In Episode 267, Susan and Cynthia ask Jen, Jessie, and Anne, What Do You Say? It’s the fifth installment of ALSSI’s series of episodes involving questions, answers, and the wide-ranging conversations they inspire among Latter-day Saint women.
Notes & Quotes:
Hear our previous conversation with Jen Dille on ALSSI Ep. 233
Hear more from Anne Pimentel on ALSSI Ep. 192 and Ep. 214
Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion, by Pema Chödrön, Emily Hilburn Sell (Editor)
Brené Brown on How to Reckon with Emotion and Change Your Narrative, by Brené Brown, O, The Oprah Magazine, 9/2015
“Do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly, or do I choose to live and die in fear?” —Pema Chödrön
“We can bring ourselves back to the spiritual path countless times every day simply by exercising our willingness to rest in the uncertainty of the present moment—over and over again.” —Pema Chödrön, (p. 7 Kindle)
“Steve opened the refrigerator and sighed. ‘We have no groceries. Not even lunch meat.’ I shot back, ‘I'm doing the best I can. You can shop, too!’ ‘I know,’ he said in a measured voice. ‘I do it every week. What's going on?’ I knew exactly what was going on: I had turned his comment into a story about how I'm a disorganized, unreliable partner and mother. I apologized and started my next sentence with the phrase that's become a lifesaver in my marriage, parenting and professional life: ‘The story I'm making up is that you were blaming me for not having groceries, that I was screwing up.’ Steve said, ‘No, I was going to shop yesterday, but I didn't have time. I'm not blaming you. I'm hungry.’” —Brené Brown
In re. Voicemail 2, I think the reason men are not offended or insulted by the idea that we're so spiritually incompetent that we “need the priesthood” to bring us up to snuff is that men don't believe that. I don't mean" “deep down, we don't believe it,” I mean men just don't believe it. There's no secret Elders Quorum conspiracy to put this over on the good sisters of the church. It's just one of those things that gets said, because we need an excuse for something egregiously stupid and unfair, and everyone shrugs and moves on. Men are not offended because we don't believe it.
To clarify my own belief, I think that each of us, man or woman or pick your preference, is probably more spiritually advanced than some people and quite a bit less than others, but gender has nothing to do with it. But then I don't try to make excuses for why women don't have the priesthood, I just call it “wrong.”
I'm not real popular at church.
Just listened to this episode, and a thought popped into my head. Cynthia said, "to center God as only male", centering men. And my thought was that perhaps in the earliest times of human history, with God as a woman and her creative ability, instead of that being a lesson to men to embrace the feminine divine, a masculine god was conjured/focused on, so that men could embrace the poor sides of masculinity instead of bettering themselves.
Anyway, love what y'all are doing, and thank y'all!