BYU Education Week? An Oxymoron? You Decide…
Yesterday I tried to call my mother, because Dancing Daughter had a dentist appointment today, and I knew I would not be able to pick up Chatter Child after school. I was hoping the RETIRED parents, who are NOT currently serving one of their four thousand missions, could help. There was no answer.
Later that day, when I drove by their house, on the way to run errands, I saw the fifth-wheel was gone. So I called my older sister to see if the Mormonental units were out of town.
She confirmed they had, indeed left town. Now when I leave town, I aim for somewhere relaxing and distant.
They aim for somewhere close and filled with others just like themselves. Yup. Provo. BYU Education Week. They eat that shit up. Like candy.
From the Zoo Web site:
What is Campus Education Week?
More than 1,000 classes on hundreds of topics
200 quality presenters
Devotional with Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Entertaining evening performances
80 classes designed for youth (ages 14–18)
A place to meet and learn with friends and family
and more!
And Elder Dieter Uchtdorf? He’s going to be there! I heard he’s opening for Devo on their next world tour! He’s probably the Evening Entertainment!
Me? I’d rather visit my gynecologist daily, for all of the days it’s scheduled. Maybe hourly. And that leads me to the real truth. I MUST have been switched at birth.
“Please!” my friend Carlene said, when I suggested this theory to her this morning, on our walk. “You look just like them. You cannot claim that.”
Of course, Carlene has also threatened to take me to her cabin, as my “biggest fan,” and force me to rewrite my books when they don’t please her, so I’m not sure you can trust her judgment.
But, nevertheless, she is right. I look a LOT like my parents. I have no answer for how DIFFERENT we are. A brain transplant? I know not. But my parents truly love it. They LIVE for it. My father, whose health is failing, can no longer go on extended missions and take nationwide temple tours, like they used to do. A few years back, my mother would call when they were on the road, telling me about the states they were in–and the temples they had visited.
My parents live and breathe Mormonism. It is there when they wake up, when they go to sleep. It motivates all their vacations and all their entertainment plans. Nothing they do is NOT planned around their religion.
I know they love me. They just don’t get how I don’t live and breathe it, too. And I don’t get how they DO.
So, there was no help with the dentist dilemma, but that’s okay. That really isn’t their job. I appreciate they help me as much as they do. I won’t tell them how silly I think their BYU Education Week is. And in return, I’m sure they won’t tell me how silly sitting in front of computer for eight or more hours a day, making up stories, is, too.
The RV is in Provo, and the parents are being indoctrinated… er, educated.
Happy Education Week!
August 25th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Oh, that makes me feel so much better about my northward journey to the Pacific Northwest Mecca of Baseball.
August 25th, 2006 at 11:55 pm
In my household we handled religion a little differently. When we were driving away from the ward house both parents were firing up their Camels. In short order you’d hear the “phfft” of a Fisher beer opening. We’d whip into the driveway for some quality family time that lasted anywhere from one to two hours. By then one, or both of them, were loaded enough for the fighting to start. Mid-afternoon would see my father driving away, not to return for 3 to 7 days. Ugly . . . yeah. That I could handle. What really pissed me off was that they would attempt tp portray themselves as Mormons following church doctrine. You know, no coffee, no booze, no cigarettes, no cheating . . . the little things. Nat, I’ll take yours over mine anyday. At least they stick to their convictions.
August 26th, 2006 at 10:18 am
Howy,
Yeah, I think I prefer the way my parents live it, too. At least they did and are doing their best to LIVE what they believe and preach.
August 26th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
Good for them, Nat. My folks do thier own thang too, and us kids let ‘em.
August 27th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
Natalie what is up with the mega issues regarding Ed week. I guess you would have been better off if your parents were in Vegas loosing everything they have while you are living out of the trunk of a car. I only wished I would have had parents so committed to the gospel. You poor thing I can only imagine what you have gone through for the last 12 yrs of your life. Hang in their and maybe some day your dad will see the light and start stepping out on your mom so you can feel better about life.
August 28th, 2006 at 10:50 am
Gee, Curtis, if I didn’t know better I’d SWEAR you didn’t even READ MY FUCKING POST. I think BYU Indoctrination Week is silly. Sorry. MY CALL. My parents don’t. That’s okay. THEIR CALL. I certainly didn’t ask that they abandon it all and become crack whores. And where does 12 years come in?