Posted by:
Done & Done
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Date: October 29, 2019 01:14PM
A long long time ago in a country far far away, I was a bit down, my Mission President told me a story as an analogy, as Mormons tend to do (and I still do haha), as a way to get me back to feeling the joy that missionary work brings--like that was a possibility.
MP asked me, "Do you know why the Great Salt Lake is salty?" I refrained from my only thought, "Because it has a lot of salt in it?" and settled on, "I have no idea."
"Because it has only tributaries running in and no outlet. What goes in stays and thus the salt buildup. And, thus, the stinky brine shrimp. And thus, those who go for a swim to see if they really float on top of the water like the legend says are only rewarded with burning eyes and itchy skin as they tromp out of the muck to the shore." His message: "Open your outlets and start preaching the gospel, Elder Done." (His phraseology was a little duller than that though.)
I have thought of the MP's advice many times over the years as I find the analogy flawed.
Bear Lake was our favorite place to go as a family. Back in those days we were often the only ones and I remember a little skunk making the rounds past my sleeping bag every morning at 5 am as I lay on the ground with the sun coming up. Bear Lake was sweet and wonderful. Trees could actually grow on this lake's edge. I don't even remember if it had an outlet. What I do know is that water flowing in from the mountains was pure. And now when I think of what the MP said, I think that it isn't what is going out but what is coming in that is the most important, as, what is going out depends on what is coming in.
Mormons basically have a single pipeline from church to brain. Exmo's on the other hand now have many tributaries flowing in.
One has the equivalent of brine shrimp lurking at the edges and the other has raspberry patches on the hillside.
Which one to choose? . . . Well, it's not rocket science.
You can make a lot of money off the salt though.