Triplus, Number 3

I was looking back at some comments on previous posts, and on my post "Exchange No. 8" I was reminded by my friend Hannabeth about another painting by Ron Richmond that we both like a lot. This one is called Triplus, Number 3 and is also owned and displayed by BYU in their Museum of Art. Here's a picture of it:

For some reason it's coming up kind of small, but I can't think of anything to make it bigger that doesn't also over-pixelize it. Oh well. I'll have to describe it for those who have poor eyesight.

Once again, I love Ron Richmonds simple yet profound representations of the Atonement. In this composition, he has the white cloth overlapping the red cloth, just like in his Exchange No. 8, I think it is a reference to the cleansing power of the Atonement. On the white cloth are three bowls. The one closest to the viewer is filled with water, the second with blood, the third is empty.

My first thoughts on seeing this painting were expressed in an exchange between Christ and Nicodemus in John 3:3-5. It goes like this "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

That takes care of the first and last bowls. Being born again of water would be baptism. The act of baptism by immersion symbolizes this rebirth. We are immersed under the water as we are buried underground after death and then we are brought back out of the water in a representation of the resurrection. We are born again through our baptism. We are born again by the Spirit when we are baptised by fire, or given the gift of the Holy Ghost. After baptism we are confirmed members of Christ's church and given that gift. What of the blood then? I would say that we are born again through the Atonement as well. As we repent and forsake our sins, we are born again through the blood of Christ. As we accept Christ and his sacrifice on our behalf, we are made new creatures through him, we are born again.

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission

So I've officially decided that I'm going to serve a mission for my church. Well, that's not entirely true. I've known for some time now, but now I'm just shy of my 21st birthday and it's all become a much bigger reality for me. After Christmas break I start the process of getting my papers in. I had also made a decision not to talk about it because there seems to be a curse here at BYU that whenever a girl is set on going on a mission and tells everyone that that's her plan, she ends up getting married instead. I have a very good friend who had her mission call and was getting ready to head out in September. She got married in November. But it doesn't always happen. I have other good friends who served missions despite marriage prospects.

A lot of my friends this year are very recently returned missionaries and it's actually been good to hear their mission stories and experiences. It makes me a little less scared to go on my own mission. But only a little. I am by nature a very nervous person and the whole prospect of going out and talking to strangers has never excited me. Nor has the idea of sharing my testimony. Put the two together and I'm shaking in my Chucks (since that's what I'm wearing right now, not boots).

One of my very favorite scriptures is Doctrine & Covenants section 6 verse 36 where the Lord tells Oliver Cowdry to "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." It is such a simple command and yet for someone like me it can be so hard. But at the same time it's a very comforting thought. The Lord is there for me in everything I do and especially in those righteous endeavors that were His ideas in the first place. If left to my own devices and decisions, I probably would be too scared to serve a mission. But because I know the Lord has asked me to serve a mission, I will do it. It is still my decision, but I'm choosing to follow the Spirit, the council of my family and friends and what my own heart is telling me is right. Just like Nephi said, "I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." I will have the support of the Lord on my mission. I need not fear, I need not doubt my decision.

Adventsingen

Now, I don't speak a lick of German, but today I went to a German Christmas celebration at the Provo Tabernacle. Basically the entire program was in German: the songs, the introduction, the scriptures, the program. The only thing they told us in English was where the bathrooms were and that we need to turn off our phones before the program started. Even the group songs were in German, and I didn't know how to pronounce anything, but I sang anyway.

But I like that it didn't matter. Christmas is still Christmas no matter what language you are celebrating in. It doesn't matter what the traditions are, they all celebrate the birth of Christ. So even though I was lost in the language being used all evening, I understood the spirit of the proceedings. When we sang Stille Nacht it was still the same melody I knew by heart. and the angels were still singing on high even if the tune was a little different.

I'm not really sure what more I have to say on this topic, but Christmas has been on my mind a lot lately and I decided to share my thoughts. It's just neat to know that no matter where in the world you go, Christians still celebrate for the same reason this time of year.

Fluff

I have a sinus infection. Ew, gross, I know. But they're basically a part of my life and I've come to accept them and live with them. So the fact that I'm constantly blowing my nose is nothing new. But the fact that my head is so, as the great philosopher Winnie the Pooh would say, filled with fluff, that I have hard time thinking, focusing and retaining information. Good thing finals are NEXT WEEK. Curses. Now I can't tell the difference between thiocyanate and Thessalonians. I'm not sure if I'm studying Romanesque art or ribonucleic acid. Is there actually a difference between balancing equations in chemistry and balancing grain in patterns? And I'm still working on separating transepts in architecture from transits in astronomy. Needless to say, my brain is a befuddled mess.

And so I sit here in the computer lab on campus, silently bemoaning my poor state of mental affairs, and I look over at the wall and see this picture:

An interesting choice, I thought, for a computer lab. I think you can take this two ways:

First, as a representation of Matthew 7:7 where it says, " Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" Christ is knocking at the door and giving an example of what he has invited us to do. Here we are in a computer lab with a wealth of information literally at our fingertips. All we have to do is put in our keywords and there we go.

Second, and I think this is a little more applicable to my situation and you're welcome to take or leave this application, is that Christ is bringing us answers. He is knocking at our door with answers and we need only to open the door and let him in. I've seen this painting enough times to remember that there is no doorknob on the door. Logically that would mean there is only a doorknob on the other side of the door. That's the side of the door we would be on. Christ brings us answers but we have to choose to open the door and accept what he offers us.

I would like to take that interpretation both spiritually and academically. Christ can bring us answers pertaining to our spiritual welfare, but he knows everything, so why not let him help us through finals as well? My patterns teacher often reminds us that "the Holy Ghost is really good at pattern making." And it's true. God does not profess to be omniscient in only a few select subjects, but as the God of everything, he knows everything. He knows how to name my pesky coordination compounds in chemistry and he knows how much ease to add to the waistline of my draped skirt pattern and what the differences are between the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Certainly, I still plan to study, but it's a lot of information and I personally like the idea that I can ask someone to help me remember what I have studied. Especially when my brain feels like mashed peas.

Paper, Papyrus and Printing

I think blogging can be fun, if you actually have something to say. It becomes somewhat less fun when you realize that you have nothing to say and have to post that nothing in order to get the grade in the class. And so here I post my nothing.

But seriously, I've been thinking back to when we went down to Special Collections for the mini seminar on the evolution of printing and publishing and how interesting it was. We got to hold cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia and look at old texts written in monasteries from way back when. It was especially neat to look at the illuminated manuscripts since we've talked about the technique and style of many of those in my art history class. (I actually mentioned a class other than astronomy or D&C!)

I'm not sure what exactly I wanted to say about the seminar, but I can certainly see the impact of this history of publication on the ultimate printing of the Book of Mormon. It wouldn't have been very practical for Joseph Smith to try and publish the Book of Mormon on clay tablets or papyrus scrolls. He needed the technology of bound books printed on paper. That made the book cheap enough to (somewhat) mass-produce. First printing in 1830 was 5,000 copies. Granted, it was still pretty expensive ($3,000-Martin Harris mortgaged part of his farm to help pay for it), but imagine how much more expensive it would have been to hand letter each and every copy on vellum. Exactly. I don't think it would have seemed worth it.

A couple summers ago I had a chance to go to Palmyra, NY and we went to the building where E.B. Grandin's print shop was. It is now a church-owned museum that goes though the history of printing the Book of Mormon. Here's a picture I took while I was there. This part is set up to look like the store that Grandin himself would have run. You can see some copies of the Book of Mormon on the shelves behind the counter. (You can click on the picture to see the whole thing.)


They also had a workshop set up with a printing press and all the various and sundry accessories they would have needed to run a print shop. There's also a museum here in Provo, the Crandall Museum, that talks all about the history of printing and publication and how it influenced the publication of the Book of Mormon. It's fascinating.

How grateful I am that they had that technology at the right time! The Book of Mormon truly is an inspired book and I am grateful that Joseph Smith had the faith, courage and means to have it published. Turns out I had a lot more than nothing to say after all.