Requiem for a Thought

Sitting in a hot car at the intersection of Highway 377 and FM 1709, I watch the cars pass. Mostly it’s large trucks heading to and from construction sites. In a way, 377 forms a de facto border. To the west is the largely undeveloped land to which I figure most of the trucks are heading. New homes are waiting to be built or finished and soon the land will look much like the land to the east – relatively developed and thriving – as Ft. Worth’s newest northern suburb.

Yet from my car it is not a truck that captures my eye but a bicycle. Two bicycles to be accurate, traveling east to west across 377 and continuing on down the ever narrowing 1709 as it meanders and snakes across the land. They don’t realize, I’m sure, that they will inevitably cause frustration for drivers who happen to be behind them as the road does narrow and thus taking with it any option to pass the bicyclers. And I also figure, that the as drivers soon notice that the two riding the bikes are dressed in black slacks, white shirts, necktie, and helmet, they might just scoff.

Indeed, this scene of two Mormon missionaries crossing a bustling commercial road gave me pause to think not only about them and their lives, it also caused me to rethink this whole “blog” thing. So after hearing from a couple of friends and regular bloggers that I, too, should set-up a blog, it was two Mormons, whom I have never met nor probably will ever meet, who gave me that final push. Why?

I’m reading Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven, which chronicles the 1984 killing of a mother and child and the hands of Mormon Fundamentalists. Without going into detail, the book has caused me to question the validity of the religion given its unusual history. (NOTE: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is wholly different from Mormon Fundamentalism but my views are applicable to both.) But I don’t like it. I don’t like to question someone’s religious beliefs but I find myself doing it and feeling guilty for it.

So what exactly, given that digression, about those two Mormons would spark this blog? The answer is two fold. It was their belief in their religion, not my belief in mine. Here were two guys probably around 20 years old on a mission. They are willing to suffer the scoffs, and the spit which inevitably flies their way, the crude hollers and honks for their religion, not mine.

And it was then that I realized we three shared a belief in something bigger than ourselves. And that that was enough. Regardless of what I think about Mormonism as a faith, here were two of its strongest adherents and me with my faith. Their faith may be wrong; my faith may be wrong; but its in believing in something that I think we shared everything. (I suppose I’m ecumenical like that.)

And it was that brief moment in time at that busy intersection and the realization – however minor – that occurred there that sparked this blog. I hope to fill this blog with similar ideas and stories. The blog is called “Requiem for a Thought” because I want to put to rest my many thoughts in hope that they may be remembered as they were and continue to live as they are.

Soon thereafter the light turned green and my car was still hot. The trucks next to me clunked into gear, spitting smoke and reverberating ugly noise. The bikes and their riders were gone, as I looked down the road watching it narrow and snake into the horizon.