I can't...I'm Mormon

I recently saw a t-shirt that said, "I can't...I'm Mormon." I'm not going to lie. At first I thought it was funny, but as I contemplated the true meaning behind this, the questions started rolling in. Shouldn't we want to do the right thing? Isn't the point behind living the standards in which we live that it's what we want to do? Does it take more faith to not watch a rated R movie even though we want to or does it take more faith to make our own decisions? Last week, hip-hop poet Saul Williams visited the UW campus. As I was listening to his remarks, one of them really intrigued me. He said that we don't need a preacher to talk to God. What beautiful sense this makes! I'm guessing that this statement means something completely different to me than it does to him, but that's what makes poetry and art so amazing. Most of society tends to look down on organized religion and I must admit there have been times when I have too. I think people tend to look down on organized religion mainly because they think weekly church-goers depend on their preacher to get them to heaven. Not to mention, there's the thought that people who don't go to church every week are going to hell. I think religion is what you make of it. My mom is a very spiritual person. Does she go to church every week? No. Is she going to hell because of it? Of course not. I'm not saying that if we wonder what alcohol tastes like we should go to our local saloon and get wasted, but I am saying that we should make our decisions for ourselves. We should live certain standards because we know they will bring us eternal joy and we know the difference between right and wrong. Most of all, we should do what is right because we love Heavenly Father. For me personally, there are certain standards that are more difficult to live than others. I'm sure we're all like this. Hopefully, one day we will all be able to live each commandment because we love our Father in Heaven more than anything. That's what this life is for. We should take what we know to be true and good and figure out for ourselves why we live or don't live each commandment. When we do this, I think our testimonies will flourish.
Well, that's my soapbox for the...I'd like to say week, but it'll probably be for the month.

Another Shot

I started this blog over a year ago when I was going through a really difficult time in my life and I pretty much haven't written since then. I got my wake up call when my friend Stina was apparently reading this a couple months ago and read that we had gone to lunch a couple days earlier, which confused her because we hadn't. Then she looked at the date and discovered that particular post was about a year old.

So here I am, a little over a year later, ready to give this blog thing another shot.

Fortunately for all of us, I don't plan to write about how "I hate my horrible life!" Mainly because I don't and also, who wants to read about that? I'm at a really great place in my life right now and am so excited to see what lies ahead of me in this new year. I've also developed a sincere interest in political issues and current events, so I'd like to blog about that too. It would be really great if we could get some discussion going on!

Here's to 2008!