My Ear Itches

Salt Lake City, Utah
The most exciting place to experience is one that contains two very different and possibly even opposing views. With these in existence a person can be assured a much greater sense of what limits and enables a place. Salt Lake City had just this and we were lucky enough to experience both. We went to Temple Square and quite honestly that place put me on edge and freaked me out. Then straight from there we headed to a viewing of Out Rage; which is a LGBT movie that documents homosexuality in politics, especially amongst prominent political figures. This was way more interesting for me. However, it is important to realize that both of these entities are part of something bigger, a city that is in the United States.
While at Temple Square I was on edge but I also was made to recognize something else. This place was by no means one that I belonged in but it was one that I thought deserved some respect. The Mormons who created it did do something impressive. They used their freedoms that America allowed them to make something very beautiful and powerful. (I think the power is what I do not like.) These people made some things that were full of beauty. The Tabernacle was awesome. The way that they used the building shape for the best possible acoustics was sweet and the pipe organ…wow.

While I was surrounded in this beauty I also got the feeling that it was meticulously cared for, and for more than one reason. Yes, it could be to show your faith in God and your desire to honor him, but there seemed to be more. If you have something so exquisite then people are more ready to look only at the outside layer and not look any deeper. This feeling was strengthened by the creepy way that the sister missionaries were so consumed with there work. It was like they had been hypnotized by their religion. The image they portrayed was one of a subject giving all to their religion and their church replicated that. I could not ever decide if the beauty and the actions of the missionaries (all female) were for the appearance of the religion or for the religion.

Their missionary ideas annoyed me today too. The role that women played within the church was not agreeable for me. A woman can only do her mission work after turning 21 and a man can after 19. What is up with that? Science has found that women mature faster than men so if anything it seems that these more mature young women would be more desirable… nope of course not. Then within the square all the tour guides were women. Why can’t a man lead groups of tourist around too? Is it too challenging or too simpleton for them? Then! When we did come across the rare man he was in a suit and standing around doing absolutely nothing! Definitely appearing to hold the position of authority. Is that right? Why would he have authority over the tours when obviously men do not even fulfill the role of tour guide, meaning he actually had no experience in the thing in which he was observing?!

Oh and one more thing. Going on with the hypnosis feeling that I felt was being emitted from this place was the South Visitors entrance. You walk in and find the walls home to Stepford Wives’ like homes. They are wonderful little homes that showed I don’t even know what (I did not read the signage because at that point I shut off seeing no relevance for such a thing to be present in a church surrounding.) The whole feel of the place was very surreal to say the least.