EXPERIENCE BYU HONORS FALL/WINTER 2012
VISIT US AT
INSIGHT.BYU.EDU
Thank you to the Insight staff and volunteer students who posed for this photo.
JOIN THE INSIGHT STAFF
We are now accepting applications for student writers, photographers, illustrators, and designers. Insight is an Honors magazine class (HONRS 301R sec. 1), but you don’t have to be an Honors student to enroll. For more information contact us at honorsmagazine@byu.edu.
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INSIGHT 2012
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Insight A PUBLICATION OF
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY HONORS PROGRAM 350 MAESER BUILDING PROVO, UT 84602-2600
CONTENTS
Executive Editors CHERI PRAY EARL LISA BERNOTSKI JOHNSON Managing Editor KELSEY HOLLOWAY MURDOCH (!12) Consulting Editor JEN JONES (!12) Creative Director CRAIG MANGUM (!14) Art Director SARAH KAY BRIMHALL (!15) Lead Editor STEPHEN RICHARDS (!12) Webmaster EMILY BELL (!12)
HONORING PEOPLE
SPECIAL SECTION:
100 YEARS OF MAESER PAGE 33
Publisher RORY R. SCANLON Honors Program Director and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education
Ghost Buildings My Irrational Ambition We All Need Our Space
HONORING EXPERIENCES
14 SENEGAL: ONLY A WORLD AWAY 26 Not the Japan My Grandfather Knew 44 Maeser Mysteries
Photographer JARED CROCKETT (!12) Staff RYAN BROWN (!13) NAOMI CLEGG (!15) CARMEN DUNFORD (!12) CELESTE GODFREY (!14) JUSTIN KELLY (!12) CHLOE LITCHFIELD (!14) LUCY LU (!14) EMILEE PUGH (!14) MICHAEL DAVID RICKS (!17) RACHEL ELIZABETH ROSS (!14) DEREK ROYLANCE (!12) DANIELLA SUBIETA (!14) JESSICA SWENSON (!14) CLAIRE THOMAS (!15) SEAN R. WATSON (!15) STEPHANIE WESSELS (!15) KATIE WHITE (!12) KAELI WOOD (!13) SAM WOOD (!13)
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HONORING FAITH 36 The Vision of Temple Hill
47 “Beautifully Written Upon Papyrus”
HONORING ACADEMICS
“THE MAESER BUILDING [IS] A SYMBOL OF THE PAST, A STATEMENT OF ASPIRING TRADITION, AN ANCHOR TO THE UNIVERSITY’S FUTURE.” –ELDER JEFFREY R. HOLLAND
23 FOOD FOR THOUGHT 42 The Two Lives of the Reading Room 56 Traveling at the Speed of Light
DEPARTMENTS 6 7
Where Can Honors Take You? Off the Shelf: Student Edition
Advisory Board JOEL GRIFFITTS, Microbiology and Molecular Biology KEITH LAWRENCE, English ROY SILCOX, Physiology and Developmental Biology SCOTT STEFFENSEN, Psychology SEAN WARNICK, Computer Science Front cover and inside front cover photographs by Jared Crockett. Back cover photograph by Sarah Kay Brimhall.
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CREATIVE ARTS CONTEST WINNER: “FIVE STORIES” 54 On the Map
60 Blurring the Lines INSIGHT 2012
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EDITOR!S NOTE
WHERE CAN HONORS TAKE YOU?
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Kelsey Holloway Murdoch will graduate in August 2012 with a degree in Humanities with an English emphasis. In the meantime, she!s !"#$%#"&'%()'*+"+)$' thesis titled “Hope Rises in the Leprosy Colonies of India,” planning a move to New York City with her husband, and calculating how many books and cooking gadgets she can squeeze into a tiny Manhattan studio. Photograph taken by Jared Crockett.
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ne year ago, I was living with four girls in a tiny apartment overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem during a semester abroad at Brigham Young University’s Jerusalem Center. Now I live in a slightly larger abode with one boy who is the Mr. to my Mrs. A lot can change in a year. From Jerusalem to Provo to California and soon to New York, everywhere I’ve gone in the last few years has held some connection to my studies in the Honors Program. Whether I am seeing my first real Impressionist paintings amid the collections at The Israel Museum or writing sappy love notes in code (a skill I developed in my Honors cryptography class), my time in Honors classes seems to follow me where ever I roam. And as my frequent flier miles can attest, I’ve done a lot of roaming. My own experiences as well as the incredible adventures of my peers inspired the theme we built upon while crafting this issue of Insight: Where can Honors take you? And—perhaps more importantly—where can you take Honors? This issue hopes to explore the idea of taking your Honors experience to new places, whether that means exploring faraway lands or new ideas. From a professor’s foray into philosophy at the speed of light to the reconciliation of two generations with very different ideas about Japan, we’re stretching boundaries of thought as well as breaking language barriers. We’re also the first to publish an article featuring Dr. Kerry Muhlestein’s research that charts the journey and time line of the Joseph Smith Papyri. After spending five years as an Honors student (some of us like to take some classes just for fun, okay?) and now facing the somewhat daunting final hurdle of completing my thesis, I feel qualified to say that byu Honors is about looking beyond conventions, investigating new ideas, experiencing the extraordinary, and pushing yourself beyond standard requirements. So here’s to taking your college experience beyond the ordinary, whether that means hopping on a plane to study in a foreign country or delving deeper into the mysteries of the universe in a lab on our very own campus. May this issue inspire you to seek out your own extraordinary adventures. !
Off the Shelf: student edition WRITTEN BY Emily Bell and Jessica Swenson PHOTOGRAPHY BY Jared Crockett PREFACE Books are more than paper, ink, binding, and that irresistible musty smell. They’re experiences. They illuminate the perspectives of others, let us discover the new and unknown, and become a part of our own reality. Delving into the minds of our peers, we asked four Honors students about the books that have shaped them the most.
“Where can Honors take you? And—perhaps more importantly—where can you take Honors?”
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OFF THE SHELF
STUDENT: CAROLINE URE
STUDENT: NATHAN WARNER
Snapshot: Caroline Ure doesn’t just love reading books; she’s a classic bibliophile who will go to the bookstore just to hold, feel, and smell those hard-bound treasures. She adores ballroom dancing, dressing up for almost any occasion, and creating amazing culinary confections—she even keeps a regularly replenished jar of fresh-baked cookies in her apartment.
Snapshot: Fresh off his mission to Denmark and still making the awkward adjustment to “real life,” Nathan Warner finds himself caught between the siren songs of physics and mechanical engineering. He harbors a love for all things Asian and, given the choice, would be reincarnated as a Japanese samurai.
Book that has influenced you the most: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes Most recently read book: The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff Favorite book from the Great Works List: Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Brontë.
Book that has influenced you the most: Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card Most recently read book: Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson Favorite book from the Great Works List: East of Eden by John Steinbeck
MAJOR: SOCIOLOGY YEAR: SENIOR
“Wuthering Heights really stretched me as a reader. Most of the characters are rather terrible people, but the story and the writing are still amazing. I think it was the first book I ever read where I liked the book without liking the characters at all. It made me realize how important good writing can be—it makes or breaks the book.”
“Sometimes the best way to will be remembered after Dead made me realize that
MAJOR: PHYSICS YEAR: JUNIOR
“Sometimes the best way to look at things is how they will be remembered after we’re gone. Speaker for the Dead made me realize that every choice I make will be remembered by someone.”
look at things is how they we’re gone. Speaker for the every choice I make will be remembered by someone.” –NATHAN WARNER
STUDENT: KYLE DURFEE
STUDENT: ANNIE XIE
Snapshot: When Kyle Durfee is not toiling away over his accounting homework, he explores business strategies and helps run byu’s antislavery club—all while munching on fruit snacks. In his rare moments of spare time he might watch a funny internet video, plan a crazy scavenger hunt, or ponder the deeper meaning of life.
Snapshot: Annie Xie is a Twitter addict, a Doctor Who fan girl, and a champion of local foods. In her wilder moments, she imagines joining “some crazy activist group” like Greenpeace, but she more realistically expects to get involved in public outreach and lobbying for various environmental causes.
Book that has influenced you the most: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig Most recently read book: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Favorite book from the Great Works List: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Book that has influenced you the most: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand Most recently read book: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Favorite book from the Great Works List: Aesop’s Fables by Aesop
MAJOR: ACCOUNTING YEAR: SOPHOMORE
“Outliers is a book about how successful people become successful, but it’s also about sociology, and it offers an excellent perspective on how sociological principles affect every part of life. For example, great leaders had luck and charisma, but they also were good sociologists. They understood what made people tick, so they could influence and inspire them.”
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MAJOR: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE YEAR: SOPHOMORE
“I really like Ayn Rand’s take and philosophy on objectivism. I find it interesting that in her books, selfishness is a virtue and selflessness is literally a loss of self. You have this innate potential to be great and you need to fulfill that and do things you want to do. She has a very extreme view I’d never considered before, so it helped broaden my own.”
INSIGHT 2012
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HONORING PEOPLE
THE ARTWORK OF BRYAN HUTCHISON
GHOST
B U I L D I N G S
W
WRITTEN BY
Daniella Subieta ARTWORK BY
Bryan Hutchison
HOTEL ROBERTS
hile on a field study in Tonga, visual arts major Bryan Hutchison made a discovery that would spark his next art project: Tongans don’t like to tear down abandoned buildings. “They have a sense of anticipation,” he says. “It’s like they believe the people who left their building will eventually come back and reclaim it.” With this as an impetus, Hutchison developed the idea for an art project that would call attention to architectural—and subconscious—changes in his hometown of Provo. In the winter of 2011, Hutchison applied for and received an orca grant to fund his idea: the 80-hour-long Provo Ghost Building project, which he said is about “this idea of change and how people deal with change. I consider Provo my home because of my memories attached to places. . . . But as each place evolves, it removes my first-hand connection to those memories.” To create his collection of ghost buildings, Bryan found photographs of torn-down Provo buildings, recreated them as current photos, and made a transfer drawing of the old building on the current site. “Some of these [buildings] I wish were still here,” Bryan said, “but I’m not trying to put my project across as a really negative process. Change in itself isn’t bad . . . progress requires change. But I’m trying to point out that there are consequences to change.” Although razed buildings might seem like a trivial subject matter, Bryan explains that architecture “changes the way you move through space and how you live every day. Architecture is something we don’t generally pay a whole lot of attention to consciously, but it has a lot of subconscious influence.” !
HOTEL ROBERTS
The Hotel Roberts was originally a home owned by a widow. When her husband died, she rented space to travelers in order to earn money out of necessity. She later remodeled her home to create a hotel in which, at one time, a president of the United States stayed the night. It was most recently a homeless shelter before its destruction. 10
INSIGHT 2012
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HONORING PEOPLE
“They have a sense of anticipation. It’s like they believe the people who left their building will eventually come back and reclaim it.” –BRYAN HUTCHISON
545 NORTH UNIVERSITY AVENUE
669 WEST 400 SOUTH
545 N UNIVERSITY AVE 593 N UNIVERSITY AVE Many of the homes located across the street from the Provo Library (Academy building) are currently apartment buildings; these are homes I passed almost daily for six years. 12
204 WEST CENTER STREET
593 NORTH UNIVERSITY AVENUE
669 WEST 400 SOUTH One of about eight houses torn down in order to make a field for the new Franklin Elementary School. It was a house where I used to play.
445 SOUTH 700 WEST
204 WEST CENTER STREET Originally one of the first three co-ops on center street, this building was most recently known as the restaurant, Atchafalaya. 445 SOUTH 700 WEST This was an old adobe brick home in my neighborhood. I delivered a local paper to the surrounding houses once a week for three years.
350 SOUTH 600 WEST
350 SOUTH 600 WEST I attended Franklin Elementary School until third grade when we were re-located to the new Franklin Elementary School pictured behind it. The Maeser and Franklin school buildings were designed by the same architect. INSIGHT 2012
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HONORING EXPERIENCES
SENEGAL: ONLY A WORLD AWAY WRITTEN BY
Chloe Litchfield PHOTOGRAPHY BY
Chloe Litchfield James Sykes Natalie Young
I
spent the three months prior to my Senegal study abroad imagining that my experience would be a mix between Disney’s Pride Rock and my favorite scenes from The African Queen. In my mind, my trip would be one big safari. But aside from a hippopotamus or two, I couldn’t have been more wrong. I chose Senegal entirely on a whim. I knew it only as a small country located on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean—a body of water dear to my Floridian heart. But as the trip drew nearer, I became more nervous than I’d ever been before. My nightmares were filled with the hum of oversized malariainfested mosquitoes that longed for my young blood. I also
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INSIGHT 2012
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HONORING EXPERIENCES
“IF I HAD KNOWN, I WOULD HAVE SMILED IN ANTICIPATION OF THEIR SMILES, SO BEAUTIFULLY GENUINE, THAT ARE NOW FOREVER INGRAINED IN MY MEMORY.” dreaded the loneliness I felt certain I would face as a Frenchspeaking novice amid a group that included fluent returned missionaries and graduate students. All of my anxieties culminated as I spent a restless night before my twelve-hour flight on the bathroom floor in fits of vomiting. If only I had known that unreserved strangers in the street would, after a brief conversation, call me soeur and invite me into their meager homes to share their rice and mutton. Or that kids playing soccer in the streets would run after our group, beg us to join their game, and pass us the dusty stone they used as a soccer ball. If only I had known that two fishermen with toothless grins would invite me to sit on the side of their pirogue and answer all my questions as they patiently listened to my broken French for hours. Or that the hotel staff would put Britney Spears’s “. . . Baby One More Time” on repeat during dinner each night to make our little group of Americans feel more at home. If I had known the teranga of these people, I would never have been overcome by my fear-induced nausea. My stomach would have churned instead with eagerness for the joy of meeting five little schoolgirls who braided my unruly hair, or the lovely washerwomen in the river who helped me beat my mudstained shorts against the slick, soapy rocks. If I had known, I would have smiled in anticipation of their smiles, so beautifully genuine, that are now forever ingrained in my memory. !
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CREATIVE ARTS CONTEST
PREFACE For the inaugural Insight Creative Arts Contest, we invited students to $,-.#/'01$%'!2/#+"'("/)#($3'4+(/)5'+)'!2/#+"'+6'6(7()'/%1"'899'7+):$;'<,)' shortest entry, by Cache Thompson, was the winner. “Five Stories” is only 261 words. He begins his entry with “I wrote a few stories.” WRITTEN BY
Cache Thompson ARTWORK BY
Jena Schmidt
Pauly was a fine repairman. He spent every day fixing. He fixed everything in town. Kites, rafts, ottomans. Loafers and umbrellas. Grandfather clocks. At the end of the day, he went home. Everything in his house was broken. He never fixed any of it.
" # $ % 18
! “FIVE STORIES”
Mr. Decker owned an ice cream parlor. Outside the parlor was a neon sign that told the world to buy Mr. Decker’s ice cream. He had twenty-one flavors. Every day he stood behind the counter, waiting for customers. No customers ever came. Mr. Decker’s ice cream tasted like medicine. Faber had a chalkboard in his house. He drew buildings, mostly. Buildings that resembled flying V’s of geese, And buildings like infinity symbols that went on forever. His favorite design was an office building that was actually a giant ant farm. His buildings were never built. No one wanted to work in an ant farm. Graham worked in an office building that was actually a giant ant farm. All the street passers-by could look in and see Graham in his natural habitat. They watched Graham sit at his desk. They watched him file his paperwork, and they watched his boss yell at him. Graham’s boss was queen. Pyotr painted murals all over the city. His works were masterpieces, every one. He painted the sky and the ocean, and he painted bridge-builders and musicians. Only buildings belonging to business and government had Pyotr’s murals on their walls. Pyotr never painted for an art gallery or a concert hall or a library. “The whole need not a physician,” he said. INSIGHT 2012
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HONORING PEOPLE
My Irrational Ambition —A conversation with
Valerie Hudson WRITTEN BY
Chloe Litchfield PHOTOGRAPHY BY
Jared Crockett
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I
n the mid-90s, when Valerie Hudson’s young daughter began asking questions about issues of gender equality, Dr. Hudson’s search for answers became mired in chaos. She was shocked. “Information about the situation of the world’s women was all scattered and in different reports; you’d have to go on a scavenger hunt to find it all.” What many would have seen as an overwhelming quest Hudson saw as an adventure—an adventure that would later be organized and channeled into the WomanStats Project. The project’s mission, Hudson says, is to show “that the security of nations rests in large part upon the security of women.” With a team of four and a spreadsheet of twentyseven variables, such as laws on rape and women’s land ownership, Hudson embarked on a daunting scavenger hunt for real answers. The WomanStats Project began as a research project at Brigham Young University in 2001. Now, eleven years later, it boasts a national board of seven principal investigators and over seventy byu undergraduate and graduate students. Throughout the past decade, that initial spreadsheet of twenty-seven variables has expanded to include 327 variables for 175 countries, creating what is possibly the largest and finest compilation of information on the status of women in the world today. The success of what she nicknamed her irrational ambition has astounded Hudson. “It’s not just a project anymore; it’s an institution.” WomanStats has extended its scope from academia to the nirvana of the social sciences: real-world application. WomanStats now contributes data to influential, policy-making organizations. “[O]ur government and the un are using the WomanStats database in their own policy research,” says Hudson. “Congress has used our data; the Department of Defense has used our data. It’s very gratifying.” But which issues take priority with the WomanStats Project? Hudson and the other principal investigators prioritize issues by identifying those “needing the most acute attention at that time.” In the book Sex and World Peace Hudson and her co-authors argue that “there’s sort of a three-pronged set of interrelated problems that are really holding women back.” Hudson lists the first prong as “violence against women is normalized in many societies.” Second is “inequity in family law: legal systems and laws constructed by men, for men.” According to Hudson, the first and second issues have persisted for so long because of the third and final problem she labels “the voicelessness of women” in governments around the world.
“Our dream is that one day . . . the first thing [leaders of nations] will think about is the situation of women in their own society.” -Dr. Valerie Hudson Though the database and its influence on women’s security expands daily, Hudson says the success of the WomanStats project “hasn’t been without its sacrifices, and it hasn’t been without some tears.” She readily admits that an undertaking this massive is accompanied by exhaustion and obstacles. As an example she recounts the time the project lost five months’ worth of data. “It nearly killed us all to have lost so much data.” However, the never-ending workload merely breeds even bigger goals for the WomanStats team. “Our dream,” says Hudson, “is that one day, when those who are in charge of the national security of a nation think about how to promote national security, the first thing they’ll think of will not be ak-47s and nuclear weapons; rather, the first thing they’ll think about is the situation of the women in their own society.” Hudson admits that these dreams could not be possible without the help of her co-workers and students who continue contributing to gender equality research even after they leave WomanStats. “My life has been enriched immeasurably [by the project],” says Hudson sincerely. “Pride comes in a number of flavors. I think the sweetest flavor of all is to see some of our former coders go on and become really exceptional forces for good in the world. Even now I feel amidst my joy a particle of grief that I will no longer share classroom space with some of the finest souls I have ever come in contact with.” After spending twenty-four and half years at byu, Hudson has moved on: she’s accepted a position at Texas a&m as Professor and George H.W. Bush Chair at the Bush School of Government and Public Service. Yet even from miles away, Hudson will stay connected to byu through the WomanStats Project. She sees her move as “a wonderful opportunity for the expansion of the project.This will assure that the WomanStats project remains on a good, sustainable footing.” INSIGHT 2012
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HONORING PEOPLE
“The LDS church has the most revolutionary and progressive doctrine concerning women that you can find anywhere in the world. We have the most feminist of gospels, the most feminist of doctrines.” -Dr. Valerie Hudson
A closer look at The WomanStats Project In the first WomanStats book, Sex and World Peace, Hudson and her co-authors assert a three-pronged set of interrelated problems that are holding women back. 1. The normalization of violence “In some societies it is normal for a woman to be beaten inside the walls of her home, or for a girl to be neglected or abused by her own family. Home is where we think people ought be the safest and yet that’s a gendered opinion, because home for many women is the least safe place they can be in the world.” 2. Inequity in family law “Legal systems and laws were constructed by men, for men. We have legal systems in the world that allow girls to be married off by their fathers as young as seven or eight years of age and legal systems where mothers do not figure into custody decisions at all.” 3. The voicelessness of women “The vast majority of leaders in the world are men. There are numerous countries in which there are no women at all in government. Women have no voice; they have no influence; they are unable to shape the world around them—and that’s a deep wound.”
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For Hudson, her research is neither a career nor a scientific endeavor; it’s a spiritual journey. “It has kept me exquisitely sensitive to how important it is for us to truly understand from a heavenly perspective who women are, who they should be in our societies, and how our daughters should be treated. So there’s definitely this sort of spiritual component to the work as well.” Hudson notes that despite fostering such a forwardthinking project, lds culture is often below par when it comes to issues of gender equality. As a convert to the lds Church, Hudson confidently asserts that our church “has the most revolutionary and progressive doctrine concerning women that you can find anywhere in the world. We have the most feminist of gospels, the most feminist of doctrines.” Yet Hudson is not impressed with the implementation of this feminist doctrine. She laments that “Mormon culture does not live up to the privileges of that doctrine. I have been regaled with instances in the Mormon culture where women are clearly told that [they] are somehow second class—all sorts of things I hear from my young women students that make my hair curl.” Yet Hudson does not despair: “I do believe that there’s quite a lot of work to be done in the lds community in order for us to live up to the vision of male-female relations that God wants us to have. But I have full confidence from what I have seen of the younger generation of our church that this positive change will come.” So how can we make this positive change? Hudson’s suggestion is powerfully simple: “Be aware.” To Hudson, this is the moral obligation of every human being. “God expects us to be actively engaged with what’s going on in the world around us. Find out what’s happening in your world and then find out what you can do about it. Knowledge leads to action and God will help you. If you have desires to do good, God’s not going to leave you up on a shelf. He’s going to put you into the game.” An inspired teacher, respected scholar, and committed humanitarian, Valerie Hudson exemplifies her firm belief that “one knowledgeable, caring person can make all the difference in the world.” ! Editor’s Note: We are grateful to Jessica Swenson and Daniella Subieta for their significant writing and editing contributions to this article.
FOOD FOR
THOUGHT T
here exists on Brigham Young University’s campus a shrine to healthy eating called the Pendulum Court Café. Most of the day, the tables just behind the enormous pendulum hanging in the Eyring Science Center host students bent over books and laptops. But around lunchtime, the place transforms. Flowers appear on the dreary tables, and the scent of spiced peaches or tortilla soup wanders in from the nearby kitchen. Two of the Pendulum Court’s most loyal patrons are Dr. Lora Beth Brown and Dr. Nora Nyland, members of byu’s dietetics faculty. They sit at the Pen Court’s little café tables nearly every day, enjoying meals like herb-crusted chicken and baked ziti. Since I am convinced that what I eat affects how I study, I stop by their table once they’ve finished their lunch and ask them a few quick questions about brain food. Dr. Nyland answers my questions first and Dr. Brown echoes her sentiments. “There is no magical solution, no superfood that will guarantee a healthy mind. What you really need is a wide variety of nutritious foods.” She encourages me to do some of my own research on specific types of nutrients. I remember her sage counsel as the sickly-sweet scent of microwaved Hot Pocket wafts through the hallways of the Joseph F. Smith Building a few days later. My mouth waters, but I can’t have a bite of cheesy, processed goodness. I need a balanced meal for lunch if I want to conquer my biology test. Through my research I’ve discovered that a healthy, hard-working brain needs energy from four basic sources: amino acids, fatty acids, micronutrients, and carbohydrates. The first essential energy source, amino acids, are found in proteins. Complete protein sources, such as fish and chicken, contain all eight amino acids. These amino acids make up most of the neurotransmitters in the brain, which facilitate com-
WRITTEN BY
Emily Bell
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
Jared Crockett
INSIGHT 2012
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HONORING ACADEMICS
Various daily menus from the Pendulum Court Café
munication. Neurotransmitters are the loyal messengers of the brain, sending signals to target cells to focus or relax. The better they run, the better we can function. Fatty acids, essential source number two, are much better for you than they sound. Fatty calls to mind stomach bulges and fad diets, but a thin layer of fatty acids actually makes up the membrane of many of your brain cells. Almost one third of your brain is made up of these building block fats. But not all fats are equal. In fact, Leigh Gibson of Roehampton University explains that “too many saturated fats can cause cognitive deficits.”1 So it seems the Taco Bell double-stuffed chalupa I’ve been craving is out. I’d be better off with the type of fat found in foods like sunflower seeds or olive oil. If amino acids help the brain communicate, and fatty acids help build it, then micronutrients are its stalwart defenders. Found in a wide variety of foods, but especially in fruits and vegetables, they help balance the oxygen levels in your brain; these nutrients are even sometimes called antioxidants. Highly reactive oxygen molecules are important to our bodies, but they can also be a threat to brain cells. Micronutrients nobly sacrifice their electrons to free radicals (unstable molecules that can disrupt the functions of other molecules) so that the free radicals will not feed off the electrons in the brain cell membranes. With fruits and veggies on my mind, I make my way back to the Pendulum Court to ask more questions and purchase another brain-friendly meal. This time I sit down with a 24
plucky graduate student, Katie Ashton, who helps run the café and manages to wear her brown hair net and pale white apron with remarkable class. Our conversation leads us to the fourth brain food essential when I ask her what I can eat to make me smarter. “Carbs,” she answers immediately. “Your brain needs fuel.” Apparently, the glucose found in carbohydrates is the only kind of fuel our brain cells normally use (we can break down fats for energy but only when were are malnourished), but our brain cannot produce that glucose on its own. Katie explains that eating complex carbohydrates like fresh fruit or whole wheat bread will send energy to our brains. However, the simple carbs found in white bread and processed sugars can be too much of a good thing, moving up through our blood stream too fast to be absorbed properly. Perhaps that explains why certain students wander the halls with looks as glazed as the donuts they’re snacking on. Fortunately, I am staring down at a plate full of pesto chicken and red-pepper panini on whole wheat bread, a combination no campus vending machine offers. Amino acids, fatty acids, micronutrients, and carbohydrates: check, check, check, and check. I pick up my sandwich, take a big bite, and get out my notes. I know I’m going to pass this biology test. !
“THERE IS NO MAGICAL SOLUTION, NO SUPERFOOD THAT WILL GUARANTEE A HEALTHY MIND. WHAT YOU REALLY NEED IS A WIDE VARIETY OF NUTRITIOUS FOODS.” –DR. LORA BETH BROWN
1. Robin Nixon, “Brain Food: How to Eat Smart,” LiveScience. January 7, 2009, accessed October 5, 2011, http://www.livescience.com/3186-brain-food-eat-smart.html.
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#!" HONORING EXPERIENCES
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.eople say you should write about what you know, so it makes sense that my grandfather wrote stories about war. By the time he died in 1977, my grandfather had spent four years of his life fighting one war, and the rest watching two more play out in the local obituaries. War was what he knew. My favorite story about Grandpa White is based on an argument he had with another man while training to be a paratrooper during wwii. My grandfather knew the quarrel would come to blows, but he was of the romantic notion that you never hit first. He let the other man take the first swing, and as a result my grandfather was knocked backwards over a bunk, landing with a crash on the other side. It was a scene right out of a Hollywood Western, but for the rest of his life my grandfather’s porcelain-toothed smile served as a reminder not of his chivalry, but of the unfortunate reality that he was not John Wayne. “My dad learned a lesson that day,” my father once told me. “His advice to me was that you never wait for the other guy to hit first.” This tale of slapstick defeat isn’t the most sentimental scene from Grandpa’s time spent in battle, but in his sardonic wisdom, I see a story of lost romanticism that parallels the sobering experience of soldiers in war. He would soon have much more to worry about than a good punch; however. Ever present among those lighthearted anecdotes is his fear of a foreign land and a foreign people who he had been told were his enemy. For him, the war was proof that the world had little room for idealism—particularly when it came to survival. Talking about the war did not come easily for my grandfather. “He realized that what was a very meaningful and deep experience for one person could be a cliché for
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HONORING EXPERIENCES
Ted White!s paratrooper +,/!/'&(//#"&')(1:5'/+'=,.4;' Photographs of Ted White are courtesy of the White Family. All other photographs are public domain.
?-'2..'+'2,31)'37'532,'13>+4,-:-2>',0+,'&+1+55.52',0.'23(.1-49' .@&.1-.4:.'37'2358-.12'-4'/+1<'0.'/3;58'2334'0+A.'>;:0'>31.' ,3'/311)'+(3;,',0+4'+'9338'&;4:0<B
others,” my father told me one night as we talked in his office. “He was afraid his experiences would be treated as lightly as something seen or heard on a television show. The war was something so personal that he did not want to waste it on those who did not care.” It was as if my grandfather viewed his time in combat as a spiritual experience, not because war is sacred, but because he felt the impact of it so deeply. At the start of the Vietnam War he began using writing as an outlet to express his feelings. This new war made old wounds fresh, and in stories he found peace; writing became a cathartic exercise that allowed him to quantify his experiences without having to relive the loss. I have often wondered what I would say to my grandfather had he lived to know I decided to study Japanese history at byu. He passed away in 1977, long before I was born, and so what little I know about him I have pieced together from photos, letters, and late-night talks with my father, both of us all too willing to take advantage of our shared interest in wwii. From what I gather, my grandfather was a quiet, kind man, with quirky humor that—judging from my own family—I can only assume is genetic. But after years spent fighting in the tangled jungles of New Guinea, Indonesia, and the Philippines, my grandfather developed a 28
deep mistrust of the Japanese people that he carried to the end of his life. It is through writing that I connect with both Japan and my grandfather and strive to reconcile these two seemingly incompatible pieces of my life. Of course, like many so-called “Japanophiles,” a sense of exoticism first drew me to Japan. The summer after my freshman year of high school, I qualified for a short exchange program to Mōka, a provincial town of dirt roads and rice paddies just a few hours north of the pulsating tangles of Tokyo traffic. Upon arrival, our travel-weary group of Californians shuffled into a small classroom to be schooled in the art of shodō, traditional Japanese calligraphy. The silken wood of the brush felt strange in my hands, but somewhere between the limbs of the wobbled creatures emerging from the tip of my brush I saw the beauty of an esoteric world that I wanted to be a part of. In my cultural curiosity, however, I was no pioneer. As the Japanese American commentator Roland Kelts explains, “There are always some Americans interested in iconic totems of Japanese culture, like the bushido samurai tradition that emphasizes honor and discipline, ikebana flower arrangements, tea ceremonies, and Zen. Now it is
the eccentric, spastic zaniness, and libertarian fearlessness of Japan’s creators of popular culture . . . that [is] attracting the attention of Americans.”1 Even here in Provo, one can see the signs. It is virtually impossible to drive down one of Provo’s main thoroughfares without seeing a sushi bar promising an “authentic experience” in the middle of Utah. Artists and animators fill Japanese classes across campus, hoping to infiltrate the relatively insular world of Japanese animation, better known as anime. In my sophomore year of college, I decided to take my interest in Japanese culture a step further and spent eight weeks of my summer cooped up on a small college campus in Oakland, California, studying lines of kanji instead of the lines that come with a tan. Through my study of the flowing vowels and crackling consonants that make up the Japanese language—a pursuit I have continued at byu—I have come to better understand Japan and its people. But for me, the draw of Japan is strongest in the realm of history, and it was there that I found a tradition of cultural exchanges between Japan and the U.S. These exchanges began long before Spike Spiegel began fighting to the flow of old-school American jazz on the Cartoon Network, or before my grandfather sailed across the Pacific. One of the more remarkable encounters took place in 1871 when the Meiji statesman, Iwakura Tomomi, led a delegation of prominent Japanese leaders, scholars, and tradesmen on an extended journey to the United States and Europe. The mission’s primary objective was to make goodwill visits to the heads of fifteen countries, and more importantly, to learn firsthand about the West and absorb its secrets for success.2 In an interesting twist, amidst visits with presidents and kings, the Iwakura delegates ended up touring Salt Lake with leaders of the lds Church. After arriving in San Francisco, the delegates were passing through Utah on their way to Washington D.C. when fierce snowstorms blocked the mountain railway passes and stranded the delegation in Utah for nineteen days. Making the best of the situation, the Iwakura delegates visited the newly completed Salt Lake Tabernacle, explored a local museum, and admired the stone foundations of the Salt Lake Temple. They also called on members of the Utah Territorial Legislature, the Utah Supreme Court, and Brigham Young. Several delegates even went to lds religious services and recorded a short overview of Mormonism in the delegation’s official records.3 This meeting had far-reaching effects on the future INSIGHT 2012
29
HONORING EXPERIENCES
of the lds Church in East Asia. lds leader George Q. Cannon believed that the Iwakura Mission’s visit to Utah was inspired. “It is perhaps not hazarding too much to say that the visit of the Japanese Embassy to Salt Lake . . . is the fore-runner of measures which may, at some future day, be the cause of some of the youth . . . being sent as missionaries to Japan,” he wrote.4 Lorenzo Snow later acknowledged that the Japanese delegation left a lasting impression and acted as a catalyst for the eventual opening of the Japan mission in 1901. “When I was president of the Legislative council,” he told reporters, “a party of distinguished officials of the Japanese government visited Salt Lake en route to Washington . . . They expressed a great deal of interest in Utah and the manner in which it has been settled by the Mormons. Our talk was altogether very pleasant and they expressed considerable wonderment as to why we had not sent missionaries to Japan.”5 But as I began exploring my grandfather’s writings, I was struck by how quickly and how definitely the world had changed since the Iwakura delegation landed in San Francisco. By 1934, the escalation of military clashes between Japanese and Chinese forces led to President Heber J. Grant’s decision to close the lds mission in Japan, calling on the church members to wait for a more “favorable time.”6 Less than a decade later, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, an attack that would, as President Roosevelt prophesied, “live in infamy.” “Everything your grandfather knew about the Japanese,” my father explained, “he learned in the context of war.” In his first journal entry after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, my grandfather wrote, “All I want to do is kill Japs,” though I suspect it was said out of enthusiastic naiveté rather
than true malice. As a young man and a green soldier, my grandfather saw the war as both heroic and glamorous. “It was dashing, it was daring, and I think he felt a desire to be on the front lines,” my dad said. “He had grown up reading adventure stories and watching Errol Flynn movies and that influenced his views of war.” As the war progressed, however, it became harder for my grandfather to distinguish between the Japanese people and the Japanese soldiers who were his enemy. In his most harrowing story, my grandfather recounts the death of his best friend on Corregidor, a small island in Manila Bay. My Grandfather writes that Harvey Hicks was the buck-toothed underdog of the regiment, but his simple, honest nature quickly endeared him to my grandfather. “My dad saw in Hicks something that wasn’t apparent in his appearance,” my father told me, “a sort of guilelessness. My father liked people like that, and he always did, even later in his life.” Hicks died late at night on the top of Water Tower Hill as his platoon waited out intense mortar fire from Japanese forces below. When an explosion hit near where Hicks was lying, my grandfather called out to see if Hicks had been injured. Hicks replied that he was fine and told my grandfather to stay put. It wasn’t until morning that my grandfather found Hicks’s body, his leg nearly severed mid-thigh by a large piece of shrapnel. “That,” my grandfather writes, “was the loneliest moment of my life.” Hicks’s death was the first time my grandfather viewed the war with a sense of real dread. “He always told me the war had seemed like an adventure until Corregidor,” my father said. “I mean, it had always been ugly and hard, but it was there he was really forced to acknowledge the cost.” For my grandfather, the cost was not only the loss of his friends,
?-4'2,31-.2'0.'73;48' &.+:.C'/1-,-49'(.:+>.'+' :+,0+1,-:'.@.1:-2.',0+,' +553/.8'0->',3'D;+4,-7)' 0-2'.@&.1-.4:.2'/-,03;,' 0+A-49',3'1.5-A.',0.'5322<B
Ted White relaxes in an army tent. >1)')#&%/3'?%#@('!&%/#"&'#"' the Philippines, Ted White and follow members of the 53rd Parachute Squadron 6+,":'/%#$'A141"($('01&'#"' an abandoned truck.
Members of the 1871 Iwakura Mission. Iwakura Tomomi, in traditional Japanese dress, is seated in the center.
30
but also a heavy burden of fear, animosity, and hate. Perhaps E.B. Sledge, whose memoir is one of the most popular accounts of the Pacific War, said it best when he wrote, “There is no ‘mellowing’ for me—that would be to forgive . . . to ‘mellow’ is to forget.”7 The Japan I know is not the Japan my grandfather knew. As the scholar Frank L. Schodt writes in his book America and the Four Japans, in the last two centuries Japan has undergone one of the most rapid evolutions of any foreign nation in the American psyche, taking on the role of “small but rapidly modernizing state . . . empire and mortal enemy,” and finally today, “ally.”8 In this sense, it is Americans’ perceptions of Japan that have changed the most. We have not forgotten the past, but we have tried to understand it, just as I try to do as a student of history. As the scholar Richard J. Evans explains, “Writing history is to imagine oneself back in the world of the past, with all of the doubts and uncertainties people faced in dealing with a future that
for the historian has now become the past.”9 It is not enough to remember the past; we have to understand the past as it would understand itself. Throughout my life I have tried to know my grandfather in the same way. Through his stories, his letters, and the memories he left behind, I have tried to understand who my grandfather was, and why he could never forgive—or forget. Maybe that is what I would tell him if he were alive today. For I have tried, as best I can, to understand the Japanese people, to know them, so that when I write of their stories, I can write not what he believed, but what I know. And in that way, I think, my grandfather and I are not so different. ! 1. Ronald Kelts, Japanamerica (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) , 6. 2. James McClain, Japan: A Modern History (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2002), 171. 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid., 129.
6. “Country Information: Japan,” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, January 29, 2010, accessed November 2011, http://www.ldschurchnews.com/ articles/58602/Country-informationJapan.html. 7. E. B. Sledge, China Marine: A Soldier’s Life After WWII, (Oxford
Press: New York, 2002), 160. 8. Fredrick L. Schodt, America and the Four Japans: Friend, Foe, Model, Mirror (Berkley: Stone Bridge Press, 1994), 9. 9. Evans, Richard J., The Coming of the Third Reich (New York: Penguin Books, 2005), 5.
INSIGHT 2012
31
O B R AT I N G
100 YEARS
OF
MAE
SER WRITTEN BY
Stephen Richards
PHOTOGRAPH BY
Jared Crockett
32
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF MAESER
CELE
n May 30, 1912, the Karl G. Maeser Building was dedicated. The building now celebrates its centennial, with its grandeur and beauty only enhanced by the years. It has served as a classroom building, office space for the University’s administration, a museum, and even, briefly, as an army barracks. Since 1985, the Maeser Building has housed the Brigham Young University Honors Program. In this special section, we celebrate the centennial of the Maeser Building by delving into the complex (and sometimes spooky) heritage of the building, recalling the history of the Honors Reading Room, and sharing excerpts from “Who We Are and What God Expects Us to Do,” an address exploring the beginnings of the Maeser Building and the future of Brigham Young University given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland at a campus devotional in September 1987. The Maeser Building is still, in many respects, the face of Brigham Young University, much as it was in 1912. This special section is dedicated not only to the history of the Maeser Building, but also to its future, in the hope that the building’s next 100 years will be even better than its first. !
INSIGHT 2012
33
alking into the office of Honors Dean Rory Scanlon, I noticed that something was different. It wasn’t the desk or the bookshelves; all professors have those. It was the décor that really caught my eye: ancient pictures, the elephant sculpture made entirely of shells, puppets, and the fancy mask hanging on the wall. At first, Dean Scanlon appears to be an anomaly in the Honors Program. Rather than coming from the humanities
or the sciences, he hails from the College of Fine Arts and Communications with a unique professional and academic skill set: costume design. Dean Scanlon designed costumes for the Hill Cumorah Pageant; crafted buffalo, apes, and swimming fish for the famous Tuacahn Festival; and worked on many lds Church films. Join us for a closer insight into Dean Scanlon’s office and what greets him at work each morning. !
Dean Scanlon’s book Costume Design Graphics helps art students make the jump from simply looking at pictures to actually scaling and designing life-sized costumes.
space WE ALL NEED OUR
WRITTEN BY
Ryan Brown PHOTOGRAPHY BY
Jared Crockett
PREFACE Honors Program Director, Rory Scanlon, %1$'1',"#B,('@+C(3' costume design. It!s part of what makes %#.D'1":'%#$'+6!2(D' one of a kind.
34
Dean Scanlon researches the traditional costumes from both Central America and Old Testament times. He’s often asked by artists and designers to look at historical carvings, paintings, or sculptures to help identify probable fabrics for real-life renderings of the ancient costumes represented.
Dean Scanlon, often asked to give presentations at art and art education conferences, received this stamp with his name in Chinese at the National Art Administration Conference in China.
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF MAESER
W
Dean Scanlon served his mission in the South Pacific. Traditionally, island visitors are given flowers as a welcome and shells as a farewell gift. This
elephant, made from shells and crafted around a glass bottle, was presented to Dean Scanlon as he left the islands for home.
INSIGHT 2012
35
E-+C(3'F1($()' faculty, 1913 G(6/3'HIJK$'LJ44()' Campus” circa 1936.
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF MAESER
Photo courtesy of BYU Physical Facilities Archive.
THE was certainly one of the most refined and educated men to join this Church in the first fifty years of its restored existence. THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCERPT FROM ELDER JEFFREY R. HOLLAND’S DEVOTIONAL ADDRESS, “WHO WE ARE AND WHAT GOD EXPECTS US TO DO,” GIVEN AT BYU ON SEPTEMBER 15, 1987.
WRITTEN BY
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF
Harold B. Lee Library, Digital Collections
36
Trained in the great classical tradition and distinguished in Saxony for his breadth of learning, he gave up virtually everything he had to enter the waters of baptism. Ostracized in his community and with no way to make a living, he brought his wife and two children to America, serving missions as he came and finally joining the Saints in these valleys of the Rocky Mountains. Once here he gave the rest of his life to the educational efforts of the Church, including fifteen years in abject poverty as the first and greatest principal of the then new and struggling Brigham Young Academy located in Provo, Utah. In December of 1900, two months before he died, Brother Maeser was brought back to see once more the modest single-building campus on University Avenue he had built and loved and defended. He was helped up the stairs and into one of the classrooms where all of the students instinctively stood as he entered. Not a word was spoken. He looked at them slowly, then made his way to the chalkboard. With his bold script he wrote four statements on the board, turned, and walked out of the INSIGHT 2012
37
M%#$'NOP'Q'N9P'.,)1@'("/#/@(:' “The School, A Temple of Learning,” hangs in the Education in Zion gallery. It depicts the Brigham Young Academy and the Maeser Building.
38
The Maeser Building cornerstone laying ceremony.
When Alfred Kelly was introduced that morning as the student graduation speaker, he rose and stood absolutely silent for several moments. Some in the audience thought he had lost the power of speech. Slowly he began to speak, explaining that he had been much concerned over his remarks, that he had written several versions and discarded every one of them. Then, early one morning, he said, with a feeling of desperation regarding his approaching assignment, he walked north from his downtown apartment to where the partially completed Maeser Building stood (as Horace Cummings would later describe it) as an “air castle” come to earth on Temple Hill. He wanted to gain inspiration from this hope of a new campus, but he felt only grim disappointment. The sky was starting to glow from the morning light, but the darkly silhouetted Maeser Building seemed only a symbol of gloom. Kelly then turned his eyes to view the valley below that was also still in shadow. The light from the rising sun was just beginning to illuminate the western hills back of Utah Lake with an unusual golden glow. As morning came, the light gradually worked down from the hilltops, moved across the valley floor, and slowly advanced to the spot where Kelly stood. He said he partially closed his eyes as the light approached and was startled by what he could still see. He stood as if transfixed. In the advancing sunlight everything he saw took on the appearance of people, young people about his age moving toward Temple Hill. He saw hundreds of them, thousands of young people coming into view. He knew they were students, he said, because they carried books in their arms as they came. Then Temple Hill was bathed in sunlight, and the whole of the present campus was illuminated not with one partially completed building, nor with homes in a modern subdivision, but rather what Kelly described to that graduating class as “temples of learning,” large buildings, beautiful buildings, hundreds of buildings covering the top of that hill and stretching clear to the mouth of Rock Canyon. The students then entered these temples of learning with their books in hand. As they came out of them, Kelly said their countenances bore smiles of hope and of faith. He observed that they seemed cheerful and very confident. Their walk was light but firm as they again became a part of the sunlight as it moved to the top of “Y” Mountain, and then they gradually disappeared from view. Kelly sat down to what was absolutely stone-deaf silence. Not a word was spoken. What about the sales pitch? No one moved or whispered. Then longtime byu INSIGHT 2012
39
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF MAESER
bya forever, closing as he did so perhaps one of the most distinguished educational lives this university has ever known. Several years after Brother Maeser’s death a proposal was made to construct a memorial building in his name, not downtown on University Avenue but high atop Temple Hill, where a new campus might be built consisting of as many as three or perhaps four buildings someday. The cost would be an astronomical $100,000, but the Maeser Building would be a symbol of the past, a statement of aspiring tradition, an anchor to the university’s future. In spite of a staggering financial crisis clouding the very future of the university at the time, the faculty and student body took heart that in 1912 the Maeser Building was at least partially complete and the university would give diplomas to its first four-year graduating class. But even as graduation plans were being made, equally urgent plans were underway to sell the remainder of Temple Hill for the development of a new Provo suburb. The university simply had to have the money to survive. Eighteen members were graduating in this first four-year class, but even if the student body tripled in the years ahead, surely there would be more than enough room to accommodate them on the space now occupied by the Maeser, Brimhall, and Grant buildings on our present campus. Yes, the rest of the space on the hill should be sold. The graduation services would conclude with a sales pitch to the community leaders in attendance.
“The students then entered these temples of learning with their books in hand. As they came out of them, Kelly said their countenances bore smiles of
benefactor Jesse Knight jumped to his feet and shouted, “We won’t sell an acre. We won’t sell a single lot.” And he turned to President George Brimhall and pledged several thousand dollars to the future of the university. Soon others stood up and joined in, some offering only a widow’s mite, but all believing in the dream of a Provo schoolboy, all believing the destiny of a great university which that day had scarcely begun. (See B.F. Larsen, “Fifty Years Ago,” speech given at a byu Alumni meeting, 25 May 1962, B.F. Larsen biographical file, byu Archives, pp. 45.) When you leave here today, consider a campus that now stretches from that newly renovated Maeser Building to the very mouth of Rock Canyon itself where a special temple of learning (built on byu property) watches by night and day over this very pleasant valley. Think of the buildings and think of the lives and think of the tradition. It is now your tradition. Oh, yes. I suppose you are wondering about those four things Karl G. Maeser wrote on that board that day. They are part of the tradition, too. 1. [To love] God is the beginning of all wisdom. 2. This life is one great [homework] assignment . . . in the principles of immortality and eternal life. 3. Man grows only with his higher goals. 4. Never let anything impure enter here. A fiddler on the roof ? It’s a tough assignment, but we are all up there together, defending that inheritance. Welcome to our precarious and beautiful place. I express my love for every one of you and my conviction of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It is true and gives eternal meaning to our work here. With Tevye I invite you to discover in our byu tradition of learning and love and purity “who you really are and what God expects you to do,” in the blessed name of Jesus Christ. Amen. !
40
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF MAESER
Students form a living “Y” on Maeser HIll.
A group of well-dressed BYU students in front of the library in 1969.
INSIGHT 2012
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THE TWO LIVES OF THE
WRITTEN BY
Stephen Richards PHOTOGRAPHY BY
Heather Hackney
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF MAESER
READING MOOR I
n his 1985 history of the Brigham Young University Honors Program, Richard Poll wrote glowingly of the Honors Reading Room, calling it a “favorite drop-in spot for some students and a home away from home for others . . . Here they filled the bulletin board with atrocious puns and innocuous graffiti, crammed for tests and senior orals, snacked from the sunflower seed pot, [and] gossiped.” The Reading Room, then housed in the Harold B. Lee Library, was a vibrant meeting place for inquisitive minds and eager tongues: a mecca for Honors students seeking good conversation. Sometimes that conversation developed into greater things, too. Poll quoted one graduate who spoke fondly of the Reading Room’s influence on her life: “I met my husband there, and within [the Reading Room] we had many long and deep conversations that eventually led to our marriage. The Reading Room embodied in an informal way, and therefore [a] much more effective way, all that the Honors Program stood for officially—a climate of exploration, adventure, and openness. I recall the familiar faces bent over desks stacked high with books, the whispered conversations on Dostoyevsky, The Lectures on Faith, or the latest Daily Universe editorial. . . . When I think of freedom of expression, I recall the Honors bulletin board and remember the wide range of uncensored opinions expressed upon it. . . . I met in that Reading Room the finest people I knew at BYU.” The Honors Reading Room is now housed at the south end of the Maeser Building basement. It serves variously as the meeting place for the Honors Book Club, one of the quietest study spaces on campus, and a superb spot for an afternoon nap. ! 1. Richard D. Poll, The Honors Program at Brigham Young University, 1960–1985 (Provo: Brigham Young University, 1985), 99. 2. Ibid., 100.
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INSIGHT 2012
43
MYSTERIES WRITTEN BY
Emily Bell Jessica Swenson Katie White EDITED BY
Carmen Dunford Daniella Subieta PHOTOGRAPHY BY
Kaeli Wood
44
Three spectral figures hurry down a cement path; their shadows slide through shifting moonlight among the distant trees that mark the southern edge of byu’s campus. As the intrepid Insight staff writers round the Brimhall Building, the moonlight is eclipsed by a glow shining through the broad pillars of the Maeser Building. The eerie light seems to warn against the daunting task allotted to them—uncovering the secrets hidden behind the stone walls of the Maeser Building.
M
any byu students and alumni know the Maeser Building as the center of Honors activities as well as the oldest building on campus. But only those most familiar with the building are aware of the unusual past and the lingering mysteries that make the Maeser Building one of campus’s most remarkable landmarks. Insight’s trio of writers documented their night spent in the Maeser Building searching its halls for clues to the mysteries of Maeser lore. They also interviewed some of the building’s custodial staff about alleged strange happenings in the Maeser and researched the origins of the building itself. Unnerving rumors perplex visitors, and as our reporters delved deeper into the legends, they found themselves uncovering more questions than answers. IN THE CEMETERY WITH THE PIONEERS Today a bronze statue of Karl G. Maeser stands guard in front of the building that shares his name, watching over the students of byu. But in 1849, a different sort of memorial lay beneath the hills of South Campus, and it catered to a much less lively crowd. According to historical documents from the byu archives, before it became the hub of the Honors Program, the current site of the Maeser Building served as one of the three main graveyards used by the pioneer settlers of Provo City. Dubbed “Temple Hill” by the early pioneers, who saw it as an ideal spot for a Latter-day Saint temple, the land quickly became a common grave site for those desiring to bury their loved ones beneath the foundations of the Lord’s house. However, it did not take long for the pioneers to realize Temple Hill was not “the place” for a cemetery. The hill’s sandy soil made digging graves difficult, and soon the Saints found a more suitable final resting place for their dearly departed. When the location for what is today Provo City Cemetery was chosen in 1853, families of the deceased were asked to relocate their ancestors’ bodies to the new site. But people found excavating the remains to be a complicated task. Many of the wooden caskets had rotted, and some graves did not have headstones to identify those laid to rest. In addition, some families with loved ones buried on Temple Hill had left the valley and so were not around to relocate their rela-
tives’ bodies. Still others preferred to leave their dead undisturbed. A disputed number of bodies still lie beneath the grounds surrounding the Maeser Building. In a 2003 article published in The Daily Universe, Provo Cemetery employee Cathy Jackson remarked, “This is the wide open West. . . . There are bodies everywhere—under favorite cherry trees, up on the mountains, anywhere [anybody] wanted to be buried.”
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF MAESER
MAESER
IN THE BASEMENT WITH THE RELICS The Maeser Building has a rich history, so it makes sense that at one point, the basement was a museum. Established in 1961, byu’s Museum of Archaeology was used not only to help enrich student life and academic experiences, but it was also a place where graduate students could hone their research skills. Despite being only allotted one floor of the building, the museum expanded, at one point hosting over $3.5 million worth of valuables. But eventually the collection became too big for the basement’s tight space and keeping over 3,300 items in good condition and on display proved too difficult. The museum moved on to the greener pastures of Allen Hall in 1982 and was eventually renamed byu’s Museum of Peoples and Cultures. IN THE FOYER WITH BROTHER BRIGHAM One of the Maeser Building’s most notable decorations are the two bronze busts on the main floor—one of Joseph Smith and the other of Brigham Young. While these stately guardians lend prestige to a stately building, the fact is, nobody knows where they came from. Rumor has it that the busts were found in a closet during renovation, so we talked to J. Gordon Daines III, a byu archivist, to uncover the truth. He found photographs of busts of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young made by various artists to compare with those in the Maeser Building. The only exact match was found in a black and white photo from 1937 by an unknown photographer. However baffling the lack of information on these busts may be, an answer surely remains somewhere. Interested student sleuths are invited to further investigate, so the case may someday be closed on this particular mystery.
INSIGHT 2012
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PREFACE Dr. Kerry Muhlestein tells the story of the Joseph Smith Papryi, the fragments that survived the Great Chicago Fire, and the source of the Book of Abraham.
“I looked up and I could see something moving behind the curtains . . . [but] there’s probably an explanation for everything, even if the answer is a bit spooky.” –Bob Goodwin IN THE AUDITORIUM WITH THE PIANO Among the students and staff who work in the Maeser Building, rumors of weird noises are fairly common. Bob Goodwin, the building supervisor, has overseen custodial crews assigned to the Maeser for over thirty years; he says he has heard frequent reports of strange occurrences from students who clean late at night or early in the morning. Student custodians claim to have heard laughter or chatter while working on the lower floors, but when they investigate, nobody is there. Other students hear the piano playing, especially in the morning, but again, upon investigation can find no one. The rickety old elevator
46
is also known to travel up and down and open and close its doors of its own accord. Some students claim to have seen shadows at the windows of the Maeser Building from outside after they lock up. Goodwin himself says that he saw shadows moving inside the upper rooms as he walked to his car late one night. “I looked up and I could see something moving behind the curtains,” he explains. “[But] there’s probably an explanation for everything,” says Goodwin, “even if the answer is a bit spooky.” In some ways, Bob’s experiences are like the Maeser Building itself—full of heritage and grandeur, but also complicated questions. And a touch of spookiness. !
A portion of Joseph Smith Papyri 5 is printed here with the permission of the LDS Church Intellectual !"#$%"&'%()*+,-%.
BY KERRY MUHLESTEIN AND RYCEEJO NORDSTROM EDITED BY KELSEY HOLLOWAY MURDOCH LAYOUT AND DESIGN BY SARAH KAY BRIMHALL AND CRAIG MANGUM INSIGHT 2012
47
HONORING FAITH
“
AS JOSEPH WORKED WITH THE PAPYRI, HE DICTATED TO HIS SCRIBES THE TEXT OF THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. WE DO NOT KNOW THE EXACT
PROCESS OF
TR AN ATI SL ON
”
OTHER THAN THAT IT WAS ENABLED BY INSPIRATION FROM GOD.
I
n 1967, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City presented The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with a number of papyri fragments, which had been
48
glued to drawings of the plans for the Kirtland Temple and illustrated plates of Kirtland and other towns in Ohio. That— coupled with the presence of Facsimile One on one of the fragments—convinced many that these were some of the papyri Joseph Smith once owned. The existence of these fragments came as a surprise, since it was previously believed all of the papyri had burned in the Great Chicago Fire. To understand the significance of this discovery, we must first know something of the more recent history of the papyri. Shortly after Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1798 campaign in Egypt, European countries began a fierce competition to bring the most spectacular artifacts back from Egypt into their museums.1 One of the people employed by the French government for this undertaking was Antonio Lebolo, who sent a great number of Egyptian artifacts from the area around Thebes to various places throughout Europe. Among those things he shipped out of Egypt was a collection that included eleven mummies and several papyri. Lebolo died before he could sell the collection, so its disposal was turned over to a shipping company which sold it in the U.S. It was the first large group of Egyptian antiquities to come to this country. This collection eventually ended up in the hands of a man named Michael Chandler, who traveled from town
to town in 1835, displaying the mummies and charging admission to see them. After some time, he started to sell pieces from the collection to bolster his income. By the time he had worked his way down the Eerie Canal to Kirtland Ohio, only four mummies, two rolls of papyrus, and a few other papyrus fragments remained of the original hoard. In Kirtland, Chandler showed the collection to Joseph Smith. President Smith felt that the Church needed to purchase the papyri, but Chandler refused to sell them separately from the mummies. The Prophet was able to raise $2400 to purchase the collection. Soon after the purchase, Joseph announced that the papyri contained the writings of Joseph of Egypt and Father Abraham.2 As Joseph worked with the papyri, he dictated to his scribes the text of the book of Abraham. We do not know the exact process of translation, other than that it was enabled by inspiration from God. Years later, in March of 1842, the Proph-
et published part of this book of Abraham dictation in three installments in the Church’s newspaper, the Times and Seasons. Many years later in 1851, Elder Franklin Richards copied these publications into a booklet he produced for the Saints residing in England, which he called the Pearl of Great Price. Nearly thirty years had passed when the Church took much of Elder Richard’s booklet and published it for all members of the Church, using the same title. In 1880 the Pearl of Great Price was accepted as canon by the general church membership, and has been part of the lds Standard Works ever since. But what has happened to the papyri in the years since the Prophet had them? We have long known that when Joseph Smith died his mother, Lucy Mack Smith, had possession of the papyri. Shortly after Lucy’s death, Emma Smith and her new husband, Louis Biddamon, sold the papyri to a man named Abel Combs. Most scholars believed that the entire Combs collection ended up in a museum in Chicago in 1863, where it had been destroyed by fire. Thus, the existence of the fragments in the Metropolitan Museum was a surprise to everyone. Instead, a portion of the collection had been given to the Huesser family before the rest of the papyri was sold to the
museum in Chicago. Alice Huesser eventually offered to sell them to the Metropolitan Museum but had been turned down. When that museum later decided to build up its Egyptian collection, they contacted Alice’s surviving widower, who sold the papyri to them in 1946; the museum subsequently presented the surviving papyri to the lds Church in 1967.3 Today we know that these papyri fragments date from about 200 bc.4 This is nearly twothousand years after Abraham lived. Therefore, the papyrus containing the book of Abraham, like every ancient Biblical manuscript still in existence, is a copy of a copy of the original. It is impossible to tell how many copies lie between that which the Prophet had and the original as written or dictated by Abraham. Scholars, students, and curious readers alike recognize we can learn much by examining the existing papyri fragments, thus, their appearance has spawned a tremendous amount of research.5 One of the lines of research that we
E-+C(3'A+$(4%' Smith Papyri 2, printed here with the permission of the LDS Church Intellectual R)+4()/#($'<6!2(;' H(@+73'E'$/1/,(' of Rameses II looks over his ancient kingdom. The sphinx keeps watch in front of the Pyramid of Khafre. Photographs by Raquel Higgins.
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HONORING FAITH
are currently pursuing is comparing the fragments we have today to the accounts of those who saw the papyri before it was sold to museums. Doing this allows us to learn something of how much of the original collection we are missing, and perhaps even sheds light on the source of the book of Abraham. A number of eyewitnesses contemporary with Joseph Smith have cast light on the source of the book of Abraham; the recent discovery, collection, and analysis of these accounts was made possible by a Susan and Harvey Black Mentored Research Grant for studies on the life of Joseph Smith. The researchers, Dr. Kerry Muhlestein and his mentored student RyceeJo Nordstrom, attempted to gather every known eyewitness account of the papyri after Joseph Smith obtained them. After years of tracking down sources, our collection tripled what we had expected to find, not including many hearsay (and therefore less reliable) accounts. Organizing the sources chronologically, we assembled a papyrus timeline that helped us better understand when the papyri and mummies were at each location, when the fragments were separated from the rolls of papyrus, how the mummies were displayed, and when Joseph Smith was involved in translation efforts. When Joseph Smith originally purchased the papyri, the collection contained two scrolls, one larger than the other, as well as an unknown number of fragments of papyri, one of which must have been Facsimile Two. Sometime before the Saints left Ohio, someone cut the more damaged portions of these rolls off, glued them to scratch paper, and mounted them under glass.
“
Soon after Joseph acquired the scrolls, Oliver Cowdery described the “records of Abraham and Joseph,” saying they were “beautifully written on papyrus with black, and a small part, red ink or paint, in perfect preservation. The characters are such as you find upon the coffins of mummies, hieroglyphics, &c. with many of the characters exactly like the present, (though probably not quite so square,) form of the Hebrew without the points.”6 Unfortunately, Oliver did not differentiate between the writings of Abraham and Joseph, so we cannot tell which of the writings had Hebrew characters on it. All of the papyri we have now contain only Egyptian writing; we have no Hebrew on the extant fragments. This indicates that we do not have all of the papyri Oliver was describing. Oliver also spoke of a representation of the Godhead “three, yet in one, is curiously drawn to give simply, though impressively, the writer’s views of that exalted personage.”7 He also described a walking serpent that he felt was part of the Garden of Eden story, and mentioned a representation of “Enoch’s Pillar.”8 A few of the papyrus fragments we have today contain pictures that may be those to which Oliver was referring.
OLIVER COWDERY DESCRIBED THE “RECORDS OF ABRAHAM AND JOSEPH,” SAYING THEY WERE “BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN ON PAPYRUS WITH BLACK, AND A SMALL PART, RED INK OR PAINT,
50
IN PERFECT
PR
Oliver also wrote that “the inner end of the same roll, [ Joseph of Egypt’s record] presents a representation of the judgment: At one view you behold the Savior seated upon his throne, crowned, and holding the scepters of righteousness and power, before whom also, are assembled the twelve tribes of Israel, the nations, languages and tongues of the earth, the kingdoms of the world over which Satan is represented as reigning. Michael the archangel, holding the key of the bottomless pit, and at the same time the devil as being chained and shut up in the bottomless pit.”9 While one of the fragments we now have may possibly show the scene Oliver Cowdery was describing, it is more likely that we do not have the portion of the roll Oliver referenced. From Oliver’s descriptions we learn that the book of Abraham and the book of Joseph were on two different rolls of papyri. We also confirm that we no longer have some parts of the papyri he described, in particular the portions with Hebrew writing. In 1840, S.M. Bartlett, who was not a believer of the lds faith, visited Joseph Smith in Nauvoo and published an account of his visit in a newspaper. After the Prophet showed Bartlett the mummies, Joseph went to a drawer “and drew out several frames, covered with glass, under which were numerous fragments of Egyptian papyrs [sic], on which, as usual, a great variety of hieroglyphical characters had been imprinted.”10 Bartlett recounted how Joseph Smith spoke of wanting to spend more time translating these fragments that had been “unrolled and preserved with great labor and care.”11 He then pointed to a part of one fragment and said “that is the signature of the patriarch Abraham.”12 Presumably, at least some of the papyri that Bartlett saw cut off and mounted under glass are the framed papyri that the Metropolitan Museum gave to the Church. Since the papyri the lds Church now owns are from a much later time period than Abraham, we surmise that Joseph Smith must have
assumed that since the writings originated from Abraham, the account on the papyrus must have written by Abraham’s own hand. Joseph’s misconception may cause some raised eyebrows, but there is no reason to suppose that the Prophet’s ability to translate by inspiration meant that he was divinely tutored in methods of accurately dating papyrus. In 1848, William I. Appleby wrote an account of the Prophet showing him the mummies and scrolls seven years earlier. Appleby says these were the writings of Abraham and Joseph from biblical times; he stated, “The writings are chiefly in the Egyptian language, with the exception of a little Hebrew, I believe.”13 He continued, “The writings are beautiful and plain, composed of red, and black ink.There is a percepeble [sic] difference between the writings. Joseph [of Egypt] appears to have been the best scribe.” Appleby’s journal entry provides valuable information because he helps us realize that the more beautiful writing Oliver Cowdery described belonged to the scroll with Joseph of Egypt’s book on it. He also confirms that there was some Hebrew writing on one of the scrolls. For many years, Lucy Mack Smith made a small living for herself by showing the mummies and papyri to visitors. Some of the stories regarding Mother Smith are quite charming. For example, one unnamed author wrote in a newspaper of his visit with
E-+C(3'E"'(1)@5' photograph of the Kirtland Temple from the LDS Church Archives. H(@+73'R+)/#+"$'+6' Joseph Smith Papyri 3, printed here with the permission of the LDS Church Intellectual R)+4()/#($'<6!2(;'
ER TIO ES VA N.”
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HONORING FAITH
“
TOGETHER, THESE ANCIENT AND MODERN SOURCES HAVE REVEALED THAT WE CANNOT LOOK TO
THE EXISTING
FR GM TS A EN
“
AS THE SOURCE OF THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM.
This portion of Joseph Smith Papyri 5 contains an image that may be the snake !&,)('S%1)@+//(' Haven mentions. Printed here with the permission of the LDS Church Intellectual R)+4()/#($'<6!2(;
52
Joseph Smith. While he and his friends were waiting to meet the Prophet, Lucy Mack Smith came to them and offered to show them some ancient records. They followed her and saw the four mummies and “a large number of framed sheets of papyrus covered with hieroglyphics, which had been taken from the bandages about the mummies, and these were the ‘interesting records’ which the old lady had invited us to see.” Mother Smith regaled the men with stories from the Bible which were on the records. As they tired of this, they “begged her to excuse us from hearing more. Just as we were on the point of retiring, however, our eyes fell upon a placard, inscribed as follows: ‘Egyptian Mummies and Ancient Records to be seen here—Price 25 cents.’ Of course we paid the score without a word, and bowed ourselves out of the residence of the Prophet.”14 One of the most interesting accounts of the papyri was found in letters written by Charlotte Haven, a young girl who visited Nauvoo with some friends in 1843. They were also shown the mummies and papyri by Lucy Mack Smith. Mother Smith “opened a long roll of manuscript, saying it was ‘the writing of Abraham and Isaac, written in Hebrew and Sanscrit.’”15 Because we do not have any fragments today that contain Hebrew, this likely source of the book of Abraham must be missing. Charlotte also described scenes from the other roll, including “Mother Eve being tempted by the serpent, who—the serpent, I mean—was standing on the tip of his tail, which with his two legs formed a tripod, and had his head in Eve’s ear.”16 Charlotte was not the only child to see the mummies, but not all of the young visitors were invited. In his old age, Solomon Hale said, “I have always carried clearly in memory, somewhat to my embarrassment, certain cautions and uninvited visits to an
upstairs room in [ Joseph Smith’s] home, where I would take boys to see the mummies. They were set upright in a kind of cabinet against the wall, behind a curtain. I can see to this day the startled looks on the boys’ faces when I would jerk the curtain to one side and reveal those awful looking mummies. But one day the Prophet Joseph caught us at it and gave us a welldeserved reprimand. We never did it again.”17 Another account was given many years later by one of Hyrum Smith’s granddaughters, Jerusha. She fondly recounted her girlhood adventures, including frequently playing hide and seek among the mummies, between 1852 and 1856. Some 65 years later she recalled that “in the arms of the Old King lay the roll of papyrus from which our prophet translated the book of Abraham.”18 Jerusha had at least been told by either Lucy Mack Smith or Emma Smith that the long roll was the source of the book of Abraham. By synthesizing the above accounts, we can reach some firm conclusions. The Saints possessed two scrolls, one shorter and written in a more beautiful visual style, the other longer and written with a less-able hand. The style of writing allows us to identify that the well-written scroll was apparently the book of Joseph of Egypt. Much—and perhaps all—of what eyewitnesses described as being on this scroll
has been lost. It appears that the longer scroll, written with less visual appeal, did contain Hebraic characters as well as Egyptian writing; this seems to be a source of the book of Abraham. Since the papyri in the lds Church archives contain no examples of Hebraic characters the majority of the longer scroll must have been lost. However, it seems that some parts of this longer scroll were cut off, mounted, and framed at some point, though we cannot be positive that fragments we now have were originally part of the long scroll. These framed and mounted fragments are likely the same pieces of papyri we have today. Oliver Cowdery and Lucy Mack Smith describe seeing Hebrew on the scroll that was the source of the book of Abraham, while Jerusha Smith and Charlotte Haven’s accounts point to the long roll as the source, even after portions of it may have been mounted under glass; these four accounts corroborate that the source of the book of Abraham is no longer extant. That source, the long roll of papyrus, must have been destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire. But despite the loss of many of these ancient sources, we are NOTES
1. See Kerry Muhlestein, “Prelude to the Pearl: Sweeping Events Leading to the Discovery of the Joseph Smith Papyri,” in Prelude to the Restoration: from Apostasy to the Restored Church (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book/BYU Religious Studies Center, 2004), 130 141. 2. Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 2nd ed. rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 2:236. 3. For a slightly outdated but excellent description of how the papyri got to the Church, see H. Donl Peterson, The Story of the Book of Abraham (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1995). 4. See Marc Coenen, “The Dating of the Papyri Joseph Smith I, X and XI and Min Who Massacres His Enemies,” in Egyptian Religion the Last Thousand Years, Part II. Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Jan Quaegebeur, Willy Clarysse, Antoon Schoors and Harco Willems, eds. (Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters, 1998); Robert K. Ritner, “The ‘Breathing Permit of Hôr’ Thirty-Four Years Later,” Dialogue 33, no. 4 (2000), 99; Marc Coenen, “Horos, Prophet of Min Who Massacres His Enemies,” Chronique d’Égypte 74 (1999), 257–59; John Gee, A Guide to the Joseph Smith Papyri (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2000), 25–27, John Gee, “History of a Theban Priesthood,” in Proceedings
A portion of Joseph Smith Papyri 1, which contains the familiar Facsimile 1, is printed here with the permission of the LDS Church Intellectual R)+4()/#($'<6!2(;
fortunate to have some fragments as we further study the accounts describing the papyri. We are continuing our study of both sources and accounts as we try to learn more about the collection Joseph Smith had, how he used them, and how they fit into the history of the Church. Together, these ancient and modern sources have revealed that we cannot look to the existing fragments as the source of the book of Abraham. They have also highlighted how much more we have to learn about the role of the mummies and papyri in the life and learning of the early Saints. ! To read more about the Joseph Smith Papyri, please look for Dr. Muhlestein’s article appearing in the Journal of Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture.
of “Et maintenant ce ne sont plus que des villages...” Thèbes et sa région aux époques hellénistique, romaine et Byzantine (Brussell, forthcoming); Hugh Nibley, The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1975), 4-6; and Jan Quaegebeur, “Books of Thoth Belonging to Owners of Portraits? On Dating Later Hieratic Funerary Papyri,” in Portraits and Masks: Burial Customs in Roman Egypt, ed. Morris L. Bierbrier (London: British Museum, 1997), 74. While Nibley prefers the later Roman period date, the earlier date espoused by Gee, Quaegebeur, and Coenen is almost certainly correct. 5. For recent examples, see Kerry Muhlestein, “Egyptian Papyri and the Book of Abraham,” in The Religious Educator 11/1 (2010): 90–106; and Kerry Muhlestein, “Egyptian Papyri and the Book of Abraham B A Faithful, Egyptological Point of View,” in No Weapon Shall Prosper, Robert L. Millett, ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), 217–241. For the earliest studies see Hugh Nibley, The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1975); and for the latest edition of this publication see Hugh W. Nibley, The Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri: An Egyptian Endowment, 2nd ed., Collected Works of Hugh Nibley 16 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and FARMS, 2005). For the best edition and translation of the papyri see Michael D. Rhodes, The Hor
Book of Breathings: A Translation and Commentary, Studies in the Book of Abraham 2, ed. John Gee (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2002) and Michael D. Rhodes, Books of the Dead Belonging to Tshemmin and Neferirnub, a Translation and Commentary, Studies in the Book of Abraham 4, ed. John Gee (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 2010). 6. Oliver Cowdery, “Egyptian Mummies,” in Messenger and Advocate, vol. 2, no. 3, p. 234. Parenthetical statement in the original. 7–9. Ibid., p. 236. 10–12. S.M.Bartlett, “A Glance at the Mormons,” in Quincy Whig, October 17, 1840, vol. 3, no. 25, p. 1. 13. Autobiography and Journal of William I. Appleby, 1848-1856, p. 71. 14. “The Mormons,” New York Daily Times, 28 September 1852. Reprinted in several other newspapers. 15–16. Charlotte Haven to her mother, 19 February 1843, cited in “A Girl’s Letters from Nauvoo,” Overland Monthly (December, 1890), 624. 17. “Solomon Henry Hale—Noble and Brave Hero,” in Heber Q. Hale, Bishop Jonathan H. Hale of Nauvoo, His Life and Ministry (1938), 219–220. 18. Jerusha W. Blanchard, “Reminiscences of the Granddaughter of Hyrum Smith,” Relief Society Magazine, September 1922, 9.
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HONORS ALUMNI
RACHEL RUECKERT ’12
KATIE MCNEY ROBISON ’09
QUINN NORRIS ’11
Pursuing a PhD, Physics, UC-Davis Davis, CA
Employed by Teach For America Pursuing an MA, Education, Boston University Boston, MA
Pursuing a PhD, English, University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN Published Author, Young Adult Fiction
DANIEL BROWN ’11
MAP ON THE
WRITTEN BY
Ryan Brown and Stephen Richards MAP BY
Craig Mangum
Pursuing an MS, Computer Science, BYU Provo, UT
LEIGH MEISTER ’12
Employed by Teach For America Pursuing an MA, Education, Marian University Indianapolis, IN
C
aps are flying, shutter lenses are snapping, and resumes are being edited in a hurry: graduation is in the air. With stubbornly high unemployment and stunted economic growth, the job market hasn’t been on the best of terms with graduates in recent years. And despite some recent pickup, it’s looking like this is a battle that’s going to take some time to win. Despite these difficult economic times, though, byu Honors graduates have continued to find opportunities near and far. Here’s a look at where some recent grads have gone after graduation. !
NIGEL REUEL ’09
Pursuing a PhD, Chemical Engineering, MIT Cambridge, MA
LAYNE SALMOND ’12
Pursuing an MS, Mechanical Engineering, BYU Provo, UT
STEPHEN RICHARDS ’12
Pursuing a JD, Stanford Law School Palo Alto, CA
54
MATT DALEY ’08
Employed by Boston Consulting Group Dallas, TX
BENJAMIN FRANDSEN ’11
Pursuing a PhD, Condensed Matter Physics Columbia University, New York, NY
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HONORING ACADEMICS
TRAVELING AT THE
OF ALL THE SCIENCES, advanced physics requires some of the most
WRITTEN BY
Ryan Brown PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF NASA
PREFACE Professor David Grandy shifts paradigms and suppositions in his study of special relativity and the speed of light, all under the umbrella of his larger research as a philosopher of science.
56
complicated mathematical and practical thinking. Even Einstein had trouble conceptualizing problems dealing with the speed of light and Newtonian physics. As a result, he came up with a series of thought experiments—mini-situations that dealt with principles he was grappling with—on a small and easy-to-understand scale. Here’s a good example: Imagine riding along on a beam of light, which means you’re traveling at the speed of light. In your hand you’re holding a flashlight. Still riding on the beam of light, you flip the switch and turn on the flashlight. What happens? David Grandy, professor of philosophy, leans back in his chair trying to help me understand this particular doozy that Einstein thought up when he was sixteen years old. I’m relieved, then, as Professor Grandy tells me that there are two possible answers to the experiment, part of what made it so intriguing for Einstein. The intrigue hasn’t faded with time, and I sit back absorbed in Grandy’s explanation that according to one system of physics, nothing would happen. You’re already traveling at the speed of light so the light can’t surpass your current speed. He explains that this is much the same as if you tried to shout while traveling at the speed of sound. The sound waves emanating from your mouth would be traveling at the same speed as the rest of your body, so they couldn’t exit your mouth, let alone move through the air to your ears. The other answer deals with Newtonian physics. Most of us are familiar with Newton’s First Law of Motion: the speed of an object remains constant unless the object is acted upon by an outside force. “Now suppose you were in an airplane,” Grandy says, “that’s moving inertially—at a constant speed and in a constant direction. Is there any experiment that you can perform inside that airplane to prove that you are moving? The answer is no. There’s nothing you can do to discriminate between when you are in motion and when you are at rest. “Einstein eventually decided that when we’re traveling at the speed of light, we’re also traveling inertially. That means that any experiment performed at the speed of light would react just the same as if it were performed at rest.”
So, in line with Newtonian physics, Einstein believed that light from a flashlight would extend away from you, just as if you were sitting in your living room when you turned it on. Our conversation moves away from the thought experiment as Professor Grandy tries to help me understand Einstein’s unique paradigm. Right now you’re probably asking yourself why I’m talking to a philosophy professor about complex physics problems in the first place. But David Grandy isn’t just a philosopher; he’s a philosopher of science. “There are typically two reactions to my studies as a philosopher of science,” Grandy remarks. “One, people will ask me, ‘If you’re not trained in the hard sciences, what business do you have poking around in there?’ The second reaction is more understanding and comes from those who grasp the idea that all the sciences have major philosophical underpinnings.” Einstein must have understood these underpinnings, I think to myself, as Grandy explains that as a young graduate student, Einstein would skip classes because the subject matter wasn’t explored deeply enough. Now I don’t recommend truancy, but this INSIGHT 2012
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HONORING ACADEMICS
“I GUESS IN THE END THERE’S REALLY NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU, ME, AND EINSTEIN. WE’RE EACH HUMAN AND WE’RE ALL IN SEARCH OF TRUTH.”
was Einstein. Einstein felt that scientists of his day and age worried more about the calculations and the behavior of bodies than the general and philosophical principles at work. This nagging lack of underlying philosophy kept Einstein experimenting until he could address the issue of constancy that puzzled so many of his scientific peers. These experiments eventually led to his theory of relativity. According to Grandy, the deeper thinking that helped Einstein make critical breakthroughs in physics is the type of thinking that needs to continue in modern science. “Coming at ideas and questions from a different perspective is always useful even if it’s not always successful,” Grandy remarks. He explains that this change in perspective is a worthy goal. However, it is a hard one to achieve because science often wants a world that can be wrapped up and explained by mathematical formulae. “But as a result of that desire,” Grandy remarks, “what science ultimately wants is an odorless, colorless, soundless world.” Dr. Grandy holds out a yellow Post-it note and asks me what color it is. I tell him it’s a pale yellow, but also that I’m color-blind and an unreliable judge of color. “That’s just it,” he says. Professor Grandy explains that Galileo and a slew of other ancient scientists would deny that color resides in the world. Color is subjective; what is real are the mathematical properties of the sticky note that Grandy holds out to me, like its weight and dimensions. If you start to think about color, a subject where personal opinions—or in my case genetic flaws—could cloud the issue, science argues that you’re bringing your subjective viewpoint into a world that requires objectivity in order to be understood. Galileo and many others believed that by holding true to the scientific method they could look through a bias-free lens and see the world as it really is, without human interpretations getting in the way. “You might argue, for instance,” Professor Grandy continues, “that the jazz you listen to is better than my acid rock.” I chuckle at the thought of this intellectual in his soft leather chair listening to acid rock. “That’s a subjective argument,” he says. “Your opinion and my opinion don’t matter. What’s real are the tones that make up the music. The oscillations of the sound waves. That’s what’s real.” 58
I begin to understand where science is coming from. Here is this world surrounded by beauty and color and sound which can be modeled and described to varying degrees of exactness. But the inquisitive nature behind the scientific method gets tripped up when opinions and biases get in the way, so science tries to do away with them. But Grandy and philosophers of science would counter that it’s impossible to do away with your biases or to be purely objective. In a way, that’s a relief. “Once you’re a part of a culture,” Grandy says, “You start absorbing biases and you can’t revert to your immaculate, perceptive state. The advantage, then, in looking at science through a philosophical lens is the realization that even though you’re doing something that’s really important, you’re not going to ever escape the baggage that you bring to your work. And therefore, all of your conditions are limited. You’re not going to arrive at absolute truth; you’re not God, but you’re human.” Human. I guess in the end there’s really no difference between you, me, and Einstein. We’re each human, and we’re all in search of truth.
I thank Dr. Grandy and walk slowly down the hall outside of his office, thinking. It hits me. My own thought experiment! If I took Einstein’s flashlight and shined it at a mirror that was 372,564 miles away . . . I may be clouding the experiment with my own suppositions already, but that’s okay. It’s my thought experiment and my own little search for some more light. !
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REFLECTION ESSAY
Blurring the Lines
“I keep trying to
commit, but I’m
—A reflection essay
WRITTEN BY
Katie Pitts
ARTWORK BY
Jena Schmidt
PREFACE “It!s possible to have everything,” says Katie Pitts as she considers that, when combined, science and humanities can create the most sublime beauties of life.
M
aybe the lines are only in my head, but I’ve been caught up in byu’s battlefield of majors and minors with its clearly marked territories and loyalties ever since I came here. The artsy people are shuffled off to the north of campus; the science majors, to the south. As a freshman, I picked a side by declaring a major in humanities, thinking that such a broad discipline of history and art would allow me to study everything and tie me to nothing. But I found myself craving the manipulation of numbers: I missed listening to rock music while I tackled math problems with discrete solutions, so I enrolled in a calculus class and took a job writing and editing for the science departments in those buildings to the south. For two years, I’ve been crossing an uneasy border you could call the Kimball-Martin line: by night, I memorize the names of painters long since dead who glare at me from their canvases. By day, I learn the names and research interests of chemists, physicists, statisticians, and mathematicians who walk past my desk and smile the smiles of people who all know something I don’t know yet. I keep trying to commit, but I’m falling in love with the tension. More than anything, this is what makes an Honors education.
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WHAT MAKES THE LIST Some people define their Honors education by the status of their Great Works log. Well, if we’re going to brag, I’ll confess that mine looks pretty impressive: I finally finished David Copperfield, and I walked the floors in Dickens’s house. I’ve now read Jane Austen, and I’ve stood over her grave. I read Shakespeare’s Hamlet, watched Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet, and stood in the back of a London theatre to see Jude Law’s Hamlet. I stared into Van Gogh’s sunflowers and contemplated Degas’s straining ballerinas while only a few feet from the waves of paint on the canvas. Very exciting, I know, but in many ways, seeing these things was anti-climatic. Standing as a groundling in the Globe didn’t even compare to sitting on the front row of a play called Copenhagen. Copenhagen is about science—go figure. It’s about Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, which says that we can’t know both the speed and the position of a particle. The play depicts the confusion surrounding the creation of atomic warfare, holding the audience captive as ideas whirl around both them and the characters like electrons to a nucleus. Seeing this play made me collide with the truth that neither science nor art knows all the answers. It’s the search that human beings really care about.
falling in love with WHAT SEEMS LIKE TWO IS ACTUALLY ONE, AND NO, THIS ISN’T A MATH PROBLEM The other day, a student in my humanities class started saying scientists were so stupid because a study had just come out about how smoking was bad for you. She found it so gratifying to think that she’d always known smoking is harmful while the scientists had only just grasped the obvious. Her gloating was killing me. But I don’t comment in class much, so I refrained from screaming the thoughts in my head. Deep inside though, I wanted to tell her everything I learned in statistics and teach her about claiming causation. I wanted to tell her why it’s unethical to make people smoke just to see if it will kill them. I wanted her to understand why statisticians can’t prove that smoking kills you because of this ethical dilemma that goes way past observation of what seems obvious. I wanted to show her that science operates around the same logic and thoughtfulness that humanities majors love. I wanted her to know that scientists wrestle with deep questions just like humanities students do. But I didn’t. Instead I thought about blind spots. My classes on the north side and my classes on the south side are often tackling the same questions without realizing that the other side has a piece to offer. Is it possible that the key to global warming is a line in a novel no one remembers? Or that the greatest of stories is hidden in the autobiography of a mathematician? Do not all things work together for our good? In the search for light and truth, separating all the subjects is impossible; the division of disciplines and departments, arbitrary. Science follows a linear model of progression, building upon theory after theory. Occasionally, something gets knocked out and the process starts over. Humanities puts down an idea in the middle and circles around it until it turns it upside down and looks at it again. One orbits while the other unfolds like a time line of history, mirroring the ascending ladder of dna that twists back in to create new shapes within us. Arguably, science saves lives, and fancy art and writing won’t cure aids or even the common cold. But isn’t it the stories of children suffering told in paint and word that convince us to donate and give and care? Doesn’t chemistry determine the way paint lasts on a canvas so that I can praise Van Gogh long after the cells of his mortal body break down and stop creating? Science won’t stop death and art won’t stop pain. But both of them put up quite the fight for goodness, joy, and love in an endless reciprocation of give and take.
the tension. More
than anything, this is what makes an
Honors education.”
CAN’T WE BOTH BE BEAUTIFUL? I sat down to write a paper about the sublime and literary theory once. That effort was thwarted by a late-October head cold. Feeling overwhelmed, I started wandering through the books in the library. Surprisingly, the physics section cleared my head. I do not understand them, but the book covers are beautiful. They’re graced by pictures of blue explosions and starry lights. I know these depict physical phenomena that I do not understand, but they are remarkable, artistic, and INSIGHT 2012
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REFLECTION ESSAY
“In the search for light and truth, separating all the subjects is
impossible; the division of disciplines and
departments, arbitrary.” perfectly composed. The functionality of these atoms and cells falls outside my reasoning, but not their colors and forms. One book simply had the signature of Niels Bohr, a famous physicist also portrayed in Copenhagen, down the spine. It thrills me to think that this brilliant man knew how to make a little piece of handwriting into something gorgeous. It’s not about precision or usefulness. He could have scribbled it or thought about it as nothing, but his signature speaks of care and concern for the curves of the letters and the way they fit into the space that makes his name. Returning to my paper, I read about a despairing philosopher who was trying her best to define the sublime. She wondered if it’s even possible to have a definition of the sublime. If the sublime is supposed to be impossible to grasp, how do we talk about those aesthetic moments that defy description? For her, these moments are tied to art, but she needs a definition that covers more. She exclaims, “What of the cognitive failure I have occasionally experienced in the face of the New York Times crossword puzzle, or complex mathematical problems that truly humble me? . . . Why are these sorts of experiences not also sublime?”1 Her questions sadden me. She seems to think that these experiences can’t be sublime. But of course they are! It’s possible to have everything: science with its pesky equations and art with its ill-defined boundaries can get along. We must all be friends and learn from each other. Education comes from all angles, “that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him” (Ephesians 1:10). The resurrection might be somewhat scientific, but all the physical changes will be to the tune of choirs. The earth can break forth into singing, which will be accompanied by geological upheavals. And all will be more marvelous for the combination of the two. ! 1. Forsey, Jane. “Is a Theory of the Sublime Possible?” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 65, no. 4 (Autumn, 2007): 381–389.
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