StandingWater Creations

Well, after Erin went and spent time with one of her ex-mission companions she (and said companion) went to Wal-Mart – or the dictator of evil, before Erin dropped her off at the family she is staying with (the companion was flying home to Denmark today and wanted some candy to take to her friends in Denmark) where she (Erin) picked up the tools I need to finish fixing the brand new elliptical trainer we’d just gotten.

After I had it back together I had to take it apart again to adjust the belt that connects the major wheel to the resistance wheel. That was fun. Tiring. However, the elliptical trainer was fixed, adjusted, and working.

So much so that I got up this morning and worked out on it.

That was the good news.

The bad news is twofold: first, my head scrapes the ceiling as our ceilings are not designed for an elliptical trainer with someone of my height; and second, after ten minutes I felt like I’d run several miles.

Granted, I’d not been on one of these things in a while, and with winter (and lots of snow) I haven’t been getting out and doing things for a while. Which all equals me being lazy and not able to maintain a pace for 30 minutes. That will come – oh yes it will.

Anyway, that caused me to jump into the shower and then dress and then go to school. School this semester is proving to be interesting and confusing all at the same time. That was true a couple of semesters ago, Winter 2007… but I am not really sure what is causing this… ambivalence. Well, not ambivalence. I was preoccupied with other things that semester and to say I am not occupied in many different areas would be a lie; however, I am pretty dedicated to school and class and stuff and the result is that I am interested in discovering what happens.

With all that said, I do have some catch-up reading to do. I’ve decided that one of the approaches to Spanish is going to be memorizing aspects of the lessons. There are dialogues that (in our only verbal test with the teacher) will come back and haunt me. Plus, going back to what he said the other week, learning phrases and memorizing them will eventually turn into my understanding what I am saying and how it fits together.

Who knows? This class is, at times, both confusing and exciting to me. And frustrating too.

Anyway, in New Testament today the professor started talking about the different aspects of a person’s life. I am sure I should pull back from talking about this for personal reasons, but… I am plowing ahead anyway.

There are three aspects, he called them spheres.

First sphere: Public. This is what you show the rest of the world. For members of the LDS faith, wearing a CTR ring as a means of showing that you are a good member of the church is one aspect of the public sphere.

Second sphere: Private. Professor defined this as family. This is what you do within the confines of your home and that are reserved for the people closest to you.

Third sphere: Personal. This is your thoughts and actions that can be hidden from everyone, to include family.

The objective of early Christianity, theoretically, was to combine all of these areas of life so that they overlapped as much as possible. That way, when you are out among people, they get to see you as you are in public the same as you are in private and personally. Essentially, you become a coherent individual in all aspects of your life rather than divided into different areas.

What he said (and this is what caught my attention) was that people have a tendency to be so divided that these are the ones who feel they are pious while at church because they pay tithes and offerings, and yet they are backstabbing cheating individuals in their professional and work lives.

This is very interesting to me: the division of individual lives from public to private to personal. Consider that you can be three entirely different people. Someone who is addicted to porn in the personal category and a bishop in the public category. Or someone who is a used car salesman selling cars he knows will break down in one category and then going to church and declaring that we should treat everyone equally and fairly in another category.

What all of this had to do with, in the world of the New Testament, was a possible conflict between Jews who had become more Greek than Jewish, going so far as to speak Greek and not Aramaic or Hebrew and who wore Greek clothing and lived the Greek lifestyle. In the early Christian era, you were literally converting to Judaism rather than Christianity. Christianity took separation from Judaism and the conversion of Gentiles and (further) leaving Jerusalem (e.g. the Temple) for the religion to really take off.

However, consider the notion that within the state of Utah being LDS is very different than, say, anywhere else. We consider the epitome of LDS living to be what is viewable within this state; and yet, can you legitimately tell someone in any other state or nation that they are not equally pious because the do not live in Utah?

My answer to this is, “No.” That is silly. Though, with the, “No,” answer I can also see lots of people that think Utah is Nirvana for members of the LDS faith. I can see that people here think they live better lives than those who are from other places. And I can see that the stereotypical Utah Mormon is the one we all complain about.

On the flipside of that are those who are LDS and come from outside. You know, the places where being a member of the church puts you in a clear minority in this country. The places where early morning seminary doesn’t exist and rivalries between the University of Utah and BYU don’t exist. The places where what happens in Utah doesn’t even cross most people’s radars because, face it, it’s Utah.

We complain (as a nation) that New York feels they are the center of the universe and what happens in New York does (and should) affect the rest of the country slash world. We mourn the loss of lives on 9/11, and rightfully so; but that attack was symbolic because our news agencies, our financial institutions, our publishing houses, our art, and our clothing comes out of New York. Even though the population of New York is less than 1% of the total population of the U.S. we give that city more credit than it should be due.

More, when you go into the Washington D.C. beltway, what happens within that beltway is far more important than what happens outside of the beltway. You lose sight of the world around you because the movers and shakers in Washington D.C. make you believe that what is happening right there (no matter what it is) is far more important than what is happening anywhere else.

I grew up in Texas. Being from Texas (a good thing) is better than living in Texas. However, while you are in or from Texas you have a tendency to compare everything against that state and the values and culture of the state. The phrase, “Everything is bigger in Texas,” is appropriate when you consider that anything that happens or takes place outside of the state doesn’t matter.

It’s not a bad thing to be centered on where you live and what is happening. To some members of the LDS faith, the 2002 Olympics was a fulfillment of prophecy and the world came to the “Top of the Mountains.” Adjust your region-centric attitude a bit and apply “temple” to “top of the mountains” and this could also mean that building LDS Temples all over the world is a better (or more appropriate) interpretation of this prophecy. And yet, when you are in Utah all you care about, all you hear about, is what is important that will make this state more important or more special than anywhere else.

Being LDS in Utah, then, doesn’t negate a person’s innate personality or whatever… it just masks it behind the notion that you are LDS and you are in Utah and you are meant to look as though you are pious – though you don’t necessarily need to be pious. Wearing a CTR ring shows you are LDS. Wearing a CTR ring and sleeping around shows you are LDS but one who chooses not to live the religion.

Recently, we heard a family speak about one of their daughters. I don’t know the family, I have no idea who the daughter is. However, that family prayed they would be able to get their daughter off of some criminal charges and keep her out of jail. In their opinion, going to jail would’ve destroyed this girls life.

That is what it means to be LDS and to use the public sphere. People can’t know that your son or daughter spent time in prison. If the son or daughter did, then they will never have any opportunities to succeed in this life. Repentance is the reconciliaton and restitution of some negative act. Sometimes, in order to obtain true repentance, you have to go to jail.

Conversely, we forget that the religion not only teaches that we should have mercy, but also that mercy cannot rob justice. We require both and forget that you have to consider both when considering how to deal with an individual or situation. I think that we (both those from Utah and those from outside of Utah) forget that when we are dealing with the other we have to realize what is happening, and be willing to work with the person (or people) to better ourselves.

Yes, we will always come across bad examples of any religion. The larger or more concentrated the religion, the more bad examples there will be. The outcome, though, going back to the three spheres of influence, is that all of our actions, individually, as communities, as states, and etc. is to make sure that what people who are complete strangers see is the same person we want to be when there is no one else around.

I think that’s enough ranting.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

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