As Mormons we face the challenge of living up
to a Mormon standard. If we do anything slightly off tempo then other Mormons are
shocked, their faith is shaken, and we are judged, eventually leading to ostracization
and excommunication. That might be a little extreme, but it might not be. This
challenge is how Mormons view other Mormons, but we also face challenges from
the world viewing us as Mormons. They always expect us to act like other Mormons,
and as artists we are all very different people. “Well why do you watch R-rate
movies? I know a Mormon and he says he’s not allowed to.” The world assumes
that Mormons are a hive-minded people and that we must always do what every
other Mormon does, lest we suffer eternal damnation and torment. I don’t like
being typecast as a Mormon because then people are looking for what I do that
is or is not “Mormon”, rather than focusing on what is more important. It’s just
an annoying stereotype that overshadows other things.
As Mormons we can find compelling stories of
light in all places. Even stories about terrible things like abuse, addiction,
and violence can be compelling and inspiring. Compelling is about as ambiguous
a term as it gets. Something can compel me while offending someone else.
Compelling is a filler word for when people don’t know what word they really
want to use. A quick search of synonyms for compelling yields: convincing, gripping, absorbing, exciting. These
are all very different. So does this mean a story with some sort of emotion
stronger than blasé? Well that’s not very hard and it certainly doesn’t deal
directly with being Mormon. It deals with understanding what people are
interested in and how to deliver it. Anyone can deliver something better than
mediocre if they have common sense, but that doesn’t mean they need the spirit.
Stories of light? Well that’s slightly less ambiguous as compelling. Light
implies knowledge, truth, and purity. To achieve this you need not be Mormon. I
hate the idea that Mormons have that we are the only people who are chaste or
that like uplifting content. The whole world likes this stuff, they just like
it balanced with a little dirt to draw out the flavor, and Mormons are like
that too; we just like to pretend like we are all holy because we are
hypocrites. To find these stories one simply needs to look around and open his
eyes and be honest about how he feels, not some hive-minded zergling.
I stopped reading when you mentioned watching rated R movies. As a Mormon, this offends me, so obviously nothing else you wrote was pertinent. It's a shame, you had such lovely paragraph structure.
ReplyDelete"A little dirt to draw out the flavor." Note to self: don't eat Matt's cooking. I really enjoy that phrase actually, and I agree with the thought it conveys. We need to think for ourselves. You can, and arguable should, just shut up and obey when you are growing up. We are all too dumb to think for ourselves and should just "hive-up" until we are mature. After your mission, wedding, or a certain time period (differs for everyone but usually after 21 or so) you are allowed to act on your own. If this happens when you are 10 years old, great, but for most it does not. We need to do things that we want to do. Create art that we want to create. We need to, as you put it, "be honest about how he feels."
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