He Validated My Faith In Humanity

Once upon a time I made a trip to Adam Ondi Ahman, this is a property that is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is situated in Davies County, Missouri; near the town of Gallatin. This land has a very interesting history, the Latter-Day Saints once tried to build a settlement there, but were driven away. Joseph Smith the Founder and Prophet of the church said that the center of the Garden of Eden once stood here in the middle of America! There is a place near Independence, Missouri called Jocomo Park, it was in this small valley of land that the Tree of Life once stood according to Joseph. And at the time that Adam and Eve were evicted from the garden, they ended up at Adam Ondi Ahman. Its curious how young Joseph came to believe such things, but its become something of a legend among the church members.

I have some family history on my mother's side in the vicinity of Davies County. My great Grandfather Robert Lee Reynolds had a farm in the area. When great Grandad and Grandma retired from farming they owned a house in Gallatin. My Grandmother Dorothy Hartley grew up in Davies county, and after she retired she moved back to Gallatin for a while. Eventually Dorothy had to be institutionalized within a nursing home there, and she has since passed away. Dorothy has one surviving sister named Irene Frost who still lives in Gallatin. Grandmother Dorothy was the first person to take me to Adam Ondi Ahman, and to talk to me about the Mormons, but her knowledge was not very extensive and I don't believe she ever knew the legend of that land.

Occassionally I get in my car and make the trip, its been a while since I've made that trip. The landscape is very pleasent in Adam Ondi Ahman and there is a natural spring there and a river runs on one side of the property. I believe that some of the property is being farmed at the present time, but part of it is run like a historical park. On one of my more recent trips, I happened to meet an interesting man.

This man, who's name I don't recall, came up to me and greeted me. He said that he had a feeling that we should speak. There was a young girl with him, with long red hair, his daughter. We introduced ourselves and spoke briefly, it turned out that he was not a member of the church, but I never really found out why he happened to be traveling in the area or made this stop. And then he said that he wanted to pray with me, its a rare event when a perfect stranger wants to make prayers with me, and I agreed. I can't remember his prayer word for word but one thing that he said was, this is the Eternal Kingdom after all. This is a very unMormon thing to think or say, but I agreed with him. And then one of the things that came out in our converstaion was the possibility of a family relationship between us. He said that there was a Hopper in his family, and I revealed to his young daughter that my hair had at one time been red. The little girl didn't believe me, but its true, I was a carrot-topped child. My hair just grew darker over time, now its just turning greyer.

Clearly it was a great comfort to this man to know that this is the Eternal Kingdom. And despite the conflict and struggles going on in the world today we will all somehow survive and endure the test of time. But I still felt troubled by the world's problems, it is not enough to believe in our immortality. The suffering and hardship that many people have to endure in life is still real. If only I could make the world a better place somehow, but if I may only succeed in small ways I will never be satisfied, because I am more powerful than that. I could make my stand on the highest mountian in a secluded place and observe that the world is just fine the way that it is. Nobody has ever done anything wrong here, everything has turned out just the way it should have. Like a true Taoist I could be satisfied to think that the soup is just right, we don't need a cook to stir the pot, its ready to be served.

But I am not the cook, I AM the soup!

And if I want to be something else, thats just alright.

Sometimes meeting a perfect stranger is just as good as meeting Christ himself.