175: Word Shakers

Latter-day Faith

LDS general conferences are often difficult for Latter-day Saints who are experience shifts in their faith, but at the same time wonderful boons to others. Certain talks can be painful reminders of ideas and ways of approaching God and life that we who are in the midst of faith journeys have come to find unhealthy; just as many are exhilarating to others and and fill them with hope. The key determiner in how certain messages will strike our hearts is "us." We come to conference in all sorts of states of mind, and we are often only primed to receive what's said with certain ears. If we expect to find close-minded pronouncements, we will find them. If we are able to sit in a greater space of peace, we will find much that sings to us, as well. As LDS host Dan Wotherspoon was engaging with early April's conference, his mind hit upon the metaphor of "word shakers," which he had encountered in a powerful novel, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. It is contained within a short parable within the book itself and refers to those who climb trees that are made of words (and we are trees also constituted to a large degree by words), and help shake down those that are stuck or that aren't landing and being picked up by the people below in the way they deserve to be. Trees made of horrendous words ugly ideas have word shakers helping spread them to those waiting below, and likewise, wonderful, expansive, empowering words have their shakers, too. In the context of general conference, we might imagine church leaders as perched in the branches of the Gospel Tree containing so many wonderful words that make it so beautiful. They will search the branches for words they want to shake down. Their choices of what to shake are dependent upon their own ways of interpreting the Gospel message, as well as their particular temperaments, where and when they were raised or discovered the Gospel, and what has worked "for them" as they grew and developed into who they are and what they see. But, ultimately, it is we who hear the words being shaken who determine whether or not we will be influenced by them and make them a part of us, or if we will reject them because we find them lacking the words and ideas of the Gospel that most resonate with us. In this episode, Dan reflects upon this metaphor as well as how general conference strikes various people in various ways, but ultimately his goal is to suggest how we can all use conference as a powerful time for self-examination and, eventually dialing down to what we value most--and why that is. Like all "inner work," our processing of conference messages must begin by examining the emotions that stir inside of us when we hear them. And it is through these reflections that we gain greater self-knowledge, a clearer sense of whether or not these reactions come from a healthy place, a place of wholeness and peace, or if there is something we may need to look at and examine more closely. Inner work "works" when it brings things to our attention things we might have bypassed and ignored that are nevertheless affecting us in in profound ways. And when we encounter those and gain a clearer picture of what they are, we find ourselves in a state where we might begin to heal the wounds they reveal. General Conference = Great Catalyst (for gaining more self-knowledge and healing). What have the word shakers released into our worlds during the two days of conference, and why are certain ones falling from the same Gospel Tree affecting us the way they are? Maybe this metaphor will provide us a more neutral way to view the role given to those who share from the conference pulpit.