Hello friends.
I wasn’t originally planning on writing another entry on this blog, but as I was on a walk the other day, it occurred to me that the documenting of my Tabernacle Choir journey wouldn’t be complete without sharing how things have been after leaving the Choir.
What makes this difficult is trying to isolate the effects that leaving the Choir have had on me versus the effects that my life in general have had on me. It’s like dropping two pebbles into a lake. The resulting ripples run into and overlap each other, making it almost impossible to distinguish which ripple originated with which pebble. That said, I’ll do my best.
Let’s start with what I’ve missed.
(I’ve had seven months to think about this)
I originally thought that I’d miss the people the most—or perhaps the singing. But if I’m honest with myself, what I miss most is being a part of something big, something grand, something that impacts thousands (if not millions) week to week. It was much more validating than I thought. Growing up as a closeted gay kid and continuing into my adult years, I became a validation junkie. I needed it to survive. And while I’m well on the road to tapping into internal validation these days (as hard as it’s been to learn how to do that), I very much noticed the absence of validation that the Choir once gave me.
Closely linked to that was how the Choir had become an integral part of my identity. For eleven years, whenever people I knew saw me, they’d typically ask how my Choir experience was going. It was the first thing they’d ask about. I felt important. I felt their admiration. I felt like I was someone special—part of an elite club with a bunch of perks that no one else got.
So yeah, I miss all of that.
As mentioned, I do miss the singing. I’ve loved singing my entire life and there are very few experiences that rival singing a song I love, with people I love, to people all over the world, accompanied by one of the grandest organs in the world and an incredibly talented orchestra.
I certainly miss the people, too. I miss the conversations with my carpool group as we rode into the Tabernacle. I miss the basses that sat all around me and helped me sing to my fullest potential. And I miss the conversations during the breaks and the dedicated 1x1 time afforded to choir members as we went on tour.
Keeping with the honesty theme, I have to admit that I also miss thinking that the friendships I had with certain people would surely survive (and continue flourishing) even after Choir was over—that such friendships were not of convenience but were real, deep, and meaningful. But for several such friendships, that turned out not to be the case. In fact one in particular ended up causing me a lot of pain. But what do you do when someone doesn’t trust you anymore? What results is a trail of past experiences and meaningful memories that are suddenly tarnished and tainted. It stings. And it's hard to realize that what could have been "see you later" turned into an actual "goodbye".
Any regrets, you may ask? Sure, I have some of those. I try not to dwell on them, but they remain. Things I wish would have happened differently? Yep. I have some of those too. The biggest one of those happened during my last three weeks in choir. President Leavitt had reached out to remind me that my temple recommend had expired and that I needed to renew it (a requirement for being in the Choir). He had no way of knowing that I was in the process of stepping away from the Church, that I was still grieving over the decision to divorce, and that I was trying so hard to just feel solid ground under my feet. To his credit, he did open the door to conversation saying that if I wanted to meet with him, that was an option. But what I really needed at that particular point in my life, was someone to say “Hey Ryan. I’d really like to meet with you and try and understand whatever challenges you may have that are preventing you from renewing your recommend. Would you please come visit with me so I can listen and we can work on a path forward?” I don’t know if that may have been too much to ask. President Leavitt is a good man with a huge responsibility of overseeing the entire choir organization. So I get it. But honestly, the response I described is what I needed and it didn’t come. So I just left, feeling a bit like I was misunderstood and that I was getting kicked out (even though I realize I only had myself to blame). It was a hard way to end an eleven-year experience of a lifetime.
I don’t miss the routine, or getting up early on Sunday mornings, or singing some of the songs we did, or wearing decades-old suits, or enduring recording sessions, or singing at General Conference. I also don’t miss the growing dissonance I felt at Choir as my faith was shifting and I increasingly felt more and more like an imposter. I had stopped attending church, I couldn’t support the prophet and apostles on various issues and teachings, and I had begun paying my tithing dollars to both charities I loved and to a dear friend in Mexico who had fallen on hard times and needed temporary assistance just to put food on his table. All of these things disqualified me from a temple recommend which only added to the dissonance.
At any rate, the passing of time always helps to miss things less. So I’m grateful for that. I tried attending a different choir for a time just last month, but ultimately realized it was too soon to do that (it just reminded me of Tab Choir and the difficult ending I went through). Instead, I’ve begun writing a memoir, continue to go out to lunch or dinner with friends about twice a week, make trips up to USU or down to Happy Valley to see my kids and my grand kids, hang out with my 17-yr old son (I get him every other week), have one-sided conversations with my cat, listen to interesting podcasts, have begun doing some meditation, am currently looking into volunteering with various LGBTQ+ organizations, attend a monthly bookclub (with other gay Gay/Bi guys I’m friends with) and maintain a good relationship with my ex-wife (whom I’m happy to report is getting remarried soon!). Leaving the church has been challenging in many respects, but I feel at peace with my decision and still work to maintain a close relationship with my Savior. While I haven’t yet dived into dating, I do hope to meet a guy one day who I can love and be loved by. Until then, the things listed above will hopefully stave off some of the loneliness that occupies part of my reality.
Wrapping this up (thanks for staying with me!), I just want to say thank you to my choir friends who have continued to offer a hand of friendship. It’s meant more to me than I can say. And despite how tumultuous my last couple of years in the Tabernacle Choir were, I’ll always be grateful for the experience in so many ways. I may not resonate with some of the songs the Choir sings or some of the organization’s membership policies, but their music brings a lot of peace to many. With peace being something that’s sometimes hard to find and difficult to hold onto, I feel fortunate to have been part of something that helps peace be easier to find and easier to embrace.
Love you all!
PS: A shout out to Music & the Spoken Word's very own Derrick Porter who actually was kind enough to text me today and see how I was doing. He's been nothing but kind and supportive since I met him and I continue to be grateful to count him as a friend!