Curious Metaphor -- the Great Salt Lake is Losing Its Savor

Dear Editor,

According to an editorial titled "Losing Its Savor" that appeared in yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune (9/29/99), in 1969 the salinity in the Great Salt Lake was about 29 percent.

Now, in 1999, the salinity is 8 percent -- NEARLY ONE FOURTH of what it was thirty years ago.

The writer conjectured that the drop could be due to "building (including houses) and paving of ground for parking [which causes] increased runoff of precipitation and decreased percolation into the soil."

I find this diminishing of savor to be a sign from God, bringing to us yet another metaphor for the people who inhabit the regions around Salt Lake.

"But if they will not turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, I will suffer them, yea, I will suffer my people, O house of Israel, that they shall go through among them, and shall tread them down, and they shall be as salt that hath lost its savor, which is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of my people, O house of Israel." (3 Nephi 16:15.)

Oh that they would awaken, repent, and put on strength!

But I'm afraid that if they can write off the recent tornado's symbolic path through the heart of the city as being but a fluke, that they will ignore this sign as well.

See also