It's a thimble with the Salt Lake Temple on it(or is that really the original badboy Nauvoo?). This is my only displayed piece of Mormondom, aside from my childhood Book of Mormon and a few Spanish books of scripture on a bottom bookshelf in the livingroom. How strange the turns of a life. What once defined me is now, to the naked eye, reduced to kitsch. Almost. The last time I went to a Sacrament meeting (my neice got blessed last summer), Walker-boy loudly asked why they were giving out snacks in the middle of church, and why everyone only got one tiny little piece of bread and a thimble-full of water. The month before when he watched his cousin getting baptised, he asked what why there was a swimming pool in church and why Hunter was going swimming in it fully clothed in a white suit. I swear I tried to fully prepare the kid. It's so odd to see it all through his eyes, or the eyes of any "outsider". On the other hand, I've had several experiences with Cool Mormons in the last couple of weeks, Mormons who defied my own preconcieved ideas about them and made me rethink my own judgementalism. Last night at dinner in Provo with my brother and his wife and four of their ward neighbors, I thought I was going to have to restrain my usual ribald humor. They surprised me. The guy sitting across from me told more dirty jokes than I'd heard in a long time, and the guy sitting to my left wrote his last paper before graduation (at BYU) on why R-rated movies should be considered acceptable viewing for good, upstanding members of the church. He turned the paper in to his LDS religion professor. And then, of course, there's always
Teri, who puts up with a lot and keeps coming back for more.
It's a thimble with the Salt Lake Temple on it(or is that really the original badboy Nauvoo?). This is my only displayed piece of Mormondom, aside from my childhood Book of Mormon and a few Spanish books of scripture on a bottom bookshelf in the livingroom. How strange the turns of a life. What once defined me is now, to the naked eye, reduced to kitsch. Almost. The last time I went to a Sacrament meeting (my neice got blessed last summer), Walker-boy loudly asked why they were giving out snacks in the middle of church, and why everyone only got one tiny little piece of bread and a thimble-full of water. The month before when he watched his cousin getting baptised, he asked what why there was a swimming pool in church and why Hunter was going swimming in it fully clothed in a white suit. I swear I tried to fully prepare the kid. It's so odd to see it all through his eyes, or the eyes of any "outsider". On the other hand, I've had several experiences with Cool Mormons in the last couple of weeks, Mormons who defied my own preconcieved ideas about them and made me rethink my own judgementalism. Last night at dinner in Provo with my brother and his wife and four of their ward neighbors, I thought I was going to have to restrain my usual ribald humor. They surprised me. The guy sitting across from me told more dirty jokes than I'd heard in a long time, and the guy sitting to my left wrote his last paper before graduation (at BYU) on why R-rated movies should be considered acceptable viewing for good, upstanding members of the church. He turned the paper in to his LDS religion professor. And then, of course, there's always Teri, who puts up with a lot and keeps coming back for more. 
4 comments:
Yup, that's supposed to be the Salt Lake temple, but it looks more like a castle, no? :) Thanks for letting this not-your-typical-I-hope-Mormon hang out with y'all!
you're not allowed to see R rated movies? If that's the case, wtf with this Larry Miller guy!?!?
When I lived back in Kansas, my coworkers at the Assisted Living place called me the 'Wild Mormon'. I swore, I sucked up the second hand smoke as I chatted out with my coworkers on their smoke breaks (I don't smoke myself, that's one more thing my one working kidney-on-loan does NOT need) and I know some pretty nasty jokes. Old people know some diirrrty jokes.
That doesn't make me 'cool', really. I think what makes people, be they Mormons or Baptists or whatever else, 'cool' is when they're accepting of all people, regardless of who they are. Who are comfortable with who they are and what they believe and won't be swayed, but won't mind anyone who has a difference of opinion, either.
People who are 'real'. That's what makes them cool.
Kit, you know what? You're exactly right. Thanks for putting it so well.
Post a Comment