A Return to Manti,
Utah
Part 2
Below the temple lie the remains of the people who built it and their descendants.
Mountains lie to the west, and mountains also lie to the east:
This day, among the pines to the east, on a park like hillside, lovers sat admiring this edifice and thinking boldly of the future, just as Audrey and I did over 32 years ago.
It is reassuring that some rhythms of life are not forgotten, that we are part of the recurring drama of the discovery of love, and its enrichment, over time, with commitment, cooperation and devotion. Life is the stringing together of moments, moments that come in bitter as well as in sweet flavors.
Some of this wisdom is taught to brides and grooms in these edifices, by elderly persons well acquainted with the truth of what they teach about the demands and sacrifices, and the triumphs and joys of committed relationship.
One trouble with all this wisdom is that the couples walking through these doors are young and too enthralled with their love and the wonder it induces to listen to sage advice. But, in time, they will become more like the ones teaching them.
And in more time they will come to suspect their assumed understandings and formulas for life are, at best, pale reflections of a much greater truth. A truth that is truly ineffable, that eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it arisen in the heart of any human. And they will sense, on seeing these bees in these flowers, that this truth cannot be understood. But it can be appreciated, by becoming more like these bees, gratefully feeding on life's supply of nectar in a warm sun while beholding this edifice, and all else that life is, in silent wonder.
