Last Days in Roosevelt....

Just a few shots from my wander through the countryside that is right behind Mike & Michele's place.  So this is mainly a photoblog this time....

One of the few drive-in movie theaters in Utah, or so I'm told.....I liked the pattern of the steel and shadows...

I liked this for some reason...

That's it, I think, for Roosevelt.  It's cold and blustery today so I doubt I'll be walking anywhere or taking photos, and tomorrow we head in to Salt Lake. 

Temple Square in Salt Lake City

Last weekend we (Mike, Michele, me and the kids) went in to Salt Lake City for the weekend.  It was great - I stayed at the Peery Hotel in Salt Lake, did some wandering around downtown, saw Patria and had lunch with her at Sundance (yes, people were still skiing even thought it was in the 70s down in the valley), and aso connected to some great friends I haven't seen for years (Joan, Laron and their kids.)  I also discovered that Sugarhouse is the place to be these days!

When I went out to do some wandering in Salt Lake I discovered a whole new world emerging between West Temple and the Rio Grande railroad station and all around Pioneer Square - if I were to ever live in Salt Lake again it would high on the list of potential neighborhoods!  I walked through the Gateway Center (nice but all the normal mall shops so nothing really unique happening there....) and checked out the massive building projects underway downtown on  Main Street.  I also discovered that Temple Square is open until at least 10:30 p.m., so I walked around and took a few photos with my phone.

I recently was poking around to discover some of the camera options my phone has.  I discovered "Night Mode" as well as ""Burst" - which takes four photos in a row.  So, having chosen both of those options, here are some of the results that turned out OK.

The Assembly Hall - I don't know why that light is green, but it's sort of a cool effect.

Salt Lake Temple

The Temple in the large reflecting pool in the garden that used to be Main Street

That's it.  It was really nice to wander around.  I'll be in Salt Lake again on Friday morning before I leave for Chicago to have a fun-filled weekend with Lisa and Sarah.  So I'll probably run by the Art Museum or wander around Temple Square again.  We'll see what I have time for.

Fun Days in Roosevelt, UT

I'm visiting Mike, Michele and their kids (Sophie, Bella, Max & Parker) in Roosevelt, UT right now.

It's lovely that way small town and high desert/mountain places can be.  The feeling of the sun on my face when I walk around reminds me of visits to Grandma and Grandpa in Salt Lake all those years ago.

Here's a random view from my walk yesterday of the sky through some trees.  Everything is still barren here, but the weather has turned nice and it's actually a little warm during the days.  Perfect for walking or riding a bike.

It's good to know that you wear your Wiley X Safety glasses AND look great!  

Well, I just looked Wiley X Safety glasses up, and I have to take back that last statement.  You CAN look good in Safety X glasses! 

Here's the view of the main intersection in town - Highway 191  (or something like that) and Highway 40.  This is a rollicking place!

Down this street is the gym that Michele and Mike belong to.  I'm going down there every day at about 9:30 for a nice hour of exercise with Michele (she and Mike ALSO go at about 6:00 a.m., which is just crazy in my book!)

There's not much of any sort of old western town in Roosevelt.  Apparently there were a few buildings here and there but they apparently have been torn down for improvements like parking lots.  But I did run across this old sign on a wall between some shops.  The shops mentioned are long gone, but this little bit of history is still hanging around.

There is an " Indian Trading Post" in town.  

But it's gone out of business.  That's too bad.  It would have been very cool.

And right next to the now defunct Trading Post is an amazing restaurant.  It has Chinese, Mexican AND American food.  What more could anyone ask for?  I'm not sure if Mike & Michele will take me there, but I'm sure they love it.  :-)

Today we went to Vernal for lunch with Mike - his medical practice takes him there two days.  Here's a place we did NOT eat - but I was tempted to suggest we stop for a Root Beer Float on the way out of town.....I mean, really, what's not to LOVE about a root beer float?

Here's a view of the scenery between Roosevelt and Vernal.  Really stark and beautiful.  I think this is also part of the Ute Reservation.

Last night we went to a Community Play Performance of Bye Bye Birdie.  The music is a little difficult, I think.  I think it would be a very fun show on Broadway.  Apparently there is at least one movie version of it.  But the kids enjoyed the performance immensely and that's a key thing, right?

Finally, and most importantly, I bought a pair of boots!  My old black ones are really great, but after 20 years they're not holding up that well.  So here are the new ones.  Now I just have to start country-western dancing!  (But don't hold your breath for that to happen.....)  HAHA 

More excitement will be coming in the next several days, I'm sure.  Until then......Ciao!

Interesting Miscellaneous

I found this on an excellent website called FiveThirtyEight.com.  I started reading this blog back during the 2008 election campaign.  It's a very interesting and the main author really knows his statistical stuff.  I highly recommend it!  Anyway, I thought it was interesting to see that Republican administrations (often associated in the popular mind with sound fiscal management) presided over massive increases in the National Debt as a Percentage of Gross Domestic Product.  Of course, it makes logical sense - those were years of massive decreases in tax rates for the wealthy, and so of course government revenues were falling fast.  Anyway, there you go!

Similarly, check this one out.  US job creation has historically been more robust during Democratic presidencies than Republican ones.  Who knew?  And look at Bush II - almost no growth at all!  For 8 years of massive tax decreases and (bubble-led) ecomonic robustness.  

Finally (for this topic) check out this chart.  It shows that while the wealthy have done well under all the presidents, not everyone has.  While there are of course time lags and all sort of reasons to suspect that in the first year or so of any president is impacted by policies initiated by the previous one, the difference between the Reagan/Bush years and the Clinton years is interesting.  Everyone was massively better of under Clinton and his economic policies than anywhere else while really on the very rich (top 20% of the population) saw strong economic gains during those years when "supply side" or "trickle down" economics were supposedly working to make everyone better off.  

Then, of course, the poor really suffered under the past eight years of Bush II.  What's compassionate about that?  Here's an interesting article on this general theme.

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This doesn't take into account the recent additional fall or recovery on Wall Street, but it's interesting to see the comparison.

Here's a slightly worrying graph.  This shows that the Military is the most trusted institution in the country right now.  I think we have to calk part of that up to the Republican's very successful efforts to minimize the ability of the government (at all levels) to respond to the needs or the population.  From the massive failure to protect New Orleans (by maintaining levees) and the failure to respond to the disaster there to the everyday basic failure of the government to maintain roads/bridges/schools/libraries/unemployment insurance, from the gridlock in Washington to the politicization of medicine and science in the name of particular ideologies, who can blame people for not trusting most (or any) of the public institutions in their lives?

But when the people of a democracy start trusting the military more than the democratic, academic or scientific institutions (or religious institutions for that matter), we are moving in the wrong direction! 

Finally, something happy!  This is supposedly the real and true face of Shakespeare!  Found hanging around an old family hall somewhere in England.  It's cool!

Oh - one final final thing.  An interesting interactive quiz that asks "How Progressive Are You?"  Very interesting.  I scored a 332 - totally off the chart.  While of course the website this is on supports Progressive causes, it's not a judgmental quiz - just informative.  Take it and feel free to let me know how you score.  It would be fascinating!

Ciao!

Mark

America & Religion

I came cross a very interesting article (in USA Today of all places) about America & Religion.  You can find it here.

In it there was an interesting link to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life called the US Religious Landscape Survey. 

While it was a little disappointing to see the LDS members scoring so conservative on social issues, it wasn't that surprising.  But I say disappointing because my understanding of the Gospel compels me towards very progressive perspectives, not conservative ones.  Isn't that interesting?  One thing I learned (or read) while teaching the Gospel Doctrine class for three years (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon) is that there are a few common themes across all people and all times in terms of God's communication with his people:

• He commands us to take care of the widows and orphans
• He commands us to forgive people their debts to us - both figuratively and literally
• He is consistently disappointed that His people focus on gaining wealth and the things of the world (we even talk about that in Sunday School and think, "oh, those foolish Israelites or Nephites" even while we're doing the same thing!)
• While He sometimes gets annoyed with the general population of the world (Noah's days and some Old Testament days), His real annoyance and anger is only kindled by the failure of His people to live the commandments.  And those commandments are really simple:

1. Love God
2. Love your Neighbor as Yourself

Strangely enough, there's no mention of judging your neighbors or categorizing your neighbors into the good ones and the bad ones, or the ones worthy of our friendship and those not.   So.......for me, progressive politics and positions are interesting and compelling from a religious perspective because they are all about helping the poor, the needy, the widows and orphans, and making the decision to give up some of what we have (all from God anyway) to help those who can't manage to get it going in the world we live in.  

So strangely enough, God doesn't require us to decide who is worthy of our aid and who is not, take into account who will buy something we agree with and who will not when we decide help, or attach conditions to our love. He'll judge everyone by their actions and intentions of their hearts.  And He's the only one who can really accurately read the intentions of the heart.  So, for me that means we should worry less about what OTHER people are doing and get focused on making our lives more Christ-like in action and thought.

Anyway, enough on that  I'll get off my little soap box!  

Here are some of the interesting & hopeful results from the Pew Forum survey (and I definitely recommend that you check it out.)

• 37% of Mormons look to Reason or Practical Experience and Common sense when looking for guidance on questions of Right & Wrong.  (58% look to Religion, which would seem fine, but I think one of the major goals of life has to be the development of a personal set of ethics and morals that can guide you through the complexities of life.  While it's perfectly reasonable to base that on a religious system, it has to be internalized and made your own - otherwise you've abdicated your responsibilities to someone else.)
• While 91% of Mormons believe that people who lead good lives are rewarded eternally (why not 100%?), only 59% of Mormons believe people who lead bad lives and aren't sorry will be eternally punished.  That's sort of interesting.....I suppose it might be because we believe that almost everything is forgivable at some point?
• Only 57% of Mormons believe that "Only my religion leads to eternal life."  That's very nice to see.
• More interestingly, only 54% of Mormons believe that there is only one true way to interpret the teachings of our church.  I think that's really interesting.  It's certainly supported by my experience in church.  While there are fundamentalists who would like to insist that there is only one way (always THEIR way, too), it's nice to see that people are open to multiple ways of seeing things as we all try our best to live the best lives we can.
• 26% of Mormons believe that we should either adjust beliefs and practices in light of new circumstances or adopt modern beliefs and practices.  It would be fascinating to learn more about what those people mean.  But one thing that comes to mind is a recent talk by a member of our Stake Presidency.  He called out a differentiation between Doctrine, Policy and Practice.  In his categorization, the first doesn't change (fair enough) but the other two do.  Sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but definitely changeable.  Sometimes we are tempted to see everything as doctrine, and it was refreshing to see someone talk about the space for change that exists.  
• 15% of Mormons either Never or Seldom receive answers to prayer.  That's sort of interesting, I think.

Anyway, like I said, the article and survey are quite interesting.  Hope you enjoy!

Mark