The turn of the decade has inspired quite a lot of introspection, retrospection, and prospection throughout Outer Blogness!! Plus, many of us went home for the holidays — and lived to post the tale! Let’s start with how we all fared visiting the folks:
How about a family discussion of Proposition 8 to keep things harmonious? Marcus and Hypatia certainly faced some challenges as new apostates visiting the Mormon family. BYU Agnostic came out to the family, and, well, it could have gone better. (Mister Curie also came out — at least on the Internet.) Susan has decided to drop the f-bomb for her dad. Emily and her family received a wonderful surprise whereas Randy was surprised to have had a Christmas that worked. Sean’s experience was mostly good, but it led him to an observation that I think many of us can relate to:
I got to practice my vacant, noncommittal mmmhmmm smile a lot. But I tried not to let that bother me. After all, their religion is an enormous part of their livesits hard to make non-Mormons understand exactly how muchand it would probably be impossible for them to avoid the subject entirely. I just wish they were more open to talking about things that are an enormous part of my life, such as atheism, or me being gay, or drunk karaoke.
And here’s what my own LDS sister had to say about our family holiday (also covered here and here):
We each have our own different religious beliefs, but we all value each other and time together. This is a perfect way to celebrate family.
New Year’s Day is a time for reflection. For example, in rethinking our beliefs, both G and Leah contemplate how we identify which parts of the scriptures we’re willing to believe (and which parts we dismiss). And, as a new de-convert, Leah is reflecting on what might have been. For Aerin, 2009 has been a year of questioning assumptions.
A lot of us posted their plans, new directions, and goals for the coming year. If you’re planning to give more to charity, Jonathan suggests that you consider the Foundation Beyond Belief. Sterkwork’s theme for 2010 is invigorate. The Urban Coda is thinking about the labels he’s worn and the directions he’d like to go. That’s kind of where I’m at, trying to set off in the right direction this time, as I start over on my Swiss adventure! And Therese plans to write the Great American (Ex)Mormon Novel!
Then — with all of the year-end retrospectives and memes — it’s a great time to get to know everyone better!
2009 was the best year of Atom’s life because of the birth of his son. Curmudgen is celebrating the completion of his first year of blogging. Kuri and Lilly list the books they’ve read this past year, Daniel gives his picks for the best music of 2009, and greenishblue lists the best albums of the past decade. Michelle compares where she was a decade ago with where she is now — quite a difference! In a similar vein, Pixelfish digs up some old memories from Rick’s college.
In year-end reviews, Jana, Sean, and Journeygal give us the 2009 meme, and Jack and Journeygal share general retrospectives of the past year, while Pixelfish reviews what she’s been doing for the whole past decade! And Blue in Red Zion and Sean give us highlights of their blog posts from the past year.
Happy 2010, everyone!!! Here’s looking forward to living all these plans!
I’ve just realized why I enjoy this weekly installment as much as I do … it’s about as close to the Review as one could expect to find after twenty years. And note to self: make sure SiOB gets tweeted and posted at http://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/ just as regularly. Good grief, the links were especially impressive this week. One link I would’ve liked to have seen:
Vote for Mormon of the Year at:
http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2010/01/vote-for-mormon-of-the-year/
I’ll leave it to others to make sense of the ALLCAPS fine print over at the T&S post that includes the poll:
Ah, well, in any case, I’ve already cast my vote for Reed Cowan and would like to invite others to join me … Otherwise, thanks for the memories, MSP. “Does/did anyone enjoy attending their meetings?” Not touching that one … but have enjoyed the lurking. 🙂
Thanks Chino!
Of course I should have included the “Mormon of the Year” vote! I’ve been on the road (reading blogs on different computers) so it was a little more difficult than usual for me to keep track of all the links.
I also wanted to highlight my brother’s hilarious Noah’s-Ark-Lesson post, but it didn’t fit the year end theme…
Well, as it turns out, I’d just read your brother’s post, noted the Hindenburg graphic, and happened to pop over to read this shortly after:
2000s: The First Decade Mormon Church influence soars
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705355618/LDS-Church-influence-soars.html
Fans of Stephen Colbert might remember his 2006 speech at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner (jump in around 4:26 for the Hindenburg reference):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOYZF3It848
Soaring!
Haha! That’s great!
My husband’s (Mister Curie’s) decision to out himself on my blog was a difficult one, since we have friends who read it, as do his brothers. So, in a sense he has come out to family. We haven’t heard anything yet, though, so I think they don’t know how to approach it. He told me he thinks his mom won’t be surprised, however, so that will be a plus.
He has also sort of co-opted my blog, since he has about 100 posts in queue to publish. Guess he opened his mental and emotional floodgates when he decided to come out. I may need to start doing some of my own religious posts on here, just so I have a place to write!
Thanks for doing these Weeks in Review, Chanson. Greatly appreciated.
Wow, that’s cool that your husband has written so much, and it’s great that you both are in this together.
And, naturally, we’d be happy to see more posts from you here! 😉
Also, the current installment of the Carnival of the Godless is over at my blog.
Just a heads up, but there is an interesting video on Utah’s state liquor laws, and the impact of the LDS church on those laws, at CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2010/01/03/sotu.alcohol.in.mormon.cnn
Thought you all might be interested!!
Thanks for the link to my blog post on coming out. I don’t really have 100 blog posts already written – but I do have a lengthy list of ideas I’m thinking of exploring on Madam Curie’s blog.
Thanks for the shoutout! Although my actual resolution was a wee bit more modest … 🙂