The 2 week reading

The official website is up-- albeit sparce, its HERE!

Its very exciting. We only had a few hours of rehearsal today, but we learned quite a bit of music. To be honest its not clear at this point how involved the ensemble is going to be! So far there are only 3 songs for us, the opening, the finale, and a few aaahhhs here and there. The music we learned is GORGEOUS though. I really like it. Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth are doing this reading, but who knows if they will continue on. No official casting has been announced yet as far as the the one production that is scheduled, which is in Chicago this coming fall. So we will see. In this economy there are no guarantees, heck there are no guarantees in showbiz no matter WHAT the economy is like. But nonetheless its VERY exciting for me to be part of something like this. I am totally thrilled and excited to see what the experience holds.. and in less than 2 weeks I will be flying off to chicago to start the Mary Poppins tour. Thats my life right now.. I basically haven't done A THING since august except travel and audition.. but now I'm finally working again.

To say that I am grateful would be an understatement.

First day of School

Today I went down and picked up my script and score for the Addams Family workshop. It starts tomorrow. Is it lame that I picked out my first day of school outfit already? I even got a haircut today. Does anyone else do this on the first day of a new job?

New Coat

Constantine is always thinking of ways to improve my wardrobe. I swear, everything nice that I own was a gift from him. Apparently I am in DIRE need of coats.. because last year he got me this marc jacobs coat..



And this year he got me a Moncler-- a beautifully lavish coat and certainly one I would probably never know to buy. (Based in Paris, Moncler was the original creator of the goose down ski jacket in the 1960s. Today, they are so hard to find that they are basically unicorns and are highly coveted by editors at Elle and fashionistas alike! Go ME!)



Constantine clearly has a thing for shiny coats. You like???

One of my favorite poems from Childhood

I dim.
I dim.
I have no doubt
If someone blew-
I would go out.

I did not.
I must be brighter
Than I thought


--Carol Lynn Pearson

I believe this

Right to Dream

I have this little known Mariah song in my head right now. Its called, "Right to Dream" and its from her newest venture into film, Tennessee. It played last year at the Tribeca Film Festival if I'm not mistaken. She plays a battered housewife/aspiring singer who joins 2 other nomadic hopefuls on a journey that would change them all. I haven't seen this movie yet, but I definitely will. After Mariah's foray into the phantasmagorical Glitter, well how could I not.



I, like Mariah, have a right to dream. I used to want to live in all of these different foreign countries for a year. I wanted to live for a year in Paris, a year in Beijing, a year in Berlin, a year in Moscow, a year in Rome, and maybe a year in Buenos Aires. I just feel drawn to the idea of experiencing a different world from my own American one. I really created this dream after my mission, when I saw what a soul stretching experience it was for me to live in Mexico for 2 years (I'm goin' to Mexico with my baby ain't NOBODY can take that joy from me..). When I got home I decided I wanted to learn new languages and get to experience new cultures and ideas. My dream really started to take shape when I was cast in an english language production of 42nd Street in Moscow, Russia that was supposed to last 14 months. It was subsequently shortened to 4, but at least I got to live there..

Lately life has caused me to shelf this dream of living abroad. Until this week. This week I finally saw the recent film La Vie En Rose starring the incandescent oscar-winning Marion Cotillard. I particularly love her final song in the movie. Its so triumphant. In any case, it's not perhaps the type of movie that one might expect to inspire such a "dream-revival" as this, for me this movie carried the soul of Paris the way someone in the movie says Edith Piaf's voice does. I want to work on my French again. I want to live in Paris for a year. I want to wear a beret. I want to sing "Viens Jusqu'a moi" while walking through the Tuilleries.

I have a right to dream. Don't I?

Oy vey

I always do this. You guys. What's up with not posting for like 6 months and then doing 3 in one day. What's up with life?

veiled imagination

Isn't it strange when life just randomly leads you into meaningful experiences? Is it stranger when life does it twice? About 4 years ago I went through this phase where I'd go onto the village voice website and find free talkbacks, table readings, book presentations, Nuyorican Poetry slams, you name it. During that time I stumbled into a Barnes and Noble on a snowy day to Azar Nafisi's discussion of her acclaimed book "Reading Lolita in Tehran". This fascinating piece of non-fiction takes place in Tehran, Iran and tells the story of a female literature professor (Nafisi) and several hand picked female students and their experience of reading and discussing forbidden western books in the Islamic Republic of Iran. They read Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, One Thousand and One Nights, Daisy Miller, and of course Nabokov's Lolita just to name a few. But they didn't just read them. They lived parts of their lives through the books that they were not allowed to live in public. They were forced to hide behind the veil. The issue of veiling in Iranian society is a running theme in the book. In Nafisi's words: "My constant obsession with the veil had made me buy a very wide black robe with kimonolike sleeves, wide and long. I had gotten to the habit of withdrawing my hands into the sleeves and pretending that I had no hands."

Yesterday my friend Craig called and said that he was sitting next to a sign in Barnes and Noble near Lincoln Center stating that Nafisi had written a new book, Things I've Been Silent About. He said she was having a discussion there at 7:30 that evening. It was fate. Azar and I back together again after nearly 4 years.. it just felt right.

I had forgotten this about Ms. Nafisi, but I remembered it the second she began talking about her new book. This woman doesn't stand up and say, "Here's my book. It's about this. I hope you read it." She stoop up and opened a window of light and knowledge to the room. She said so many amazing things I felt like I needed to stop and try to store the information but I felt that if I did I would lose the new information still flying toward me. I do remember how she talked about the way people in the US tend to view Iran and Iraq. She said when Americans hear the words, "Iran" or "Iraq", they think of Saddam, Al Qaeda, Kuwait, illegal arms sales, the twin towers, the veil, and extremists hiding in caves. I wish I could remember exactly what she said, but it was something like this: Iran as we know it used to be ancient Persia. Yet no one thinks of (she named 4-5 persian poets I've never heard of). Iraq used to be Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization. Yet no one thinks of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. She then went on to say that minimizing Iran and Iraq to those recent stereotypes is the same as minimizing Europe to the Holocaust. It is like minimizing America to slavery.

Finally she talked about what she saw as an antidote to this black and white thinking: imagination. Expand your mind. Explore the possibilities of your world-- even the impossibilities. "Keep reading," she said. This from a woman who was living in a country where she couldn't legally read most western books until she left in 1997. Her words seemed so poignant to me.

Keep reading.

I wish I could make my thoughts more cohesive right now. I felt so moved and so impressed by her ideas. They were at once thought-provoking, powerful, and surprising in their clarity. My friend Craig and I just looked at one another after the talk as if to say, "Wow. We were so lucky to hear her talk tonight."

it starts with the truth

I always love Oprah. I live for her no matter what, but ESPECIALLY right now. Oprah just "came out" to the world with a recent revelation that was both shocking and not. She told the world that she was embarrassed and ashamed because she gained back all the weight that she had painstakingly lost over the previous several years.

Oprah is a huge advocate for telling the truth and letting the cards fall. As part of getting herself and all her viewers back on track she has been doing a fantastic "Best Life" series all week.

Yesterday my favorite financial guru, Suze "jackets" Orman was on to help with the "money day" of the best life week. She starts the episode talking about telling the truth about your financial life. She says that the biggest problem people have is spiraling debt caused by living outside of their means, and also because they are living dishonest lives financially. She tells the audience that she has tallied their collective credit card debt-- which amounts to a whopping 2.25 million dollars. She then asks them all to lean over to their neighbors and each tell the absolute truth about how much debt he/she currently owes to credit card companies.

Suze and Oprah then lay out a 2009 action plan for these tough economic times. As part of that action plan, Suze has released a new book, which can be downloaded for free until next Thursday.

I'm just all about this right now. This idea that telling the truth and letting the cards fall is not a new one, but it is just as cathartic and important as it ever was. Telling the truth about who we are financially, emotionally, spiritually, even sexually and engaging in unabashed HONESTY with those we love is more important than ever.

I'm onboard Oprah. Count me in.

inspired

I have a hard time blogging. I was talking to a good friend the other day and he asked me, have you read this girl's blog lately, have you read that guy's blog lately. I said no. Then he said, "no matter how hard I try I just can't seem to make you a blog person."

But today I feel inspired. This is not a new years resolution. Not that those aren't wonderful. This just isn't one.

I saw a dear friend on new years eve in Denver. She is a fellow actor, and is working on a US touring production. Reconnecting with her on new years eve was so special to me, and I think to her as well. We felt such a kinship and connection even though it has been nearly a year since we last sat down and talked in person. I decided I would visit her blog and hear more of her internal monologue. I felt so inspired.

One of her posts was called love love love. She says that she needed to feel loved, so she called out to the universe and asked for it. Then she goes on to tell the ways in which the universe answered her. They were simple beautiful ways in which she was reassured-- yes. You are loved. You are not alone. I love what she said at the end of the post:



"love love love. i feel it. i feel loved.


i guess all i had to do was ask. that wasn't so hard.


thanks for answering my request. i won't hesitate to ask again."

Nor will I. Thank you for being a good example to me.

New Age Correspondence

RulesStructure911

I have been trying to institute a 12:00 a.m. bedtime for myself over the last month. As an actor who usually doesn't have to go to work until about 7:00 p.m., it is sometimes difficult for me to discipline myself about bedtimes, reasonable wake up times, and productive activities that extend beyond eating and working out. Most actors in touring productions go to bed from 3-4am, wake up around 12-1pm, go find food, get some coffee, maybe do a little email etc., maybe go to the gym or a class, and then it is time for work. When I first started working as an actor, I completely denied myself any attachment to what my best friend Don calls, "actor schedule."

My first out of town job was an incredible travel/learning opportunity for me: 42nd Street in Moscow, Russia. Seeing that this was a great opportunity for me to learn a language and to fully experience another culture for more than the usual week or two-week vacation, I fixed myself on a "missionary schedule" more than actor schedule. Usually our show in Moscow would end about 10:30 pm-- I would rush home, not pass go, not collect 200 dollars, and go directly to bed. I would then wake up at approx. 7:30 am, put some tea on the stove and proceed to study Russian language for about 3 hours. Then I would look in a guide book, pick a museum or interesting local spot, and go there. Along the way I would speak as much Russian as I could with anyone who would talk to me. By the end of our 4 months in Russia (which was supposed to be 10 months but the production closed early because of that terrorist attack on a nearby Moscow theater in November 2002-- another story indeed), I was speaking quite a lot of Russian while most of my cast mates were only able to say vodka, hello, goodbye, and some expletives. After this experience I vowed to stay off actor schedule for as long as I was an actor.

Cut to me last year, me living and working in Las Vegas, NV. I was there for nearly all of 2007, and for nearly all of 2007 I was on actor schedule. Oh it just didn't seem as important anymore to study languages, read history books, visit interesting sites, or go to bed at a reasonable hour. Somehow I let go of that structure that had served me so well in my recent past. I thought that productivity and intelligence were mine to enjoy without any rules and structure to support their longevity and continued presence in my life.

All I can say to sum up 2007 is this: I was so tired all the time! Isn't that ironic?

Cut now to last night. It was midnight and I was crawling into bed in strict observance of my newly reinstated bedtime, and I made a tactical error: I turned on the TV. I landed on an hour-long episode of Nanny 911. I was transfixed. The story was about this woman who had 4 children. While their dad was home, the children behaved perfectly, went to timeout when they were told and did not move until they were allowed to. But the minute the father left for work, the household would literally turn upside down. The children would go crazy. They had no respect for anything, not their toys, not their homes, not even the nanny's hat which they threw over the banister and basically "maria von trapp'd" if you get my reference. Worst of all they had absolutely no respect for their mother. When she would put them into timeout they would just walk away. When she would try to get them to listen they would scream and yell. They would spit in her face, hit her, and do anything they could to thwart her power in the home. Eventually she would just take the smaller ones and force them into a timeout by physically restraining them. When she did that, they would go berserk, bite her, spit on her, and head-butt her as hard as they could. I was so perplexed. What could be done? How are such children to be worked on?

As the days went on in the house the Nanny began to see that the children behave this way because there are literally no rules in the house. There is no consistency with time-outs, there are no talks about behavior and accountability, and there is no real cohesive discipline methodology. As nanny tries to create some rules about time-out, buying these timers that manage the time outs so the children have some structure associated with this disciplinary action, she finds that the mother still continues to try to do time-outs without the timers and without the rules in place. The other thing that the Nanny realizes is that the children behave for their father because they are afraid of him. The oldest child confesses to Nanny that the dad sometimes brings a belt into their rooms and slaps the leather against itself. This is why they behave so well for him, and this is why they are angry and insane when dad is gone. At one point the dad takes the mom out into the front yard and won't let cameras follow, and basically rips her a new one about what a bad parent she is. She comes back in crying and Nanny eventually confronts dad about ruling his house with fear. He is very upset, but eventually agrees to back up mom's authority, and help his children fear him less by spending more time with them. Mom starts to follow the rules herself, causing her children to feel more inclined to do so as well. Pretty soon the structure and the rules that have been created allow the home to operate more harmoniously.

I felt so enlightened by this episode. I began to think about structure in my relationship with my boyfriend, and about my life in general. The default setting of the world is entropy. Scientifically things are always proceeding toward disorder. Does this mean we are doomed to a life of chaos? Of course we are not. We get to choose how we want our lives to go. Most of us borrow structure from our upbringing. We borrow the structure of "truth" which presents us with a set of rights and wrongs by which to govern our lives. We borrow the structure of our religious culture which teaches us how to treat others, and in mormonism that structure teaches us that service and selflessness are the apex of human life. We borrow structure from our social world. Some eco-social worlds have more structure in place than others. But what happens to someone like me when the "truth" that I believed so fiercely in is no longer the truth for me. The reasons for respecting and observing that structure are no longer so important to me, because I no longer believe in their absolute truth. Interestingly enough, I have seen many people walk away from the church and have their lives fall apart. Some members of the church might say, well of course. Wickedness never was happiness. He left the church and God punished him. I personally don't think its that simple.


Rules and structure are important on so many levels. So much of structure is imposed on us by government, religion, tradition, families, and other factors that have come into play in our lives. Growing up is difficult because you suddenly realize that 8:00 bedtime is not a law of the universe. You will not burst into flames if you say a swear word. As we grow up we have to either accept that disorder is a fact of life and do our best with the chaos that is real. OR we can choose to continue to make structures in which to reside in more orderly ways. No one is going to give me a bedtime. No one is going to force me to think of others before I think of myself. No one is going to make me treat my body in a respectful and compassionate way. If our only structure in life is based on the laws of the land, then I think we are missing out on some important growth opportunities. Like those kids on Nanny 911, I think we need structure. I think we need rules. Rules we create are flexible and subject to change. Because in making rules, in a way we are playing the role of God in our own life. We are saying this is allowed and this is not allowed. But we are not God. We are however gods of our own lives, and keepers of this great gift called a soul.

I particularly want to address this post to anyone who is in the process of questioning the church they were raised in. Accepting that the church you were raised in is not the only true church on the face of the earth can really throw for a loop the structure you have trusted and used as a safe environment in which to become productive. As you feel that foundation begin to quiver under your feet-- you may suddenly realize that the only person who was ever holding it in place was YOU. Does this mean that all of it was bad for you? I can't answer that for you. Does this mean it was all good for you? I can't answer that for you either. But what I can say is this- life without rules is chaos. Chaos is not a place where a person can safely thrive. That is my opinion. It is my belief that it is our obligation to look ourselves in the very soul and say: who am I? What do I need to grow, thrive, and fulfill my purpose in this life? Then it is our job to structure accordingly. No one else can make rules for you as effectively as you can make rules for yourself, but it takes courage and fortitude. Maybe it's not easy for me to deny myself "actor schedule." But I don't make the rules so they will be easy for me to follow. I make the rules with my own objective happiness in mind. We won't be perfect, even at our own rules. But we will be trying, and our sincere efforts will be sustained. That I know.

I'll cross the stream, I have a dream

I recently started a new job. I just joined a national tour production, and will be working out on the road for the whole summer. In spite of the fact that I have to be away from my man, I actually enjoy touring. I love being in a new city and getting a chance to explore my external and internal worlds anew. The other thing I LOVE about traveling for work is that it affords me the opportunity to run into people I have not seen in many years. The show has been in San Francisco for the last 2 weeks, which is where my boyfriend's family lives. So not only have I spent the last 2 weeks living in his family's house, I have done so with his wonderful little brother, who has been such a joy to get to know! In addition, I have met aunts, cousins, family friends and many others connected to him and his family. It's been AMAZING. Beyond that, I saw a friend from BYU who is also a gay mormon, but who transitioned out of the church pretty much at the same time that he came out. It was wonderful to catch up with him! Over the next few months I will be seeing a lot of family and friends-- I'm even spending 2 weeks in Salt Lake City which is one of my favorite places. But I am getting away from my main reason for writing this post.

One of the biggest surprises of this trip to San Francisco was that it happened to coincide with a trip that my mother and my beloved aunt were also taking to San Francisco. One of my cousins is moving from the area, so "the moms" are coming to help her, and they have been here all weekend. Now I am never one to ask or even tacitly expect people to see the shows I am in. I figure if people are interested they will come. I never feel offended if people aren't into it, because lets face it not everyone likes musicals! But my family has seen almost all of my shows, and they have often traveled specifically to do so. Well, because my show is going to salt lake near my aunt's house, and then dallas which is pretty close to where my mom lives, they were not planning to see the show this weekend. But they surprised me and decided to come last night-- very spontaneously. After the show, my mom was SO ENTHUSIASTIC! She always likes the shows I do, but this one she LOVED. She is never one to be overly "proud" of me because all pride is bad according to that ezra taft benson talk, so its almost like she can't really be that mom who is proud that her son is doing something that a lot of people would find interesting and impressive. But last night she seemed so thrilled and dare I say it.. proud! It felt really awesome.

This morning I woke up and realized that I had had a dream about my mom. In the dream we were on a beach and we were just together communicating about all that has passed between us (I'm sure anyone who has read this has read her letter to me that was written in January). In the dream, she just said-- we are going to put all this behind us now and just LOVE. I woke up feeling so healed from any enmity that has developed between us. I felt so full of happiness.

Tonight I had dinner with my mom, my aunt, my cousin, and my boyfriend's brother. It was so great. Everyone embraced the new brother and truly welcomed him. At one point I had a few moments alone with my mom and I told her about my dream. She said that maybe it was how proud and happy she had been about my show-- that maybe that had been cathartic for me on some level. We weren't able to go any further than that. I don't really have any huge realization or thesis to share. I just thought it was a meaningful day-- a meaningful step in our journey of love. Feeling that close to her again, even in the dream made me understand that I can still set intentions for my relationship with her that are that specific and that wonderful. I don't have to hold back. I can always go to that place in my mind and feel her love and acceptance, even if she is not 100% ready now to give it. Maybe she never will! That is the beauty of agency though. God doesn't take away her agency, but He also doesn't deprive me of the healing that I have sought. I'm so grateful that I was able to have that healing experience because it has empowered me to show more love to my mom, which I think is what God would have me do.

Indoctrination

With this raid of the Texas polygamist compound all over the news lately, and with the outcome of the 400+ children who were taken into child protective services's custody being largely determined today in court, I have felt my latent fascination with polygamy re-sprouting. About 3 years ago I read every book on polygamy I could get my hands on. I had just visited Nauvoo for the first time since I was a young teenager, and suddenly this concept and the controversy that accompanies it became objects of great interest to me. Because many of the Nauvoo historical sites were left to Emma Smith, or rather because she chose to remain in Nauvoo instead of following Brigham Young and the saints to the west, these sites are largely properties of the Community of Christ church- once the Reorganized LDS church. Interestingly enough, there were many books on polygamy in the visitors center there. I found this interesting because on my tour of these sites the elderly brother who took us through told me in no uncertain terms that he did not believe Joseph Smith was a polygamist. He said that their church held the firm belief that Brigham Young had started polygamy, and had unsuccessfully attempted to convince Joseph Smith to follow his example and officially introduce polygamy into church policy. Consequently, there were many books on the shelf in that visitors center which attempted to present testimony and facts that decry the myth of Joseph Smith being a polygamist. The Community of Christ has preserved the Joseph Smith line as the prophetic dynasty that is called to lead the true church. They follow the bible, the book of mormon and the other canonized scriptures that the LDS church uses. Of greater interest to me is that in the early 1990s women were given the priesthood in the Community of Christ. They are given it by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority the same way that the LDS are given the priesthood. They baptize, preach, administer ordinances, and even lead congregations. In fact, the line of Joseph Smith turned to a critical point in the early 90s when a male prophet could not be found. The person in line was a female, and so she became a prophet. Pretty progressive for a mormon, right? I had not heard this in all my life as a mormon, and I was duly impressed as a part-time feminist. I asked my mom about this and she looked on it with the appropriate degree of disdain. She believes women cannot rightfully hold priesthood of any kind, but she wasn't mad at them because like true LDS believers she must see the Community of Christ as just another vain attempt to access the true authority to save. The fact that they have Joseph and Emma at their root makes them no closer to truth. Because truth is all or nothing. Isn't it?

Of course the FLDS church has its own difficult story. Men choosing to believe that the LDS prophet Wilford Woodruff "sold out" in 1890 by receiving or claiming to receive a revelation about the end of polygamous practice-- or "the principle" as it was commonly referred to, broke off into many and various factions which have survived if not flourished since that day. Now I have read many books about polygamy. There are so many I have not read, but one interesting book I read while still at BYU was this book I found for a dollar at Savers called "More than One." It was all about how even though the current LDS church does not practice polygamy, and in many ways has tried to PR as much distance from the issue and their history as they can, this author shares that this is still very much a mormon principle, and shares letters and journal entries from many women who were involved in polygamy from the mid 1830s-1900. I found this book very moving as an LDS believer (which I very much was at the time). I found myself touched yet perplexed as to why the church would distance themselves from polygamy the way they have, while still allowing men to seal themselves to more than one woman in temple ceremonies in cases of death of a wife or even in cases of lawful divorces that do not go through the process of breaking the temple seal. I was especially confused and quite upset when in the July 2005 Ensign there was a beautiful article about the life of Bathsheba W. Smith, wife of George A. Smith. If you read the article from start to finish, it would appear that Bathsheba was an only wife of a prophet, much like a Marjorie Hinkley was in 2005. What the article omits, is that Bathsheba was very passionate about living "the principle", that she shared her husband with several other wives, and did so in great faith and diligence. In her journal entries, she talks about how firmly and plainly she believes and follows the practice of polygamy as a divine gift given to the world. The Ensign article pulled a lot of quotes from her journal and writings, but omitted anything regarding polygamy. They had to do some creative editing in order to accomplish this. So many of her entries talk about living the principle, even encouraging her husband to follow it to a greater degree! To me, it clearly was one of the vital tenets of her faith in the restored gospel. Yet here in this article which is meant represent the greatness of her life and her faith, no whisper of polygamy is present. If this principle is still important to our theology, why are we ashamed of it? Could it be that we are afraid of scaring off potential converts by embracing our past involvement in the practice, and also owning that we still believe that the principle is an important part of eternal salvation?

The problem with the situation in Texas is this: even though surely these are mostly wonderful mothers with the best intentions, the truth of the matter is that they have been indoctrinated to believe that it is holy and spiritually purposeful to marry of their young women as young as is desired by the men in power. The young girls have been taught that the greatest blessing of their lives is to bear these children, even as children themselves. They have no compass by which to decide that this is abuse of power, that this is abuse of children. Adolph Hitler, one of the most successful indoctrinators in modern history said that,

"The great masses of the people...
will more easily fall victims to
a big lie than to a small one."

Indoctrination is an interesting thing. As LDS people we too have been indoctrinated, but not nearly on this scale. However, we do believe that we must do and be certain things in order to be acceptable and worthy before God. We must perform certain acts willingly if we want to be saved. Even our thoughts and feelings have been infiltrated and are to an extent monitored. We have been taught to sometimes shun common sense and other "of the world" views to uphold what we have agreed to believe to be the "only true and living church on the face of the earth." We've covenanted before God and angels to uphold these teachings, and prior to 1990 we even made signs concerning physical punishments associated with failing to comply. Indoctrination and mind control is actually principle of most religions, at least the ones who are powerful and successful. And make no mistake, Mormonism is powerful. Mormonism is successful. So are many other faiths. What would happen if somehow a megalomaniac like Warren Jeffs were to become our prophet. We are not at such a risk to this because we are not subject to dynastic considerations when choosing leaders, but nevertheless: what would the prophet convince you to do? Would you, like a suicide bomber, go to eternal glory by blowing up an enemy to the church? Would you take a 14-year old wife? Would you send away your son because there are too many men for each follower in the community to have the requisite 3 wives needed to get to heaven? How far would your religious training and beliefs take you? Would you reject your child because they told you that they could not follow the religion you taught them? What are you willing to give up to follow what you have been taught and what you have chosen to believe?

The quote that I read which inspired me to write this post was spoken by Flora Jessop, a woman who escaped from a polygamist compound and now is an activist in saving other women. Having been taught that the polygamist world where she was raised and reared was a literal heaven on earth, she said after leaving that, "The pain got so bad in heaven that I was willing to damn myself to hell to escape it."

Flora Jessop now knows that she is not going to hell for leaving the FLDS community and refusing to follow its principles. I understand Flora's statement though. As I started making my way out of mormonism, I truly believed that I might be making a choice to go to the Telestial kingdom. I have heard many ex-mormons who have been out of the church for YEARS saying the same thing: they are going to the Telestial kingdom but they would rather that then have to live their lives in the church. To me that is powerful.

I would like to say that I, as a human being, was not flourishing in the LDS church. There were moments of true connectedness and wonderful experiences in the church, but overall I felt like my soul was being slowly stripped of any ability to FEEL. For years I tried to tell myself that it was my own wickedness and unworthiness that made me unable to fully connect to my life as a mormon. There was also enough about the church that I loved which allowed me to distract myself from the fact that I was losing my soul not saving it. I believe that now I have a fair attempt at life because I have left the indoctrinated world and choose to see the world with my own eyes, and feel through my own rescued soul.

Leaving the church is not actually the full answer though. Authorities in Texas know that just taking these women and children out of that environment is the very beginning of trying to give them a chance at life. Just getting out without further work can leave a person shattered and alone, with no foundation for finding meaning in the rest of his/her life. Many who are removed from polygamist communities find their way back into the safety of their childhood indoctrination, finding nothing but hopelessness and pain on the other side. The road out of indoctrination will be long and extremely difficult for anyone who endeavors to tread it uncertain pathways. But the bright shining truth of humanity is that a soul never dies. No matter how beaten down we feel, there is always a way to heal, improve, and fully live life. That is the great blessing of life, and also its great hope.

I was tagged!

MoHoHawaii just tagged me with a very fun game.. go here to read about it.

http://mohohawaii.blogspot.com/

1. Pick up the nearest book (at least 123 pages).
2. Turn to page 123.
3. Find the 5th sentence
4. Post the 5th sentence on your blog.
5. Tag 5 people.

Here is mine from Austen's Pride and Prejudice (I am a deeply rooted homo as you can see):

"A promise of secrecy was of course very dutifully given, but it could not be kept without difficulty; for the curiosity excited by his long absence burst forth in such very direct questions on his return, as required some ingenuity to evade, and he was at the same time exercising great self-denial, for he was longing to publish his prosperous love."

Fun. You too can be gay... do you know who the passage is referring to??
I wish I knew who to tag... OK Ill tag Parallel, Elbow, Abelard, Chris, and Vanson.
(Im not even sure they will see this lol but I want to fully comply with the game!!)
Thanks for including me MoHo. xoxo