Last summer I participated in an unusual event in southern Utah. A local environmental organization hosted a panel discussion about stewardship and went out of their way to invite an audience of diverse political and religious persuasions. The panel discussion, however, was focused on Mormonism and the environment, with the intent to create a dialogue about the meaning of stewardship. Prior to the discussion, I did a reading from my book Home Waters. I chose selections that treated the story... Read more

Enjoy this podcast with friends Dan Wotherspoon, Craig Galli, and Rachel Whipple, and yours truly. http://mormonmatters.org/2012/07/25/113-mormonism-and-environmentalism/ Read more

Maybe one doesn’t have to be an anthropologist from as far away as Mars to imagine that the divisions in Utah are perhaps more like family feuds, a split in a personality of a whole people, two siblings of the same civilization that symbiotically insist on and perhaps even create differences in order to perpetually seek to vanquish them. Like siblings who choose different paths and whose choices, then, feel like betrayal, we are afflicted by class, religious, ethnic, and... Read more

In his popular story, “The Bear,” William Faulkner once described the wilderness of the South as having soils brutalized by whites and saturated by the blood of massacred Indians and beaten slaves, a tragic land, then, of at least triple inheritance. His wilderness, in other words, is no escape from the travails of human history. He wrote of “That dark corrupt and bloody time while three separate people had tried to adjust not only to one another but to the... Read more

In a classic speech, Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, recently addressed the graduating class at Stanford University and reminded them about the “conspiracy of love” that has enabled them to be at this particular point in their lives. What he wanted to convey was simply that every person’s opportunities and fortunate circumstances do not emerge in a vacuum and, much less, do not exist merely as a result of an individual earning or deserving them. Instead, he insisted that these... Read more

What I have always found intriguing about Doc’s thinking and his many books is that they are so utterly commonsensical that their importance is almost too easily lost on us. He kept his wants, his principles, and his thinking simple. And yet, like all great ideas, although they are presented in simple and straightforward language, they hold up against increased scrutiny and probing, revealing more rather than less. In the case of this, his final aphorism, Doc might as well... Read more

My friend Kristine Haglund has again prepared some terrific thoughts on this. You can find them here: Read more

I am pleased to welcome you to the new site for “Home Waters” here at patheos.com.   Thanks,   George Handley Read more

It’s that time of year in Utah. People are flocking to the trailheads and heading up into the mountains for the chance to visit high mountain lakes or to stand atop a peak and look out over where we live. Hiking for recreation is a relatively modern invention. It certainly held little appeal to Mormon pioneers who spent months walking to Zion and then exhausted their bodies living by the sweat of their brow. But it almost seems that for... Read more

I speak with no authority on this principle. I am a very unsuccessful gardener even though I like to blame the fact that my yard doesn’t get enough sun to grow things, and I am a far cry from a handy man. I don’t feel any particular pride even in my ability to keep a yard. I feel a great deal of shame about this and envy those with more skill and aptitude than I have. I know I could... Read more