Sunday in Outer Blogness: Choices Edition!!

This past week we congratulated 2012’s Brodie Award Winners! Most recipients were pleased, but… well, let’s just say I hope we won’t have to call on the Mormon Alumni Association Legal Defense Fund… 😉

I think one of the wisest pieces I read this past week was mostly a quote from Elizabeth Gilbert on knowing yourself, with some added thoughts from Renn:

After my marriage ended, in my next relationship I had a surprise pregnancy. It ended in a miscarriage but I remember feeling so relieved just to know that I could conceive. Even though I no longer believed in The Plan, I hadn’t shaken the societal expectations. That pregnancy allowed me to let go of the nagging thought that I was flawed as a woman. Ugh. That makes me sick to read that last sentence. But it is how I felt and I know so many women feel this same pressure.

Motherhood and marriage can be great but they are not the only roads to travel and not superior to other paths. They’re simply different options and it’s time to let go of the pressure and assumptions.

Also interesting: women’s separate-but-equal roles and an unrighteous wish not to have married in the temple,

John Dehlin’s newly reconstructed faith has sparked a new round of insightful discussion about whether New Order Mormonism is dead and whether it’s possible to justify LDS church activity without dissing the exmos. John, I love your work, but I give you at most one more leave-and-come-back before people stop caring. Meanwhile exit stories continue apace.

And while I love to highlight life journeys, why not a non-metaphorical journey? Tired Road Warrior has been documenting his latest trip through Africa! Not to be confused with the Africa of the Book of Mormon, which is real in its own way:

But much of the texture of missionary life felt realistic to me. The emotional and spiritual bond between missionary companions is powerful and life-changing — at least my relationships with my companions were. There are missionaries obsessed with personal glory, as well as missionaries whose humility and desire to do what’s right outweigh their desire for adulation. The mission field is rife with missionaries who get burned out and discouraged and who give up, as well as missionaries whose faith spurs them to remarkable acts of sacrifice and courage. And Mormon missionaries do enter the mission field notoriously naive about the culture of the people they are sent there to convert, but they also usually learn to deeply love the people, and are often both challenged and transformed by that love. Oh, and, for what it’s worth, the play taps realistically into the “gay Mormon moment” by including a Mormon missionary character who is gay, and who deals with it by just “turning it off.”

Another popular discussion topic was the church’s amicus brief in the Prop 8 case. Also noted: the loyal opposition in the US offering serious criticism, popular reasons to believe, the coffee shop you want to try, dealing with a spouse’s faith change, and new technologies for dealing with crazy sh*t you hear in primary!!

As for my closing personal note? I’ve had a fairly productive week, and I hope you have too! Happy reading!!