No sale

I thought that the festival of lights would be great opportunity to see the inside of the Mormon temple that dominates a certain turn along the Beltway landscape. It's looks vaguely like an UnEmerald City and catching sight of it after a long drive tells me that I'm almost home. Naturally, like every other Christian chruch's holiday pageantry, I assumed that the festivities would take place in the temple and I would finally get to see Oz for myself.

Instead, the experience featured viciously windy, near-freezing cold (Oh! How my New England root have deserted me after many years away from the motherland. I am as thin-skinned as any other mid-Atlantic protoSoutherner!), and a visitor center refuge sown with eager proselytizers intent on cheerfully and relentlessly... proselytizing (hey, I just learned to correctly spell the word). At first, I did not understand the ramifications of these interactions and genially expressed interest in learning about the differences between the Mormon faith and other Christian denominations. Luckily, my companion understood that I was only looking for short, academic answers, and quickly steered us away with blithe tall tales of youthful studies of the Book of Mormon. After we'd been stopped several times before making a complete turn about the lobby, I began to realize what my desire to see the pretty lights had gotten us into. I've never been so aggressively pitched in my life and I've done a lot of shopping! These people are certainly gung ho to collect stars for their heavenly crowns!!! I thought that my childhood church was very aggresive in their recruitment, but I'd never experienced anything quite like this gauntlet of attention!

I have to say that I did appreciate the directness of their approach - "Can I tell you about the book of Mormon?" was usually the 2nd or 3rd line in the dialogue, right after the exchange of names (and possibly, hugs). Also, I could appreciate their tactics from a marketer's perspective. All of the would-be recruiters were decently to ridiculously good-looking (especially those tall, blond boys. Yum! And, er, young. Very young.), very well-scrubbed and dressed, and almost comically polite and pleasant. All in all, while I was not inclined to sell my soul for a glimpse inside the temple, I couldn't help but feel warmth and a tinge of awe for people who so genuinely and actively believe in something, as well as the commanders that so skillfully deploy their troops. (That golden plate story, though? Has me scratching my head, still.)