Utah Culture

1)
Aleeza walked into my office on Monday morning and asked, "What does it mean when they say, "He had work to do beyond the veil"?

"It means that someone died and God needs the person in heaven. Why? Where did you hear that? Who died?"

"President Hinkley died and all the news coverage has been saying that he had work to do beyond the veil. I've been watching it all morning."

2)
As I have mentioned, my sister is in graduate school at the University of Utah. At the beginning of the first semester, someone (this is real, folks) suggested that they each take turns bringing treats for everyone in the class. One woman took it upon herself to call everyone and remind him/her when it was their turn to bring the treats. The idea that graduate students would take the time and spend the money to bring treats weekly to 30 or so peers is so bizarre to me. It took Lesha until the second semester to opt out of the treat rotation; others have followed in her lead.

3)
All the flags, and I do mean all of them- at businesses, schools, and churches, flew at half mast the entire week after President Hinkley's death. Although I knew that he had passed away, it took me 6 days to figure out who had died. I couldn't get it through my head that private businesses and government offices would be flying the flag at half mast for a week.

4)
There is such a thing as "Utah compression". (Prof. Postigo made me promise to site him if I ever use this term, which he is proud to have invented.) Utah compression refers to the fact that in other parts of the country/world, it is normal to date for a while before getting married, and then a year engagement is perfectly reasonable. In general, some amount of time that passes before a couple moves in together, and then a little more time passes before the engagement, and then even more before the wedding. Well, that isn't so much the case here. Here, you need to factor in the Utah culture, which holds that a 6 month engagement is an awfully long time. I remember being told that a long engagement had been known to "encourage sin". After all, if you are going to get married anyway, how long can you really wait to have sex? Apparently, 4 months is the perfect balance- short enough to maintain chastity, long enough to book the caterer and the photographer. I think this mentality ends up filtering from the saints into the lives of my fellow sinners.