viewpoint most closely matched that of B.H. Roberts.
To understand the summaries below, you need to know a bit about “higher criticism” of the Bible. This was an intellectual movement originating in the late 19th Century, which focused on the sources of a document (in this context, the Bible) and tried to determine information about the authorship and composition of the text. Believers use this type of analysis to increase their understanding of context; unbelievers may use it to undermine religious beliefs. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_criticism for more details. Barlow’s own bias in favor of higher criticism does shine through periodically, but he is up front about his own beliefs in the book’s preface.
Here’s a summary of the nine case studies:
Joseph Smith, 1805-1844, Church president and founder – Took Bible seriously, as a base-line for religious thought. His everyday metaphors/images were laced with language of KJV, as was the case of many of his era. Felt that his access to Deity was more direct than the written word itself. Used the KJV extensively, but not afraid to emend as needed—in fact, he revised his own revelations (considered by LDS to be modern-day scripture) as his understanding of some topics changed. Conceived of LDS as living in Bible-type times, not just believing in Bible—sought to restore authority, truth, and prophetic gifts recorded in the Bible rather than enthroning the Biblical words themselves as the final authority.
Brigham Young, 1801-1877, Church president – Felt scripture was essential, but not even biblical authority could substitute for wisdom born of experience. Believed there were no real contradictions between revelations of Bible and modern Mormon scriptures, but apparent conflicts could arise to those not reading with personal revelation. Especially later in life, came to believe that not all parts of Bible were equal value. Trusted scientific evidence over Biblical metaphor, and even taught that bits of the Bible were mythical or “baby stories” (for example, he had no problem with geologically old earth theories). Like Joseph Smith, had little patience for the notion of inerrant, unimprovable, verbally perfect scripture.
Orson Pratt, 1811-1881, Church leader (apostle) – Tended to take the Bible hyper-literally. Seemed to believe that God dictated Biblical books directly to their authors. Believed Bible related historical facts. Held his religious beliefs to be as empirical as his scientific observations. Asserted need for latter-day revelation to overcome limitations of Bible, but felt tied to the Bible—felt obliged to reconcile all Mormon revelation and speculative theology with the Bible.
B.H. Roberts, 1857-1933, Church leader (seventy) – Believed that revealed truths must be reconciled with facts demonstrated by science and other means. Believed scientific claims of evolution and antiquity of earth, and reconciled those beliefs with the Biblical account of creation. Both science and theology should be studied, and both should be flexible enough to allow for increased knowledge from the other. Believed in “higher criticism” methods for studying the Bible, although skeptical of/hostile to its proponents’ conclusions. Believed that scripture was not generally dictated by God, but rather filtered through human limitations of knowledge and intellect. Believed in miracles and prophecy, and of course in modern revelation. Was approximately midway between Joseph Fielding Smith and William H. Chamberlain (below).
Joseph Fielding Smith, 1876-1972, Church leader (apostle), eventually Church president (1970-1972) – Regarded as the leading Mormon scriptorian of his time. Regarded written scripture as equal or above modern prophecies: “It makes no difference what is written or what anyone has said, if what has been said is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed…if they do not square with the revelations, we need not accept them.” Scripture required a literal interpretation, even e.g. Joshua’s brutal occupation of the Promised Land. Thought higher criticism and evolution were “stupid teaching” and of their believers, he said “Satan has deceived them and they love darkness rather than light.” He considered higher criticism to be a conspiracy designed to “destroy the authenticity of the holy scriptures.” Was not uninformed/ignorant (did raise plausible objections against the Bible’s critics) but in many spots did not understand it sufficiently to judge it.
William H. Chamberlin, 1870-1921, teacher of religion at B.Y.U. and U. of U. – First Mormon teacher to make extended use of modern methods of Bible study. Believed God communicated with human beings by using human ideas; therefore scripture was not infallible. Scripture conveyed, along with its truths, numerous ideas and hopes no longer plausible. False ideas found in Bible would eventually be replaced with more accurate conceptions as modern science and religious studies improved human knowledge. Scriptures contained both wheat and chaff. Higher criticism methods were to be embraced because one must strive to grasp the varied concrete problems the prophets faced in order to understand the spiritual realities behind the changing forms of their expression.
J. Reuben Clark, 1871-1961, church leader (apostle) – “Erudite and forceful” member of the First Presidency for 28 years (counselor to three different Church presidents). Severely opposed to new Biblical translations (esp. RSV). Published book called “Why the King James Version” with which church president David O. McKay disagreed. (Pres. McKay, by contrast felt that blanket criticism of the RSV should be avoided because “in some places it was more accurate than the [KJV] and also got rid of confusing outdated terms.”) However, Pres. McKay & other church leaders weren’t vocal in their disagreement, so the net result was that the KJV-only view of Clark’s became the de facto LDS position. Many of Clark’s arguments against modern translations were viable, many were not. Believed that scripture (inc. Joseph Smith’s revelations, in apparent conflict with Smith’s own views) were given word-for-word by God, rather than conceptual in nature.
Bruce R. McConkie, 1915-1985, church leader (apostle) – Wrote 11 books, mainly on scriptural commentary & interpretation. Developed his own interpretation through intense scripture study, rather than from other authors. Like J. Reuben Clark, believed that higher criticism and literary methods of scriptural interpretation were essentially designed to destroy the Bible’s divine authenticity, and were absolutely meaningless for theological issues. Published “Mormon Doctrine” an encyclopedia on doctrinal matters, despite misgivings by the church’s First Presidency. McConkie’s version of Mormonism was gravely concerned with “correct doctrine”—an understanding of true doctrine was paramount for salvation. The Bible was of extreme importance—but he easily abandoned Biblical passages if they did not fit his own doctrinal conceptions, or those of other LDS church leaders of the past. Always ready to “battle” those who he perceived as diluting the faith. Wrote chapter headings in current LDS Bible (KJV), which will be around for the foreseeable future, giving tacit but lasting approval to many of his conservative doctrinal views.
Lowell Bennion, 1908-1996 (teacher of sociology at U. of U.; founder of U. of U. LDS Institute) – Eminent intellectual, author of numerous LDS books/study manuals on philosophy, ethics, scripture, history, world religions, practical religion, etc. Salvation came through behavior, not belief. Especially challenged members of affluent society to take part in charitable work for underprivileged groups. Believed that the literal text of the Bible was subservient to what we know about God’s nature as e.g. intelligent, loving, just, merciful, parental. Writers in the Bible were sometimes writing above their natural capacity, but often writing through their own preconceptions.
Summary by John S. Colton
I recently read the very interesting and highly recommended (10/10) book, Mormons and the Bible, by Philip L. Barlow. Below is a detailed summary I wrote of key points & people.
Barlow tackled the large topic of how Mormons view the Bible, and how Mormon belief has changed through the years. To illustrate LDS points of view, he focused on several “case studies,” going into great detail on the views of nine particular influential and characteristic church leaders. He presented these as historical archetypes, but it’s fascinating to see how just about all of these various viewpoints have existed among present-day LDS people that I personally have known. For what it’s worth, my own viewpoint most closely matched that of B.H. Roberts.
To understand the summaries below, you need to know a bit about “higher criticism” of the Bible. This was an intellectual movement originating in the late 19th Century, which focused on the sources of a document (in this context, the Bible) and tried to determine information about the authorship and composition of the text. Believers use this type of analysis to increase their understanding of context; unbelievers may use it to undermine religious beliefs. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_criticism for more details. Barlow’s own bias in favor of higher criticism does shine through periodically, but he is up front about his own beliefs in the book’s preface.
Here’s a summary of the nine case studies:
Joseph Smith, 1805-1844, Church president and founder – Took Bible seriously, as a base-line for religious thought. His everyday metaphors/images were laced with language of KJV, as was the case of many of his era. Felt that his access to Deity was more direct than the written word itself. Used the KJV extensively, but not afraid to emend as needed—in fact, he revised his own revelations (considered by LDS to be modern-day scripture) as his understanding of some topics changed. Conceived of LDS as living in Bible-type times, not just believing in Bible—sought to restore authority, truth, and prophetic gifts recorded in the Bible rather than enthroning the Biblical words themselves as the final authority.
Brigham Young, 1801-1877, Church president – Felt scripture was essential, but not even biblical authority could substitute for wisdom born of experience. Believed there were no real contradictions between revelations of Bible and modern Mormon scriptures, but apparent conflicts could arise to those not reading with personal revelation. Especially later in life, came to believe that not all parts of Bible were equal value. Trusted scientific evidence over Biblical metaphor, and even taught that bits of the Bible were mythical or “baby stories” (for example, he had no problem with geologically old earth theories). Like Joseph Smith, had little patience for the notion of inerrant, unimprovable, verbally perfect scripture.
Orson Pratt, 1811-1881, Church leader (apostle) – Tended to take the Bible hyper-literally. Seemed to believe that God dictated Biblical books directly to their authors. Believed Bible related historical facts. Held his religious beliefs to be as empirical as his scientific observations. Asserted need for latter-day revelation to overcome limitations of Bible, but felt tied to the Bible—felt obliged to reconcile all Mormon revelation and speculative theology with the Bible.
B.H. Roberts, 1857-1933, Church leader (seventy) – Believed that revealed truths must be reconciled with facts demonstrated by science and other means. Believed scientific claims of evolution and antiquity of earth, and reconciled those beliefs with the Biblical account of creation. Both science and theology should be studied, and both should be flexible enough to allow for increased knowledge from the other. Believed in “higher criticism” methods for studying the Bible, although skeptical of/hostile to its proponents’ conclusions. Believed that scripture was not generally dictated by God, but rather filtered through human limitations of knowledge and intellect. Believed in miracles and prophecy, and of course in modern revelation. Was approximately midway between Joseph Fielding Smith and William H. Chamberlain (below).
Joseph Fielding Smith, 1876-1972, Church leader (apostle), eventually Church president (1970-1972) – Regarded as the leading Mormon scriptorian of his time. Regarded written scripture as equal or above modern prophecies: “It makes no difference what is written or what anyone has said, if what has been said is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed…if they do not square with the revelations, we need not accept them.” Scripture required a literal interpretation, even e.g. Joshua’s brutal occupation of the Promised Land. Thought higher criticism and evolution were “stupid teaching” and of their believers, he said “Satan has deceived them and they love darkness rather than light.” He considered higher criticism to be a conspiracy designed to “destroy the authenticity of the holy scriptures.” Was not uninformed/ignorant (did raise plausible objections against the Bible’s critics) but in many spots did not understand it sufficiently to judge it.
William H. Chamberlin, 1870-1921, teacher of religion at B.Y.U. and U. of U. – First Mormon teacher to make extended use of modern methods of Bible study. Believed God communicated with human beings by using human ideas; therefore scripture was not infallible. Scripture conveyed, along with its truths, numerous ideas and hopes no longer plausible. False ideas found in Bible would eventually be replaced with more accurate conceptions as modern science and religious studies improved human knowledge. Scriptures contained both wheat and chaff. Higher criticism methods were to be embraced because one must strive to grasp the varied concrete problems the prophets faced in order to understand the spiritual realities behind the changing forms of their expression.
J. Reuben Clark, 1871-1961, church leader (apostle) – “Erudite and forceful” member of the First Presidency for 28 years (counselor to three different Church presidents). Severely opposed to new Biblical translations (esp. RSV). Published book called “Why the King James Version” with which church president David O. McKay disagreed. (Pres. McKay, by contrast felt that blanket criticism of the RSV should be avoided because “in some places it was more accurate than the [KJV] and also got rid of confusing outdated terms.”) However, Pres. McKay & other church leaders weren’t vocal in their disagreement, so the net result was that the KJV-only view of Clark’s became the de facto LDS position. Many of Clark’s arguments against modern translations were viable, many were not. Believed that scripture (inc. Joseph Smith’s revelations, in apparent conflict with Smith’s own views) were given word-for-word by God, rather than conceptual in nature.
Bruce R. McConkie, 1915-1985, church leader (apostle) – Wrote 11 books, mainly on scriptural commentary & interpretation. Developed his own interpretation through intense scripture study, rather than from other authors. Like J. Reuben Clark, believed that higher criticism and literary methods of scriptural interpretation were essentially designed to destroy the Bible’s divine authenticity, and were absolutely meaningless for theological issues. Published “Mormon Doctrine” an encyclopedia on doctrinal matters, despite misgivings by the church’s First Presidency. McConkie’s version of Mormonism was gravely concerned with “correct doctrine”—an understanding of true doctrine was paramount for salvation. The Bible was of extreme importance—but he easily abandoned Biblical passages if they did not fit his own doctrinal conceptions, or those of other LDS church leaders of the past. Always ready to “battle” those who he perceived as diluting the faith. Wrote chapter headings in current LDS Bible (KJV), which will be around for the foreseeable future, giving tacit but lasting approval to many of his conservative doctrinal views.
Lowell Bennion, 1908-1996 (teacher of sociology at U. of U.; founder of U. of U. LDS Institute) – Eminent intellectual, author of numerous LDS books/study manuals on philosophy, ethics, scripture, history, world religions, practical religion, etc. Salvation came through behavior, not belief. Especially challenged members of affluent society to take part in charitable work for underprivileged groups. Believed that the literal text of the Bible was subservient to what we know about God’s nature as e.g. intelligent, loving, just, merciful, parental. Writers in the Bible were sometimes writing above their natural capacity, but often writing through their own preconceptions.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Pioneer Activities
July 24 was “Pioneer Day”, the anniversary of the Mormon pioneers reaching the Salt Lake Valley. It’s a much bigger deal in Utah than anywhere else, for obvious reasons, but our local branch of the church did have two activities in honor of the day.
Last Saturday we had a “Pioneer Trek”, a 13 mile hike complete with a handcart that people pushed/pulled along. I didn’t think the kids would be quite up for that long of a hike, so we decided to join them half way and bike instead of walk. Leslie rode her own (gearless) bike, Emily rode behind me on the “trailer bike” that we bought a few weeks ago. Pauline ran some errands then drove the car to the church to meet us at the end.
Our part of the trek began in Myrick Park. The main group of 10-15 people had already hiked about 8 miles already. We had to wait in the park for quite a while, because the group was much later than anticipated. That was OK, though—there’s a really nice playground for the kids, called “Kid’s Coulee”.
When the main group arrived, they had a break & snacks (we joined them!). Then we set off on the remaining 5 mile section. Initially we hiked/biked on a trail through the marsh. That was really neat—my favorite part of the adventure—because a lot of ducks & geese had little ducks & geese right along the path. In fact, two families of geese were camped out on the path itself. When that path ran out, we hiked/biked along the road for a bit, then another path, then the road. We stayed with the main group almost all the way. That required us to pause, circle around, bike slowly, let them pass us, etc, because bikes are obviously much faster than walking. But it was fun. At times we felt like scouts on horseback—for example, one time Leon Madeux radioed his wife for a pick-up because his ankle was too sore too continue. Emily & I raced on ahead to try to spot her (unsuccessfully).
Leslie started having some difficulties, so we abandoned the main group for the last mile and just biked by ourselves the rest of the way. She was exhausted when we got to the church! The nice thing was that one of the ladies from the ward (Sr. Hilton) had arranged a picnic/barbecue to greet the trekkers, unbeknownst to us, so we had food waiting for us.
Earlier that morning I managed to score a really nice bike for Pauline at a garage sale. So we hope to do many more family bike adventures.
The other pioneer activity was a branch party at “Mormon Coulee Park” on Monday. We had a pot luck dinner, and the kids played for a long time. Leslie was fascinated by the creek that ran through the park—she just walked along and looked at things on its banks for about an hour, with me following along beside/behind in case she fell in. Neal Taylor took 10 minutes or so to relate some of the history of the Mormons in the area—early LDS from Nauvoo had come and made a temporary settlement here in the early 1840s. They floated white pine trees down the Mississippi for use in construction.
Last Saturday we had a “Pioneer Trek”, a 13 mile hike complete with a handcart that people pushed/pulled along. I didn’t think the kids would be quite up for that long of a hike, so we decided to join them half way and bike instead of walk. Leslie rode her own (gearless) bike, Emily rode behind me on the “trailer bike” that we bought a few weeks ago. Pauline ran some errands then drove the car to the church to meet us at the end.
Our part of the trek began in Myrick Park. The main group of 10-15 people had already hiked about 8 miles already. We had to wait in the park for quite a while, because the group was much later than anticipated. That was OK, though—there’s a really nice playground for the kids, called “Kid’s Coulee”.
When the main group arrived, they had a break & snacks (we joined them!). Then we set off on the remaining 5 mile section. Initially we hiked/biked on a trail through the marsh. That was really neat—my favorite part of the adventure—because a lot of ducks & geese had little ducks & geese right along the path. In fact, two families of geese were camped out on the path itself. When that path ran out, we hiked/biked along the road for a bit, then another path, then the road. We stayed with the main group almost all the way. That required us to pause, circle around, bike slowly, let them pass us, etc, because bikes are obviously much faster than walking. But it was fun. At times we felt like scouts on horseback—for example, one time Leon Madeux radioed his wife for a pick-up because his ankle was too sore too continue. Emily & I raced on ahead to try to spot her (unsuccessfully).
Leslie started having some difficulties, so we abandoned the main group for the last mile and just biked by ourselves the rest of the way. She was exhausted when we got to the church! The nice thing was that one of the ladies from the ward (Sr. Hilton) had arranged a picnic/barbecue to greet the trekkers, unbeknownst to us, so we had food waiting for us.
Earlier that morning I managed to score a really nice bike for Pauline at a garage sale. So we hope to do many more family bike adventures.
The other pioneer activity was a branch party at “Mormon Coulee Park” on Monday. We had a pot luck dinner, and the kids played for a long time. Leslie was fascinated by the creek that ran through the park—she just walked along and looked at things on its banks for about an hour, with me following along beside/behind in case she fell in. Neal Taylor took 10 minutes or so to relate some of the history of the Mormons in the area—early LDS from Nauvoo had come and made a temporary settlement here in the early 1840s. They floated white pine trees down the Mississippi for use in construction.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Family newsletter - July 2006
Our "Mellor family newsletter" was due last week. Since Pauline & I took some time writing stuff for it, I thought I'd include it here.
___
Dear Family, July 2006
Greetings from the Wisconsin Coltons! Here’s an update on what’s been going on in our lives the past while.
Grandparents – This last quarter began with a visit from Phil and Bobby Colton. They were able to come between General Conference and Easter, which was also the girls’ spring break so we got to spend a lot of qtime. We went to Effigy Mounds National Park/Monument and somehow conned Phil (with the weak knee) and the kids (with the whi-nees) to climb up to the top and see some bumps in the ground. The bumps were ancient Indian burial mounds in the shape of animals, but they weren’t as exciting as the view of the Mississippi river and the vultures that were flying really really close to us. If that weren’t excitement enough, we got to go to the Bily Clock Museum/Dvorak Museum. The composer Dvorak spent sometime in Spillville, Iowa and they have a few rooms dedicated to his visit.
Other highlights of the Grandparent visit include: a Bargain Nook adventure, a scientific/nuclear energy lecture by Phil, egg dying and Knox-blocking for easter. We put Phil to work on the squeaky bathroom fan problem and He was VICTORIOUS!
Spring – Leslie joined her 4th-grade drama club this spring and spent two afternoons each week learning the craft of theater. She got to share the lead of the play! She memorized her lines really early on and enjoyed the experience. She also got to participate in a few multi-school academic competitions: Math-letics and Battle of the Books. Her Battle of the Books team won the bronze medal! Everyone at Math-letics were given awards for participation and Leslie and her team had a fun day.
May – Pauline painted a new “family history” painting in April – it was of Uncle Lehi’s house with Uncle Lehi and his Family in front. She did two paintings of the same subject and RaNae was given one for a birthday present. The other painting was hung at the Public library and displayed the entire month of May.
June – We completed 95% of our “year’s supply of basics,” we’ve been working on for a couple of years. Also we did a “food storage basics” display at a church preparedness day. This was just a warm-up for Pauline doing a presentation for the other ward’s enrichment night. On June 7th, Pauline turned 35 and celebrated by purchasing a new Dyson DC-15 vacuum-cleaner that we named HoosFoos.
Summer Schedule – The children were also let out of school. We decided our “summer schedule” would be to fill out a page each day of what we did. Each day we have to do something in the following categories: Work, Read/Write, Play, Practice/Exercise, Learn/Make, Serve. At the end of the day we report to John on what was accomplished. This way when the kids can’t think of what to do they can figure out which of their categories are blank for the day and DO something to fill it in.
Summer Events – One of the Learn/Make things we did was to help Leslie and Emily get a start on sewing. They each made a draw-string backpack to take with us to Circus World museum (see below for Circus World description). The backpacks have since been used for adventures to Riverfest, the library, and swimming leassons. Riverfest is a local community event which concludes with fireworks on the 4th of July. Swimming lessons are going well this time. Leslie is a lot stronger and braver than she was a year ago and therefore is doing excellently. Emily still loves to play in the water and will eventually learn to swim.
John’s cousin, Katie Snyder (new last name) recently moved to Milwaukee and had her second baby. Aunt Claudia Snyder came out to help and called us. We arranged to meet each other in New Glarus (about mid-way) and enjoyed spending the day walking around the shops and visiting.
John’s Work – I’m in the continuing process of writing up a paper based on experiments that I ran in January and June. The last couple of days have been spend reading a whole bunch of research papers written by other people on similar topics, to help figure some things out about my own paper. I’ve made some good progress and hope to be done with the paper in just a couple of days. I’m also in the process of waiting for new samples to study and waiting for new equipment to come in, to do some other experiments.
Another work project that I have going on is a teaching project. I was chosen to be the “Wisconsin Teaching Fellow” from our university for the coming year—each campus gets to choose one fairly new faculty person to be part of this program. The fellowship comes with some extra dollars, and the responsibility to carry out a “scholarship of teaching & learning” project. There are also several in-state conferences to attend during the summer and through next year. After thinking of 10 or so different projects, I’ve more-or-less decided to study how the type of exam (open notes vs. closed) affects students: their study habits, their motivation, retention, etc. I’ll assess the students through interviews and surveys. I think it should be an interesting project, and something that hasn’t really been done before in physics, as far as I can tell.
Circus World – My last Teaching Fellow conference was in Madison a few weeks ago. To have some family fun, Pauline and the girls decided to meet me half way home, in Baraboo Wisconsin, where there is a circus museum. It was the winter home for the Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus, back in the day. Why Wisconsin in the winter, you ask? Apparently B&B were from Wisconsin, so it was near their home. It’s now run by the Wisconsin State Historical Society, and they have a bunch of old circus stuff (decorated train cars, etc.). They also have some live “exhibits”—we saw a clown show, a magic show, an acrobatic show, rode on a carousel (which we were informed was more properly called a merry-go-round, since the horses went up & down), and saw an elephant demonstration. Leslie, Emily, and John decided to complete the experience by riding on the elephant! It was fun.
The piano saga – A circuit on our electric piano blew last October. This was the piano that we bought way back in Provo, Utah, 1994. We hadn’t had any problems with it since, but discovered that Panasonic repair technicians are hard to come by in this part of the world. We determined that the closest person was in a small town most of the way towards Madison (about an hour and 45 minutes away). It’s a long, but scenic drive there. And coincidentally the repair shop is run by a guy whose last name was Snyder, and his ancestors were from Athens, Ohio—so we’re likely relatives (that’s where John’s grandpa Snyder grew up).
So dropping off the piano was a good experience. Unfortunately, we had to wait and wait and WAIT to get it fixed. As things turned out, the particular piano wasn’t made anymore, and replacement parts were no longer being made. They ended up having to send the circuit board to Japan, where it was traded in for a used, repaired, circuit board. So that basically took FOREVER. Or at least six months, which felt like forever. The most frustrating thing about it, is that the repair guy (Snyder’s assistant) would NEVER call us to let us know what the status was. We’d literally go months without hearing from the guy—until I called *him*, and then the answer would invariably be that he was still waiting from Panasonic to call him. Apparently “initiative” wasn’t in his vocabulary. If I hadn’t followed up, and “encouraged” him every 6 weeks or so to keep calling Panasonic to see where in the world our circuit board even was, I am certain that it would have taken twice as long for us to get it back, if at all!
Then, when we finally got it back, we took it home… and the speakers promptly blew. I imagine something wasn’t screwed down on the inside, and made a bad contact when we tilted the thing over to fit in our minivan. So, we had to take it back to the repair place, and they had to order new speakers for us (at least they didn’t charge us for them, that was nice). So our hope was dashed to the ground again, just when we thought the saga was over.
Happy ending: we finally got in back in mid-April. Yay! Playing the piano is fun. And it *is* a nice piano, so it was worth getting it fixed. I started having piano lessons with the kids again. Leslie and Emily are both doing really well. Leslie decided she’d prefer to just continue with the piano instead of doing both the piano and the violin. Last year in school she did violin for both semesters, which ended up being very nice while the piano was gone.
Choir – Most if not all of you should know that I sing in the La Crosse Chamber Chorale. We sing mostly classical-style choral music, both ancient and modern. Let me know if you’d really like to hear the choir; since our choir performances are taped for later radio broadcasting, I’ve got recordings of just about all of our performances. I’ve even compiled a couple of “greatest hits” CDs. Every year we have a fund-raising dinner/performance that can let us break out of the classical stereotype, called the “May Feaste”. This year’s Feaste theme was “1950’s and 60’s”. We sang a West Side Story medley, a Beatles medley, “At the Hop”, etc.
Also part of the May Feaste are some “small group numbers”, which individual choir members organize. I joined several of these, and ended up singing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, “My Girl”, and “Heart” (from Damn Yankees) in three different male quartets. Fun! The Lion Sleeps Tonight was a great hit, and a ladies group from a town an hour away is willing to pay [money going to the choir, I assume] for our quartet to perform at some meeting they have in September.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention—we got to dress appropriate for the era. So I wore a tie-dye shirt, a long hair wig, beads, and sandals. :-)
Church – Church is still pretty much the same for me. I’m still the second counselor and the organist. And I’ll probably direct the choir again this Christmas. Pauline, on the other hand, about a month or two ago, was asked to teach the Gospel Doctrine class. She has done an excellent job, and I’m not just saying that! She’s probably as good as any other Gospel Doctrine teacher that I’ve ever had, and much better than most! And I think she even likes it a little—the “preparing for lessons” part, not the “standing up in front of people” part.
Blog – Inspired by a priesthood lesson about 6 weeks ago, I decided to do a better job of keeping a personal journal. One of the new guys (Todd Ebbert, a resident at the local hospital) said that his family had had success doing a blog as a journal. I had thought about doing that very thing just a couple of days before, so I decided events were conspiring to tell me something. Long story short: I now have my own blog, which I’m using basically as a journal. This family newsletter will probably get posted there, for example.
So, to find out the latest in what’s going on with John, feel free to visit: http://johncolton.blogspot.com
___
Yes I love technology
But not as much as you, you see
But I still love technology
Always and forever
Our love is like a flock of doves
Flying up to heav'n above
Always and forever
Always and forever
Special Topic: Why the John S. Colton Family Loves Technology Always and Forever
Leslie: It helps you learn stuff. You can play fun games and things.
Emily: Technology means typing on the computer. I like technology because you can e-mail people and write a letter to someone.
Pauline: I like to use technology/internet to help me with Sunday School Lessons, answering kids “weird” questions, ordering books/music/movies/misc. on the internet, using google to find genealogy answers, comparing products I’m thinking of purchasing. I love technology because I can get a pattern from my mom the same day I ask for it. I can send pictures to people I like. I can “nuke” food so things don’t take very long.
John: I like being able to listen to store my entire CD collection on my computer and listen to music all day at work. I like wikipedia. I like anti-lock breaks. I love taking hundreds of photographs and being able to delete the ones that don’t turn out instead of having to pay for their processing. I like email. I like being able to follow the Utah Jazz even though we live far away. I like being able to have people’s addresses/phone numbers along with my schedule and a chunk of my music collection all on my Palm Pilot. I like optical mice. I like electric pianos that have headphones the kids can wear while practicing. I like amazon.com. I like googling things. I liked mechanical pencils. I like central heat & air-conditioning. I like indoor plumbing. I like writing newsletters with MS Word instead of a typewriter.
___
Dear Family, July 2006
Greetings from the Wisconsin Coltons! Here’s an update on what’s been going on in our lives the past while.
Grandparents – This last quarter began with a visit from Phil and Bobby Colton. They were able to come between General Conference and Easter, which was also the girls’ spring break so we got to spend a lot of qtime. We went to Effigy Mounds National Park/Monument and somehow conned Phil (with the weak knee) and the kids (with the whi-nees) to climb up to the top and see some bumps in the ground. The bumps were ancient Indian burial mounds in the shape of animals, but they weren’t as exciting as the view of the Mississippi river and the vultures that were flying really really close to us. If that weren’t excitement enough, we got to go to the Bily Clock Museum/Dvorak Museum. The composer Dvorak spent sometime in Spillville, Iowa and they have a few rooms dedicated to his visit.
Other highlights of the Grandparent visit include: a Bargain Nook adventure, a scientific/nuclear energy lecture by Phil, egg dying and Knox-blocking for easter. We put Phil to work on the squeaky bathroom fan problem and He was VICTORIOUS!
Spring – Leslie joined her 4th-grade drama club this spring and spent two afternoons each week learning the craft of theater. She got to share the lead of the play! She memorized her lines really early on and enjoyed the experience. She also got to participate in a few multi-school academic competitions: Math-letics and Battle of the Books. Her Battle of the Books team won the bronze medal! Everyone at Math-letics were given awards for participation and Leslie and her team had a fun day.
May – Pauline painted a new “family history” painting in April – it was of Uncle Lehi’s house with Uncle Lehi and his Family in front. She did two paintings of the same subject and RaNae was given one for a birthday present. The other painting was hung at the Public library and displayed the entire month of May.
June – We completed 95% of our “year’s supply of basics,” we’ve been working on for a couple of years. Also we did a “food storage basics” display at a church preparedness day. This was just a warm-up for Pauline doing a presentation for the other ward’s enrichment night. On June 7th, Pauline turned 35 and celebrated by purchasing a new Dyson DC-15 vacuum-cleaner that we named HoosFoos.
Summer Schedule – The children were also let out of school. We decided our “summer schedule” would be to fill out a page each day of what we did. Each day we have to do something in the following categories: Work, Read/Write, Play, Practice/Exercise, Learn/Make, Serve. At the end of the day we report to John on what was accomplished. This way when the kids can’t think of what to do they can figure out which of their categories are blank for the day and DO something to fill it in.
Summer Events – One of the Learn/Make things we did was to help Leslie and Emily get a start on sewing. They each made a draw-string backpack to take with us to Circus World museum (see below for Circus World description). The backpacks have since been used for adventures to Riverfest, the library, and swimming leassons. Riverfest is a local community event which concludes with fireworks on the 4th of July. Swimming lessons are going well this time. Leslie is a lot stronger and braver than she was a year ago and therefore is doing excellently. Emily still loves to play in the water and will eventually learn to swim.
John’s cousin, Katie Snyder (new last name) recently moved to Milwaukee and had her second baby. Aunt Claudia Snyder came out to help and called us. We arranged to meet each other in New Glarus (about mid-way) and enjoyed spending the day walking around the shops and visiting.
John’s Work – I’m in the continuing process of writing up a paper based on experiments that I ran in January and June. The last couple of days have been spend reading a whole bunch of research papers written by other people on similar topics, to help figure some things out about my own paper. I’ve made some good progress and hope to be done with the paper in just a couple of days. I’m also in the process of waiting for new samples to study and waiting for new equipment to come in, to do some other experiments.
Another work project that I have going on is a teaching project. I was chosen to be the “Wisconsin Teaching Fellow” from our university for the coming year—each campus gets to choose one fairly new faculty person to be part of this program. The fellowship comes with some extra dollars, and the responsibility to carry out a “scholarship of teaching & learning” project. There are also several in-state conferences to attend during the summer and through next year. After thinking of 10 or so different projects, I’ve more-or-less decided to study how the type of exam (open notes vs. closed) affects students: their study habits, their motivation, retention, etc. I’ll assess the students through interviews and surveys. I think it should be an interesting project, and something that hasn’t really been done before in physics, as far as I can tell.
Circus World – My last Teaching Fellow conference was in Madison a few weeks ago. To have some family fun, Pauline and the girls decided to meet me half way home, in Baraboo Wisconsin, where there is a circus museum. It was the winter home for the Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus, back in the day. Why Wisconsin in the winter, you ask? Apparently B&B were from Wisconsin, so it was near their home. It’s now run by the Wisconsin State Historical Society, and they have a bunch of old circus stuff (decorated train cars, etc.). They also have some live “exhibits”—we saw a clown show, a magic show, an acrobatic show, rode on a carousel (which we were informed was more properly called a merry-go-round, since the horses went up & down), and saw an elephant demonstration. Leslie, Emily, and John decided to complete the experience by riding on the elephant! It was fun.
The piano saga – A circuit on our electric piano blew last October. This was the piano that we bought way back in Provo, Utah, 1994. We hadn’t had any problems with it since, but discovered that Panasonic repair technicians are hard to come by in this part of the world. We determined that the closest person was in a small town most of the way towards Madison (about an hour and 45 minutes away). It’s a long, but scenic drive there. And coincidentally the repair shop is run by a guy whose last name was Snyder, and his ancestors were from Athens, Ohio—so we’re likely relatives (that’s where John’s grandpa Snyder grew up).
So dropping off the piano was a good experience. Unfortunately, we had to wait and wait and WAIT to get it fixed. As things turned out, the particular piano wasn’t made anymore, and replacement parts were no longer being made. They ended up having to send the circuit board to Japan, where it was traded in for a used, repaired, circuit board. So that basically took FOREVER. Or at least six months, which felt like forever. The most frustrating thing about it, is that the repair guy (Snyder’s assistant) would NEVER call us to let us know what the status was. We’d literally go months without hearing from the guy—until I called *him*, and then the answer would invariably be that he was still waiting from Panasonic to call him. Apparently “initiative” wasn’t in his vocabulary. If I hadn’t followed up, and “encouraged” him every 6 weeks or so to keep calling Panasonic to see where in the world our circuit board even was, I am certain that it would have taken twice as long for us to get it back, if at all!
Then, when we finally got it back, we took it home… and the speakers promptly blew. I imagine something wasn’t screwed down on the inside, and made a bad contact when we tilted the thing over to fit in our minivan. So, we had to take it back to the repair place, and they had to order new speakers for us (at least they didn’t charge us for them, that was nice). So our hope was dashed to the ground again, just when we thought the saga was over.
Happy ending: we finally got in back in mid-April. Yay! Playing the piano is fun. And it *is* a nice piano, so it was worth getting it fixed. I started having piano lessons with the kids again. Leslie and Emily are both doing really well. Leslie decided she’d prefer to just continue with the piano instead of doing both the piano and the violin. Last year in school she did violin for both semesters, which ended up being very nice while the piano was gone.
Choir – Most if not all of you should know that I sing in the La Crosse Chamber Chorale. We sing mostly classical-style choral music, both ancient and modern. Let me know if you’d really like to hear the choir; since our choir performances are taped for later radio broadcasting, I’ve got recordings of just about all of our performances. I’ve even compiled a couple of “greatest hits” CDs. Every year we have a fund-raising dinner/performance that can let us break out of the classical stereotype, called the “May Feaste”. This year’s Feaste theme was “1950’s and 60’s”. We sang a West Side Story medley, a Beatles medley, “At the Hop”, etc.
Also part of the May Feaste are some “small group numbers”, which individual choir members organize. I joined several of these, and ended up singing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, “My Girl”, and “Heart” (from Damn Yankees) in three different male quartets. Fun! The Lion Sleeps Tonight was a great hit, and a ladies group from a town an hour away is willing to pay [money going to the choir, I assume] for our quartet to perform at some meeting they have in September.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention—we got to dress appropriate for the era. So I wore a tie-dye shirt, a long hair wig, beads, and sandals. :-)
Church – Church is still pretty much the same for me. I’m still the second counselor and the organist. And I’ll probably direct the choir again this Christmas. Pauline, on the other hand, about a month or two ago, was asked to teach the Gospel Doctrine class. She has done an excellent job, and I’m not just saying that! She’s probably as good as any other Gospel Doctrine teacher that I’ve ever had, and much better than most! And I think she even likes it a little—the “preparing for lessons” part, not the “standing up in front of people” part.
Blog – Inspired by a priesthood lesson about 6 weeks ago, I decided to do a better job of keeping a personal journal. One of the new guys (Todd Ebbert, a resident at the local hospital) said that his family had had success doing a blog as a journal. I had thought about doing that very thing just a couple of days before, so I decided events were conspiring to tell me something. Long story short: I now have my own blog, which I’m using basically as a journal. This family newsletter will probably get posted there, for example.
So, to find out the latest in what’s going on with John, feel free to visit: http://johncolton.blogspot.com
___
Yes I love technology
But not as much as you, you see
But I still love technology
Always and forever
Our love is like a flock of doves
Flying up to heav'n above
Always and forever
Always and forever
Special Topic: Why the John S. Colton Family Loves Technology Always and Forever
Leslie: It helps you learn stuff. You can play fun games and things.
Emily: Technology means typing on the computer. I like technology because you can e-mail people and write a letter to someone.
Pauline: I like to use technology/internet to help me with Sunday School Lessons, answering kids “weird” questions, ordering books/music/movies/misc. on the internet, using google to find genealogy answers, comparing products I’m thinking of purchasing. I love technology because I can get a pattern from my mom the same day I ask for it. I can send pictures to people I like. I can “nuke” food so things don’t take very long.
John: I like being able to listen to store my entire CD collection on my computer and listen to music all day at work. I like wikipedia. I like anti-lock breaks. I love taking hundreds of photographs and being able to delete the ones that don’t turn out instead of having to pay for their processing. I like email. I like being able to follow the Utah Jazz even though we live far away. I like being able to have people’s addresses/phone numbers along with my schedule and a chunk of my music collection all on my Palm Pilot. I like optical mice. I like electric pianos that have headphones the kids can wear while practicing. I like amazon.com. I like googling things. I liked mechanical pencils. I like central heat & air-conditioning. I like indoor plumbing. I like writing newsletters with MS Word instead of a typewriter.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Movie reviews
Maybe I'll expand into movie reviews. We've rented a couple of good movies in the last month (and a few that weren't so good). Roughly in the order that we watched them, here they are:
Sky High - 10/10, Highly Recommended. A great movie, very entertaining for adults and kids alike. Kind of like The Incredibles meets Spiderman, or something like that.
Serenity - 7/10. Fairly good science fiction picture. Some things were too predictable, some things didn't make sense, but overall it was entertaining. Fairly violent at times, so think twice before having kids watch it.
Nanny McPhee - 9/10. Very nice. Pauline especially liked how the nanny was the anti-Mary Poppins. Someone she could relate to! ;-) The kids loved it.
Secondhand Lions - 10/10. Excellent picture. I liked it much more than expected. It's about a kid who goes to live with his wealthy eccentric uncles because his mom (basically a loser) wants him to get in on some of the uncles' money. The uncles are retired adventurers (or are they?), and order a "used" lion, which turns out to be a metaphor for their own lives--hence the title, Secondhand Lions. But anyway, it's very entertaining, at various times being funny, serious, scary, and sentimental.
House of the Flying Daggers - 4/10. Not recommended. The first half of the movie was very interesting--bright colors, interesting martial arts scenes, interesting directing. But the last ~1/3 completely ruined the movie for me. Moved too slow, turned too bloody, etc.
The Kid - 8/10. Bruce Willis, a selfish bitter guy, meets his younger self (who had time-traveled from the past to the present). Willis's character has to re-learn how to be nice, childlike, etc. Movie was well-done. Pauline & I both liked it, and I think Leslie liked it a lot; Emily was a bit bored at times.
Sky High - 10/10, Highly Recommended. A great movie, very entertaining for adults and kids alike. Kind of like The Incredibles meets Spiderman, or something like that.
Serenity - 7/10. Fairly good science fiction picture. Some things were too predictable, some things didn't make sense, but overall it was entertaining. Fairly violent at times, so think twice before having kids watch it.
Nanny McPhee - 9/10. Very nice. Pauline especially liked how the nanny was the anti-Mary Poppins. Someone she could relate to! ;-) The kids loved it.
Secondhand Lions - 10/10. Excellent picture. I liked it much more than expected. It's about a kid who goes to live with his wealthy eccentric uncles because his mom (basically a loser) wants him to get in on some of the uncles' money. The uncles are retired adventurers (or are they?), and order a "used" lion, which turns out to be a metaphor for their own lives--hence the title, Secondhand Lions. But anyway, it's very entertaining, at various times being funny, serious, scary, and sentimental.
House of the Flying Daggers - 4/10. Not recommended. The first half of the movie was very interesting--bright colors, interesting martial arts scenes, interesting directing. But the last ~1/3 completely ruined the movie for me. Moved too slow, turned too bloody, etc.
The Kid - 8/10. Bruce Willis, a selfish bitter guy, meets his younger self (who had time-traveled from the past to the present). Willis's character has to re-learn how to be nice, childlike, etc. Movie was well-done. Pauline & I both liked it, and I think Leslie liked it a lot; Emily was a bit bored at times.
Monday, July 17, 2006
More books
One of the reasons I decided to keep this blog was to keep track of the books I've bought and/or read. (After all, "he who dies with the most books, wins!")
So, to give an update: I finished Dragon Rider. In the end, it was slightly disappointing. It was entertaining and well written, it just lacked some punch. Kids would probably still like it a lot. It reminded me a bit of the first 3 Harry Potter books. I know some adults liked them, but I didn't become a fan of the series until book 4 (Goblet of Fire); the first 3 books lacked much depth.
After that, I started The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. I was really looking forward to this book because I know it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. Unfortunately, the foul language & some graphic scenes led me to abandon the book fairly quickly. A shame, really, and not something I often do.
[deciding to do some html code for book links]
Next on my list is Mormons and the Bible, by Phillip Barlow. He was an undergraduate mentor to one of the other guys at that Summer Institute conference in Madison last month. Somehow Mormonism came up, and he mentioned that his mentor had been LDS and had written a historical book about the church. Pauline's already read it, and I'm about 1/5 of the way. Seems like an excellent book, with details about how the LDS church has come to its current view on the Bible.
So, to give an update: I finished Dragon Rider. In the end, it was slightly disappointing. It was entertaining and well written, it just lacked some punch. Kids would probably still like it a lot. It reminded me a bit of the first 3 Harry Potter books. I know some adults liked them, but I didn't become a fan of the series until book 4 (Goblet of Fire); the first 3 books lacked much depth.
After that, I started The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. I was really looking forward to this book because I know it won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. Unfortunately, the foul language & some graphic scenes led me to abandon the book fairly quickly. A shame, really, and not something I often do.
[deciding to do some html code for book links]
Next on my list is Mormons and the Bible, by Phillip Barlow. He was an undergraduate mentor to one of the other guys at that Summer Institute conference in Madison last month. Somehow Mormonism came up, and he mentioned that his mentor had been LDS and had written a historical book about the church. Pauline's already read it, and I'm about 1/5 of the way. Seems like an excellent book, with details about how the LDS church has come to its current view on the Bible.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Wisconsin Teaching Fellow and Books
I had a conference in Madison a week or two ago. It was fun to see the UW-Madison campus. Larger than I expected! The conference was about the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), the "Summer Institute" of the UW System's Office of Professional & Instructional Development (OPID). I'm the UW-La Crosse "Wisconsin Teaching Fellow" this year, and among other things that involves me creating and executing my own SoTL project. Right now the front runner is for me to examine what differences arise when students are given closed book/notes exams vs. allowing them to create a one page notesheet. Do they study longer/shorter, are they more motivated, do they retain the material better, and so forth.
I just finished "The Black Ship", by Christopher Rowley. It had some extremely interesting elements, but I didn't think the execution was nearly as good as the first two "Bazil Broketail" books which I had read last month. It seemed like this must have been an early effort by Rowley. [quick web search]Yes, it looks like this might have been his second book.
Now I'm in the middle of "Dragon Rider", by Cornelia Funke. It's really good, like the last one I read from her ("Inkheart"), but just like that one it was obviously meant for kids. Still, highly recommended.
I just finished "The Black Ship", by Christopher Rowley. It had some extremely interesting elements, but I didn't think the execution was nearly as good as the first two "Bazil Broketail" books which I had read last month. It seemed like this must have been an early effort by Rowley. [quick web search]
Now I'm in the middle of "Dragon Rider", by Cornelia Funke. It's really good, like the last one I read from her ("Inkheart"), but just like that one it was obviously meant for kids. Still, highly recommended.
