the locust shell

Documenting the world

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. (Rev. 20:12)

For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them; for out of the books which shall be written I will judge the world, every man according to their works, according to that which is written. (2 Nephi 29:11)

Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! (Job 19:23)

A few years ago, one professor told me she thinks of all human knowledge as a big pie, with each contribution adding another slice to the whole.  While some slices are bigger than others, no slice is unimportant.  If what she could offer with her intellect was a small slice on music-text relationships in 14th century French madrigals, she knew that the pie wouldn’t be complete without that documented knowledge, and in that her work was justified.  I like her analogy.  It focuses on open dialogues among communities of scholars–both past, present, and future–working collectively to bind something together, rather than only considering what any individual effort might afford.  It reminds me of the authors anthologized in the Book of Mormon, all working independently of one another–and with a tremendous sense of urgency, not unlike scholars today–to preserve their comings and goings.  Not one of them was quite certain why they were doing so, other than out of a sense of duty to God and their community.  It was simply a project of unimaginable scope, yet somehow their individual involvement was critical to the success of the grand endeavor.

But why?  What purpose does documentation serve for us?  Why have scholars, composers, and prophets–no less than journalists, lawyers, and diarists–spent their lives writing things down, keeping records, giving the written word truth-power?

Given the hefty scriptural pronouncements on or allusions to documentation, it seems that this work of documenting the world is of incredible significance for us all.  Angels record and then look upon human prayers (D&C 62:3).  Record-keeping, along with the authority from the priesthood, has a binding effect among earth and heaven (D&C 128:8).  It even seems possible that Christ’s earthly mission was determined by what humans had written about him previously (Luke 24: 46-47, John 5:47).  Yet possibly of most importance to all of us is the level of significance documents have on human salvation.  As the scriptures heading this post attest, books are the measure by which not only individuals, but the world, are to be judged.  These books are set apart from the book of life, which seems to be a severe reckoning device to determine individually who “makes the cut,” so to speak (although, it is possible every person initially is listed in this book, as later one can be “blotted out” [Exodus 32: 32, Rev. 3:5]).  So, I say to myself in the mirror, 1) Who wrote these books and 2) What are they?  The King James Bible?  The Koran?  Hamlet?  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?

Well, it seems to me: 1) we all are, or at least should be, and 2) yes.  I believe these books amount to all the efforts humans have made in trying to explain our world.  In other words, they represent human knowledge, a collective knowledge.  And [I'll even go this far to say] from this collective knowledge will the world–or all humanity–be judged.  I don’t know for what exactly (though I have my ideas), but buried within all these scriptural proclamations on writing down the past and keeping dutiful records is a promise of gain: a charge that if we seek to learn all we can about the world, about each other, even about things seemingly superficial–and, most critically, that we then either write these things down ourselves or trust others to do so for us later–, all of our human family will be better for it.

This “pie of human knowledge” must be completed, that much is certain.  What is uncertain, and beautifully so, is the piercing question that remains:

What will my slice be?

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