NOM

I am so sorry you have been stressed to the max, but so happy your Bishop was able to give you the ticket to go. It's a fine line to walk and I hope that somehow the tension can ease for you soon.

Congrats!

May I suggest a victory dance called the Hosanna Macerana Shout? You'll need a white handkerchief to wave around while the congregation stands and in unison shouts the words "Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to God and the Lamb. Amen, Amen, and Amen," repeating them three times. This is usually accompanied by the rhythmic waving of white handkerchiefs with uplifted hands. Then transition straight into the Macarena while everyone else sits down in reverence!! Hey...Macarena!!

I'm glad it went well for you, Enough, and you were granted a green card (as in not one of us but allowed to be in our presence). Too bad temple dedications are usually the driest, most boring meetings in all of Mormondom. The lackluster "shout" delivered by a bunch of people who seem embarrassed to doing it doesn't help much. Maybe if they jazzed it up a little by letting you bring polka-dot or paisley handkerchiefs!

Enough wrote: ↑Fri May 26, 2017 10:21 amI am finally ready to concede that I can't win this fight. Can any of us win, against heritage, tradition, DEEP family ties, not to mention a billion-dollar corporation? Can we? I used to think I could. Maybe not WIN-- but at least survive with my dignity intact.

I'm realizing that one of the church's most powerful tools against free thought is the strategic deployment of disappointment. If I can't buy into the whole idea that we don't have the ancient book because an angel took it back, or that platitudes count as prophesying, seeing and revelating, so many people will be so disappointed with me. That doesn't seem like such a big deal, but it really is. We were raised in a culture where our biggest fear is that we will disappoint people. BUT, I'm not seeing so much of that in my kids' generation. They have more of a screw-you-deal-with-it attitude when they don't do what's expected of them. Maybe we need to learn from them.

I guess what I'm saying is that it is absolutely impossible to maintain our dignity as seen through the eyes of heavily indoctrinated people because we can't control the color of the glasses they're looking through. We can only "win" in our own eyes and according to our own rules. Maybe moving forward is about learning not to care about how others see us. I have this image in my head of a bunch of people in a room pounding their heads against the wall and one guy suddenly saying, "man this sucks, I think I'll go do something less painful," even though he knows the others all will consider him a quitter.

Hagoth wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2017 4:55 pmI have this image in my head of a bunch of people in a room pounding their heads against the wall and one guy suddenly saying, "man this sucks, I think I'll go do something less painful," even though he knows the others all will consider him a quitter.

Oh man! This is the perfect analogy for LDS Corporation meetings. I've gotta try and remember it...

And congrats Enough, on winning this iteration of the game of Chicken (Which is also a perfect analogy.) Enjoy the Hosanna Mumble/Macarena!

Red Ryder wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2017 3:23 pm May I suggest a victory dance called the Hosanna Macerana Shout? ... Hey...Macarena!!

I can only imagine this scene.

Hagoth wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2017 4:55 pm I'm glad it went well for you, Enough, and you were granted a green card (as in not one of us but allowed to be in our presence).

This.