Sophie's Story

     A few days ago I got a phone call from a friend. I was surprised as we had just seen each other the evening before when another couple had invited C and I and my friend and her husband over for dinner.    She wanted to apologize. She had made some unkind comments at me during the dinner and in the conversation afterward. She felt bad, because she really does like me and cares about me as a friend. As she went through the list of things she had said, I was a flabbergasted. Most of what she said, I had not heard. What I had heard, I ignored. My friend had been acting a little strange around me ever since I was called into the Relief Society leadership. (We both go to the same church.)   C told me that he suspected maybe she was a little jealous. After all I'm younger and have not been a member as long as she has. In a church that values age and experience, she would naturally have been considered more likely to be in leadership. I wasn't sure, but could think of no other log

     My parents recently moved into a senior apartment complex near where I live. Dad needed to get some things that they needed from their house down in southern Minnesota. We had decided that my sister was going to stay with my mother. I would ride with Dad.    I was very eager to see the house again. I had not been back since shortly after I got married which was 17 years ago. There was no reason to. Growing up in a small town in that part of the state is tough if you happen to be different.     One reason why I wanted to go is because I know that at some point in time we would be selling the house. Would I be all sentimental and sad about it? I wanted to know. I wanted to go back while it was still my parents' home, the one that my Dad designed and built himself. (although he did have some help.)    At around nine in the morning, Dad and I got into my mother's SUV and headed south. It was a fun drive. Much of the scenery was familiar although there was a few changes. The sk

     C and I were in the kitchen this morning. We were talking while C mixed up some pancake batter. We were both looking forward to a nice breakfast before we got on with our day. Suddenly we both heard a loud bang coming from outside. Then everything got a little darker. The microwave clock went dark. The stove light got dark,. The Christmas tree lights were off.     The power was out.    C looked outside to see if he could detect the problem. He could not. He took a flashlight downstairs to see if it was something inside the house. (Not likely given the noise came from outside) He made a phone call to the neighbors to see if their power was out. They were out of town. The neighbor on the corner checked in. Her power was still on but she is on a different grid than we are.    C called the power company. The automated line told him that they were aware of the outage and were working on it. Estimated time to repair 11:30 AM. (It was 8:30 AM. when he called.) We could handle this.     I

   In part 1, I wrote about being called as part of the three woman leadership team for Relief Society. A few days before that call came, I received the following in response to the column I wrote on New Years Day. "Sophie, I'm glad you realized that you can't change a culture.   As accepting, peaceful, and about doing no harm as your ideals are, it's just too big a project for one person - an exercise in futility.    Of course, now that you no longer have a job so big you don't know where to start, you can roll up your sleeves and get to work INFLUENCING that culture.  Your column is a good place to continue.  You left us (your readers) with a sense of futility and helplessness.  This is so unlike you. Will you leave that stand? Or will you work past your own emotional moment to continue inspiring us as you so often do?    My challenge to you is only this:  clearly define the change you would like to see in the world, find examples of these ideals being lived, and

     Before I begin a bit of explanation is in order. With two exceptions, all groups in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are led by three people. From the top of the church to the smallest congregations (called branches) three people lead. There is a president (or bishop) and two counselors.     One Sunday morning C got an email from the bishop. He wanted to know if C and I could meet with him in his office after Sunday school. C let him know immediately that we could. We both started speculating why the bishop asked us to meet. There's always a reason. Either there is a problem or he wants to extend a calling (for instance teaching Sunday school). Since neither of us could think of a problem that might involve us, it had to be a calling. The question now was, which one of us would be affected. C was a counselor in the Elder's Quorum (the men's group). I was attempting to teach four and five year olds. After a few minutes of speculation C said, "I think

        I managed to stay up until past midnight last night, a feat I'm seldom able to achieve these days. C and I celebrated the new year with an array of junk food and two movies "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and a 1986 version of "The Scarlet Pimpernel"    2021 was not what I had hoped for. I had hoped that by this time I would not be wearing a mask to work. I had hoped that we would be concentrating more healing and less on making all of our collective troubles worse. I'd hoped that some of the lessons we'd learned in 2020 could be put into practice. I'd hoped that society would be a less hateful place. Sigh.    It wasn't totally bad. C and I finally got our house sided. It looks like a new house. We got our new storm door up. The next outdoor projects are to paint the front door (It's peeling red paint right now.) and getting a new garage door. We are also going to plant a new tree in the front yard to replace the ash that died this