Super 8 Motel
Independence, MO
There's a snow storm blowing this way, and it's coming in along the path that we have to travel tomorrow. Best not to challenge it, just honker down here and let it blow over. Forecast says SUNNY for Wednesday. I hate driving in snow. Storm won't hit here 'till tomorrow afternoon. I wonder where I am? I've got a day to explore. Search Independence MO on Wikipedia. Uuuuh!
Independence, Missouri
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
History
In 1831, members of the Latter Day Saint movement began moving to the Jackson County, Missouri area.
Shortly thereafter, founder Joseph Smith, Jr. declared a spot west of the Courthouse Square to be the place
for his prophesied temple of the New Jerusalem, in expectation of the Second Coming of Christ. Tension grew
with local Missourians until the Latter Day Saints were driven from the area in 1833. Independence saw great
prosperity from the late 1830s through the mid-1840s, while the business of outfitting pioneers boomed.
Independence was the main "jumping off point" for pioneers headed west.
My mind races back to Devils Gate in Wyoming. [On The Road to Casper, WY]. I can taste the feelings that had so overwhelmed me in that place. Grey misty fog creeps through the walls of the motel room. A cold, slick wetness seasons the mood. Mormon pioneers are dying by the thousands, trapped behind a sinister mountain while a raging snow storm flails them. The mountain mocks their resolve, for there, directly in front of them, the mountain is cleaved in half, like the Red Sea parted by Moses for the Jews to pass through to their promised land. But the apparent passage is too narrow for them to pull their hand drawn carts through. The mountain is the Devil. His Gate is entry to his domain of desire. It is but a false gateway to the beyond. A temptation to be avoided while we suffer and are cleansed.
Amazing! Right here is where the stranded Mormons very likely started from. Mormons had prospered here, supplying and ferrying other pioneers headed west. Heck, they even rented handcarts! They grew so numerous and wealthy that their presence politically threatened their neighbors. There was a bloody war, and ten thousand Mormons were cast out of Missouri.
Headed west from here, their path was blocked by an impenetrable snow storm, just like mine. I am fascinated and intrigued. I dance through wiki links and feel myself being sucked into the ultimate fantasy, the apocylpse, the end of days. And it was here in Independence that Mormon prophet Joseph Smith was instructed by God to build Zion, their shining city on a hill, where the righteous would gather for the second coming. That must have really pissed off the plain Missouri folk.
I locate the very spot on Google Maps where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Temple was to be built and upload its coordinates to my GPS. Mormons call the spot Adam-ondi-Ahman. It is the site where Adam and Eve lived after being expelled from the Garden of Eden. After the Mormons themselves were expelled, Adam-ondi-Ahman became their most cherished hymn.
Hosanna to such days to come—
The Savior's second comin[g]—
When all the earth in glorious bloom,
Affords the saints a holy home
Like Adam-ondi-Ahman.
I'm having difficulty falling asleep. Something is disturbing me. I turn on the TV. It's a PBS documentary on Ronald Reagan. He's giving his "Shining City on the Hill" speech. I watch in fascination. Searching the term on Google I discover that the phrase is code for Christian ultraconservatives meaning an American government ruled by Christian law, a favorite catch phrase of Sarah Palin. I recognize that my discomfort stems from my being drawn into someone else's paranoia. I vow not to venture any further into Independence Missouri lore. Tomorrow, at daybreak, I'll drive west as far from here as I can before the snow begins. I shut off the TV and computer and sleep the sleep of babes.
Wishing you much peaceful slumber,
Stan
