Liberty is perhaps the most ironic name for a prison, unless somewhere an inmate somewhere is sitting in Freedom Jail shaking his head slowly. That’s like naming the biggest buffet in Louisiana “Slims” or referring to the largest inmate at the state pen as “Tiny”. Most cities have jails and the jail usually follows the name of the city (Salt Lake County Jail). In Mormon historiography, Liberty Jail was where Joseph Smith was unjustly incarcerated for 4 months during 1838-1839, however the title Temple Prison was later associated with this locale because of the tender revelations that were received here and now reside in the LDS scriptures the Doctrine and Covenants. Those familiar with Mormon history are well aware of the content and circumstances that brought about these revelations. This location was probably the last place that Joseph would expect to receive a revelation. But do revelations ever really come when or how we want them to? It is my experience that this is not the case, inspiration comes when and how the Lord sees fit. Certainly we have places of refuge in Temples, Churches and even our own homes that are conducive to revelatory experiences. However, I believe it is possible that someone can elicit responses from the divine in prison type surroundings, just as Joseph did. These locations may in fact include spiritual or physical prisons (the Church actively assigns member to visit prisons to those members who have made mistakes and end up there). I witnessed first hand how a prison like atmosphere can induce one to want to be better and led to think more clearly on what direction their life should take. In no way do I intend to encourage people to seek such an environment for divine inspiration, but sometimes a glance at a riotous and sinful type of life can lend itself to the realization about how good life is without those influences .
Another weeknight sprawled across a sofa clad in basketball shorts and a hoodie watching sports was the pinnacle of what my genius could come up with to entertain myself. Luckily a friend with promises of hot tubs, games, and girls was the incentive I needed to pry myself off the couch with a rain check promise that I would soon return to my sanctuary. Rushing through my pre hang out warm up I showered, dressed and even doused myself in some smell goods (cologne for those of you who aren’t familiar with the term smell goods). Within the hour I was at my friend’s doorstep ready to meet some new people and hopefully meet a great girl. My optimism was approaching defcom three status (which is really high, there are four defcoms). This night was going to be awesome!
Two hours crawled by as the girls continually prolonged their proposed time to meet up with us, patience was certainly waning and the initial optimism had all but dispersed. I think that once you hit that second hour of waiting for someone to get ready you start entertaining other ideas of something to do, any idea, ideas of dollar movies, play box (xbox), or anything that doesn’t involve waiting longer for someone to put on clothes and comb their hair. We would have welcomed a coloring books with open arms at this point (and don’t think that thought was not entertained).
Finally the time arrived that the girls where ready (I could have gotten ready 17 different ways in the time it took them to prepare themselves) and we pulled up to one of their houses. The optimism was back, we were finally going to meet up. This night was going to be great! And then…the butterflies of the stomach variety were replaced with a large stone. As soon as I looked out the window a shudder of disappointment rippled through my whole body (I believe, and my friend confirms, that my body actually shook). The girls were dressed like women of the night, harlots, whatever you want to call it. I was in jeans and a t-shirt. Looking back I’m not sure if I was more rattled by the outfits or what the outfits suggested. We would not be going to any movies tonight; hot tubs were a distant thought, my longing for my comfortable sofa refuge at home would not be seeing me for longer than I had supposed. Those outfits suggested only one option for that night’s activities, we were going to one location and one location only…..we were going clubbing.
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