Boyd Dastrup. he’s written a bit on military history.

(this can’t get back to me, BTW.)

I don’t think the higher standards in Utah just apply to our smile. Unfortunately, it seems that the standards for the way you look, the job you have, the way your children behave in public, the activities they are involved in, etc. far exceed those outside of Utah as well. You have to really keep perspective on what’s important and recognize that what other’s think doesn’t matter, but it can be hard to not get caught up in the “perfection frenzy.”

Word. What is your bishop’s name?

On a side note, where I’m from, dentistry is no easier to get into than medicine (not an “easy access to medicine” by any means)

Russell, I guess to make a shoutout for history Ph.Ds, my bishop is a historian, history Ph.D, very serious in all of that, and well, he’s been bishop *quite a few times* (I guess they keep on wanting to give him a break but he’s just done the best job of all who’ve been called).

So even in doctor/lawyer/dentist town, the church is on the lookout for people outside that professional triumvirate, I guess. I guess it would be neat if there were statistics about the careers of different leaders in the church (although I imagine that in the higher levels, professionals would be overrepresented).

The more educated people are, the less judgmental and open-minded they are.

Fwiw, some of the most judgmental, narrow-minded people I’ve met in my life were HIGHLY educated.

I agree completely. This is why I’m hoping with everything I’ve got that I go to grad school in another state. I grew up a few hours away, in a neighboring state, with many educated, open-minded, truly non-judgmental, imperfect and loving church members. So many times I’ve longed to move back from Utah Valley…

The dentist thing in Utah is pretty funny. There’s a man in my ward whose wife wanted to move out of the Northwest, so they did. But when he looked at the costs of building a practice again from scratch in Utah (because dentists are so abundant here that there’s plenty of competition for patients, he realized that he could work in the NW and live here and make more money than being a dentist here. If I remember right, he flies out Monday morning early, and flies back late Thursday night or on Friday morning. He has a small apartment within a block or so of his practice, and not far from the airport. He works four days a week, sets his own holiday schedule (actually all of his schedule, for that matter), and says he’s able to spend plenty of time with his family and they all seem very happy with the arrangement. And think of all the frequent flier miles!

I wouldn’t worry about the professor-trade divide. I have been pursuing a very academic degree (history–not exactly practical) for the past couple years. Academic degrees hold much less clout, I’ve found, in Church culture than executives/doctors/lawyers. And don’t think that having a Ph.D. in history constitutes a contribution to society per se. It’s a cloistered environment we live in where old documents make up today’s news. And plumbers, I’ve found, do pretty well for themselves (50/hour)…I wouldn’t compare plumbing to garbage collecting.

Moreover, President Hinckley instructed us to get as much education as we could. For some, that opportunity simply does not present itself–through no fault of their own. And while it’s true that someone needs to collect the trash, the reality is that we should all live up to the opportunities given us. If we have the (realistic) opportunity to find a better job/get more education, should we say: “you know, I’m just fine collecting trash”?

Think of Good Will Hunting where Will (Damon) says that bricklaying is a noble service, then Sean (Robin Williams) responds: “Ah, and that’s why you wanted to be a janitor…for the nobility of it.” I mean, seriously??