Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
-- Robert Frost
Nothing gold can stay. What a powerfully profound statement. My sister showed me this poem a few months ago and I haven´t been able to get it out of my head since. Though the words of the poem are morose, almost mournful, I always find my heart´s sorrows to be somewhat lighter after reading the poem. There are very few things in known history that have been valued above gold- diamonds being the only thing that comes to mind. Its value is, of course, more or less abstract. I mean it´s a piece of shiny metal. Useful, perhaps, in building specialized electronics, but unnecessary. In fact, if you were to smelt all of the obtained gold in the world together it wouldn't even fill a single Olympic swimming pool. And that is precisely why it has been our eye´s focus for so long as humans.
For roughly 75 years after the USA was formally established as an independent country, our minted money was nothing more than numerical representations of how much gold we had stored in the bank. It was a flawed system, one that favored the already rich, stagnating economic growth staggeringly, that´s why we don´t use it today. It was to be replaced with a gold and silver-based system during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson, a system that would fundamentally change the economic power balance in the country. But this decision which was made only after Jackson´s insistence on an unstable system was proven faulty after the economy collapsed. You see, Jackson trusted in the gold system, perhaps because he himself benefited greatly from it. And though two of his three secretaries of treasury told him that the system needed to change, Jackson didn´t make the change. And I have no doubt that many people were pushed down into poverty because of it.
I share this example because, well, I like to bash on Andrew Jackson (why he's on our 20 dollar bill I will never know). But Jackson´s focus was on the wrong thing. So far as I can tell, it was on his own economic situation, rather than what was logically best for everyone. And we do the same, as people in the world. Our eyes get distracted, and thus we do too. We turn our attention to that which cannot last, that which fades. Nothing gold can stay. Nothing ever stays, not forever. Nothing in the universe will last, except for one thing.
There´s this couple we´ve been teaching- I mentioned them in last week´s letter. Fernanda and Christian. They have a wonderful family and a wonderful life. And, until 2 days ago, they had a wonderful baptismal date set for the 24th of this month. They are, or were, what missionaries would call "golden" investigators. But nothing gold can stay. And neither can they.
Their situation is complicated, but for legal and economic reasons they´re getting a divorce. They still live together, they still love each other, and they ́re still planning on progressing in the Gospel. But they can´t be baptized. Not for another 9 months, when they can legally get married again. They still plan on attending church, every week they can, and want to be baptized. But 9 months is a long time, and their faith is a new, a budding thing, and I´m not sure if it can last 9 months basking under the heat of temptation.
I shared this scripture with them: "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ"
Nothing gold can stay, that much is clear. But I´d like to propose something: Nothing gold should stay. Because gold, on its own, is worthless. That´s why we need to spend it. And 9 months is a long time. But I have faith in them, just as I have faith in all of us. Life is hard and we all of trials, but the trial of our faith is more valuable than anything we can find here on this Earth.
Nothing gold can stay, but maybe that´s a good thing.
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| screen shot from last weeks phone call |
Elder Brayden H. Monson
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