I was fighting a post-election slump by not wanting to be in the room where the ballots were counted so I didn’t have to see a potentially dismal performance. On my way to thank the victor—who will do a phenomenal job, I am sure—I was approached by the executive director who asked if I wanted to see how the original rounds of the ranked choice voting turned out. I told him only if it makes me feel better. He informed me that I was in a pretty strong third place out of the five candidates, trailing by just a few votes. Several people, especially caucus leaders offered their condolences and disappointment. Since the Chair of Caucus Chairs is the new Second Vice Chair, I have already been approached about potentially running for that position or the treasurer. I was kind of anticipating that. The Chair of the Caucus Chairs represents the issue and identity caucuses on the executive committee. They will need to schedule a meeting of the caucus chairs and vice chairs to hold a special election to fill that spot.
I went to see Jekyll and Hyde, the Musical at the West Valley Performing Arts Center with a friend. I couldn’t wait to see it, and finished reading the book by Robert Louis Stevenson in preparation.
In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll confesses that when he appeared as Mr. Hyde, no one felt comfortable approaching him without showing visible misgivings. His second experiment was to see if he had completely lost his original body. Dr. Jekyll laments about how he had approached his discoveries at that point.
In A Closed and Common Circuit, by Becky Chambers, Blue keeps his own shop immaculately tidy. When Blue notes that Sidra looks upset, Sidra responds, “No,…I don’t [feel upset]. The kit [referring to her artificial body] looks upset.”
Tak visits Pepper’s shop, hoping that she could have a word with Sidra in private.
In Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers, terror happens in real time. Isabel tells Deshi to start recording. She also taps the hud she is wearing to start the device recording.
In The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, by Becky Chambers, Roveg tells Captain Tem that her shuttle caught his eye as he flew in. Speaker notes that the captain neither boasts, brags, nor demurs about the quality of her shuttle. Roveg expresses a blatant interest in whether Captain Tem is hailing from the darker parts of the galaxy.
Tupo stares upward in what looks like a horrid configuration to Roveg. Roveg notes the horrid mess up there that has grounded all traffic to and from the planet. Tupo replies that at least the explosions have ended.
Tupo is in the kitchen when he sees Roveg enter xyr museum and races over. Roveg is sure that there is a sign for everything at the Five-Hop, though he didn’t see one for checking in or buying a ticket. Tupo says it’s not required and eagerly asks to give Rover the tour.
In More Stars than Grains of Sand, Al Forsyth shares that ‘some of our organs are surprisingly large.’ Average adults have about twenty square feet of skin, a thousand square feet of heavily folded lung tissue, and about fifteen hundred miles of airways. Our lungs contain about 500 million alveoli.
The message at church was on reclaiming prayer, its forms and relating it to our bodies. There are various forms of communion and prayer, from communal chants and songs to meditation and supplication. Too often, when someone say “thoughts and prayers,” it comes from a more directive place, either asking the universe to do something, or using it as a way to kindly tell someone you disagree with their lifestyle and pray for their change, for the universe to guide them down the directed path.
I usually say, I will keep them in my thoughts. When I pray, I pray for personal guidance. I pray for courage and wisdom to do what needs to be done, what I need to do with my own body, how I can best be alert for opportunities to be of assistance. Communal prayer for me is for aligning with others to covenant and have an attitude that promotes the well-being in one another. Prayer for me is an opportunity to ask what I can do, and how I can help. When I hold tragedy in my thoughts, it is so that I know that I will do whatever is my my power to not only comfort the afflicted, but to make sure that a similar tragedy is less likely to occur in the future.
When I pray, I pray for guidance. I ask for what the universe wants from me, and I open my heart to what it provides. Kayaking season may be over. The low is dipping down to the lower 40s, and it is hard to get three of us together to go river kayaking. This means I also need to get started on winterizing the RV.
I also reviewed some job descriptions for the Womens State Legislative Council of Utah. Our members really need them to help clarify their duties and procedures. It's amazing how quickly documents like these can get out of date and need modification. Callie needs her moments as well. She cuddled up on my chest and just lay there purring for at least a good 15 minutes. I considered taking a nap, until she suddenly she decided she was ready to climb down.
Once again members of our community who are transgender are having their needs broadcast on the national stage as a form of political football—this just on the heels of national coming out day. Governor Tim Walz, the current Democratic nominee for Vice President of the United States, has a track record of being there for the transgender community, including our transgender youth. He has worked hard to make Minnesota a safe space for transgender people seeking gender affirmation.
Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump has called Governor Walz’s care as some form of a dog whistle to rile up the base, weaponing trans lives in this election. The cultural harm that comes from this kind of rhetoric is devastating. Instead of an open and inclusive society, transgender individuals are forced to face more barriers to acceptance, and stand up against increasing hostility and movements to erase their identity.
Many people against gender affirming care claim to be biological experts, and use a logical fallacy to equate gender identity with desire. They’ll say things like, “I identify as a millionaire, but it doesn’t make me one,” or some other false comparison. To them, I can only say, "While you may claim to be a biological expert, it doesn’t make you one.” There has been a lot of research into why someone’s gender may not line up with the sex they were assigned at birth. Research has revealed that sexual and gender identity development is a complex process, and any aberration along the way can result in an incongruity between body and mind. Honestly, it’s a miracle that it goes right as frequently as it does. Also, biology shows that many species actually change their sex depending on the circumstances. Psychology doesn’t help either. It doesn’t change the signals that are coming from the brain. Since attempting to surgically correct gender identity is lethal, the only option has been for hundreds of years to hormonally and surgically bring the body into as much alignment as a particular individual needs. Yes, there are risks as there are in any medical procedure. The answer is not in banning the procedures, but making sure that the risks are identified, known, and accepted. In other words, this is between a patient and their provider, any other counselor they trust, and a parent or guardian if they are a minor.
Also, while many may think that transgender people are something new and some kind of trend, the reality is that transgender people have been among us for all of recorded history.
So it is a reality that many of us do not feel that the body in which we are contained accurately reflects us as individuals, nor does the overall culture from which we spring identify us as individuals. While both our bodies and our cultures have evolved over time to placing certain limitations on what we can do, it is in no sense written that they are in a final never-ending state, and not subject to evolution. Indeed, it is critical that we continue to evolve with our ever-changing environment, easier done culturally than organically, in order to survive. I continue to hold our environment and out cultures in my thoughts and prayers.
