The downfall of the Icariens

I just spent some time on an interesting read in Wikipedia about the Icarians--the 'utopian' (communal socialist) group that inhabited Nauvoo after it was vacated by the Mormons. (Thanks for referring me to read about them, Chrstine.)

As I read through it, I found this summary interesting:

. . .

From start to finish, the entire Icarian movement lasted only forty-nine years. Like all utopias of this era, the Icarians met their demise from within their own community. Poor planning and poor financial management along with personal disputes seem to be at the root of the disbandment. Although the disagreements were never mentioned in complete detail, it was obvious that debt was their biggest downfall.

. . .


I find it interesting that one of the primary causes of the downfall of this community (which was, in essence, its own society and its own civilization) was cited as being financial in nature. From what I understand of most organizations, financing can be at the root of their downfall. It's true in business; it's true in marriages; and, as illustrated by the Icarians (and certainly a variety of other groups), it's true in organized civil societies.

I'm now a little concerned about our nation. The underlying question (that I don't think anyone is answering) is: How are we going to pay for everything we're spending? If the answer is "the citizens of our nation will cough it up" I'm even more concerned because the Icarians (again) proved that you can take EVERYTHING (in terms of property and wealth) from a person or a people, and STILL not break even on the programs you're running--and ultimately crumble as a society.

I do take comfort in the fact that the overall tone of the recent general conference of the church was extraordinarily upbeat. . . .but it seemed upbeat spiritually--not necessarily economically, socially, or politically. Any words of comfort here (regarding the long-term health of our nation) would be appreciated.

Nauvoo Temple

Conference was awesome. One of the "take aways" I got from conference was that my time needs to be spent in more valuable endeavors (in terms of maintaining an "eternal perspective"). With my travel for work, I have a considerable amount of 'alone' time that I realized I could spend that time a lot more productively (in an "eternal perspective" kind of way) than I have in the past. (Usually I go to a local Wal*Mart, J.C. Penny, Khols, or some other venue to do some quality window shopping. --I LOVE shopping!!!)

Being that temples seemed to be a powerful theme in the conference (at least for me), I decided to make an effort to spend some of my personal time on business trips trying to get to the nearest temple. If I have time to do a session, I plan to.

In the case of my first of these excursions, I landed in Nauvoo on a Monday night, so the temple wasn't open for sessions. Regardless, it was a great experience. A beautiful temple!

Here are some pics. of me at the Nauvoo Temple.



Here's the front view of the temple. Kinda cool how the inscription on the front of the building identifies the commencement of this building as beginning clear back in 1841. How cool to have the thing finally constructed (re-constructed really) just a few years ago.




This shot is actually from the back of the temple, but I thought it was really a cool picture to see the temple and the flag together like that. It feels kinda symbolic to me (namely, that the opportunities for temples in this great land are, in large part, a function of the freedoms and liberties upon which our nation was established.)




This is me in front of the temple. It was tough getting a good pic. of myself AND the temple. Plus it was cold outside.




Here's "take 2" of the 'Blaine and the Nauvoo Temple' shot. :)

Jacket Shopping

So, I went shopping for a jacket the other day (still haven't found what I'm looking for). As I went along, I got distracted a bit w/ hats.

Here's a samling of some of the fun I had.

Enjoy. . .

Blaine D. Hone - Rock Star

So, I google'd my name today: Blaine D. Hone. I found a few things: an old debate standings announcement from high school, a poem I submitted on Poetry.com, my first blogpost on this blog. . . and so forth.

Upon considering the various interests to which my name was linked, I asked myself, to what industry, profession, or interest do I wish people would equate my name? Poetry's nice, but fruity. Debate--was fun, but often times pointless (and who wants to be known for being pointless); plus, that was a long time ago. There was a contract for supplying hot applied crack sealants to the state of Kansas that I found kind of interesting, but it's a fairly small community that will be interested in Blaine D. Hone--the contact person on the contract for crack sealant purchases in the state of Kansas. My blogpost. . .eh' I haven't written anything of great importance here.

So I thought maybe "Rock Star" would be a fun one to put next to my name. Now, hopefully after a while, when people are looking me up, (of course, I imagine the 'people' I'm talking about will be mostly me). . . they'll see "Blaine D. Hone - Rock Star" and maybe they'll think for a second, "no, that couldn't be the same Blaine D. Hone I know. . . is he a rock star now? I guess I could see that. Good for him!"