But today, I long for a day of thoughtful and careful prose.
A day where people hesitate before they immortalize themselves and question anything written with didactic intentions.
I long for a day when people valued seeing things from different perspectives, rather than criminalizing people who dared to see both sides.
The other day, my 81 year old LDS grandmother gave me a box of books. I took all of her Neil A. Maxwell gems, as well as everything she had of Carol Lynn Pearson. She smiled as she saw my choices.
Today I finished reading this book.
Growing up in a world of subtle agendas, I looked for hers.
Of course, she had one. We all have an objective.
But more than anything, the book read with a need to simply state her truth--whether the truth of her experiences led me away or towards something. With that kind of writing, you will find what you're looking for, no matter what that might be.
You will discover that this book supports your agenda. And it does. There are parts of the book that bemoan the patriarchal prejudice in the LDS Church, and parts of the book that gravely question the choices of her homosexual husband.
It is published in 1986.
I finished the book with tears at what we've lost, believing everything and nothing. Questioning everything and nothing.
There are too many favorite passages, but this passage, describing her church congregation's compassionate response to her husband's illness from AIDS in the early 80s touched me the most.
I long for a dialogue with someone unafraid of revealing the weaknesses of their stand while upholding the power of their convictions. The world will not end if we see both sides my friends.
Today, I am grateful for perspectives. Plural.
(And you are grateful for my brevity, because I could write about this book for DAYS.)
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