Upcoming Reading and Reviews

I recently finished reading Restoration: God's Call to the 21st-Century World, by Patrick Q. Mason (Faith Matters Publishing, 2020). I will share some notes and thoughts later this week.

Books I am excited to start soon which will be at least somewhat related to Millennial Social Thought include the following:

• This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World, by Yancey Strickler (Viking Press, 2019)
• Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond (Crown Publishing, 2023)
• Stealing from Each Other: How the Welfare State Robs Americans of Money and Spirit, by Edgar K. Browning (Holtzbrinck Publishing, 2008)

Later this week I'll write about my current framework for this effort.

A New Start

Every time I thought my life was about to get calmer in the past year, it instead got more not-calmer. In January 2022 I accepted a job that moved us from Florida to Ohio. In March I moved, and a month later my family moved. (I recommend moving in shifts because it makes everyone speculate that you're separating, and then they go out of their way to be nice to you, and when you finally "reconcile" everyone thinks it's such a happy ending. If you had just all moved at once everyone would be, like, "Fffftht.") The next few months were busy with learning a new job and getting all our stuff sorted. (I have too much stuff, and you have too much stuff; when the Beverly Hillbillies moved they managed to fit all of their possessions AND all the family into one car, but when we move it looks like Napoleon's baggage train.) Right when I was ready to begin my serious blogging about Millennial Social Thought, in September 2022, I was called as a counselor in our bishopric, and right when I was going to start new at the first of the year, I was called as bishop.

I will be the first to tell you that I am the worst bishop in the Church, and most of my ward's members would verify that claim without a moment's hesitation. There are two main reasons for this: one is my being terrible, and the other is my work.

An aside, for comparison's sake: 22 years ago, I interviewed for a job stocking shelves at Staples. In the interview the manager asked about a "hypothetical" situation where someone had smeared feces all over the restroom and asked what I would do. I thought, "That's a really weird hypothetical." Only after I took the job did I learn that it wasn't a hypothetical question AT ALL.

Similarly, when I interviewed for this job I was told that some people dislike the work demands during budget time, and did I have a problem with working extra when required. I've had a few experiences with overtime in my career, and they were fine, so I said I could handle it. Then we got to January 2023 and it turned out that "when required" meant "all the time for six straight months." I told my boss I now run a church congregation that meets on Sundays and she made the helpful suggestion of, "Don't make any plans for the weekends."

Well. The biennial budget cycle ended this weekend. I have a more-reliable computer situation. My Fitbit says I had my best night of sleep ever last night. In short, things are looking up for the first time in over six months. So I am recommitting to this Millennial Social Thought blog project, combined with the stories of my foolishness that the serious student of my blogging has come to expect. (Remember when I just let myself into a high school, changed into my swimming suit in the locker room, and swam laps in the pool until the PE teacher asked what I was doing? Or when I accidentally asked a coworker out on a lunch date? Or when I told my doctor I was a professional hostage negotiator? Or when I had a random pair of underwear fall out the leg of my pants...TWICE?) This is the content my public demands.

A Story of My Stupidity

I was in the waiting room of a doctor's office today. Two other people were also waiting. A nurse opened the door and very clearly called out, "Raven?" No one answered. She called again, "Raven?" Then she went back inside.

The receptionist then said, "Raven, she was calling for you." No one else was responding and the receptionist was looking at me. I said, "What do you guys think my name is?" She asked, "How do you say your name?" I said, "Brandon." She said, "Yeah, that's what she said." Then she went to get the nurse (and no doubt share the tale of my craziness).

I asked the other two people in the waiting room, "Did you guys think she was saying 'Brandon'?" They both said yes. I said, "I guess I need to go to the ear doctor next." That got a big laugh, which the repeat reader will know is my sine qua non of a good public interaction.

Other "Lose, Vague, and Indeterminant" Terms

Along the line of trying to determine the best name for what I'm currently calling "Millennial Social Thought," there are other instances of confusingly similar terms in this area. For instance, some people use the terms "religious economics" and "economics of religion" interchangably, while others view them as two different things. I'm probably in the "two different things" camp: to me religious economics is when economics is influenced by religious views, while the economics of religion is applying economic principles to religious actions. If you give some of your income away because of a religious principle you are practicing religious economics, but if you theorize that actions in testimony meeting can be explained with a signalling model you are practicing the economics of religion.

Similarly, the term "consecration" just means "to make holy" to most people, but to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints it means "the dedication of all resources." To some "stewardship" might mean nothing more than princple management, but to certain groups of Christians it implies a future reckoning with God about how the resources were managed.

Hypercycloids and Circles

When I was younger my brother taught me how to use straight lines on graph paper to draw the things that comprise the Pittsburgh Steelers logo (which I learned much later are called hypercycloids). I thought it was awesome and I did it all the time. It was my version of that dumb angled S thing that everyone else drew when they were 10 years old.

I have often wondered if the circular shape you get out of such a drawing is, in fact, a circle. So I decided to figure it out.

A Simpler Name

Several months ago, Steve commented and suggested perhaps a name like "Consecrated" or "Consecrationist Social Thought" might do the trick for what I have been thinking of as "Restored Christian Social Thought." That's not bad, except that many people who think about these things already think of Catholic Social Thought as CST. But then this week I had this idea: what about "Millennial Social Thought" as a name? I think it captures the idea with a new term that isn't going to be confused for something else, and it helps move the idea beyond one religion's viewpoint, since several religions have ideas about utopian societies. So I'll be moving forward with the term "Millennial Social Thought," or "MST."

Inspiration

I don't remember how I first became aware of Seth Godin or his blog, but my Feedly account has included him for a while now. I appreciate his posts because they are usually short little jabs to go be awesome, and I need jabs like that.

Two weeks ago he had a post about how hard it is to produce content when feedback is missing. It motivated me to recommit to blogging about Restored Christian Social Thought. So here I am, recommitting.

Thanks, Seth.