Having Carol Lynn Pearson in The Cultural Hall for Episode 229 was one of those experiences that sticks with you long after the microphones are turned off. She is a poet, a playwright, and a pioneer in so many ways.
- True love means showing up when it’s hardest One of the most moving parts of our conversation was Carol Lynn detailing her 12-year marriage to Gerald Pearson. When he came out to her as gay, they navigated an amicable divorce, but their story didn’t end there. When Gerald contracted AIDS in the early 1980s, Carol Lynn brought him into her home and cared for him until he passed away. She taught me that true, Christlike love isn’t bound by traditional expectations. It’s about recognizing that “the same heart beats in every human breast” and showing up for the people we care about, no matter what.
- Bet on your own voice Before she was a household name in our culture, she was a young writer whose poetry couldn’t get traction with traditional publishers. Instead of giving up, she and Gerald borrowed $2,000 from a credit union, self-published her first book of poems, and convinced the BYU bookstore to sell it on consignment. It ended up selling hundreds of copies a month. Her story is a powerful reminder that if you feel a calling to create, you shouldn’t wait for a gatekeeper to give you permission.
- We desperately need the arts to keep our humanity intact Carol Lynn made a beautiful point about the balance between the sciences and the humanities. While we absolutely need the sciences to run the world, she emphasized that the human family desperately needs the arts and creativity to survive emotionally. When we dismiss the arts as “impractical,” we lose the very things that bring stability, empathy, and balance to our heads and our hearts.
- We have to be brave enough to confront our cultural “ghosts” Her latest book, The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy, tackles an incredibly painful and often ignored subject. Carol Lynn didn’t write it to tear people down; she wrote it because she saw the very real, modern-day pain this lingering doctrine causes women and men today. She taught me that we cannot heal if we refuse to look at the things causing us pain. It takes immense courage to look at a cultural “ghost” and say, “We need to do better.”
- You can advocate for change without walking away Through all of the friction, the heartbreak, and the difficult conversations she has sparked regarding the LGBTQ+ community and women’s inequality, Carol Lynn has maintained her faith and her place in the community. She didn’t let the pain drive her away. Instead, she chose to use her voice to carve out a safer, more compassionate space for the marginalized people sitting in the pews right next to us.
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