Oh My Blog.
Mormons are flipping trending right now. Feck. With Romney up for president, ‘The book of Mormon’ sweeping the Tony’s (last year and still sold out) and now Jeff on the Bachelorette possibly winning (if she’s lucky, i love him so much), you might think to yourself, ‘Hey, maybe Mormons are not only relevant but kinda interesting’.
And then you might ask yourself, ‘do i know any mormon?’. And the answer is Yes, you probably do.
I consider myself ‘bi-culturally mormon’ meaning that its in my blood as i was raised in a strict Mormon house, and i unvoluntarily subscribe to all the cultural loves that they have, but yeah, my lifestyle is different and i no longer attend.
But that doesn’t mean i can’t blog about it, because i blog about what i think and i think about Mormons a lot, so its my right. (let me be clear that i know these are stereotypes and that clearly every person in the world is different).
I have a very good Mormon-dar where i can sense if if not feel totally confidant about identifying a Mo. But for the laymen who aren’t so versed in Mormonisms’, here are 10 indicators to help you suss them out and perhaps become more like them….culturally.
1. They skip the coffee, and drink the diet coke. And by ‘some’ i mean fill up a 72 ounce double gulp bucket in the morning and sip constantly on it all day long.
I instantly think of my huge family, all of us with our matching big gulps. It’s a thing – Mormons love some Diet Coke. It’s unexplainable, don’t even try, really. Instead buy these cards that are really sweet, if you love diet coke, that is. And make me smile.
Buy them HERE.
3. We watch and reference Broadway Musicals. We/they are very musical. It’s partly genetic and partly because we start lessons really early (like 3) and constantly sing in church throughout our lives. But the love for musicals is two-fold – a. since we love music we love Musicals, duh. And b. growing up you aren’t allowed to watch anything R rated (or at our house often even PG-13 were banned) so musicals are kinda the go-to for clean entertainment.
In fact in my family we were told that our VCR literally wouldn’t take rated R movies. It just spits them out. Because of this i’m constantly trying to get caught up on all the 80’s movies that most of you have seen that you all reference all the time and i’ll tell you what, they don’t stand the test of time. I watched Top Gun two years ago for the first time and it kinda blows. Sorry.
But you know what doesn’t? Julie Andrews caring for 10 children battling Nazi’s.
S’right. The Sound of Music.
Buy it HERE.
There is also the racially charged West Side Story, sexually charged Oklahoma and comedically charged Mary Poppins in case you are anti-children wearing drapery as dresses which i am DECIDEDLY not against. In fact i’m very pro-that. But i love them all very much and i know i’m not alone in this.
Total sidenote, there is this movie that we all love:
HERE> Lots of kids, making lots of things, being super resourceful – totes Mormes.
Wait, one more… This is a strange one becasue there is no music (except the totally tear-inducing theme song), but somehow it is widely known as a family film for Mormons. I’ve blogged about it before, i tweeted about it last week, and this is not the last you’ll hear from me referencing the ‘Man from Snowy River’.
4. They ice block. Sober. With the absense of alcohol or sex, Mormons are far more creative in finding fun then secular folk. They also have to have inexpensive fun because yes, there are a lot of children normally involved. So growing up we did a lot of this:
Look how fun that looks. You buy a block of ice from the local grocer, go to a hill of grass, put a towel over the block and slide down whilst giggling. $5 fun. (just add wine). I’m sure there are even more creative ways of having fun now (remember snipe hunts?), but this was a staple growing up. So if you hear about a lot of adult games not involving the usual vices, its a Mo.
1. They Choose The Right and often where a ring that reminds them to do so. You get at 8 years old when you are baptized and it looks like this:
Its our/their version of ‘WWJD’, but i like how its even more ambiguous and doesn’t reference a God – just encourages to do whats right. Maybe its nastalgia, but i love the whole idea in general, as well as graphics and logo and color.
Check out this awesome pillow i found on Etsy.
Not for everyone, but i’m attracted to it.
