Fireside Chat: Broaching the Uncomfortable, but Necessary

For my fireside chat presentation, I decided to raise awareness of sexual health.  The topic I chose was newborn circumcision.  In retrospect, I think I should have done more on the basics than I did.  I had a number of students come up to me afterwards asking for clarification on some of the things I presented on.

The main topic of misunderstanding was what an STI was.  I told them it was politically correct as Sexually Transmitted Infection aka STD (sexually transmitted disease).  I made a rookie mistake and forgot to focus on my audience.  The information I present was what I thought a good adaptation of a research presentation I did for my nursing class.  What I didn't realize/remember is that I was speaking to an audience who has none of the in-depth education I do about human health, and especially as it relates to human sexual health.

If I were to do it over, I would focus more on the basics, like fetal development and how that creates the situation after birth for the decision of circumcision.  That, or I would just go over basic human sexual organs and how it relates to sexual health as children and adults.  My weaknesses aside, I thought the presentation went well.  I was able to present the information I wanted to in a timely manner and I was able to gauge audience reaction to my slides.

It's fun, sometimes, to watch people squirm a little in their seat as I talk about subjects that are largely taboo.  They shouldn't be, though.  People should be comfortable to talk about sexual health in safe environs such as the fireside chat, home, or the classroom.  That's basically what the LDS Church's Gospel Principle's manual states.

I do believe that if children don't feel safe to bring this topic to their parents, then they will just google it.  And I, for one, will not entrust the sexual education of my children to Google.  I do find it odd that in Mormon culture we place so much emphasis on our bodies being temples and that we should keep them sacred that we miss entirely the discussions on haow to keep our bodies clean in other ways beside the spiritual.  We definitely need more help with the physical, mental, and emotional health of our earthly temples.

And that is my personal quest: to help those who wish to educate themselves and their families in safe environments have the tools to do so.  There is little in our LDS literature that can be used as a good guide, with enough and appropriately detailed information to be useful in educating about how to take care of our mental, sexual, physical, emotional, and spiritual selves.

Concerned Citizen

You can watch the video HERE

We wanted to present a concerned citizen that was making an effort to reach out to the community by serving the individuals that need assistance locally.  Megan is a mentor that spends time with special needs kids in order to help them have more opportunities in their community and to learn to better develop social skills.  She takes them hiking, to soccer games, movies, and other activities to help them discover new interests and hobbies.  It was touching to us that Megan takes time out of her schedule to mentor these kids, especially Nick, whom she talks about in the video.  Her attitude of changing the community in this simple way reminds one of what Goldbard states in Human Rights and Culture: From Datastan to Storyland.  It is discussed in this article that anyone who wants to be influential in a certain issue or problem must engaged with the feelings of others about this certain subject.  

As we engaged with Megan, we felt that our perspective was changed on the way in which she interacts with kids such as Nick that she works with.  We feel that the things that she expressed in the interview can open the eyes of the viewers in the community to the opportunities available to them right in Provo.  They discover here that they can be a friend to kids with special needs and, like Megan, connect with these kids that they otherwise would not have a chance to interact with. It appealed to us personally because of the moving influence that she’s had with these kids.  She and others like her encourage and inspire us to get outside of ourselves, get into the community, and be a loving representative of Christ by doing as he would.