Thanks, this was fantastic. I haven't heard my family talk about our Pioneer stories, but later I looked at the church's family history search website that will tell you if you're related to anyone famous. Turns out I have a few ancestors who were in the Willie-Martin handcart company. But, for whatever reason, they stayed in Winter Quarters and didn't continue onto the fateful leg of that journey.
As someone who's left I've also had conflicting feelings on the legacy of my dedicated pioneer ancestors. Perhaps this is self-congratulatory, but I was really ALL IN and leaving was so incredibly hard for me. I had many times I just wanted God to take me via lightning strike on a hike or getting hit by a car on a bike ride just so I didn't have to follow my conscience out of the church. I got through it, I see many, many good things in it and my wife's a believer but the untruth of it all and the bad was too much for me. Anyway, the self-congratulatory part is that I feel like, in a SMALL sense, I had to have a bit of the courage that my ancestors probably needed to JOIN the church via my LEAVING it (the only one in my family to do so). And it feels like, in a sense, that's honoring those pioneer ancestors.
I'm new here and this post is fantastic. I've been with my ex-Mormon gay husband for 30 years (more on that later). Anyhow, as a Colorado resident I've driven between (Fort) Laramie and Denver many times. If only those handcart zealots had called a time out and turned left and marched south for a week to Denver most would have survived the winter. It's two different worlds. My family dares not take the Wyoming route to visit grampa in Utah during the winter. The white outs and blizzards are too much for a 2020 SUV. God help those folks on foot. The numbers speak for themselves.
Fellow Denver ex-mormon here. I once drove from BYU to Denver via I80 and had to stop overnight in Laramie when a white-out blizzard in April made the arms come down and road close. What a god-forsaken stretch of road.
Nice work. Not a member of the church but also a descendant of a couple who faced adversity before staking their lives on a small farm carved out of raw land in Canada. The evident burdens of that task and their willingness to face it squarely and accept the challenge remains a great inspiration. When I realize something onerous, protracted or taxing needs to be done, and my natural sloth and indifference have to be overcome in the process, I remember what John Rea, my paternal great grandfather did: felled 60 acres of hardwood with an axe, yanked out the stumps, and planted. He’d left Scotland with a couple sisters at 13, his parents remaining behind because his father had been crippled in a farm accident. Not long after he finally found his plot and started in on it - the wood chopping ultimately took 20+ years - he married a young woman who’d been working as a domestic since fleeing Ireland and the famine years before. They made a life together and faith was fundamental to that - Presbyterian in his case; he took it seriously enough to walk to church (because the horses needed a day of rest). We can’t and would never choose to re-live such lives, but recognizing the courage and fortitude it took to live them is not optional. Thanks for reminding me. Perhaps The Promised Land is the repose you will gain at that blockbuster family reunion in the sky when those forerunners recognize the courage you have manifested and convey with an affectionate glance their gratitude for your having remembered them and honored their sacrifices and hard won accomplishments. Whether we just tell ourselves that or it really will happen is of no moment. You’ve made a good account of yourself and are free to live your own life.Through that and so much more your connection to them lives on.
I'll take the time to remember one of my favorite American inventors, John Moses Browning. He was a Mormon of some consequence, his innovations in firearms spanning the time of the old west and into both world wars.
I always enjoy your thoughtful and detailed essays, especially when the subject is Mormonism. I would challenge both Mormons and former Mormons to reconsider what the "pure form" of that founding myth actually is. Is it the more literal and falsifiable narrow claims of scriptural historicity and decipherable ancient languages, or is it our shared human destiny to eternally progress and become superhumanity, just as all other civilizations before us? I think we should care more about the strength that remains in our current communities and sustain those myths that are most conducive to human flourishing, rather than double-down on literalistic narratives that are arguably far less Mormon than Joseph's own actions, which were always oriented towards an expansive and ongoing restoration of all things conducive to human flourishing.
"Seek not to follow in the footsteps of the old ones; seek what they sought." (Matsuo Basho)
Thanks, this was fantastic. I haven't heard my family talk about our Pioneer stories, but later I looked at the church's family history search website that will tell you if you're related to anyone famous. Turns out I have a few ancestors who were in the Willie-Martin handcart company. But, for whatever reason, they stayed in Winter Quarters and didn't continue onto the fateful leg of that journey.
As someone who's left I've also had conflicting feelings on the legacy of my dedicated pioneer ancestors. Perhaps this is self-congratulatory, but I was really ALL IN and leaving was so incredibly hard for me. I had many times I just wanted God to take me via lightning strike on a hike or getting hit by a car on a bike ride just so I didn't have to follow my conscience out of the church. I got through it, I see many, many good things in it and my wife's a believer but the untruth of it all and the bad was too much for me. Anyway, the self-congratulatory part is that I feel like, in a SMALL sense, I had to have a bit of the courage that my ancestors probably needed to JOIN the church via my LEAVING it (the only one in my family to do so). And it feels like, in a sense, that's honoring those pioneer ancestors.
I'm new here and this post is fantastic. I've been with my ex-Mormon gay husband for 30 years (more on that later). Anyhow, as a Colorado resident I've driven between (Fort) Laramie and Denver many times. If only those handcart zealots had called a time out and turned left and marched south for a week to Denver most would have survived the winter. It's two different worlds. My family dares not take the Wyoming route to visit grampa in Utah during the winter. The white outs and blizzards are too much for a 2020 SUV. God help those folks on foot. The numbers speak for themselves.
Fellow Denver ex-mormon here. I once drove from BYU to Denver via I80 and had to stop overnight in Laramie when a white-out blizzard in April made the arms come down and road close. What a god-forsaken stretch of road.
Happened to us in a UHaul. Never again.
Nice work. Not a member of the church but also a descendant of a couple who faced adversity before staking their lives on a small farm carved out of raw land in Canada. The evident burdens of that task and their willingness to face it squarely and accept the challenge remains a great inspiration. When I realize something onerous, protracted or taxing needs to be done, and my natural sloth and indifference have to be overcome in the process, I remember what John Rea, my paternal great grandfather did: felled 60 acres of hardwood with an axe, yanked out the stumps, and planted. He’d left Scotland with a couple sisters at 13, his parents remaining behind because his father had been crippled in a farm accident. Not long after he finally found his plot and started in on it - the wood chopping ultimately took 20+ years - he married a young woman who’d been working as a domestic since fleeing Ireland and the famine years before. They made a life together and faith was fundamental to that - Presbyterian in his case; he took it seriously enough to walk to church (because the horses needed a day of rest). We can’t and would never choose to re-live such lives, but recognizing the courage and fortitude it took to live them is not optional. Thanks for reminding me. Perhaps The Promised Land is the repose you will gain at that blockbuster family reunion in the sky when those forerunners recognize the courage you have manifested and convey with an affectionate glance their gratitude for your having remembered them and honored their sacrifices and hard won accomplishments. Whether we just tell ourselves that or it really will happen is of no moment. You’ve made a good account of yourself and are free to live your own life.Through that and so much more your connection to them lives on.
Happy pie and beer day, buddy!
I'll take the time to remember one of my favorite American inventors, John Moses Browning. He was a Mormon of some consequence, his innovations in firearms spanning the time of the old west and into both world wars.
I always enjoy your thoughtful and detailed essays, especially when the subject is Mormonism. I would challenge both Mormons and former Mormons to reconsider what the "pure form" of that founding myth actually is. Is it the more literal and falsifiable narrow claims of scriptural historicity and decipherable ancient languages, or is it our shared human destiny to eternally progress and become superhumanity, just as all other civilizations before us? I think we should care more about the strength that remains in our current communities and sustain those myths that are most conducive to human flourishing, rather than double-down on literalistic narratives that are arguably far less Mormon than Joseph's own actions, which were always oriented towards an expansive and ongoing restoration of all things conducive to human flourishing.
"Seek not to follow in the footsteps of the old ones; seek what they sought." (Matsuo Basho)