Wednesday, October 8, 2008

life under the bubble

as a mormon who was raised outside the bosom of "zion," there are some decidedly strange and unexpected phenomena about living in utah for the first time as an adult. a few examples: seeing an apostle stock up on sour patch kids (bet you didn't know they were jeffrey r. holland's favorite, did you?), or going on a bunch of dates with, and totally falling for, a guy who turns out to be your (third) cousin (it doesn't only happen on tv). or, heading to the grocery store on an otherwise uneventful friday night for some ice cream to go with your chocolate chip cookies and discovering this:



yes, we are talking about a national chain grocery store and yes, that is a tower of mormon-themed greeting cards and yes, i still think this is totally weird.

i mean, really, what is normal about coming across a card like this at the grocery?



many of the cards drew some rather concerning (not to mention devaluing) parallels, as you can see below. (really? bond of eternal marriage = bond of super glue?).



the most troubling, though, were those cards, like this one, that walked the blurry line between sound mormon doctrine and often-faulty mormon culture. (i am pretty sure christ never baked a casserole. i'm just saying...)



and, winner of my personal favorite (not in a good way) for the night:



i am most sorry to report that the inside of this card reads, "no greater calling."

i'm sure convinced. who's with me?

5 comments:

Naomi said...

I also like the LDS book section at Wal-Mart, but these cards take the prize.

Barf.

Anonymous said...

Oh! Oh! I totally agree! Moving to our little "mormon mecca", if you will (even though I spent much time in Idaho growing up), has proven to be a cultural adventure of sorts. Which leads to my next question, what led you here miss? I'm inclined to admit it was "one of those feelings" as well as a handsome man that lured me from where I was living before, now it's kind of like, okay, this has been great, now when do I get the ocean again? Heh. Heh. ;)

Kate said...

That totally looks like me!

...Except for the vacuuming.

Twinkie said...

ah....i'm so glad you finally posted the pics and wrote about our lovely excursion to a grocery store one uneventful friday night. i'm so glad that the night ended up turning eventful with us being on the ground laughing at the supermarket when we came upon these cards. precious precious moments....

lenalou said...

I may have to rip that last card up if I see it at the grocery store.