THE COMMON DENOMINATOR

I've been reading blogs for about 5 years now, and every now and then I've stumbled upon one which I get hooked on. They tend to be written by women in their 20's or early 30's, usually married, usually a baby or two, and they tend to be American. For ages I just thought it was something about Americans. They all seem to write really beautiful, successful blogs which make you completely envious of their seemingly perfect lives. They all seem blissfully happy with their husbands, and appear to be the perfect doting wives, totally happy with their traditional role within the home. They look great and trendy all the time, all have beautiful figures, are very social, crafty, creative, intelligent and loving, fun mothers. You might say I want to be more like them. They have totally enviable lives. Of course I know I am only seeing what they wish to share, so it's probably not quite the full story, but they certainly paint a very pretty picture. 

In the last few months, I've been reading more blogs than ever, and the more I read, the more obvious it became: all these women I adore are Mormons, or Latter Day Saints as they are also known as. This struck me as odd initially, as I'm very comfortable in the knowledge that I'm an atheist, through and through. So to be so taken with these women who follow a very specific sect of Christianity had me a little puzzled. I was curious.

I still am curious. So I've been researching, and it turns out I'm not alone. There are hundreds, if not thousands of women like myself who have become enchanted by this beautiful image created by all these lovely Mormon bloggers, and questioned why. I'm not going to lie, based on what I know of the actual religious beliefs and rituals associated with the LDS church, I think it's a little cult like. But when I think of cult members, I do not think of these lovely, kind, fun women I have grown to admire. 

I was having a conversation with James' mum about my recent fascination with Mormons, and she said she thought there was a church nearby, possibly near Lingfield. "No that's the other weird cult, the Scientologists. They're based out that way" but Lorna was confident there was also a Mormon church there. I remembered this conversation yesterday, and upon consultation with Google, it turns out she was right. The London England Temple is just outside of Lingfield, a 40 minute drive from me. It looked absolutely beautiful on the website, so when I woke up this morning and the sun was shining, I decided to take a drive over there and check it out. 

I'm a dreadful over thinker, and on my way there all I could think was "what if one of the Mormons stops me and asks me what I'm doing there, and upon realising I'm not a Mormon, they try to talk me into being one". By the time I arrived at the gates, my heart was racing and I wondered what on earth I was doing there. But you know what? It was lovely. The temple itself is just beautiful. Beau was asleep so I parked up and sat in the car for 10 minutes or so and just took it all in. The few people I saw wandering around just looked really nice, and really normal, much like my blogging ladies. Firstly I saw two men, probably in their late 60's or early 70's, who appeared to be walking back from the shops. They looked friendly, and the sight of them put me at ease. Next I saw a lady out running. Again she was probably in her late 60's. Now, about that. You rarely see a lady of that age group out running, so I'm guessing Mormons put a lot of emphasis on taking care of themselves and being healthy (I had got this impression from the bloggers all looking impeccable too), and that is an admirable quality in anyone. 

I decided to leave at that point, as Beau was still asleep and it didn't look like he was going to wake up anytime soon, so getting out of the car and going for a wander was unfortunately out of the question. On my way out, I saw that the running lady had bumped into another elegant looking older lady, and they were smiling and having a chat at the side of the road. They looked like the kind of ladies you might want as your grandparents. 

I decided, as I made my way home, that I'm going to go back when we have another sunny day. And next time I'm going to pay a visit to the visitors centre and hopefully have a walk around the beautiful grounds. I suppose I'm fascinated by the place, and I'm always interested to educate myself on the way different people choose to live, even if it's not the way I choose for myself.

Also, just down the road from the temple is a pub I've heard about many times, called The Wiremill. It's set on a lake and is supposed to be a great place to go for a scenic lunch, and I happened to drive right past the entrance today, so I'll definitely be paying them a visit next time too.

Anyway, I'm not converting to LDS anytime soon, but I am officially fascinated by it. Here are a couple more photos I took while I was there