Be reverent
Be obedient
Be quiet
Be humble
Pay tithes
Fast offerings
Missions abroad
Church renos
New temples
Sundays sacrificed
Free labour
Church literature {{cough}}
Give much
Give more
Your talents
Thoughts
Privacy
Future
Spouse
Family
Children
Relationships
Friendships
Potential
Obedience
Acquiescence
Free will
Happiness
Joy
Last wishes
Eternity
The Mormon Church: Specializing in sucking up entire Sundays (3 hr block/now “only” 2 hrs) + callings et al. Consuming all the days of your lives for the “kingdom” of Joseph Smith and subsequent prophet-tyrants.
Roman philosopher Seneca said: “…that very day which you are devoting to somebody or something may be your last.”
Imagine if your last day was devoted to sacrament meeting, mind-numbing callings, “discussions” with unsuspecting acquaintances to keep the missionaries busy, cleaning ward buildings or weeding their grass.
Seneca again: “… you must not think a man has lived long because he has white hair and wrinkles: he has not lived long, just existed long. For suppose you should think that a man had had a long voyage who had been caught in a raging storm as he left harbor, and carried hither and thither and driven round and round in a circle by the rage of opposing winds? He did not have a long voyage, just a long tossing about.”
“A long tossing about”. An apt description of the hamster wheel of Mormonism. It is to laugh. Or cry. Or more likely both. Most especially for BICs. Twenty-five years old with spouse and multiple kids before you can take a breath. Maybe say “what the …?”. If they give you non-stop busy work, there's no time to think, right? Surely that is one of their primary goals. Do not let the masses think.
Seneca indicates that it is toxic to follow goals that have not been chosen by oneself:
“Indeed the state of all who are preoccupied is wretched, but the most wretched are those who are toiling not even at their own preoccupations, but must regulate their sleep by another’s, and their walk by another’s pace, and obey orders in those freest of all things, loving and hating.”
Does not the Mormon Church tell its members who to "love" and who to "hate"? Although they spout the verse about loving the sinner but hating the sin, they don't act like they mean it. And they get to define sin.
Speaking of a person demanding another’s time, Seneca says:
“I am always surprised to see some people demanding the time of others and meeting a most obliging response. Both sides have in view the reason for which the time is asked and neither regards the time itself — as if nothing there is being asked for and nothing given. They are trifling with life’s most precious commodity, being deceived because it is an intangible thing, not open to inspection and therefore reckoned very cheap — in fact, almost without any value.”
He promotes preserving our own time, not giving it to others to use up:
“Nobody works out the value of time: men use it lavishly as if it cost nothing… We have to be more careful in preserving what will cease at an unknown point.”
He states that procrastination (or not putting our own priorities first) “… denies us the present by promising the future”.
Is that not an amazingly accurate description of life on the Mormon treadmill? Denying us the present (time) by promising us the future (eternal life in Mormon heaven).
Seneca quotes taken from an article re “the shortness of life”, here:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-shortness-of-life-seneca-on-busyness-and-the-art-of-living-wide-rather-than-living-long?utm_source=pocket-newtab(I don’t necessarily agree with all the sentiments expressed in the above article but did find it an interesting read).
This topic reminded me of an old Irish song, Bunch of Thyme. I know, time/thyme, sounds the same but totally different. To me, it evokes the snare of someone/something enticing you to use up your time now for the promise of a special future but the future has no foundation.
The tune to this song is described as beautiful and soothing, yet to me it’s melancholy in the extreme. Despite the lovely melody, the underlying message is dark (“thyme” being a euphemism; a song about a young woman losing her virginity/"thyme" and then being abandoned; devastating especially in the 17th century when the song was reportedly written, as the woman would then be cast out of society, taking away hopes for a good future).
[Traditional/no writer name]
Come all you maidens young and fair
All you who are blooming in your prime
Always beware and keep your garden fair
And let no man steal away your thyme
Chorus:
Thyme it is a precious thing
Thyme brings all things to your mind
Thyme with all its labors, along with all its joys
And its thyme brings all things to an end
Once I had a bunch of thyme
I thought it never would decay
and then a lusty sailor had chanced to pass my way
He stole my bunch of thyme away
The sailor gave to me a rose
I thought it never would decay
He gave it to me to keep me reminded
Of when he stole my thyme away
So come all you maidens young and fair
All you that flourish in your prime
Always be minded to keep your garden fair
And let no man steal your bunch of thyme
Here’s a well-known Irish duo performing the song (so you can hear the melody):
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=bunch+of+thyme+foster+and+allen-----
Here's hoping more and more members reject their callings and other time-consuming church busywork in favour of family time, me time, fun time, personal plans and their own chosen goals.
In other words, Mormons of the world, throw away your toilet brushes and - do whatever you so choose with the time you save.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2020 04:34PM by Nightingale.