Allan: For all her service, talents, and leadership, because she was a woman, my grandmother would never be ordained to the priesthood. Not in the regular operations of the LDS Church, anyway. But in the temple and in the covenants my grandmother wore to her death, she wore the power of the priesthood and acted in its authority.
[Enter B and F]
Allan: But I think I would like you to learn about that
from two women who have often been close to my family. This is Sister Kelley
and Sister Jensen.
B and F: Hi there.
Allan: I was hoping you wouldn’t mind telling them how you
know me and my family, maybe a little about the temple, particularly the
garments, and maybe how you helped dress my grandmother before her funeral.
B (laughing): Oh wow. Well, that’s a lot.
F: Allan, I don’t know that we should talk about some
of these things outside of the temple.
Allan: Oh no, they’re good. And just share whatever you
feel most comfortable talking about.
B: Well, hi. My name’s Susan. I guess Allan grew up
knowing me as Sister Kelley.
F: And I’m Minty Jensen.
B: We both grew up with Allan’s mom when they lived in
our ward. And then after Kathy moved back…
F: That’d be Allan’s mom.
B: Right, when Kathy and her family moved back into the
area, well we all had children about the same age. My youngest Amos was about
Allan’s age.
F: And my
daughter Hillary was a year younger.
B: I remember being their primary or Sunday school
teacher. I guess you see how that just makes things full circle since we knew
Kathy’s mom when she was our Young Women’s Leader. I feel like Betty, well, she
was just like a second mother to us. So when she died, Kathy and her sisters
asked us if we would help them dress her before the funeral.
Allan: When Mormons who have been endowed die and have
decided to be buried, after embalming, family members or close friends dress
the dead in their temple garments, white clothes, and other sacred clothing
worn during temple ceremonies.
F: When you go to the temple, you enter into certain
covenants. The temple is a very sacred and holy place; it is the House of the
Lord. But we can’t live there every day. We have to live in the world and it
can be a hard and tempting place. We wear the garment to remind us of the
promises we have made to God and the protection and blessings He has promised
us if we remain worthy.
Allan: Garments—the vestments referred to as sacred
underwear—they are representations of the cloaks of skin that God gives Adam
and Eve when He drives them out of the Garden of Eden. In some Christian
interpretations, the skins of these sacrificed animals are emblematic of the
sacrificed body of Christ. So to wear a garment in similitude of those Adam and
Eve received is to put on, if at least symbolically, Christ every day.
Material
culture is just so fascinating. And that’s the thing, unlike the special robes
that one puts on during the ceremony of the endowment or at a sealing, garments
are ever present, part of the quotidian dress. They are a perfect articulation
of Mormonism’s impulse to make all things sacred in this world, even our
material surroundings. Where there is no distinction between the sacred and the
profane, even underwear can and should be holy. All things reflected upon. All
things made common among us.
F: And they will protect you from danger. I’ve heard
stories of people whose houses have caught on fire. And they were burned
everywhere on their body except where they were wearing their garments.
[D, wearing nude/skin tone
colored underwear, brought in on gurney by A and E. A and E exit.]
B: Well, I don’t know Minty. I think the protection God
offers us through them is more spiritual.
F: I think the promises in the temple are pretty clear;
it’s a physical as well as a spiritual protection.
B: But it’s not like they stop bad things happening to
everyone. There’s been plenty of good and faithful temple goers who have been
hurt while wearing their garments.
F: Maybe we should just talk about what it was like to dress Allan's grandmother. When you go to the temple, you are promised that if
you live your life righteously, you will be raised in the first resurrection.
B: Every person that has ever lived will be
resurrected, just at different points in the millennium.
F: We dress our loved ones who have been to the temple
in the garments and temple clothes so that when they are resurrected, they will
be dressed in glory.
B: When I think about how Betty taught me as a young
woman, preparing me to go to the temple before I went on a mission, and then
how she was present the day I was sealed to my husband, I think of her in her
temple clothes. I hope that’s how my boys see me.
F: Depending on who a funeral is for, men dress the men
and women dress the women. You have to wear gloves as you touch the body
because of the chemicals. And sometimes it can be difficult because moving a
loved one’s body can be a physical challenge. But it means a lot to be asked to
provide that service, especially when it’s not your own mother or sister. But I
guess in every way that counts, she was.
B: She did
so much for us in our lives. This is the least we can do.
[B and F move to D and dress
her. A, C, and E appear and hum “Come, Come Ye Saints”]
Allan: My father dressed his father when he died. My mother
dressed her mother. I don’t know how it will be to dress my family. I am in awe
of the intimacy required of this practice. In America, we do so much to create
a distance between ourselves and death. We have viewings, but hygienic concerns
have divorced many of us from handling death. Let all the humor and derision
regarding garments fly; this is what I think of when I consider what it means
to wear garments.
All except D (singing): And should we die before our journey’s
through / Happy Day, all is well / We then are free from toil and sorrow too /
With the just, we shall dwell / But if our lives are spared again to see the
Saint their rest obtain / Oh how we’ll make this chorus swell / All is well /
All is well
[Allan will place the pillow
on the gurney. Cast, except for B, move D and the gurney offstage.]
Allan: For
Mormons, death is only the beginning.
[B lies on floor. Music plays,
Arvo Part’s “Spiegel im Spiegel.” With the music B begins a dance of
resurrection. Cast joins one by one into male/female pairs. After a full
sequence, rearrange to male/female, male/male, and female/female pairs.]
Allan: This is my favorite song. It’s by the composer Arvo
Part. This piece is called “Spiegel im Spiegel.” Which from what I understand
translates to “Mirror in Mirror.” It refers to the effect of placing two
mirrors across from each other so that whatever is placed between the mirrors
is caught in a neverending reflection, reaching into eternities in either
direction. Musically, that’s how the song is written: the piano begins, then a
string instrument—cello or violin—mirrors the piano. But like a mirror the
reflection is more a refraction. It is similar to but slightly off. The piano
responds to what the violin plays, refracting that. And so on and so forth.
Each instrument forever dancing with the other.
It
is soothing. It is peaceful. It is contemplative. But I fully recognize that
part of the reason I love it is because of my faith tradition. Every sealing
room in the temples is decorated with two mirrors. When a couple goes to get
married, they kneel at an altar, but when they stand and look into the eyes of
the person they love, each one sees not only the face and the eyes of their
spouse immediately before them but also peripherally in the mirror images that
repeat for eternity. It is a deliberate attempt to make manifest the belief
that death is not the end of this family unit. It has a history that long
predates this mortal coil and will endure long after we have shuffled it off.
In
Mormon theology, resurrection is an ordinance, just like baptism. And while the
power and authority to raise the dead comes from God through Christ, in
execution, resurrection is far more personal and hands on. Family members
resurrect each other. Fathers resurrects their children; husbands resurrect
their wives. There is undoubtedly patriarchal overtones which Mormon feminists
have detailed. I know it’s complicated; I know it’s messy; I know it’s
problematic. But damn me if I can’t help but find elements of the principles and
images beautiful, moving, inspiring..
[C and D move into the font]
Allan: Where the distance of eternity is collapsed. And
that through the touch, the care, the service of a loved one, we might all put
on a new and everlasting body of skin and bone.
[Projection
reads baptismal prayer]
C: Sister
Parisa Bayenat, having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you for and
in behalf of Betty Lou Bryson, who is dead, in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
[C baptizes
D. Lights fade. All exit, except E.]
