That's So Mormon!

The phrase gets used a lot - by my non-LDS friends, my LDS buds and myself. Usually, I've heard it used in the context of cooking, scrapbooking, baking, getting married and wanting to have kids. In reality, it's everything that embodies an amazing woman who, with or without the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints... is probably already seeking for such traditional and inherent pasttimes. This does not negate the fact that a woman can still be eloquent, intelligent and educated - only that the fact that the phrase is used so often, makes me realize how far society has influenced us to believe we must separate the two spectrums when in fact, it can be one.

With life moving at the supreme speed of light, with everything automated and abbreviated, with acronyms overflowing our colloquial conversations, with encouragement and emphasis on efficiency and effectiveness... have we become so far removed from that which makes us happy that the phrase "That's so Mormon" can even exist for anything fundamentally beautiful such as cooking... craft making... getting married... and heaven forbid... wanting kids?!

The daunting question and the curiosity that resides with everyone's question of ..."what's next?" constantly looms - LDS or not. Hauntingly, there's the knowledge that one should carpe diem and live everyday as if it were your last... but let's be frank, if it were you last... what would you be doing? Would you be eagerly looking for that special someone to start a family with? Would you be eagerly looking for a fulfilling career? Would you be eagerly partaking in hobbies that complete you?

That's So Mormon is awesome. Don't be afraid of it. And when I use it towards you, know that it just means for that precise moment, you denied the standards society sets for you and celebrated being you. And that you ... might be baking, might be sewing, might be scrapbooking, might be cleaning... but that doesn't mean that you might not also be reading the journal, talking about politics, strategizing your finances or critically thinking. The two are not mutually exclusive!

And I leave you with my favorite recent "That's so Mormon" moments...