Today I talked to a friend about how, since she has moved to Utah, she has found herself revisiting both her Mormon upbringing and her disaffection from the church.
She said she hadn't been able understand why some people were still concerned with the church, still talked about it, still participated in forums discussing or criticizing it. Sure, it was super messed up, but she'd left that behind. She had more important things to worry about than the stupid things she used to believe in her youth. The church had no effect on her now.
And then she moved to Utah, where her parents and several siblings live. And after a while, she not only listened politely, nodded, then changed the subject when people talked to her at parties about their relationship to Mormonism, she initiated conversations on the topic herself.
I get it. I always cared about my own Mormon past but for a very long time--well over a decade--I couldn't be bothered to pay attention to church-related current events. Why would I pay attention? They didn't affect me.
Then I moved to Utah, and now they do affect me.
It's different living at Mormonism's Ground Zero. Obviously what happens in General Conference doesn't affect me the way it would if I believed or went to church. But I'm far more aware of its effects on people in my life.
If you left Mormonism and left the Mormon Corridor as well, it's like you had cancer but it's been eradicated. If you left Mormonism but you're stuck in the Mormon Corridor, it's like you had cancer but it's in remission--you gotta be careful because that stuff could still come back and kill you.
If you left Mormonism and left the Mormon Corridor as well, it's like you had a horrible communicable disease but recovered and now live among a population that is so highly inoculated that outbreaks are rare. If you left Mormonism but you're stuck in the Mormon Corridor, it's like you recovered from a horrible communicable disease but there's always an epidemic. People are dropping dead all around you. And it's your job to work in the hospital and care for those who are really sick but have a good chance of recovery.
It's dirty work but someone has to do it.
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