Why Do Mormons Keep Hugging Me?

A Jehovah's Witness, a Mormon and a Lawyer walk into a bar... Seriously. It has been my experience that Lawyers do not randomly embrace strangers (when money has NOT changed hands). I know and love many Jehovah's Witnesses and they rather frequently hug me because we are family and also we like each other. I could not, of course, speak to their hugging protocol upon encountering a stranger. But there is something quite pronounced about the hugging practices of Latter Day Saints (Mormons). Let me first tell you that I am Mormon. Currently, as I write this post, I am proud of that fact. I have, shamefully, not always been eager to share this piece of my identity. Maybe because i wasn't going to church much or maybe I wasn't in the mood for all the hugging and I just kept my membership status to myself. Of course, this does no good whatsoever because Mormons do not discriminate in their hugging activities. This brings up another aspect of mormonism worth mentioning: certain types of "hugging activities" are coincidentally, forbidden before marriage. Oops.

But I digress. As in any other organized group of civilized and affectionate people, Latter Day Saints often feel moved or prompted to indiscriminately hug those individuals with whom they are "anxiously engaged" in conversation. Haphazard as this may seem, I believe it to be a sincere gesture of our love for all people and the righteous desire to spread the Gospel by osmosis.

I began this blog as simply a "Modern Mommy" seeking to define myself in the chaos and anxiety that is marriage, stay home motherhood and all the other seemingly selfless "hats" women wear in the 21st century. Role play, play dates, no romantic dates, no sleep and the inevitable pharmaceutical intervention: the antidepressant. AKA the Modern Mommy's best friend. Then, recently, I outed myself on my blog as being bipolar. Slightly altering my targeted demographic, and possible alienating much of my truly desired audience. Real mommy (MOM-101, CrabMommy, Joy Unexpected, and the great people behind The Mommy Blog and The Soccer Mom Vote) and daddy (LA Daddy and The Blogfathers) bloggers & readers, who find boredom, humor and anxiety a part of their daily lives. I cannot fail to mention and pay homage to another popular circle of bloggers so near and dear to my heart and readership, the scrapbooking moms. Topping my charts, as always is the incomparable Cathy Zielske.

Bipolar is a scary, unfamiliar and largely misunderstood thing. This might turn off a few readers. Then I casually mention I am Mormon. This revelation is a lot like the initial selection process on American Idol. I am imagining hordes of you not advancing to the next round with me. A mass exodus.

Why not click on over to one of my favorite daily reads, Dooce. Self proclaimed "recovering mormon" She is hysterical. And she and I are proof positive that Mormon or not, the craptacular quality that allows us all to laugh at ourselves, make fun of serious or private moments, and see the world in all it's glory and disappointment is what makes us real. Even if we are heavily medicated, mentally unstable members of a cult with questionable hugging practices.