"Hola, Soy Mormon" said my taxi driver the other day.

"Oh wow!", said I.

Today I read suggestions by a Mormon Bishop about how to cure yourself of masturbation. Two of the suggestions were as follows: Tie your hands to the side of the bed was one helpful hint and picture yourself doing the dirty deed in a bath tub of worms while eating worms was the other. The worm one was backed by psychology. He spoke about aversion therapy.

It sounded as though the only Mormons who had this problem were males. I guess if the girls are married by 13, they wouldn't have many years of temptation. It must be a big problem in them there households if a Bishop would write a program about it.

The taxi guy was so cheerful about his declaration that I held back from telling him that because of his dark skin, he can only be a partial, little guy on the Mormon hierarchy. God and Jesus only really love the pure white guys. That must be obvious to the taxi guy, after all these tall white missionaries come down here and don't even have to work, just walk around and talk about their god.

I said recently that I would stop this talk, but, Dios Mio! it just keeps hitting me in the face.

It does make me think. One thought that keeps coming up is how simple life might be if I had a belief system that gave me all the answers, even to questions I didn't know I had - like how to stop masturbation. But at the same time, I know that wouldn't ever work for me. I have to question everything I have to have my own experience. I am not made of the stuff that can believe in things because someone tells me to. Am not, and never have been.

On the other hand, I like a good story. I like a good fairy tale, fable, allegory, myth, legend. Yes I do, and the more far fetched, the greater the challenge to the imagination, the more the soul has to engage to partake, the more I like it. I like Noah's Ark. I like the Angel Gabriel's annunciation. I like those frightening Tibetan demons in the paintings and sculptures. I like Thor and Ulysses and people of the Maize. I am fascinated by Santeria and Holy Communion and Alice in Wonderland. But I couldn't sell any of it as the only way to salvation.