Making the Dysfunctional Functional

In The Chalice of the Gods, Rick Riordan paints some memorable and humorous scenes. One includes Grover distracting snakes with music, and another has Percy attending a brunch of the gods. 

In A Pirate’s Life for Tea, by Rebecca Thorne, one of the characters that Reyna and Kianthe is trying to help has to be saved by the elemental mage. Bobbie, after battling constables, falls overboard unconscious into freezing water, a “bad combination.” When Reyna is feeling down and unworthy, Kianthe tells her, “You’re good at the things you’re good at, and I love that about you.” When the baby griffon returns, she forgets “all her rigid training,” and pounces on and cuddles up like a cat with Reyna. Later, Reyna is forced to confront her actions after an alchemical trap leaves her in a brain fog.

In More Stars Than Grains of Sand, Al Forsyth reminds us that all the continents of the world were at one time a single continent, and that the land masses of the Earth are still on the move. The current configuration of the Earth is a snapshot that has only lasted about one-tenth of one percent of the Earth’s total history. There are locations around the world that show vestiges of one continent being connected to another even though they are now vastly separated.

In the news this week, Caitlyn Jenner betrayed trans youth, saying that she would not wanted to have learned about “gender ideology” in the fourth grade, because it would have “ruined” her life. That is completely subjective, and pales in comparison to the lives of people who are ruined by non-acceptance of their identities. Furthermore, no one can say for certain that a path not taken would have doomed someone to ruin. We make the best decisions we can with the information that we have.

One of those decisions was Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota signing into law a bill confirming the right to gender affirming care. The Board of Directors for the Utah Stonewall Dems fully endorses and applauds the courage and the action of the Minnesota Legislature and the governor to show their care for trans youth by passing the shield law to enshrine the right to gender-affirming care, even for those out of state.

Instead of gender-affirming bans, we need laws aimed at fully including everyone, and enshrining our rights to our own medical decisions. Minnesota's Ban on Book Bans and similar legislation provide us with better models that show we care, and I encourage the Utah Legislature to use them as models in lieu of ALEC models and those provided by organizations identified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

We are a family, let's behave more like a loving, caring, and supportive family, and less like a dysfunctional one. Thank you Tim Walz and the Minnesota Legislature for proving that can be done.

Due to the thunderstorms in the Eastern mountains, I went swimming in the lap pool instead of kayaking. On my 200m swim, I was able to crawl the first 25m non-stop. I am pretty sure that is the best I have ever done.

The receptionist charged me the senior rate for the fitness center when I arrived. I wasn’t sure how to take that, but I figured I was close enough to a senior anyway, so it didn’t really matter. My next goal is to do 25m nonstop on both the first and second laps. I made it about 3/4 of the way on the second lap this week.

I struck up some fun conversations at the National Night Out block party. It’s always good to engage with the neighbors and make new friends.

The sermon of Sunday in the Park was on “Unitarian Jesus,” presented by Rusty from the local American Baptist Church. Rusty mentioned that if Jesus were here today he would likely be a Unitarian Universalist, because he believed in multi-sourcing religious faiths and ideologies, that there are many ways to spirituality, and that he potentially viewed God as both the universe and its transcendence. We are reminded that we are recognized by our fruits. Kindness, compassion, inclusion, and love over hate, bigotry, and mean-spiritedness. Jesus preferred the presence of the queer, poor, and disabled—maybe because they prayed more.