Today, as I woke up, in part listening to the Infants on Thrones recent podcast about the FIRST VISION of Joseph Smith, and the controversy that surrounds it, and the controversy that surrounds the TELLING of it, I was led to reflect on how it affected me back in the early to mid-80s when I lived in Salt Lake.
I note now that I'm being VERY CAREFUL in my selection of words, because I have for many years desired to be both honest and accurate about what I write, and about what happened to me.
Definition: "BELIEF" includes both BELIEF and DISBELIEF.
Definition: "HONESTY" includes both HONESTY and DISHONESTY
And I now acknowledge that these two "ends" of spectrums do not depict the whole story.... nor can they depict the process through which I have gone during my life. No, I look back and realize that I went through various degrees and various patters of both BELIEF and HONESTY.
A purist might say it's "either-or" but I do not. I freely acknowledge that the process was murky, and that it took (or rather "I" took) years to complete....... IF you can call where I am now as "COMPLETE."
So, the chronology, along with the varying degrees of BELIEF and HONESTY, as I recall it today, is:
AGE YEAR RESIDENCE EDUCATION BELIEF HONESTY
0-4 50-54 Potomac, MD "home schooled" do not recall do not recall
*********
Can't do this here; I made a Google spreadsheet for it with the same title.
