thanks for this essay. made me think. guess i'll be off now to "drain some swamp" so to speak--and be glad it isn't a 115 heat index while i'm doing it. :)

In a way, you got that right, comparing ourselves with others is rarely a good idea, because a LDS member are all one of the same, through Mormon history that leave me thinking after being a Member for over 50 years, when talking about "Clarity through instructive comparisons" just think about what it would have been like to walk the same route in all Wards today, when a few seem to say over and over again, "it's not that we don't have to help you, it's just that we don't want to, and also, we are not the Quaker's". There would be no Member's left, thy would all quit. That's why in my ward, it's very small every Sunday, most all quit. That's the St Petersburg 1st Ward in FL by the way.