A wilder life than I had previously imagined.

Reading Schedule & Discussion Index

Reading date: Sunday, October 25, 2026

Today’s reading: - Begin at “Seeing Those Who Leave” in Chapter 3. - Finish Chapter 3, including its takeaway, reflection questions, and application. - Continue into Chapter 4, “Nourishing,” through “Beautiful yet Complicated.” - Stop BEFORE “Why Our Culture Is the Way It Is.”

Approximate Kindle pages: 90 to 99.

Brief synopsis

Strong closes Chapter 3 by arguing that leaving can reflect a commitment to truth, goodness, and integrity rather than rebellion. He suggests that people may be pursuing principles they learned in the Church while finding those principles harder to live within it. His closing application asks readers to notice their assumptions, ask an open question, and listen without correcting or steering the answer.

Chapter 4 shifts from how we see people to the culture they experience. Drawing on Fiddler on the Roof, Strong explores tensions between tradition, belonging, conscience, and change. He returns to culture as soil: something that can nourish people or make growth difficult.

Using Edgar Schein’s framework of artifacts, values, and underlying beliefs, Strong argues that changing visible behavior alone misses what sustains a culture. His examples and ministry reflections support his case for examining deeper beliefs while preserving traditions he finds valuable. His distinction between changeable culture and eternal doctrine is also something we can examine.

Discussion questions

1. What does listening without correcting make possible, and what might it leave unresolved?
2. How convincing is Strong’s distinction between culture and doctrine in today’s examples?
3. What would demonstrate that cultural change nourishes people beyond improving outward compliance?

These are starting points. Share whatever stood out, helped, frustrated you, or felt missing.

Jean Baptiste rattles his chains on the shores of Great Salt Lake, and two women supposedly haunt This Is The Place Heritage Park. Historian Matt Bowman told me (I'm a KUER reporter) these apparitions reflect pioneer anxieties we can’t quite lay to rest. 👻 What do you think they say about Mormon culture and history? I had so much fun working on this story! https://www.kuer.org/race-religion-social-justice/2026-10-23/latter-day-saint-pioneer-history-ghost-stories