Rogers and Hammerstein penned that in 1945 for the musical "Carousel" and it turned out to be one of the most covered songs of the 20th century. Gerry and the Pacemakers, Elvis, even the tab. It's so popular because it resonates. You hear it and you can feel it. When the shelf collapses and the Mormon God swirls down the toilet, and your previous acquaintances treat you like a leper or a lunatic, you can feel alone. But I suppose I'm no stranger to loneliness. A stranger in a strange land. And yet, I have never walked alone. Stupid Mormon metaphors aside, I prefer ideas to actually make sense. I dunno, I'm funny that way. I don't know much about who I am, but I know a few things. I know that I am love. I know that I am a reverberation of the divine. I know that love stretches across time and space. So I can put that together and conclude with some plausibility that all of those things in my life I attributed to God were just me. God may or may not exist, but I exist (last time I checked). My body is an interface to my future self and possibly other loved ones because its intelligence works differently than the mind. Promptings came from my future selves of different timelines because love does that. The future influences the past and the past influences the future in a kind of dance.

So realistically, the world can't go to shit. The dance won't allow it. A new golden age will occur because it must. The whole "God" experience is an interplay between our own consciousness and time. As this becomes more understood, the need for religion will fall by the wayside. Maybe the fact that religion is waning is a sign that this knowledge is on its way. I'm fairly certain that an understanding of the etheric body and the mechanics of chi, the way chirality in molecular biology metabolism produces the signals of the energy body is nearing breakthrough. From that will follow a better understanding of the higher dimensions of consciousness and a much more holistic existence.

That's what I see for the future. And as for the past, what a glorious mess. Chaos in its divine perfection. I wonder if I could have unlocked the key to me without Mormonism. If I hadn't had my innocence frozen in amber, I'd be just a normal person with a normal life. I felt the spirit so strong when I prayed about the BoM. So I joined the Mormons. I think I was right about following my heart. I know I was. I just didn't know it was an element of me doing the "spirit" part. The experience of having my life blown to pieces has been a great boon. You can't really figure out who you are until you figure out who you're not.

All the pain, all the suffering, much of it because of a stupid cult, I wouldn't wish on a dog. But there it is, being felt by the me of the time, and me of the now going back and saying I'm sorry you had to through that to make you who you are. Thank you for taking it. Thanks for all the pain, it belongs to us, our testament to being. You were never alone. You'll never walk alone. Because you are.

I grew up in a household that loved Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. When I was about 9 years old, my parents took me (and my grandmothers) to see a local production of "Oklahoma."

Whenever there was a "local" stage production of ANY R&H musical (and this was in the Los Angeles/San Diego corridor), we always scraped together the money for tickets. We had the record albums. We knew all the songs.

While my miserable, angry, alcoholic mother was an ongoing sour note running through my memories, the joy and beauty of the R&H songs were often able to tune out her off-key noise. I have often thought that she married well above her own social class, and that was why she had no patience (or, I think, exposure to) things like live theater, ballet, orchestra presentations, etc. She was not raised with them. My father had been, and he enjoyed them.

My DH does NOT enjoy sitting through live-stage productions of anything, but my youngest adult daughter is more than willing to keep me company when the local theater company features an R&H musical. This is a reasonable compromise. DH knows I'm not getting into any trouble, and he doesn't have to endure a stage production. And DD enjoys hearing stories about how old I was, the first time I saw this or that play with my own family or with my lifelong best friend. We have a standing deal about this. I pay for her ticket, and she does the driving!!

You just blew my mind :O