That we may have joy

[I Have Questions]

I don’t know many members that find Mormonism “joyful”. It’s many things, but a “joyful” experience is something that escapes most people. Even Peterson declares that Mormon meetings are dull, and anything but joyful.

[yellowstone123]

I have wondered from time to time about how to relate to pieces of LDS teaching which might have special value. I remember when the LDS idea of Adam falling that we might be was a very good idea. I thought of how some versions of Christian belief use the fall as showing how we are fundamentally corrupt. This can undermine human confidence so people can be controlled by authority figures who always know best. Horrors, we need the confidence to learn, grow, accomplish things, and find the ability to understand and care about people. Mormonism has an effort to open the door out of the self-doubt and self-dislike which breed abusive authority.

One could wonder if LDS culture has lost much of this. It sounds like controlling authority has increased and fear of guilt has increased.

I can remember after leaving the church thinking the LDS view of the fall might miss some of the seriousness of human limitation injury. The fall story has ambiguity and people have projected different views upon it. People have wondered why gaining knowledge is so negative as to warrant death (or those absurd ideas of changing the whole world first introducing death). I have wondered if a special kind of knowledge is in view, knowing how to hurt others for self gain. I find that closer to some sense but a bit artificial.

I am, in my mind, considering a bigger step. I think the story is perhaps better understood as a whole not sequential parts. Parts create the image. The whole is when we live in real time the possibilities of good and evil become part of experience. Yes, the story sees the human problem of evil, but that is not all. We live in real possibilities for good.

I kept reading this post, and my thoughts went to a book called The Discovery of Joy by Richard Eyre that I read over four decades ago. I thought I remembered the book pretty well: there are three levels of joy. The first level was to appreciate this earth, your body, and your agency; the second level was relationships and achievements; and the third was a relationship with God.

When I checked to make sure I had the author’s name right, I found out there were actually four levels of joy. I got the first two right, but the third involves mental and spiritual insights, and the last has to do with the Holy Spirit, and per Grok, it is:

Vehicle of Joy: physical and temporal.
The Enhancers of Joy: relationships and achievements.
The Expander of Joy: mental and spiritual insight.
The Sealer of Joy: spiritual fulfillment, which is the highest level.

I really liked this book, but my friend at work in the '80s—an old Mormon—looked at it, smiled, and called it something like “white sugar”: a temporary boost of something, but not very lasting. And our old friend Pocatello used to pop up every season whenever I would mention Richard Eyre’s name with his unique, kind insight.

If one embraces impermanence, then everything really has a season—joy, pain, and even life. I think those who embrace it tend not to waste any time on what they call foolish things, since they believe nothing lasts. There is, let us say, data over religious dogma that supports this. if some people believe there are those who can make things permanent, then to them that person holds a tremendous amount of power. In a way, you may be giving up the little agency you do have to those you think have something to make things permanent.

Those are my thoughts, and I still liked the book.