Add cyo post

content/posts/why-i-let-go-of-the-rod.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 date: 2025-11-08
 description: "A brief retelling of my experience leaving the Mormon faith."
 image: ""
-lastmod: 2026-02-02T23:19:22-07:00
+lastmod: 2026-02-03T09:21:07-07:00
 showTableOfContents: false
 tags: ["religion", "life"]
 title: "Why I Let Go of the Rod"
@@ -42,10 +42,9 @@ So, without further ado, lets "begin at the very beginning"
 I grew up in a loving home with parents that did their best to give us kids a great life. I'm the middle kid, the
 glue you might say *smirk. My involvement in the church informed much of my life. My friends were typically the boys in
 my ward's Sunday school class or in my boy scout troop. My views of the world were most entirely shaped by my religion.
-There was some anxiety as a kid knowing whether or not someone was a member because it meant Friends houses that weren't
+There was some anxiety as a kid in the calculus of membership of everyone around me. I learned quickly to look for the tells: multiple ear rings, tattoos, swearing, revealing clothes / garment lines under adults clothing, and of course, the lack of brightness in someone's eyes. It felt crucial to determine the activity of someone was a member because it meant Friends houses that weren't
 members of the church felt unsafe.
 When I was 8 or 9, I remember feeling immense responsibility, mixed with privilege and dread, thinking that God had
 restored His One True Church to my neighborhood! Relief washed over me when I learned that there were actually millions
 of us, not just the two hundred in my ward. lol.
 
-test