September 2011 – The Zion Chronicle

This morning as I went to the temple I began to wonder if I was in the middle of a common conference tradition of going to the temple to mentally prepare for General Conference (or to make up for the fact that a weekly Saturday trip would not be possible with the temple closed on conference weekend). It was busier than I have seen it before with almost as many people waiting to perform ordinances as performing them. It was so busy that the man who normally keeps everything in order flawlessly was hard-pressed to keep everything straight with so many people coming, waiting, and going.

As I thought about it throughout the day I considered some other conference traditions that we are trying to establish in our family. We have developed a tradition of having some fun treats in stock for the weekend so that the kids can be more self-maintaining and so that they can look forward to the conference weekend. We also have a tradition of going out to dinner as a family the night before conference as a fun way to start a long weekend. I am also trying to establish a tradition of taking Friday (or most of Friday) off of work so that I can do any tasks that would normally be saved for the weekend in order to allow myself to focus on the conference rather than dividing my attention with other tasks.

All in all, I think we have some good traditions to work on so that conference weekends are getting to be perhaps our third biggest holiday of the year at our house.

Redistricting in Ut(opia)

I have been watching the redistricting process with interest although I have not been able to be as vocal in the discussions as I might have wished. This late in the process we can see the forces at work and the concerns being raised. On top of that, I have been asked how I think the lines should be drawn (not what my map would look like so much as how I would go about drawing it). It time now to no longer be silent. Before the final vote on the maps is completed by the special legislative session I need to speak up – and so should everyone else who has not already been heard in this process.

I have been pleased with the process at times and disappointed with the results at other times. I am going to talk about what has happened in the redistricting process so far, good and bad, and also answer the question of what I think is the appropriate process for completing this decennial task.