Analogies: Radio Vs. Shelf

[Hagoth]

The broken shelf is a great analogy for a faith crisis.

Another great analogy, for hanging on to testimony as long as possible, is jigsaw puzzle that doesn't look like the picture on the box, so you keep hammering the pieces in the wrong spaces to make them fit.

Here's one that just occurred to me, that is really almost the opposite of the shelf analogy.

When I was a young child I didn't know about radio stations. The radio was a machine that played music by people like Perry Como, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra in our house and car, that originated from someplace in Salt Lake City called KOMA. One night when our family was on a campout with relatives, my older cousin invited me to listen to the radio with him in his dad's truck. He started spinning through the dial and finding different types of music that was unfamiliar to me. I was amazed. He finally settled on a rock station that played all kinds of interesting things that I had never heard on my parent's radios. Years later I got my hands on a shortwave radio and realized that the world of radio was far more strange, interesting, and diverse than I would ever have imagined.

Going to church, having family home evening, and listening to General Conference was like listening to KOMA. Reality is more like shortwave.

[Wonderment]

The broken shelf is a great analogy for a faith crisis.

Another great analogy, for hanging on to testimony as long as possible, is jigsaw puzzle that doesn't look like the picture on the box, so you keep hammering the pieces in the wrong spaces to make them fit.

Here's one that just occurred to me, that is really almost the opposite of the shelf analogy.

When I was a young child I didn't know about radio stations. The radio was a machine that played music by people like Perry Como, Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra in our house and car, that originated from someplace in Salt Lake City called KOMA. One night when our family was on a campout with relatives, my older cousin invited me to listen to the radio with him in his dad's truck. He started spinning through the dial and finding different types of music that was unfamiliar to me. I was amazed. He finally settled on a rock station that played all kinds of interesting things that I had never heard on my parent's radios. Years later I got my hands on a shortwave radio and realized that the world of radio was far more strange, interesting, and diverse than I would ever have imagined.

Going to church, having family home evening, and listening to General Conference was like listening to KOMA. Reality is more like shortwave.

Hammering the jigsaw pieces into place is a great analogy for the mental gymnastics required to explain the theology of Mormonism. So is the discovery of new music on a new radio station.
Incidentally, the Top 40 rock n' roll came out of KOMA 1520 in Oklahoma City, whose signal pretty much blanketed the west, especially at night. I think your parents might have been listening to KSL Salt Lake City, "the Lord's station", who played Godly middle-of-road "Great American Songbook" music from Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Patti Page, etc.
Also, every Sunday, we listened to "Music and the Spoken Word", unless it conflicted with the time to be in meeting. You and I are from pretty much the same era, I think. I LOVED Top 40 radio rock n' roll. The "Lord's Station" KSL, well, not so much. - Wndr.

[moksha]

My favorite radio program was Prairie Home Companion, it was wholesome like Music and the Spoken Word, but with better music and more inspiring words from Lake Wobegon.



I think TBMs are aided by having uncorrelated shelves.

[deacon blues]

Garrison Keillor kept me sane, and laughing.
I remember KRXK in Rexburg played that Middle-of-the-Road music and I loved it as a kid. When we worked late (10:00-12:00) in the Idaho potato harvest we listened to KOMA Oklahoma City. They played Motown, and I loved that.

[Wonderment]

Prairie Home Companion, with its fun music and hilarious stories about Lake Wobegeon "where all the children are above average" was always one of my favorites. -- Wndr.

[blazerb]

I love the radio analogy. My life is more than half over, but I'm going to spend a lot of time listening to the vast array of options that are out there. I knew about rock from my older siblings. I'm learning about the world from my nevermo friends. It's a great place in spite of the lack of certainty that comes after you give up the church.

[Ghost]

It was only recently that I learned that the shelf analogy is generally credited to Camilla Kimball, wife of Spencer W. Kimball.

Because of her family’s hospitality toward searching and studying, Sister Kimball says, “I’ve always had an inquiring mind. I’m not satisfied just to accept things. I like to follow through and study things out. I learned early to put aside those gospel questions that I couldn’t answer. I had a shelf of things I didn’t understand, but as I’ve grown older and studied and prayed and thought about each problem, one by one I’ve been able to better understand them.”

She twinkles, “I still have some questions on that shelf, but I’ve come to understand so many other things in my life that I’m willing to bide my time for the rest of the answers.”

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... g?lang=eng

[Hagoth]

Incidentally, the Top 40 rock n' roll came out of KOMA 1520 in Oklahoma City, whose signal pretty much blanketed the west, especially at night.

You're right, now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure KOMA was the station I listened to with my cousin!

[RubinHighlander]

That is a good analogy! It reminds me of my own personal journey through music. I found my tribalism ruled my listening preferences in my younger years. Like Hagoth, I started with whatever my parents were playing, then got my own little clock radio. When I bought my own record/tape/FM unit and had my own money as a young teen I then started buying the 70s rock that my friends were also into. After that I was in band in JrHS and started getting into classical and jazz, which really opened my mind a bit. At first I resisted the 80s new wave stuff but then the influence of friends and also two years in northern England got me into it. In my later years I've been getting into nearly all the genres and eras of music and I've been amazed at what I'd missed out on when I was younger.

And I'll put in another plug for Mary Jane; with that magical plant I've discovered another layer of sound in some of my music. I found this with modern artists and all the way back to the 60s, in songs I've listened to a thousand times. Some of this music has like an extra hidden groove in the vinyl and you can hear it when you put it in the right set and setting and pair it up with some mind altering molecules. I feel so grateful to have lived my life during the epoch of musical and artistic gods! Also grateful I kept all my vinyl in good shape and that I can still by that media for most of the new artists I find and love.

It's not just a beautiful analogy, but much of the music throughout my life has had a major influence on my eventual journey to freedom from religion.

[RubinHighlander]

My favorite radio program was Prairie Home Companion, it was wholesome like Music and the Spoken Word, but with better music and more inspiring words from Lake Wobegon.

Powder Milk Biscuits, mmmmm they're tasty!

I started listening to PHC back in 79 when I was still in HS. It was fun to hear him joke about the oddities of the Lutheran culture there, it was certainly relatable to mormondom.