Ah, noodles!

I was honored when Neo asked me to blog with him. More than that, though, I was touched. I don’t suppose I need to explain why. Neo’s journey has been (and will continue to be) a marvelous surprise to me and I’m delighted to be along for the ride. Even though he calls me his apostate mom, I will confess that I have recently felt that I have been prepared to be his mother. That idea is very mormon-ish, as many of you will recognize, yet my preparation has been anything but orthodox. I promise I will speak more of this preparation as things progress here.

The Oracle is, of course, another reference to The Matrix. I thought it would be a good idea to keep the theme going. Though I could probably go all symbolic on y’all, let’s just say I chose the Oracle because she is always in the kitchen baking cookies – an appropriately motherly activity. The Oracle knows “enough” and that also seems appropriate. Finally, she likes to bake people’s noodles and that sounds like fun to me.

Here’s to baked noodles…..

Good News

Sooo...

I convinced my mom to co-author my blog (not that it was hard, she wanted to). She is really neato. And smart. And has some good things to say, and I think you will all enjoy her posts throughly. I love my mom, I wish all your moms were as good as she has been with the issues at hand. She is using "Oracle" as her handle. You should all be looking forward to her posts, I know I am.

The Red Pill

I am posting this to explain the meaning behind “Taking the Red Pill” for those of you who do not understand. In the smallest, most concise nutshell I can put it in, "Taking the Red Pill" means being forcefully and painfully removed from one paradigm about life and being shoved into a new one. It means having your perspective on reality shattered and then be replaced with something new and something utterly unexpected. And Neo is the character who that happens to.

The red pill (as opposed to the blue pill) is in reference to a scene from The Matrix. Yes, it is rated R (I’m not sure why though… I found nothing particularly offensive about it) so with our Mormon backgrounds I assume that many of you have not seen it... yet. If you have not seen it, I would highly recommend it, it contains some powerful archetypal symbols. I feel a real affinity for it. Here is the clip from the movie about the red pill. It also somewhat explains what the Matrix is. The film however is quite intricate and involved and has many levels, so you would get the most out of watching it yourself, but this should help.





I feel like I took the red pill last August, and have since been experiencing the painful process of falling down the rabbit hole and leaving the Matrix. It makes me feel so apostate but I think of the Church as my matrix... I will explain more fully in the future, but hopefully this at least gives some insight.

If you cant tell, I also got the name "Neo" from The Matrix. At first I thought that it might be a little egotistical. If you have seen the movie, you know that he is the "One" who will destroy the Matrix and become an almost Messiah-like figure. I am not trying to say that I have some great truth to deliver to society or that I view myself as the One or anything. The thing about The Matrix is that everything that happens is a physical projection on a screen of a process entirely contained within oneself-- a process that we all have the potential of going through. Each of the characters in the movie represents a different part of oneself. In the end, we are all, at least in part, Neo unto ourselves. Neo just stood out to me like a nice pseudonym, and is not just me being arrogant. :)

PS I own a copy of the film. You are welcome to borrow it.

On Writing

On February 28th, 2008 I was having one of those beloved all day parties with my friend the HBLL. It was midterm time and I was about half way through my paper when this thought washed over me: “Tommy, you need to start writing. Who cares what it is, just write. Something more formal than a journal, but still casual enough to be a pleasant experience. You have too much going through your mind these days not to record it.” That was at least the effect of it at least. I recorded what I thought more accurately, but that slip of paper is currently on the very bottom of an overfilled box that is 1,000 miles away.

I acted on that prompting and began exploring a proper outlet for my new desire to write. I thought about writing poetry. I love reading it, so why not have a go at writing it? That experiment did not go so well, I need more schooling in the forms I like before attempting to write my own. I did lots of theater in high school so I considered writing a play, or at least a series of monologues. I found that all the thoughts that were running through my mind that I desired to get down on paper were too disjointed to form into a coherent play. After not being able to find a satisfactory outlet, I gave up slightly. I had done my looking, so decided that life would place the proper outlet in front of me when the time came. When it did come, I vowed to snatch it up.

Life has come through for me once again (it seems to have a knack for doing that). I have found the world of blogs. I have the perfect place to express the thoughts I have wanted to get out and the perfect community to receive them. And though I hope I have something new to contribute to this blogsphere, I am mainly writing for myself. I want to record all the things that have happened to me in the last year so that I can look back on this part of my life and know exactly what was running through my head.

This blog makes me feel slightly vulnerable. I am going to be putting my deepest, most precious and important thoughts online for all to see. I will be discussing events in my past that I am not proud of (sorry if I shock you Mom!). Some of you may agree with every word I have to say, others may disagree and think me a poor misled young fool, which is fine—I’m getting used to that and need to prepare for more of it. ;) But just remember, I am not writing to please anyone but myself, so there will be no censorship.

I hope you enjoy what I have to say! I will be posting a rapid series of foundational entries here within the next week, but things should slow down after that. I have so much to say! I am clueless as to where to start, but am looking forward to joining the world of blogs.