Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
It’s Over

It’s Over

Last updated on: September 9, 2021 at 3:50 pm by Dan Peterson

It’s Over 2021-09-09T15:50:32-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In the sunset of my life: Here I am, with Yellowstone National Park’s Grand Prismatic Spring and the Midway Geyser Basin in the background. (If you look really, really carefully, you can see distant steam rising.) I realize that I mar the beauty of the photograph, which was taken by my wife with her mid-quality iPhone camera, but it seemed an appropriate day on which to temporarily suspend my general No Me in the Photograph rule.

***

Well, yesterday (Wednesday, 30 June 2021) was my last day as a member of the active faculty at Brigham Young University. As I understand it, my retirement became effective at midnight, Utah time. (Which, coincidentally, is equivalent to midnight Montana time.) Happily, since I wasn’t scheduled to teach during the spring term and had no remaining committee assignments, I’ve been free to be up here at Yellowstone National Park. We had a good day yesterday along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Yellowstone Lake and several beautiful rivers and among various meadows, geysers, fumaroles, and paint pots. We saw numerous elk and bison and innumerable geese and ducks, as well as one deer (a doe, a female deer), and three chipmunks. Most of the elk were cows and calves, of course, but we also saw several bucks, including two quite large specimens with really impressive antler racks, one of them directly beside the road. One large bison bull crossed the road right behind us. I saw him only at the last moment as he was coming rather quickly down a slope toward us, and I wondered for a few seconds whether he might even collide with our car. A good day.

Today was a day for reflection, too. Just a few years ago, I was utterly appalled at even the thought of retirement. Suddenly, though, about two years ago, retirement lost its repulsiveness. And now the time seems fully right. But it’s still a bit sad. I fell in love with Brigham Young University when I was about fifteen. I earned my undergraduate degree at BYU. I’ve been a member of the BYU faculty for the past thirty-six years. It’s astonishing to realize that, in some ways, it’s coming to an end.

I’ve always been acutely aware of the transience of things. Beautiful gardens remind me of how quickly flowers fade. Historic palaces and mansions remind me of how briefly their builders inhabited them. And, since my very first reading of Jacob 7:26, it has stayed in my mind:

And it came to pass that I, Jacob, began to be old; and the record of this people being kept on the other plates of Nephi, wherefore, I conclude this record, declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days.

I’m not lonesome or hated by my brethren. I experienced an extraordinarily painful bout of academic politics in 2012, the most acute and unexpected betrayal I’ve ever personally known, but I have always been blessed with many friends, and I’ve gotten along well with the vast majority of those around me. Moreover, although I’m more serious than I may often outwardly seem, I wouldn’t consider myself particularly solemn. Beyond that, I wasn’t born in tribulation and I haven’t been “cast out.” I’ve been involved in far more contention than I would have liked, but I’m pretty serene and I’m very, very seldom angry. However, I can say that, in a manner of speaking, the time has passed away with me “like as it were . . . a dream.” It’s astonishing and unexpected to be so old, to be so far along in life.

A few months ago, I rewatched the 1969 film Goodbye, Mr. Chips. I hadn’t seen it since my first encounter with it back during my freshman year at BYU or thereabouts. But I was very fond of it then, and I liked it the second time, as well. Tonight, I’ve thought of one of the songs from it, written and sung by Petula Clark:

In the morning of my life I shall look to the sunrise.
At a moment in my life when the world is new.
And the blessing I shall ask is that God will grant me,
To be brave and strong and true,
And to fill the world with love my whole life through.

(Chorus)
And to fill the world with love
And to fill the world with love
And to fill the world with love my whole life through

In the noontime of my life I shall look to the sunshine,
At a moment in my life when the sky is blue.
And the blessing I shall ask shall remain unchanging.
To be brave and strong and true,
And to fill the world with love my whole life through

(Chorus)

In the evening of my life I shall look to the sunset,
At a moment in my life when the night is due.
And the question I shall ask only I can answer.
Was I brave and strong and true?
Did I fill the world with love my whole life through?

But it’s not Petula Clark’s rendition of which I’m thinking. It’s Peter O’Toole’s much less showy and rather less musical one at the end of the film, as his long tenure as a classics teacher at Brookfield School comes to its end and he reflects back upon his years there.

However, the conclusion of my active career at Brigham Young University on 30 June 2021 wasn’t the only cause for meditation on Wednesday. My father passed away on 30 June 2003, just a few weeks short of his ninetieth birthday. It’s been eighteen years, but it doesn’t seem that long to me. I still miss him, and I think about him very nearly every day. I thought about him while traveling around Yellowstone. I have only a few vague memories of the first time that he and my mother brought me here, but they’re warm ones.

I won’t, of course, be entirely severing my ties with BYU. As an emeritus professor, I’ll still have some privileges there and some connections, and I’m delighted with that. Moreover, I haven’t fully lost my distaste for the idea of retirement. I will continue, so long as health permits (and, by the way, I have no particular concerns on that score), to be very active on a number of fronts. (In the short term, for instance, there’s still quite a bit to be done on the Witnesses film project. But that’s just a part of what I have in mind. The major reason for my wanting to retire is my hope and desire to write. I have a host of projects that I want to get underway.) One entertaining critic has been predicting for several months now that, once I’m no longer on the payroll of BYU and paid to do apologetics — it’s been quite futile, apparently, for me to point out, over and over and over again, that I’ve never been paid to do apologetics — I’ll back away from such things.

Well, we shall see, shan’t we?

In the meanwhile, I’m extremely excited to announce the launch of a series of blog entries on the Interpreter Foundation website. It’s something to which I’ve been looking forward for many months:

Kyler Rasmussen, “Estimating the Evidence: Episode 0: On Quantifying Skepticism”

[Editor’s Note: This episode introduces a series of 23 essays—each an episode—summarizing and evaluating Book of Mormon-related evidence from a Bayesian statistical perspective. See the FAQ at the end of this episode for details on methodology.]

Posted from West Yellowstone, Montana

Uncategorized

Brigham Young University

Previous Post

June 30, 2021

See it while you still can!

Next Post

July 1, 2021 My first day without employment

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which king allowed the Jews to return from Babylon and rebuild their Temple?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Darius Xerxes Cyrus Nebuchadnezzar