Episode 259 (Transcript): What Do You Say? | 3 Conversations About Mysticism, Music, and Living in the Now
Episode Transcript
Many thanks to listener Rebecca Bigelow for her work in transcribing this episode!
This episode can be found on any podcast app or can be listened to here on our website as well. All the notes and resources we cited in the episode are found at this link as well:
Episode 259 (Transcript): What Do You Say? Three Conversations about Mysticism, Music, and Living in the Now
CC: I hadn’t based my foundation on the teachings of Christ, my foundation was on the words of the prophets, right? And the organization of the church. So if I hadn’t set it up that way, I wouldn’t have had such a hard fall.
CW: Hi, I am Cynthia Winward.
SH: And I’m Susan Hinckley.
CW: And this is At Last She Said It. We are women of faith discussing complicated things, and the title of today’s episode is, What Do You Say: Three Conversations about Mysticism, Music, and Living in the Now. Hello, Susan.
SH: Hello. I love these conversations. Let’s roll ‘em and then we’ll come back later and share some deep thoughts.
CW: Let’s do it,
SH: or maybe not so deep.
CW: Well, deepish.
Hello Mer Monson. Welcome back to At Last She Said It.
SH: Hi Mer.
MM: So good to be here.
CW: So good to have you. Okay, Mer, we can’t wait for your wisdom. And our first category is Memories. Would you like question one, two or three?
MM: I want three.
CW: What was a moment in your life when you could have chosen a different path?
MM: Shoot. Oh, how many answers do I get?
CW: Oh, I wanna hear ‘em all, but just one for now.
MM: So what comes to mind is my first pregnancy was horrific, like lost 25 pounds, couldn’t drink water without throwing up, totally incapacitated in bed. And I survived it, had my kid, had my beautiful son, and I could have chosen to like not do that ever again.
In fact, I did choose that for about four years. And then I didn’t, then I changed my mind and decided to go back into the depths of hell again. So, wow. Yeah. That’s what comes to mind.
CW: And was it because after four years you were like, oh, it wasn’t that bad, or,
MM: Nope, that wasn’t it. Who knows what preyed upon my- how old was I? 31-year-old mind?
CW: Yeah. Yeah.
MM: I wanted him to have a brother.
SH: Yeah.
MM: I thought I was supposed to. I thought I should.
CW: Yeah. Yeah.
MM: It was the right thing to do. You know, that’s your status, that’s your value in the Mormon world.
I thought, in fact, can I just, can I share one thing?
SH: Yes!
MM: I remember I was… So, I was pregnant with my third, uber sick playing the piano in primary, and the chorister leans over to me and she starts asking me about my kids and how many I have and blah, blah, blah. I was telling her I get really sick, and she’s like, oh, is that why you only had three kids?
SH: Wait, what?
MM: Yeah, that, wait, what? Like I don’t get any credit unless I can fill a minivan.
CW: Uhhuh.
SH: Wow.
