In 2008 the President-Elect invited supporters from his prodigious social media community to reflect on this “American Moment” and to submit it to his organization. Here below is my little response to the soon-to-be commander-in-chief. I campaigned many long hours, donated money, and engaged in myriad conversations with friends, …
It’s hard to know where this post originated, but I got it from my niece (who will remain nameless) who shared it on Facebook from a Lydia Lyon. I call this post the “Manifesto of Trump Supporters,” and it was generated shortly after the election in response to the bafflement …
Check Your Cherished Opinions Stand Up and Be Counted Compromise for the Benefit of the Collective On the eve of the 2016 election, I am at rest. No more campaigning. No more snappy rejoinders on Facebook. No more snark. And while I believe there is a time to play the …
This essay was first published in the literary journal Alligator Juniper. It was later republished in the debut batch of Phone Fiction, an online platform for reading short fiction (and literary essays) on your mobile device. (Very cool). Frank is my late father-in-law who died in 1997. I inherited his car. …
This conversation with blogger Mette Ivie Harrison appeared on Huffington Post Dec. 1, 2015. At the time, the LDS (Mormon) Church had made a policy change that the children of cohabiting (conjugal) gay parents–now considered “apostate”–would not be allowed to be blessed, or baptized into the Church or otherwise …
In 2002, the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City was an opportunity for the LDS Church to present itself to the world. The theatrical extravaganza titled “Light of the World” was staged downtown at the new indoor Conference Center which seats a whopping 22,000. This review which appeared in Dialogue, …
In this essay I talk about the persistence of polygamy (plural marriage) in the faith of my childhood and the tradition of my choice: Mormonism. Polygamy reigned on both sides of my family during the 19th Century when founding prophet Joseph Smith Jr. instigated the practice in the Mississippi River …
This essay is a valentine to my ten sisters who several years ago became obsessed with the Oregon-based musical group PINK MARTINI. Originally, this piece won the Writers at Work narrative nonfiction contest and was later published in the journal Quarterly West. Later it was republished by Phone FIction, which …
In this Aug 16, 2008 talk I was asked to participate in a THIS I BELIEVE session at the Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium. I was one of, I believe, six speakers who were tasked with illuminating . . . well, what we believe. I was pretty pleased with how this …
Martha Beck’s Leaving the Saints is valuable . . . .Why? Because in my view the book is so very Mormon. There are rich and telling descriptions of the Church and of Mormon culture, particularly as it configures in Utah Valley,more precisely at church-owned Brigham Young University. Many of us are apt to …
