If anybody hasn’t seen this…you are in for a treat. Who the WHAT?!
So I’ve been going through some life-changing stuff right now, making some big decisions….and I’ve been reflecting on what Mormons believe to be “the Spirit” and whether you “have it” or not. And I know I’ve said some controversial things on this blog, I’m pretty sure my mom will feel eternally embarrassed and perhaps a touch of pure outrage for showing Mormons as anything less than Celestial Beings and Don’t You Want to Be One I Can Have the Missionaries Over Tonight.
A little while ago I was feeling, well, frankly–worried about her and other’s reactions to what I have to say. The consequences to Mormons are always eternal, and I grew up thinking if I didn’t try really hard to convert everybody around me the universe would explode and there would be no more Sunday dinner. So I was feeling down, (I do love my mashed potatoes) and walking to the subway and I stopped at a corner and looked up towards the sun. It was so warm on my face, and the warmth spread over my whole body and I felt genuine LOVE emanating and this thought popped in my head: “There’s nothing you can say or do that will stop the sun from rising tomorrow.” And then I started to cry, but don’t worry I wiped it away real quick-like because if I stop too long on a corner in my neighborhood I get asked how much I’m charging and the last thing I need is to look like a sobbing prostitute. Please.
So I have this cousin, Jason, who I absolutely love and adore. Every Mormon is given a ring at the age of 8 that says CTR (Choose The Right), and before his mission he got TATTOO that said CTR, hahaha, if that tells you anything about him. (Mormons don’t generally get tattoos). He rode his bike to Alaska from Utah to get a job fishing. He’ll jump on a bus and head to Mexico for a week with 7 bucks in his pocket. In a pack of cyclists wearing black spandex, he’ll have some colorful poncho on from Guatemala or something. His letters from his mission would include hilarious notes on the envelope to the mail-man. He sends Family Christmas newsletters that rival David Sedaris. I think he’s a comic genius and a great Mormon with a rare world-view…..anyway, this is his comment to this post and I really like it so I’m displaying it here:
“Yes missionaries can be quite manipulative, and down right evil, you have no idea what I mean by evil until you’ve been a COMPANION to some of these guys. But I must say a word about the nature of what Mormons call the Spirit. You’re right, it is what makes you cry at a good movie like Dead Poet’s Society, it is the name they give to that collective self that trancends conciousness, that superhumanity that is in us connecting us together. So when we see something that approximates perfection made by a fellow human approaching an ultimate potential of enlightenment such as the cinemetography in Nacho Libre, we feel something, C.S. Lewis calls it JOY, that which reminds us that we are not orignially from here, that our destiny is beyond. The guy who wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance calls it QUALITY or that which allows every human to understand objectively if something is quality or not. It is what Victor Frankle calls something I can’t remember in his extremely boring book Man’s Search For Meaning. It is what the Mormons, and exclusively the Mormons call the SPIRIT. Interestingly other Christians similarly revile Mormons for using this feeling as a barometer for truth. Yet it is what leads us to the ultimate truth of all things, and it, or rather HE has guided me throughout my life in even small desisions.”
Thanks, Jason….Nacho Libre made me cry too, hahahah.
Hello, I can’t understand how to add your blog in my rss reader
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Comment by fruipsepe — April 26, 2009 @ 8:01 pm
I’m still trying to figure out how to make it easy to subscribe using wordpress…sorry about that.
Comment by admin — April 28, 2009 @ 5:32 am
Hello, I can’t understand how to add your blog in my rss reader
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Comment by Paydrinaivy — April 28, 2009 @ 2:59 pm
now in my rss reader)))
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Comment by Paydrinaivy — April 29, 2009 @ 4:31 am