Tuesday, March 24, 2009
"I ♥ Faces!" Contest Entry - Week 11 (kids!)
I decided to do a kids entry for I ♥ Faces, too. The challenge this week was to enter a photo without a flash - which is perfect, since I hardly ever use flash to begin with. This photo is of my former co-worker Wendy's ADORABLE baby boy Oscar. We snapped the session in about 20 minutes in the lobby of the Methodist building in DC, just a few days before I moved to Salt Lake City. I added a bunch of grain to the photo and cropped it down - but I just LOVE Oscar's expression here, and the little tear in his eye! Enjoy! And be sure to check out www.iheartfaces.com for the rest of this week's entries.
Monday, March 23, 2009
"I ♥ Faces!" Contest Entry - Week 11
This is my first contest for I ♥ Faces! Be sure to check out www.iheartfaces.com to see the rest of the entries. What a cool community.
I went square dancing on Friday night! Sarah drove me and I met a bunch of people from the violin-making school. I took this photo of Jen by firelight (without flash), and it's one of my favorites from the night. More to come soon!
I went square dancing on Friday night! Sarah drove me and I met a bunch of people from the violin-making school. I took this photo of Jen by firelight (without flash), and it's one of my favorites from the night. More to come soon!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Notes on SLC, part II
Today's installment, in honor of the general session of the legislature being finished, is a tribute to a series of "Only in Utah" laws.
1. Economic Justice.
There are NO usury laws on the books in Utah. None. Which means that it's not uncommon for payday loan or cash advance companies (of which there are more per capita than just about anywhere else in the US) to charge 400, 500, even 1,200% APR interest on one-week loans that can roll over for up to 3 months. I sat in on a committee hearing where one of our allies was trying to pass legislation that would limit APR to 100% - still an enormous profit. Even with our testimony from an expert economist and from a payday loan victim who lost everything (collectors came to her door and literally carted away her things), the bill was voted down and was dead in committee. Here's our payday loan victim telling her story to a reporter from the local Public Radio station.
What's the best way to raise revenue? Taxes, right? Well in Utah, Republican lawmakers wanted to double the sales tax on food, a measure that would disproportionately impact people living on the economic margins (me included!). The religious community banded together in a serious way on this - and we won!
The photo on the left is Rev. Steve Klemz from the Lutheran church delivering our letter of support to Lisa Roschelli (center) from Governor Huntsman's office. The Governor urged Congress not to raise the tax.
The photo on the right is Rev. Erin Gilmore of Holladay UCC (where I've been attending) and Linda Hilton, Advocate for Crossroads Urban Center, with whom I worked during my week there.
The final victory was 11th hour - literally! According to the State Constitution, the legislature has to be finished by midnight, this year on this past Thursday. At 11:51, a substitute bill was signed which allowed the Committee on Consumer Services to remain a policy-making committee rather than relegate it to an advisory committee, which the original bill suggested. The committee, commonly referred to as the "utilities watchdog" is made up of community members who keep an eye on utility companies who are looking to increase rates.
2. Alcohol and the LDS.
Here's what's been illegal in Utah: homebrew. It is illegal in Utah to make your own beer in your home. But not anymore! Good news for local company "The Beer Nut," which sells beer and wine-making kits :)
In bars here they have what's commonly referred to as the "Zion Curtain". It's a wall, made out of wood, plastic, metal, sometimes even clear glass, that's about 17'' high and stands between the bartender and the customer, behind which bartenders are required to mix drinks. Many places, bartenders aren't allowed to hand you your drink over the wall - they have to walk around the bar to hand it to you!
3. Paved History
One piece of legislation that went poorly regards a Native American archaeological site - a whole village discovered found underground just outside Salt Lake City. The Utah Transit Authority wants to dig it up to build a new Trax (metro... sort of) station. And... the Congress just gave them permission. This, in the State House where lies a display of Native American and other artifacts with a quote that reads "In Utah, everyone is from someplace else." Only in Utah.
PS - one more thing I'm not used to? Avalanche forecasting!
1. Economic Justice.
There are NO usury laws on the books in Utah. None. Which means that it's not uncommon for payday loan or cash advance companies (of which there are more per capita than just about anywhere else in the US) to charge 400, 500, even 1,200% APR interest on one-week loans that can roll over for up to 3 months. I sat in on a committee hearing where one of our allies was trying to pass legislation that would limit APR to 100% - still an enormous profit. Even with our testimony from an expert economist and from a payday loan victim who lost everything (collectors came to her door and literally carted away her things), the bill was voted down and was dead in committee. Here's our payday loan victim telling her story to a reporter from the local Public Radio station.
What's the best way to raise revenue? Taxes, right? Well in Utah, Republican lawmakers wanted to double the sales tax on food, a measure that would disproportionately impact people living on the economic margins (me included!). The religious community banded together in a serious way on this - and we won!The photo on the left is Rev. Steve Klemz from the Lutheran church delivering our letter of support to Lisa Roschelli (center) from Governor Huntsman's office. The Governor urged Congress not to raise the tax.
The photo on the right is Rev. Erin Gilmore of Holladay UCC (where I've been attending) and Linda Hilton, Advocate for Crossroads Urban Center, with whom I worked during my week there.
The final victory was 11th hour - literally! According to the State Constitution, the legislature has to be finished by midnight, this year on this past Thursday. At 11:51, a substitute bill was signed which allowed the Committee on Consumer Services to remain a policy-making committee rather than relegate it to an advisory committee, which the original bill suggested. The committee, commonly referred to as the "utilities watchdog" is made up of community members who keep an eye on utility companies who are looking to increase rates.
2. Alcohol and the LDS.
Here's what's been illegal in Utah: homebrew. It is illegal in Utah to make your own beer in your home. But not anymore! Good news for local company "The Beer Nut," which sells beer and wine-making kits :)
In bars here they have what's commonly referred to as the "Zion Curtain". It's a wall, made out of wood, plastic, metal, sometimes even clear glass, that's about 17'' high and stands between the bartender and the customer, behind which bartenders are required to mix drinks. Many places, bartenders aren't allowed to hand you your drink over the wall - they have to walk around the bar to hand it to you!
3. Paved History
One piece of legislation that went poorly regards a Native American archaeological site - a whole village discovered found underground just outside Salt Lake City. The Utah Transit Authority wants to dig it up to build a new Trax (metro... sort of) station. And... the Congress just gave them permission. This, in the State House where lies a display of Native American and other artifacts with a quote that reads "In Utah, everyone is from someplace else." Only in Utah.
PS - one more thing I'm not used to? Avalanche forecasting!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Welcome to Planet Utah.
Utah is this strange place of paradoxes. In Salt Lake, city employees have partner benefits. Not just same-sex partner benefits, non-married heterosexual partner benefits. And if your mom is your dependent, you can name her as your partner. In the same city, state representative (and chair of the Utah House Rules Committee) Chris Buttars says the following: "I believe you (the LGBTQ community) will destroy the foundation of American society because I believe the cornerstone of it is a man and a woman and a family. It is, in my mind, the beginning of the end. Oh it's worse than that. Sure, Sodom and Gomorrah was localized, this is world-wide. You can't tell me that something was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah is not going on wholesale right now and to a large degree among the gay community... The underbelly is they do not want equality, they want superiority. I believe that, internally, they are the greatest threat to America going down that I know of."
Utah was settled largely by the Mormon migration. Now native peoples once healthy and peaceful on this land are now confined to tiny reservations with little access to health care facilities. And the caption in the State Capitol reads, "In Utah, everyone is from someplace else."
Here snow falls and melts - saturates and dries - the sun warms and the night freezes - all in 12 hours.
Here the valley is flat, flat, flat at the foot of Mt. Olympus.
Here in the land of big sky, Salt Lake has some of the worst air pollution in the nation. Sometimes you can't even see the mountains.
And here, here... I have found a community of advocates, a local church committee on church and society, a Muslim school, Turkish women hosting multicultural events encouraging theological and intellectual dialogue.
'Welcome,' Linda said to me as we left the Capitol, 'to Planet Utah.'
Utah was settled largely by the Mormon migration. Now native peoples once healthy and peaceful on this land are now confined to tiny reservations with little access to health care facilities. And the caption in the State Capitol reads, "In Utah, everyone is from someplace else."
Here snow falls and melts - saturates and dries - the sun warms and the night freezes - all in 12 hours.
Here the valley is flat, flat, flat at the foot of Mt. Olympus.
Here in the land of big sky, Salt Lake has some of the worst air pollution in the nation. Sometimes you can't even see the mountains.
And here, here... I have found a community of advocates, a local church committee on church and society, a Muslim school, Turkish women hosting multicultural events encouraging theological and intellectual dialogue.
'Welcome,' Linda said to me as we left the Capitol, 'to Planet Utah.'
missing most
your sleepy eyes
and saturday brunch
catastrophes and
finally gaining traction
boats and goats,
bad seafood
that awful sunburn
and statues of our favorite women
no no
it's the never-was
stevie nicks and lindsey buckingham
on halloween of the year we didn't keep
meals we didn't learn to cook together
plans we hadn't made
and the chance we didn't have
your hands and tears i didn't dry
sentences and words unfinish
missing most of us.
and saturday brunch
catastrophes and
finally gaining traction
boats and goats,
bad seafood
that awful sunburn
and statues of our favorite women
no no
it's the never-was
stevie nicks and lindsey buckingham
on halloween of the year we didn't keep
meals we didn't learn to cook together
plans we hadn't made
and the chance we didn't have
your hands and tears i didn't dry
sentences and words unfinish
missing most of us.
Monday, March 2, 2009
just to be clear...
I don't believe it's possible to put ourselves outside of the bounds of God's Grace and Love. Sin or not.
transfigured.
disclaimer: I loved reconciling Sunday. I loved it so much I didn't even realize I was missing one of my favorite Sundays in the liturgical year: Transfiguration Sunday. I think the story is so beautiful, and so mysterious - and so human.
I resonate with the disciples here especially. I think when you hang out with someone like this Jesus character, you come to just expect amazing things to happen. And what with there always being some trick, some moral hiding you didn't see coming, I imagine that I would always have been trying to stay one step ahead, figuring where this lesson was going. I imagine I would have been a fuss-er, like Peter. He so wants to get it right, you know? The voice (can you imagine?) the PRESENCE of God is all about them, and Peter wants to build a worship space, right there. I have trouble imagining what this moment would be like - so I like to have artists help me out. One of my favorite depictions is a musical setting by Sufjan Stevens. Listen to it here.
I'd like to think I'd have enough sense to just take in a moment like that, but I have a feeling I'd be reaching for my camera - always trying to capture, to remember, to keep, to stay the same. And at the heart of it, isn't this story about change? Change for the disciples, change for the ministry, fallout from a mountaintop experience.
One of my favorite spots in the world is at a camp in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The path is steep, icy in the winter and muddy after a rain. And the sun sets fast, so you'd be wise to bring yourself a flashlight. There are cracks in the rock you'll have to leap over to get there, but when you do, it's breathtaking. Castle Rock, hidden gem of the Greenville highway, sees the steady sun set over Carolina farmland day in, day out, year after year, farther back than anyone can remember. The river shines like liquid gold, painted to match the flame-colored hills in fall. I feel like I'm being let in on some cosmic secret - the mountains put on this show just for me. And I watch as the last sliver of orange light flashes, and then disappears behind the next ridge over. Coming down from the mountain, we can see only in part, shining our flashlights in as many places as possible so we don't slip and fall down the steep path. And the rest of the night is spent, largely, recovering from the experience.
Salt Lake City is located smack in the middle of a valley. "Guarded well by mountains," it's magnificent in its own way. But instead of the unfettered vista of Castle Rock, I'm getting used to a very framed view. There are definitions, limits, to my reality. And a place I expected to be cold and frigid turns out to be warm, even inviting. And the frost and snow I'd so long awaited comes too-little-too-late to my Eastern home. And I sing...
Now we can say that nothing's lost and only change brings round the prophecy
Where now it's melting, the solid frost was once a veil on greener landscapes we would see
Beneath my surface the water's heating
And steam comes up and out the tears you see me shine
For every strange and bitter moment there was never a better time
Beneath my surface a song is rising
It may be simple while it hides its true intent
We may be looking for our deliverance but it has already been sent
It's in the night fall when the light falls
And what you've seen isn't there anymore
It's in our blind trust that love will find us
Just like it has before
I resonate with the disciples here especially. I think when you hang out with someone like this Jesus character, you come to just expect amazing things to happen. And what with there always being some trick, some moral hiding you didn't see coming, I imagine that I would always have been trying to stay one step ahead, figuring where this lesson was going. I imagine I would have been a fuss-er, like Peter. He so wants to get it right, you know? The voice (can you imagine?) the PRESENCE of God is all about them, and Peter wants to build a worship space, right there. I have trouble imagining what this moment would be like - so I like to have artists help me out. One of my favorite depictions is a musical setting by Sufjan Stevens. Listen to it here.
I'd like to think I'd have enough sense to just take in a moment like that, but I have a feeling I'd be reaching for my camera - always trying to capture, to remember, to keep, to stay the same. And at the heart of it, isn't this story about change? Change for the disciples, change for the ministry, fallout from a mountaintop experience.
One of my favorite spots in the world is at a camp in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The path is steep, icy in the winter and muddy after a rain. And the sun sets fast, so you'd be wise to bring yourself a flashlight. There are cracks in the rock you'll have to leap over to get there, but when you do, it's breathtaking. Castle Rock, hidden gem of the Greenville highway, sees the steady sun set over Carolina farmland day in, day out, year after year, farther back than anyone can remember. The river shines like liquid gold, painted to match the flame-colored hills in fall. I feel like I'm being let in on some cosmic secret - the mountains put on this show just for me. And I watch as the last sliver of orange light flashes, and then disappears behind the next ridge over. Coming down from the mountain, we can see only in part, shining our flashlights in as many places as possible so we don't slip and fall down the steep path. And the rest of the night is spent, largely, recovering from the experience.
Salt Lake City is located smack in the middle of a valley. "Guarded well by mountains," it's magnificent in its own way. But instead of the unfettered vista of Castle Rock, I'm getting used to a very framed view. There are definitions, limits, to my reality. And a place I expected to be cold and frigid turns out to be warm, even inviting. And the frost and snow I'd so long awaited comes too-little-too-late to my Eastern home. And I sing...
Now we can say that nothing's lost and only change brings round the prophecy
Where now it's melting, the solid frost was once a veil on greener landscapes we would see
Beneath my surface the water's heating
And steam comes up and out the tears you see me shine
For every strange and bitter moment there was never a better time
Beneath my surface a song is rising
It may be simple while it hides its true intent
We may be looking for our deliverance but it has already been sent
It's in the night fall when the light falls
And what you've seen isn't there anymore
It's in our blind trust that love will find us
Just like it has before
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