Sorry I was putting the blog up late yesterday. I was so busy reading I didnt check it went up OK.
Im still WAY excited about the trip!!!! (even if Im still feeling bad.) Im starting on the cover up swim clothes straight away! I got some stretch fabric to make them already and its cut out, so I just need to be sewing now. Mines pink and Pratts is black. Their gonna be like those wet suits things, but there not rubber. There down to the wrists and ankles and up round the neck, so theyll cover real good. Their kinda tight so I can be wearing a loose dress over and Pratt can wear long shorts and a shirt. I think theyll look great! And there modest to!
I just KNOW its gonna be a specail trip for Pratt and me. Its WAY romantic how Pratts always looking out for me! I got his valentine card finished, but Ill keep it for Sunday when we're back.
I think I better make some food to take up to. That way we can take it up to the cabin. Prattll like it cus itll save some money. I might make my garlic tuna casserole, or my fish sanwhiches with onions. I better ask Pratt which he likes best.
What Ill do about the questions is try and answer them this afternoon and put up the answers for tomorrow and maybe Sunday, when Im away, cus we dont get internet at the cabin, and Im thinking there wont be time to be writing then anyways, cus Ill need all my time for Pratt.
Dont miss me to much!
Blessings!
HoneyDawn
8 comments:
Honey Dawn,
I am going to break out of "character" here - and say that your creator has made it very easy to see how someone can become a queen wife: pander to Pratt's ego and then play helpless gets you what you want and then can also "not see" what you are doing and get your feelings hurt when you are called on it.... This is excellent writing and I really am beginning to dislike Honey Dawn....
hhg
It must have been extremely difficult to live with a manipulative individual like Honey Dawn.
Honey Dawn,
I was surprised to read that Harmonee had a college degree. Why do you think she chose to lead the life of a housewife in a polygamous marriage?
Hi Mavis, since HoneyDawn is on her romantic getaway I think I'll give my opinion on why someone with a college degree would try polygyny. As an ex polygnist who also had a college degree, it was a matter of faith. I was raised LDS Mormon and for me becoming Fundamentalist Mormon was a logical step into a religious viewpoint that was consistent with Mormonism's early teachings. That did not make it easy for me. It was an agonising step - a step taken in the belief that I was pleasing God, and that making such a sacrifice would bring immense blessings. Experience and further study brought me to a different conclusion after walking down a very painful road for many years.
Perhaps Harmonee will eventually come to the same conclusions that I did?
Dear Harmonee's friend,
I have always maintained that a religion that makes things easy for you (like I am rich cause God rewards the righteous or it is ok to beat up gays cause God hates them) is a clue to it being not a full or even perhaps religion. God requires us to grow.
Now I see that there is a fallacy in my thinking - for some the idea that God requires us to grow could mean God requires us to completely sacrifice ourselves to show our faith...
I shall be more careful in how I phrase my thinking about God in the future.
I hope your wounds have healed in time and that you have found some spiritual path that leads you to a life of joy and purpose
hhg
Hello Harmonee's Friend,
What you are saying makes sense. I can understand why an LDS, with a college education would adopt and live a fundamentalist life, it is a logical choice.
But I gather from your writing, that despite your having made what seemed like a logical and faith based choice, you still did not feel closer to God as a result, and that the travail, plus the belief that you would be rewarded in the afterlife for it, was not enough. Do correct me if you meant otherwise.
There is certainly suffering in life, and those who try to escape it are the most at sea. But the notion that suffering all by itself will bring us closer to God, I find most spurious.
Most fundamentalist type religions, have a pronounced anti-intellectual streak, which is designed to keep people from thinking about their experience. To me, the Godly value of suffering, lies in the deepening understanding one develops. Without that growth, suffering wears us down, further separating us from God. Keeping people from thinking about their suffering obviously serves a purpose, but it has nothing to do with God.
I admire your work, and your writing about it is helpful to me. Thank you.
Mavis and hhg, thank you for your observations and kind sentiments. There is a quote from Joseph Smith that is much used in Fundamentalist circles. "A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things, does not have the power to exalt." Being exalted means being in the presence of God eternally in the Celestial Kingdom - the highest Mormon "heaven". Add that to actually loving God and wanting to please him -any amount of pain seemed worthwhile . (Abraham and his willingness to sacrifice Isaac was also used as an example.) Oddly enough it was not the pain I personally experienced, that made me leave. I might still be there, if not for the fact that I came to a couple of big realizations. I had been taught , and believed that Joseph Smith’s teachings on polygyny, together with everything else he taught, was God’s perfect way. Any problems were attributed to the weaknesses of the humans living it, not the system itself. From looking at others experiences, as well as my own, it became apparent to me that the system itself was flawed. Two parents with time, energy and resources to devote to their children, have a much better chance of doing a good job, than one woman struggling along on her own for much of the time (also frequently immersed in her own emotional problems.) The other reason was more intellectual and involved reading some of the new research into the marital practices of Joseph Smith. Study showed emotional blackmailing of women into becoming involved in polygny, also the marrying of already married women, who subsequently lived with both Joseph Smith and their previous husbands. Any argument that they were living some kind of “higher law” just didn’t hold water with me.
I am recreating my life now, and feeling happy about leaving. I do deal with the guilt of knowing how much my choices negatively impacted my children’s lives. I can’t put that right unfortunately. As for my spiritual life, I really don’t want to be part of another “one and only true church”. God seems good, religion less so.
Forget religion, have a personal relationship with God.
Susan the MD
Post a Comment