Friday morning, we drove up Millcreek Canyon with my dear friend Mo (and Anna's equally dear friend, her son Jesse) to the Porter Fork trail. The snow was soft, but slightly packed, ideal walking and sledding conditions for two year olds. Everything so clean. We picked up cool sticks, took turns pulling the sled, and discussed the merit and complexities of social media and all social interactions these days. Had a snow picnic of seaweed and fruit snacks. Happiness felt. Then home for delicious homemade squash soup and rolls.
At the mouth of the canyon I got a text from my dad "Are you still good to meet at 1:00?" Had no idea what he was referring to, but called to find out he'd bought tickets in conjunction with the temple studies group we're a part of to attend a lecture at the Leonardo on the Dead Sea Scrolls. So downtown I went. And ended up with some really fascinating new (really old, actually) things to think about. Her speciality was the origins of Judaism and Christianity, and how the common background of the Israelite religion serves to make them more of a sibling relationship than the traditional parental one often held by Christianity. I've also been taking a free online course on the letters of Paul from an awesome professor at the Harvard Divinity school. It was a happy place in my brain that afternoon, all these newly learned facts, and recently acquainted ancient people getting along so nicely.
From there it was over to Abel's house for tutoring and making my way through a huge plate of Eritrean crepes and spicy sauce while we navigated story problems and divided decimals. And a miniature old man sat on the floor with their mom, drinking hot coffee form a tiny cup, smiling.
Back home, took Anna to my parents and Eric and I were off to a discussion group where Maxine Hanks had been invited to share her story of the journey of her life in relation to religion. The living room, walls covered in Mark England's paintings, was filled with chairs holding Mormons on all levels of belief, age, and activity. She herself was born Mormon, served a mission, became a radical feminist at BYU, then atheist, agnostic, pagan, compiled/edited a book on Women and Authority, got excommunicated, did research on the feminine divine, Mary Magdaline, became a chaplain, then was recently re-baptized into a Sugarhouse ward. It was quite honestly a life-changing night, in a very uplifting way, so much felt and explained and introduced. She has reached a place of such peace and honesty and seemed quite simply, wise. Discussion afterward with Eric and Colin on into the wee hours of the morning. I'll write more about it later.
Saturday morning, Eric left to a conference, and I went with Mo to an Ordain Women get-together/brunch. Then home for naps, back to Abel's house to pick him and his siblings up to go to the Leonardo, yet again. (The IRC had free tickets) They were not incredibly interested in the scrolls, but we had ourselves a great time making collages, clay hearts, stacking chopped up aspen trees, and sketching still lifes (lives?) in the art lab.
(We're holding up our little works of art, if you can't tell. Also, it's fun to pretend I have 4 kids.)
After taking them back to their appartment, we were on our way to meet up with Eric, and Anna peed her pants. So home we went for a quick wardrobe change and carseat clean-out. Then to Lamb's Cafe to eat with Baba and the Chinese colleagues that had been working on developing a functional Chinese curriculum for secondary students all weekend. Salt Lake is so beautiful in the rain. And with the twinkling Christmas lights all still up (not sure why?), even more so.
Now it's Sunday morning, which we've spent giving bubble baths and getting our lesson ready for the four year olds we have the great pleasure of teaching each week.
No comments:
Post a Comment