I wrote a little before about the differences between the Utah and California Mormon experience. Something I could probably add is California Mormons have more and easier opportunities to make non-Mormon friends. Because Mormons are a small minority in any given Southern California workplace not owned by the Church, we’re more apt to befriend and hang out with Gentiles. It’s not a character thing, just a numbers thing. For example, among our closest friends is a Jewish family that includes us in all of their milestone and holiday celebrations; his wife used to do business with mine. I’m sure they’d be confused, though, if they read the part where I called them Gentiles.
I bring this up because my wife surprised me this morning by saying she’d be coming home late tonight. That’s not terribly unusual, but the reason for it was:
“I’m going to a drag queen’s Tupperware party.”
“A drag queen… A guy?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Dressed up like a woman?”
“Yup.”
“And he’s throwing a Tupperware party.”
“He’s the leading Tupperware seller in the country. I’ve been to his party before. I’m going with some friends from the office– it’s called “Not Your Mama’s Tupperware Party.” Free food and fun.”
I’d like to see how that would fly in East Millcreek, Utah.
I told the LDS girl who cuts my hair about it.
“Omigosh!” she squealed. “He’s (she’s? it’s?) famous! Do they need people to come?”
It turns out friends were welcome, so she’s meeting my wife downtown.
Because of the industry she’s in, the Mrs. has a number of gay male friends. Early in our marriage she even had a couple of slumber parties with them, presumably eating Ben n’ Jerry’s right from the pint, gabbing about furniture and George Clooney, and watching Merchant Ivory videos. Years ago, circumstances even once led us to an “alternative lifestyle” restaurant for a birthday party. To get to the restroom in the back, you had to run the gauntlet by shoving through a bar teeming with “regulars.” I tell you, there is no challenge two testosterone-charged manly men could come up for each other that comes close to this experience. Not even ordering that item on the Cowboy Grub menu touches it. So to speak.
On an entirely different note, I recently received a comment for an older entry from a member in Italy. It made me think how the Internet has made shopping, education, entertainment, communication and information equally and simultaneously available around the world. Where once young people in third world countries dreamed of being able to shop for Levi’s jeans (don’t laugh– it wasn’t that long ago) or take a special course in film editing, it’s now all available where they are– on the ‘Net. This has multiple implications: 1) Countless opportunities, for good or evil, have spread to countries and peoples where once options were extremely limited. 2) The global playing field has flattened where now exponentially more people can compete for jobs and business– the US no longer holds the advantage it did for the past 100 years. 3) The Church and its members now have access to practically the whole world. General conference and fireside talks– our blogs, for heaven’s sake!– shoot around the globe for all to see.
It’s now possible for more people than ever to communicate and collaborate– in real time– with more other people on more different corners of the planet than any previous time in the history of the world. The Gospel playing field is also being leveled as testimonies reach out around the globe and touch those who have never heard– or dreamed of– such wonderful tidings. While in man’s history we evolved from countries communicating and being empowered, to institutions communicating and being empowered, today we now have individuals communicating and being empowered through personal choices. Cultural and societal constraints are rapidly eroding by the surge of the broadband.
What’s more, while history shows that it was the Western countries and their people receiving all the empowerment, now as individuals around the earth are empowered with accessibility, a greater diversity of God’s children will be listening. And many of those will hear His voice.
Who among us old enough to remember playing Pong at the Pizza Hut imagined this would be happening in our lifetimes?
17 responses so far ↓
1 Andy E. Wold // Mar 26, 2008 at 7:59 am
I had to smile when you mentioned Pong at a Pizza Hut.
Sadly, there are no more sit-down Pizza Hut restaurants in Salt Lake. One more thing in my childhood that no longer exists.
2 David // Mar 26, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Andy,
I can’t believe that’s true. The one I remember hanging out in the most was right next to the Cottonwood Mall, on the street along its north side. It eventually became a cheap Chinese restaurant. There are a few good stories attached to that Pizza Hut… but that’s for another time.
3 Chris Bigelow // Mar 26, 2008 at 2:52 pm
All this interconnectedness is one main reason why the world will end. Before, you had some civilizations rotting while others were still blooming, so the overall planetary balance stayed OK. But now that we’re so interconnected, corruption and sin spreads into all civilizations simultaneously, so the whole world will go down the shit hole at the same time.
But yeah, it’s also a good tool for spreading the gospel too, on both sides of the veil.
4 David // Mar 26, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Chris,
Something else that occurred to me is, since the US and other Western powers are outsourcing and expanding facilities to lesser advanced nations– like India (not as “lesser” anymore, though, huh?), for example– it’s offering incentives for young people to find opportunities in their own familiar digs rather than slug it out in America. I’d be interested to see if this globalization results in less immigration.
5 David // Mar 26, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Chris,
But, yeah, I blame the Beatles.
6 queuno // Mar 27, 2008 at 12:47 am
My wife, who is in a position to know these things, claims that aforementioned drag Tupperware queen (probably Dixie Longate) is only about the 10th-most prolific seller. And he wasn’t even the original one…
7 queuno // Mar 27, 2008 at 12:49 am
(Not that I care. But she gets red-faced when someone mentions Dixie Longate and his methods. Apparently the original drag Tupperware queen was more “honest”. Whatever. It’s all sales, and they’re all alike, I think.”
8 David // Mar 27, 2008 at 2:18 am
Queuno,
Please tell your wife to put away the butcher knife. This Tupperware drag queen is Dee W. Ieye and the ladies love him/her.
9 Andy E. Wold // Mar 27, 2008 at 4:08 am
Chris, it is true — I just checked PizzaHut.com, and the nearest Dine-In restaurants are in Tooele, Park City, Heber City, and Brigham City.
I think that the one in my neighborhood, Rose Park, was one of the last hold-outs in Salt Lake County.
10 David // Mar 27, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Andy,
Well, as nostalgic as I am for the old dine-in Pizza Hut, if I found myself hungry in Heber you’d see me at Chick’s Cafe.
11 xoxoxoxo // Mar 27, 2008 at 9:46 pm
God bless Chick’s…amen.
And the world is surely coming to an end when any self respecting gay male considers Tupperware the Prada of plastic. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh
12 David // Mar 28, 2008 at 2:31 am
The devil wears ice pop molds?
BTW, I was pricing homes in Highland, UT today to see how badly we SoCallies are getting gouged. I determined that for around the same price, you could get about 2 more bedrooms and 1,500 more sq. feet there than the neighborhoods we’re considering moving to here. On the other hand, I saw it was 38 degrees there and 75 here (it was over 90 Easter weekend). Ah, the choices we make…
13 robsh // Mar 28, 2008 at 3:35 am
You could buy two houses in North Texas.
14 xoxoxoxo // Mar 28, 2008 at 4:31 am
Robsh….yeah…but it’s Texas. There’s a reason they have to give the houses away…:P
David-one thing the devil could always use more of is frozen products.
And in Where I Live, UT probably 3 bedrooms, another full bath and fresh air. Pulled a flyer off of the model home across the street last night while I walked the dog. The same builder has homes in another development close by-3700 sq ft-are you sitting down?…dropped their prices to $249K. Went to a “jewelry party” tonight at the opposite end of the street in a home we looked at prior to picking our current house, a gorgeous cul-de-sac property with a view outside and 4750 sqft inside. Asked the hostess what it ended up selling for-$349,900.
Oh, and two days ago it was 67 degrees, but it snowed this morning. You gotta love the variety!
15 David // Mar 28, 2008 at 6:00 am
xoxoxoxo,
I guess we’ve just become hopelessly acclimated or domesticated or conditioned to the bland sunshine and light breezes of Southern CA. We’d rather suffer in shirts n’ shorts in March than revel in the sub-zero euphoria of the everlasting hills. Of course I miss seasons (more so on the East coast) and the smell of pine and cottonwood creeks. But it ain’t exactly the ninth circle of hell out ‘tchere neither. I mentioned to LL (the mrs.) about my great house finds in Highland, UT and she said, “Yeah, but you’d be living in Highland, UT” and that was the end of that subject.
16 xoxoxoxo // Mar 31, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I note that she said “YOU’d” be living in Highland….not “we”. LOL
17 David // Apr 2, 2008 at 12:44 am
Interpret it any way you like, skippy, the only reason you’ll find me in Highland is 1) I’m lost or 2) I’m visiting family to score Lunestra from that swell medical bro-in-law of mine.
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