Waterworks??

Recently I opened the catalog which comes in the mail from Deseret Book and came across a painting which brought tears to my eyes. I am no stranger to the effect of visual stimulation stirring up emotions within me...but I am not a cryer! Unless I am in the first three months of pregnancy or the first three months after giving birth...there has to be something pretty traumatic going on to make me cry and most times crying is usually the third or fourth option...usually after beating something up :)

So as I sit here crying over this picture...I gather myself together...internally poke fun of myself and my momentary lapse of reason and open the magazine once again to check out what else they have in the catalog. I am again immediately drawn to this picture and again the waterworks...

I shut the catalog...thinking to myself "you have got to be kidding me!" A piece of art has never before brought me to tears! I actually had a 2 second thought "Is my IUD still there?" I gathered myself together again and was able to finish looking thought the catalog without further interruption...Thank Goodness!

I told no one about this incident and went on living life...

Fast Forward a month or so and I get home from getting my haircut the Tuesday after my birthday and my front step in littered with packages (Thanks Mom and Dad!) I begin to open my birthday gifts and because we are vacationing as a family to the beach this year (the only surprise would be which beach)... I got a monogrammed beach bag, two water cannons and a beach tent (see Daniel's blog dated 8/6/2007 for a picture of the upright beach tent)

There was also this really huge box which upon opening revealed a beautifully framed and matted (Scott and Cindy...there are not words enough to explain the gratitude in my heart for the two of you!) was a signed copy of the picture which had brought up such emotion in me that day. It had a slight crack in the glass from shipping but I want to share it with you...

The picture is called "The Worth of a Soul" by Liz Lemon Swindle. Attached to the back of the painting was a beautiful story of why she painted this picture along with her personal loving testimony of a Savior, who can fix all wounds no matter how great if we allow him the faith to do so.

Growing up where I did I always felt that there was never too many of one race, religion, economic status, or any other thing over represented at one place at any given time because quite frankly there never really was. It was obvious that people were different. People dressed differently, ate differently, observed different holidays, smelled different, spoke different, had different religious practices, and many, many other things. It was a never ending discovery of differences in people who were fundamentally the same. I loved growing up in Rockville, Marylard. I view it is a gift my parents gave to me...it allowed me the qualities of tolerance and acceptance of not only others but ultimately of myself.

Upon graduation from High School I went college and spent on and off the majority of the following six years in either Idaho or Utah. This transition was a very hard one for me to make. I still recall sitting in Farmington Utah at a fourth of July fireworks show and looking around seeing a Sea of blond haired, blue eyed children. Peppered in were a few red headed children but on that night I was even hard pressed to find any Mexican children. Now don't get me wrong...I am a strawberry blond-blue eyed girl. I come from a beautiful family of light skinned blond haired, blue eyed children with peppered in red heads and we are 90% LDS too (okay less but you get the picture) My family is one thing...but a whole state...well that was more than I could handle! I guess it boils down to everything that I just explained that I loved about living in Rockville seemed to be the complete opposite of living in Utah. (I guess that's why I found all the athlete's who where scolarshiped in from the East and West Coast's and hung out exclusively with them.)

I bring this up just as personal preference and only my opinion. I understand that many people love living in Utah and enjoy the benefits of raising a family there. But I would rather pull out my toenails one by one once a week for the rest of my life than ever move back there.

I say all of this to get to my point which is...at times...when I look at art done by LDS artists I feel as though I am brought to the same feelings that I felt when I lived in Utah. That the majority of the people of the world are not represented! It drives me insane! Where are the children with disabilities? Where are different skin tones and hair textures of the world? Where are the different cultures and clothing's of people outside of our immediate niche?

I do get that artists drawl what they know and are familiar with and that in recent years I have seen more representations of a wider array of people. So in defence of someone elses argument...it is getting better. Yet it still has a ways to go. It has been a sore spot of mine if you will. I don't ever want my children to feel they are in a church of "white" people and they stick out. It would be my hope that they would never feel that way...simply because it is not true! but reality is that children do notice differences especially in themselves.

Having children of African American heritage I have always been worried about the message that a lack of representation of other children or adults who specifically look like they do may send to them...but the Spirit teaches of truth and that truth is that they are of Divine Worth. I want them to know...more than anything, that they are Children of their Father in Heaven...entitled to all of his love, protection and blessings...regardless of what they look like (or on a deeper note regardless of what mistakes that they may make...as long as they use repentance as the tool for which it was designed)

So enough about my issues with Utah and art...and now that you are fully filled in on my greatest desires for my children as they grow in wisdom and in stature. I will share my testimony of the tender mercies given to me by my Father in Heaven. This picture spoke to the depths of who I am. It will hang with pride in my home as reminder to my children that they may never have to question that THEY ARE represented in the house of the Lord...and every time I look at this picture...I am also filled with the knowledge of the healing power of the Savior. For he truly knows the worth of each and every one of us. My Father in Heaven was so personally aware of my righteous desires to teach my children of Him and my struggle to do so without reinforcement that He...through the hands of His "servants on earth" made it possible for me to relax in the knowledge that I am doing enough and allow this priceless piece of artwork to do its job in my home. For this gift I will always be grateful!

Thanks to everyone! Kim for finding the picture...Mom and Dad for buying, sending, and having it signed...and Scott and Cindy for the matting and framing. It is one of the best gifts I have ever received!