skywatch friday, week 3

Another flashback this week:



sunset at the trainyards
Provo, Utah, February 2008

click here to see views captured by other skywatchers around the world

there's something magical about california

Maybe it's the landscape. Or perhaps it's the people.

Maybe it's the weather. Or something in the water.

Maybe it's simply the novelty of actually living here after I was so tired of my old town, the shock of my leap-of-faith move having worked out so well and so quickly, the thrill of starting fresh and making a new home and a new life for myself in a place that I love.

Maybe it's a little bit from all of the above, with a sprinkling of something else that I haven't identified.

Whatever it is that causes it, at least a couple of times a day I find myself suddenly re-cognizing the fact that I am here, and that I don't have to catch a flight back home in a couple of days, because I live here now. It's like waking up from a really good dream to find that it was real, after all.

house hunting

Rather a telling name for a real estate company, if you ask me.
[Menlo Park, California]

and now for something lighter

Paulette Huntinova (aka Paul Hunt) at the 1988 USA-USSR Gymnastics Summit:




(if you liked that, check the youtube vaults for his beam & bars routines)

skywatch friday, week 2

[by California Avenue Caltrain station, Palo Alto]

check out others' skywatch posts here

proposition w8 - think before you vote

[My first skywatch post last Friday brought several new visitors to my blog. Maybe this post will attract some attention as well...]

I have a tendency to keep quiet about controversial topics, especially political issues, but I just can't ignore this one any longer.

I confess: before I moved to California I didn't know what "Proposition 8" was. Not that I didn't know what was going on; it's just that it wasn't exactly a buzzword where I was living just a few weeks ago.

I quickly caught on, and just as quickly I became perturbed.

And I have been struggling to sort out my thoughts about it.

Now, I could pretty easily sidestep the issue and avoid taking a position at all: because I am not a California resident, I will not be able vote on Proposition 8 anyway, so there is no direct impact on the law effected by my unofficial "yes" or "no." But that doesn't mean that I am not affected. It doesn't mean that I do not care.

So what is it that sets me off about proposition 8? It is the context in which I have been bombarded with cries from supporters, many of whom are uninformed.

First things first: I don't want to create any hurtful misunderstandings here, so let me make it clear that I love my church and I respect my church leaders. In fact, being a part of the church has been a great blessing especially since I have moved to San Francisco, where I have found myself instantly embraced by a supportive social network. Read: great way to make new friends when you're new in town. It was at a church-group gathering on a Monday evening, just three days after I moved to the city, that I made some new friends and re-connected with someone I had met years ago, who just happens to live here in town. It was at that same gathering that I first heard of the Protect Marriage Coalition, an interfaith group dedicated to garnering support for proposition 8. I have no problem with a person's support of and participation in this group: it is their democratic right to choose a position and to act upon it as they see fit. I do have concerns about a person's uninformed support of this or any politically-purposed group.

The pattern goes like this: A announces that he's become aware of the Coalition, he thinks that we might be interested, and he encourages us to make donations. B and C think that's great and they take forms home so that they can send their money off to this cause that must be good because A thinks it is. Then D over here asks a simple question: 'how are the funds used?' And A does not know. It's a classic case of being caught not having done your homework. A is not the only one. I dare to say that we have all, at some point or another, made a similar mistake, being caught up in the moment, speaking out too soon, before we are adequately prepared to support whatever it is we think we're supporting. The question is: do we learn from those mistakes? I am worried that we do not; and worse, that many go on silently, blindly, deceptively sure of their positions, when they really have no idea what the implications of their hasty decisions may be.

I feel very uneasy about the dangerous mingling of church and state going on here. A perfectly harmless Facebook announcement for a Bay Area YSA party takes on a sour aftertaste with an addendum noting that they will be collecting donations for the Coalition. The attendance roll is passed around in relief society, and on the facing page is a sign-up sheet for a 'precinct walk for prop 8,' unaccompanied by any telling information about what one's participation in such an event might mean.

It is important to remember that just because a particular behavior is sanctioned by law does not necessarily mean that it is sanctioned by God. We may accept the church's position on the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, but that does not mean that we must deny the right to a legally-binding contract (read: sanctioned and protected by the state, not the church) between two men or between two women. And again, supporting a law does not necessarily mean that you personally condone what the law allows.

What we as Latter-Day Saints believe we must do and what the law of the land allows are not mutually exclusive. Legal same-sex marriage does not mean illegal heterosexual marriage. If by some freak chain of events the U.S. came to a point where there was to be a vote on a law that would criminalize heterosexual marriage, then yes, I would have a problem with that. But if our nation came to such a wild improbability, my guess is that we would have lots of other problems to worry about, too.


I had other thoughts, beginnings of thoughts, here in draft form, but they were not yet fully formed, and I would still like to do some more research. So I have chosen not to publish here something that I am likely to later regret and/or recognize as foolish. In a less-public forum, however, I would be happy to discuss and learn more about the nuances of the issue.

It is a difficult decision. All I ask is that people really think about it, and consider the possible consequences of both outcomes, before they vote on it.

A few resources to get started:

proposition 8 on ballotpedia
lds newsroom
protect marriage coalition
mormons for marriage

so happy

("so happy" dahlias at golden gate park)


Okay, I wanted to wait until it was official, so I filled out the paperwork today and I can now announce that I got a job, and one that I am quite excited about at that. I am really rather shocked by how quickly things fell into place and I am looking forward to what should prove to be a terrific experience. I am just delighted to be in this area and to have a new purpose. At last I feel like I really belong just where I am.

too bad i didn't have a pedometer

This is mostly to satisfy my own curiosity as to the question of just how far I walked on Wednesday, when the gorgeous weather lured me out to go traipsing all over the city. Maybe you care, too; maybe you don't. But after all, this is my blog, so I'm going to share the rundown anyway (distances courtesy of google maps):

• 1.3 mi - home to sf public library
• 2.4 mi - sf public library to golden gate park via mcallister & fulton
• 2.3 mi - wanderings through gg park ending up at 19th & lincoln (distance is approximate, since i have no idea what exact path i followed)
• 0.5 mi - 19th & lincoln to 16th & judah lightrail stop
• 0.4 mi - church & duboce lightrail stop to home
• 0.1 mi - home to 16th & church lightrail stop
• 0.6 mi - 22nd & church lightrail stop to papalote (yummy mole burrito at 24th & valencia)
• 1.2 mi - papalote to home
• 0.4 mi - home to church & duboce lightrail stop
• 0.3 mi - 23rd & judah lightrail stop to 22nd & lawton (church bldg for institute)
• 0.4 mi - home to safeway (to get aloe lotion for the burn that came of all that walking in the sun!)

...which gives us a grand total of 9.9 miles. No wonder I was sore the next morning! But it felt great. It would be nice to always have that luxury of taking all the time in the world to walk wherever I want. I guess that's what vacations are for.