Lessons from Utah
I have learned a few facts about Utah the last couple of days. 1) The snow is really the champagne of snow. 2) The state run liquor store is hard to find on streets all named variations of the same number. 3) it is illegal to serve a drink before the customer has completely consumed the drink in front of him/her. 4) Don’t order a martini at the hotel bar; it will cost you $42 and it will not be regulation (other states’) size.
Riss twisted her knee at The Canyons, and at Alta, she became frustrated at her inability to ski her normal difficulty level. She chose not to ski with us today- and she missed out. Deer Valley was great skiing. She went, instead, on a tour of the Mormon Temple. She dragged us there tonight.
It was beautiful. I was a bit silly after a bottle of rice wine and had to be talked out of kneeling in front of the nativity scene- I thought it would be funny to have a pic of an atheist kneeling at the baby Jesus. But even I, a person hurt by the “moral” do-gooders in the world, have little bad to say about Mormons. These people are nice; and if they are judgemental, they save their comments until they are privately shared.
Thank you!!! Thank you to the family that cared more about taking our picture than my obviously irreverant, “Happy eve of your lord and saviour’s birth.”
Families like yours make me rethink my position on religious people. Your family makes me remember only part of my church upbringing. You did not attempt to make me ashamed of my faith- I haven’t any. You did not attempt to make me ashamed of my words. Your kindness made me shame myself.
I am sure that I will never join your faith, but I would like to be as kind as you. And please, get rid of your drinking laws. (Not for your members, but for those visiting.) It was my childlike sillyness, brought on by an inability to be cynical (when it counted anyway) brought on by some rice wine, that made me appreciate you.
You eventually get used to the street numbering system. It took me about a week.
Right on about Utah. That was my impression of it too.
The good and the bad.
The people are really exceptionally nice, but the government comes up with stupid inane/insane laws, just like everywhere else, but with a local flavor.
Don’t throw all faith by the wayside – evil control mechanisms which use faith as a vehicle to latch on to are not the essence of faith itself, just an unfortunate byproduct. It sounds like you experienced enough of these byproducts as a youngster to turn you off to all religious faith, but if so that’s a shame.
There’s the good and the bad just like with everything else. The good you saw in Utah is a product of their faith; the bad is a product of its misapplication by control freaks.
Then again, control freaks always find some excuse, even in atheist countries.
Atheism is really just a form of faith – negative faith, in this case. Agnosticism is lack of faith.