Do you remember that scene in The Sixth Sense (1999) where child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is talking to young Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) about what he wants to get out of their sessions together?
Cole looks right up at him and says, “Instead of something I want, can it be something I don’t want?”
“Okay.”
“I don’t wanna be scared anymore.”
I was born and raised in a Mormon (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) household. My parents and my church-going community instilled a set of beliefs in me about my role in life and how to obey them in order to be saved. There are lots of rules to be obeyed in Mormonism and, good girl that I was, I was happy to oblige the rules.
Until I wasn’t.
There is basically one path in life for Mormons, which is to get married in a temple to another Mormon and raise Mormon children. Then die and go to Mormon heaven, which is the bestest and most exalted of all the heavens, and, of course, only the bestest and most obedient of Mormons can go there. (Forgive me being tongue in cheek, it’s a coping mechanism.)
