As promised though a bit late here's my experience at "Our Visions, Our Voices: A Mormon Women's Literary Tour....
When I walked in to the small foyer area there were a few people milling about (mostly women)I recognized Joanna immediately but much to my surprise SHE recognized me! I asked how she knew it was me as she hugged me and it was, of course my "Yes We Can!" Obama shirt I bought in Oahu last year which, incidentally, was the last place I wore that shirt with no reservations that I was going to be attacked somehow. Safety was pervasive in this group of ladies and so was acceptance. I had come alone but a lady from my ward was there (more, I think, for Danielle Dubrasky who is assistant professor of creative writing at SUU)and it wasn't a large crowd but definitely and appreciative one.
The first thing we did is went through each person in the audience and say "My grandmother's name was ..." As I waited my turn I went back and forth on which grandmother's name I should say but because this was about the strength of women and with the part about Mormonism, I chose my maternal grandmother's name. When we were done, Joanna said that each of us had written a poem. It's a poem that I'm very proud of and recognize it's a very profound one. I thought about that and that it wasn't true. I HAD spoken the words but God, my ancestors, and my grandmother had my them profound. One of the audience members that gave his grandmother's name caught my attention because the names weren't common and his accent familiar. I have written since I was a little girl and I've been published, yet this group of women made me inferior, intellectually. I turned around to see who had given this exotic name and it was my English professor from college. I've talked about my some of my experiences of Upward Bound in past blog entries, so I won't prolong this with that. My "Bridge year" of UB (which is after I graduated from High School and before I applied to college as a freshman. My SAT score was so high, particularly in English qualified to CLEP English 101 and skip right to the last and only class I needed to be done. It was a summer class so it lasted 2 hours and my fellow classmates were either in their junior or senior year and I wasn't even a freshman. (I also had a chem class that was 2 hours NOT including lab days). I nearly broke down and begged the UB director to let me drop the class. I was no match for my classmates (at least that's what I believed). He made me stick it out. My professor was from India. His accent was SOOO thick and it seemed WAY ironic to be taking English from a man who's English I barely understood. On the day of our final exam he asked us to bow our heads and he proceeded to say a prayer in Hindi. We all glanced around at each other in bemusement but, hey, I'll take all the help I can get and I pulled a pretty decent grade (B+). So it was pretty cool to see him there too.
I had read a little bit about the women scheduled to speak and so I knew what I was in for, for the most part and they were all amazing in their individual ways. Joanna was, of course, the one I was most familiar with because of her writings on HuffPo and her blog. She had some really fun stories with which I identified having had similar experiences in life. The fun part of all of this was that they spoke of things I've thought of have never been sure we can speak these things aloud because there's no telling what is a smite-able offense. Mostly it was a relief to here her tell me that she agreed that Glenn Beck is NOT an example of our faith that we want to be judged by.
Zoe Murdock spoke of her father's spiral into polygamy, which reminded me of a friend of my mom that studied the scriptures to a degree of fanaticism that lead to apostasy. For Zoe it turned her family upside down and led to the early demise of her mother. She read a portion of her book Torn By God to us and it was riveting. It also spoke to the dangers of venturing into places that make a seemingly rational person begin to think that they can learn enough to second guess God. I think I saw a stack of her books that I assume were for sale and am kicking myself that I didn't buy a copy there but I intend to send for it through her website: http://zoemurdock.wordpress.com/
Susan Scott came from Ontario Canada to be a part of this tour. She is a member of the Community of Christ aka the RLDS which was the first offshoot of the original LDS church. Their beliefs are not so different but in those early years there were some differences and our faiths are very compatible and coexist very peacefully. I loved Susan and her stories. I wanted to kidnap her so my Sunday School class could meet her.
Lisa Van Orman was so fun. I loved the story about Marcus. It was humorous but touching and remarkable. I can't imagine the gift that Lisa is in Marcus's life and I'm sure that is why she shared that story with us. Marcus is a gift too Lisa as well. I actually found her story of Marcus online. How cool is that??
Listen to the audio of Sex Candles.
Every woman on this tour was amazing and I've only touched on a few of them. To read more about each of them, follow the link I gave at the beginning. I am so happy to have had the chance to attend this and I hope it becomes an annual tour. I'll certainly always be there. After it was over the ladies invited me to dinner with them. I could feel the set back with my headache on it's way, but even so I probably should have accepted their invite. It was truly an amazing experience and reinforced my belief that agree or disagree, everyone I meet teaches me something new. This has been my favorite lesson for a very long time!! I will be keeping in touch.
I'm struggling with the headache. I've thrown up so much there's blisters on the back of my throat. I probably could have blogged this better had I waited but I went ahead while it was still fresh in my mind. I'll likely be adding along the line as I intend to keep in touch with as many as I can.
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