Mayan Elephant wrote:that funeral was so sad. so damn sad.
i didn't see a single person cry. maybe there were some that did. but it was soulless. i did not recognize the person they were talking about. and the 30 minute talk about the plan of salvation was not necessary, especially the part where the speaker placed his hand (the spirit) into a glove (the body) to explain phase 2 of the plan of salvation.
my good friend wrote:Your 'plan' doesn't defeat death, Mormons. It erases life
No one cried? How weird.
What did you mean that you didn't recognize the person they were talking about? I'm just curious. What was said that was so different from the person you knew? Did his loved ones have anything to say? There is usually a private gathering beforehand where family meets and more memories can be shared. I hope that something like this happened.
It sounds like you were a good friend to him. I'm sorry for your loss.
So you're chasing around a fly and in your world, I'm the idiot?
"Friends don't let friends be Mormon." Sock Puppet, MDB.
Music is my drug of choice.
"And that is precisely why none of us apologize for holding it to the celestial standard it pretends that it possesses." Kerry, MDB _________________
beastie wrote:Does anyone else think the man in the OP video looked miserable? He's been married a year and is clearly already overwhelmed by the consequences. In regards to marital issues, he says, more or less, well, any problem we have is minor compared to the SSA.
Speaking from sad experience, the devastation on a woman's self-image from being married to a gay man is devastating. Neither of them really understood what they were signing up for.
I have a family member and a very dear old friend that married gay men who were hiding from their sexuality in heterosexual marriage. Both of these women were hurt and still hurt over this even though they've both gotten divorced (one is remarried) and the kids have had an exceptionally hard time with the whole thing.
Mayan Elephant wrote:that funeral was so sad. so damn sad.
i didn't see a single person cry. maybe there were some that did. but it was soulless. i did not recognize the person they were talking about. and the 30 minute talk about the plan of salvation was not necessary, especially the part where the speaker placed his hand (the spirit) into a glove (the body) to explain phase 2 of the plan of salvation.
my good friend wrote:Your 'plan' doesn't defeat death, Mormons. It erases life
Dear god that sounds terrible. I'm so sorry.
From the Ernest L. Wilkinson Diaries: "ELW dreams he's spattered w/ grease. Hundreds steal his greasy pants."
Mayan Elephant wrote:that funeral was so sad. so damn sad.
i didn't see a single person cry. maybe there were some that did. but it was soulless. i did not recognize the person they were talking about. and the 30 minute talk about the plan of salvation was not necessary, especially the part where the speaker placed his hand (the spirit) into a glove (the body) to explain phase 2 of the plan of salvation.
my good friend wrote:Your 'plan' doesn't defeat death, Mormons. It erases life
I wasn't at the funeral, but reading the obituary and the program for the funeral made me wonder if this was the same man I knew. It was as if they had decided to ignore who he really was and instead present a sort of stock Mormon figure, with all the boxes checked. Made me very sad. It's probably a good thing I wasn't there at the funeral. Sigh.
Mayan Elephant wrote:that funeral was so sad. so damn sad.
i didn't see a single person cry. maybe there were some that did. but it was soulless. i did not recognize the person they were talking about. and the 30 minute talk about the plan of salvation was not necessary, especially the part where the speaker placed his hand (the spirit) into a glove (the body) to explain phase 2 of the plan of salvation.
my good friend wrote:Your 'plan' doesn't defeat death, Mormons. It erases life
Good god that sounds atrocious and heartbreaking. I never want this to happen to me.
When I die there will be no accolades. No press release. Few will notice. But if my wife says I loved her fiercely, and my children remember me favorably as a good father that allowed them, unencumbered to learn about and experience life, then I will have success. My life will not be erased. I live for now, not some future unknowable after life. I am sad for those whose focus is not on now, but on some vague promises of a better here after.
It is better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener at war.
Some of us, on the other hand, actually prefer a religion that includes some type of correlation with reality. ~Bill Hamblin
In order to have relationships and generally function in society, we all have to make concessions. Everything can't be as we would prefer it; we can't always behave the way we would like. However, there is a huge difference between restrictions we impose on behavior in order to operate in society and a cultural system that asks of us to impose those restrictions on our inner being/our thinking self. We may choose to deny ourselves the pleasure of something as a means of preserving our place among friends, family and our community, but we shouldn't be coerced into trying to convince ourselves that we don't desire it and make outward declarations to that end.
"I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. ... Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I." - Joseph Smith, 1844
When I die there will be no accolades. No press release. Few will notice. But if my wife says I loved her fiercely, and my children remember me favorably as a good father that allowed them, unencumbered to learn about and experience life, then I will have success. My life will not be erased. I live for now, not some future unknowable after life. I am sad for those whose focus is not on now, but on some vague promises of a better here after.
Amen.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
Mayan Elephant wrote:Many thanks and many kindness to the ----- family. I especially enjoyed the photo stream at the funeral and viewing. His children were beautiful and brave. Their comments were the highlight of the funeral. I will miss Jordan and I have a special place in my heart for him, his aspirations, the metaphors he wrote about his life, and the luttes of his heart and soul. My conversations and time with him were profound. I wish I could have done more for and with him. I wish he could have done more.
At the funeral, ----- spoke of an outward enthusiasm that Jordan had in life. He mentioned the silly jokes many times. He also mentioned the infectious nature of this enthusiasm in the context of his zeal and ambition as a missionary. My experience with Jordan was one that matched that description.
Jordan’s overwhelming characteristic, were you to meet him, was his goodness. His overwhelming characteristic were you to know him, was that he loved his family at the core. His overwhelming characteristic if you were to listen to him out at night with friends or talking during a drive across Texas, was that he judged himself very harshly.
Jordan has taught me. Like him and most of us, I have kids. I hope their notes about me, if written by them as adults, will sound exactly like the notes read at the funeral by their uncle. I hope they are simple and represent an authentic part of my life, just like those notes represented that authentic part of Jordan. Be peaceful, Jordan. We loved all of you, goofy jokes and all.
so there was some beauty in the service. i suppose i owe it to share some of the optimism. i am still raging a bit too.
this was avoidable. these tragedies do not need to happen. i am not just talking about people experiencing the calamities of living on the planet with fast cars, cancer and billions of people. the avoidable tragedies are the ones that happened over the course of Jordan's adult life and in his brutal internalized judgments and conflicts.
"Rocks don't speak for themselves" is an unfortunate phrase to use in defense of a book produced by a rock actually 'speaking' for itself... (I have a Question, 5.15.15)
This is a cultural "problem" with Mormon funerals. The celebration of an individual's life and the grief of family and friends is subsumed in a ritual opportunity for another Mormon ad.
It is better to be a warrior in a garden, than a gardener at war.
Some of us, on the other hand, actually prefer a religion that includes some type of correlation with reality. ~Bill Hamblin