Growing up working class and biracial in Utah, son of a Mexican American man and Scots-Irish woman, in a white, politically conservative, Mormon community, I was always reminded to “not cause problems.”
Especially by my Mexican American father.
It made sense to me as a young boy, at the time.
I considered myself a “Mormon” boy, preparing to inherit a spiritual wealth of blessings if I simply obeyed the Ten Commandments as most good Christian boys understood them and acted within the additional spiritual obligations that Mormon boys understood to be their future rights.
(Taking multiple wives if not during our temporal lives, then in our post-mortal existences when we could also expect to colonize and “replenish” multiple worlds with our progeny, multiplying our power without limits.)
So it was simply a natural affirmation that I accepted my biological patriarch’s advice that was reinforced every Sunday and throughout the week during multiple meetings and family activities and personal actions (including prayer, journal writing, and a near constant obsession with doing right and good):
“Don’t cause problems!” Read the rest of this entry »
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