I make no apology when I say I love the work of the late LDS scholar Hugh Nibley. Though I have a number of points upon which Nibley and I might disagree, his work has impacted my life in a number of remarkable ways. Many a late night has found me pouring over thousands of pages of groundbreaking material that remains foundational to Mormon scholarship. In addition, two Nibley biographies are also available to the inquiring reader which are invaluable when investigating the life of a man who was never short of words. It's June 6, 2011 - the 67th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion, in which Nibley participated as a member of the 101st Airborne' Division's "Screaming Eagles." The following is to me, what epitomized Nibley. In what should have been one of the most nerve-wracking moments of his life (and I'm sure it may have been), Nibley recounts a short story of what he was actually thinking about for a portion of that fateful day in 1944. It remains an anecdote I've always enjoyed, and one I hope to never forget.
"[June 6, 1944] They had just lowered my jeep into the landing craft, and I was going down the rope ladder into the jeep when I had a thought that troubled me. I thought, "Joseph Smith slipped up when he had elephants in the Book of Mormon. The Americas didn't have any elephants." Then it suddenly occurred to me: "The elephants are only mentioned in the book of Ether. That's the archaic period. That could have been around then very well. They're not mentioned in the Nephite story at all." I had this thought as I was coming down the ladder into the landing craft and that suddenly corrected my perspective on the problem, and I said, "That's just the thing! That's just right! How very happy I feel!" (Sergeant Nibley PhD: Memories of An Unlikely Screaming Eagle, Hugh Nibley, Alex Nibley ed., Salt Lake City, Shadow Mountain, 2006, pg. 109)
*Image from HistoryNet.com
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