A Larger Becoming

-
Since this new job involves reading all day (I mean, literally, all day. Finding stuff to put in anthologies. It's not a bad life, I tell you.), I've been posting things on the other blog that catch my eye/heart. But somehow, this belongs here. Maybe because of subject matter.

Anyway, my dad loves this book, Eternal Man, by Truman G Madsen, and he got me reading it. It's short, but fathoms deep, and I feel like I'll have to read it seven more times to "get it." But this part, I think I get. On freedom and commitment:

"We talk as if freedom consisted in having the greatest variety of options and that a 'once-and-for-all' decision coerces our initiative. But is freedom increased by every new flavor of ice cream?

"Actually, it is only when we rise above trivial options and ask ourselves in the depths, 'What do I want to be?' that we emerge from the bondage of a flitting and faceless mode of life. The most majestic wonder of our freedom is that we can make all-time binding decisions, eternal covenants. Once made, once 'renewed and confirmed,' they free us from the life-wasting torment of 'bringing it all up' over and over. The decisions, as it were, reverberate through the whole galaxy. And even the lesser roles of life, its distractions and setbacks, take on color and creativity as instruments of the larger 'becoming.'"




A "flitting and faceless mode of life" is pretty much what I'm feeling over here. Want so badly to have a "larger becoming." Working on it. Seriously working on it.

Comments

belann said…
He says it so well. Hopefully, we can all get to the point of "a larger becoming."
February 18, 2010 at 9:10 PM
Terry Earley said…
True, true true, Madsen needs to be savored instead of gulped down. Your patient reading will continue to enlighten.

This whole idea of choices/agency is so misunderstood, that we need to think about it more often and deeper.

There are too many choices which hem us in and just a select few which just open up oceans of opportunity and light.
February 22, 2010 at 10:50 AM
Kitty said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
February 22, 2010 at 1:57 PM
Amara said…
OK, how do we intelligently decide what we want to be? The eternal options once you have a testimony of their validity are almost easy which is what he's talking about I guess, but how do we find the decisions that "open up oceans of opportunity and light?" versus just make us crazy as we take on too much for us to handle happily? Help me understand because I do this over and over over again.
February 24, 2010 at 11:28 AM
meg said…
is it just a late winter thing? i've been feeling flittery myself. thanks for sharing this quote--i'm hoping whatever i'm going through passes quickly (for you, too). i do know it will pass.
and i'm intrigued by the "bread" you posted about. hmmm...
March 10, 2010 at 9:53 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spider Fight Continues

-
I'm sorry to be so unposty lately. I hope to be back to my usual self before too long. In the meantime, I have a couple of requests. This thing with my job has taken an interesting turn, one that is calling for my being a bit more careful. I hope you can help. Request 1: If you have a link to my blog on your blog (or anywhere), will you make sure that it doesn't list my last name? I'm particularly worried about my married name, as this is what I go by at work. If you could just keep me as Deja, that would be excellent. Request 2: I hate to do it, because it makes me kind of sad when other people do it, but I need to go private for awhile. Please, PLEASE, leave me a comment if you'd like to still read. Sometimes when people go private I'm too sheepish to ask to be added. Please don't be sheepish. Leave your email address here or shoot me an email as soon as you can. I want to get this privatized in the next few days. Thanks for your help. Maybe when I'm priv...
Read more

As She Tried Out All of Her Sounds

-
Image
Conference napping, starting young. Every six months, Mormons listen to what we call General Conference , which means, theoretically, all 14 million of us gather and listen to talks by church leadership. There's a physical meeting in Salt Lake, and the rest of us watch it in our chapels and, increasingly, over the Internet on our various devices. It's four 2-hour sessions (with a bonus session for men), and it fills up the weekend. Six months ago, I was literally two days away from having a baby, and let's face it, I slept through most of it, despite my efforts to stay awake. I'd sit down for a moment, pull it up on my iPad, and immediately zonk out. I got some really solid sleep in during those conference sessions, and I don't begrudge my former self a bit of it. Today, with my baby on the outside, I didn't nap, though she got a pretty solid one in (see above). During the first part, I deep-cleaned my bathroom (party!) while she played with her baby do...
Read more

Color Me Clueless

-
Someone should explain what it means to match, because I thought it was about matching similar colors or like black/red, blue/white--obvious pairs--but lately I see girls wearing purple shoes with yellow blouses and green patterned headbands and it's so pretty but I never feel brave or smart enough to do it myself. Color stresses me out, in part because I love it so much, and I want to "get it."  Once, in a most wonderful store called Accessorize in London, I was trying to find something to match an outfit I had bought that was all about brown.  And I was looking at a brown necklace, thinking I would get it, when I asked the sales lady and she said, in her perfect London accent, "No, no.  That's far too obvious."  Oh.  She helped me pick out something with green--green with reddish-brown flecks, and it was much better. And I won't even talk about how I used to wear a purple shirt, plus a purple collared shirt, plus a purple sweater, PLUS a purple ...
Read more