Friday and Saturday

The Mormon Elders came to lunch. They brought cider, non-alcoholic of course, and talked to me while I finished cooking. They liked the greens, spoonbread, blackeyes, and coleslaw, and I gave them leftovers.

One of them is a convert to LDS who's slightly older (21-ish) than most missionaries. The other one has been in the field a whole month. We discussed religion, but there were digressions. Both of them like science fiction and one was really impressed by my Stargate collection. The younger one's favorite sci-fi is Battlefield Earth. He was appalled when I told him that L. Ron Hubbard had founded Scientology.

Part of me thinks the missions aren't a bad idea. I don't particularly care for proselytizing, even back when I was religious myself, but getting late teenagers away from their families and out into the wide world is not a bad thing.

Then I found out some of their rules. No newspapers. Email is limited to their families and they get only half an hour a week. They get eight hours off a week. They must be home by nine-thirty every night. No movies.

Here's the biggy: They are, for the two years they are in the field, only permitted to read eight books. Four of them are "The Quad" -- the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Wisdom, Doctrines and Covenants, and one more whose name escapes me. The other four all have to do with LDS theology.

My personal favorite: They are not allowed into a single woman's apartment without a third man present.

I told them I like to start the new year as I mean to go on -- sharing good food and talk with people. They then told me about the single woman rule and the younger said, "Cool. We're going to break rules this year." *G*

I plan to give them my email address and give them each a book -- knowing they won't be permitted to read it or contact me for a year or more -- before they get rotated to another part of their missionary region. I welcome suggestions on books from my friend's list. No explicit sex or extreme violence, please -- I want them to read the books.

On Saturday, they invited me to a concert at the Visitor's Center at Disneyland on the Beltway the local temple. The music was marvelous; the performer had been First Violin with the National Symphony before retiring to look after her family.

I found out the younger one is a huge Gershwin fan who wishes they were allowed to listen to music. The older one hugged every missionary he knew, and he knew most in the region. I think he must be starved for touch.

In the car, we talked and I explained that my tutoring in Technology and Art and, last year, in Technology and Ethics was my attempt at getting my students to start applying critical thinking to the world around them. We got into all sorts of conversations off of it -- favorite words, learning styles, etc. -- and one of them asked me why critical thinking was so important to me.

I put it in religious terms, although they know I'm atheist. Critical thinking is the one thing we have which truly separates us from the animals. Our brains developed to allow it and our extended childhood learning enables us to make comparisons and have a foundation before facing the world. As I put it, if you believe we're made in God's image, then this is the faculty which illustrates it.

I hope they enjoyed lunch, their leftovers, and the concert.