Category Archives: Personal Essays

Walking for the Mind

Posted on 14-November-2011 by

At work, I’m a pacer.  Between work tasks, I get up and walk around.  It helps clear my mind, it helps transition my mind from one task to the next, and it helps me think. Aparently this is not a … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Personal Essays, Walking | Leave a comment

Opinions About My Opinions

Posted on 16-August-2011 by

In a previous blog entry, I stated that I will not be voting for Mitt Romney (http://rogerdhansen.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/why-i-wont-vote-for-mitt-romney/).  My excuse:  “America needs a stateman, not a politician.”  I then implied that Mitt is not acting like a stateman.  When I wrote … Continue reading →

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Mormon Kitsch Hits New Low

Posted on 06-August-2011 by

Yesterday my wife received her latest Deseret Book promotional broshure.  Inside on page 7 was a full-page ad (President Monson’s biography only gets half a page) for a spiral-bound book titled: . . . . . The Testimony Glove.  “Use the glove, feel … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, mormonism, Personal Essays, Religion | 3 Comments

An Interesting Birthday

Posted on 14-May-2011 by

I recently spent my 66th birthday in southern Utah.  I spent the day observing designbuildBluff move a double-wide modular home from Bluff to a Navajo community near Blanding.  It was a very interesting day (I will write about it in … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Essays, Travel | 1 Comment

Joy of Killing

Posted on 02-May-2011 by

On Sunday, 1 May 2011, President Barack Obama went on television at 9:36 pm MST, and announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed in his compound outside of Islamabad, Pakistan.  In an obvious attempt to bolter his sagging approval … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Essays, real-time monitoring, Social Justice, Technology, Television | 5 Comments

Reworking the “Word of Wisdom”

Posted on 15-April-2011 by

Revelations, like the Mormon “Word of Wisdom,” need to be updated from time to time.  This need is brought about by constantly improving scientific information about the human relationship with food and drugs, and the wider number of substances available to use and abuse. It should … Continue reading →

Posted in mormonism, Personal Essays | 2 Comments

Save the Orangutans

Posted on 16-March-2011 by

When my son finished his Mormon mission in the southern Philippines, his twin brother and I joined him for an extensive tour of the islands of Mindinao, Palawan, and Borneo. At the end of the 5-week trip, we spent one week … Continue reading →

Posted in animals, Environment, Personal Essays, Travel | 3 Comments

In Defense of Ecclesiastical Squishiness

Posted on 04-February-2011 by

Jon Huntsman Jr’s (ex-governor of Utah and recently-resigned ambassador to China) religious beliefs were recently described as “ambiguous” by the SLTrib (4 Feb 2011): In an interview with Forbes last year, he said he wasn’t “overly religious” and noted that … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Essays, Religion | 1 Comment

Wandering and Wondering

Posted on 03-January-2011 by

For Christmas, my daughter gave me a small, homemade poster that reads “All those who wander are not lost.”  Appropriately, the lettering is made from a road map.  Of all my Christmas gifts, I was most touched by this one.  … Continue reading →

Posted in mormonism, Personal Essays, Religion, Travel, Vocabulary | 1 Comment

Purging My Brain

Posted on 06-August-2010 by

During a exercise in a recent Sunstone workshop on personal essays taught by Phyllis Barber, I wrote a short piece.  Phyllis threw four objects on the floor (set of keys, a hairclip, a small semi-clear plastic ball, and a small … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Essays | 6 Comments