I haven't gotten around to requesting another book on CD from my brother yet, so I've been grabbing random albums from my CD collection. The other day I stumbled across a set of CD's we'd received as a present last year and I hadn't gotten around to listening to yet. It's a collection of stories and songs about Mormon History, called Mormon Heritage. I grew up listening to this set, back when it was produced on LP record.
I'd forgotten how much I enjoy listening to it--and how much it's been absorbed into my life. Phrases like "Well, he was under the hair!", "Oooonne laaaaaast look!", and "Tool of the devil, right here in the camp of the saints!" have been part of my memories for years, though I'd partially forgotten where I'd first heard them. It's been like spending time with old friends again. And in other ways I'm hearing it all for the first time. Twenty or so years changes a person's perspective.
My hearing seems to have improved, too. I've been remembering some of the quotes a little wrong. For example, there's a story about a church leader who gets pulled out in to the street by an armed mob who threaten to blow his head off if he doesn't denounce Joseph Smith. The man just looks them all in the eye and says "Shoot and be damned!"
Maybe my parents raised me so well in avoiding profanity that my brain refused to hear it right, I don't know, but until the other day I always thought he said "Shoot me down!" I guess it's essentially the same, but I think my way is a bit more dramatic. Though it doesn't explain quite as well why the mob backs down.
Anyway, it's been fun going through the album again. The Three D's were quite talented, and a lot of fun to listen to. I've also come to appreciate my ancestors a bit more. It's so easy to take for granted everything they did, and I'm as guilty as the next guy. I have a hard enough time getting my yard in order every spring, even with Home Depot within ten minutes drive. I can't begin to imagine starting a city in the middle of a desert with little more than I could fit in my minivan and no hope of additional supplies should something go wrong.
Or, harder yet, maintaining my faith and religion in the face of mobs with a free pass from the government to murder, rape, and destroy, and a proven desire for it. I can only hope and pray I'm never called on to be tested the same way. I'm afraid it'll come to that, though. For all our modern civility and tolerance, society is becoming increasing un-civil and intolerant. But I'm not going off on that tangent right now.
The important thing is that many generations struggled and fought to provide me with the priviledged life I enjoy now. My parents grew up knowing poverty and hardship, and they've worked hard most of their lives. My dad worked twelve-hour days for as long as I can remember. And I get peevish if my modem acts up and I have to reboot my computer before I can check my spam.
A little dose of perspective is a good thing now and then.
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2 comments:
Until the last couple of years I thought it was "shoot me down!" too.
LIfe back then was definitely more physically challenging, but I think we have different challenges today that may be just as taxing in other ways.
Still, I'm not interested in volunteering to start chopping my own firewood, carrying water from the stream, heating the water over a fire and scrubing my clothes with homemade lye soap on a washboard.
I believe you're right. We may have more leisure time than they did, and that is both a blessing and a curse. And they certainly weren't bombarded day after day, hour after hour with the sheer volume of filth and "enlightement" we are today.
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