The Devil's Highway

Ever since reading Blood Meridian and The Border Trilogy I've been rather fascinated with the Mexican borderlands. Luis Alberto Urrea came highly recommended from Ken Sanders book store, and for good reason. The Devil's Highway is a very well-written account of the tragic journey of a 26 person border crossing in the summer of 2001. It has opened my eyes to a hierarchy of human trafficking: gangs, Coyotes, guías, pollos, and la Migra.

The human struggle for survival can be an astonishing thing. In the midst of gummed up political rule (and in Mexico's case, corrupt and increasingly broken) the desperate desire for a better quality of life and more money has caused people to go through some pretty amazing ordeals. And often die in the process. Regardless of which side of issue you fall, it is humbling.

I've never been the run-the-wetbacks-out-on-a-rail type. Far from it. In fact, I think if we were to deport all of our illegal migrant workers we would see an economic collapse that would make the current crisis look rather appealing. Does that make illegal immigration okay? Absolutely not. Border security is a must, but the manner in which we create it, and deal with the current population of illegals in the U.S. isn't so black and white.

The book cites a 2003 study done by the prestigious Thunderbird School of Global Management:

Mexican immigrants paid nearly $600 million in federal taxes and sales taxes in 2002.
Mexican immigrants use about $250 million in social services such as Medicaid and food stamps.
Mexican immigrants account for another $31 million in uncompensated health care.

Surprise! An economic profit of $319 million.

Other reports estimate that undocumented immigrants contribute at least 300 billion to the United States GDP. And depending on who I talk to I get responses on the illegal immigration issue ranging from "Grant amnesty!" to "Round 'em up and ship 'em out!". Yet year after year the issue is buried under more bureaucracy and nothing happens. Stasis. But does anyone else think that if illegals were costing millions of dollars (instead of adding) we would have seen the fence go up a long time ago?

Maid to Order

Christy has been out of town for the last four days, and I got to spend almost every waking moment with Gus, single parent style. We did lots of boy stuff: wrestle, eat bratwursts and watch football, get tatoos, drink beer, bash in mailboxes with baseball bats, etc. We had a really good time, actually, but I became acutely aware of the personal sacrifices that Mom's make. I'm not just talking about watching the trailer to Madagascar 2 twenty times in a row. Full time parenting demands so much time, energy, emotion, patience, and passion. And it is very rewarding, but not too easy and I only did it for a few days knowing that things would turn back to normal come Monday. I hope that Christy feels balance. If not we/I need to make every effort to ensure that she does. As Gus was walking around the kitchen with a belly full of Werther's Original mints, a diaper full of poop (not so minty), a transparent bucket on his head, and some chocolate pie stuck to the bottom of his shoe, I started thinking about maids.

One for Me



One for Christy

Something Worth Saving

It’s dark inside, all over inside me
Outside the blood irrigates that hillside
Growing grass

Grass that grows in churchyards everywhere
Washing fingers clean, break clean
Like bones were broken

If I could only
Make the tray a garden place
I’d bury it in pieces fit
For mouths to pluck it up like fruit
To fill not just this suit, and peel my past away

I’m scraping for a light down inside me
Some weighted thing, mine enough to handle
Something worth saving

If I could only
Make this tray a well so deep
It pulls away the lakes and seas
For mouths to drink it down and
Flood at last, the blood will drown my past away

I'll take you in my heart today, and hope that it's enough to save

Lighting the Stones

I had started an extremely lengthy post about why I voted for Barak Obama and luckily took a break and returned hours later to realize that perhaps I was missing my own point. What I will post instead, rather than delve into policy, and issues, and the reasons behind my vote, is to say something about God talking to us.

When the leaders of the LDS Church across the country stand up in front of their congregations and read the official statement about political neutrality, it isn't merely obligatory, or to reassert their tax exempt status. And I certainly don't think it is meant to be read with a ::cough, cough, voterepublican:: wink in the eye. We are all encouraged to study and pray for heavenly inspiration to aid us in making a decision. I've done that, and I'm confident you have as well. There are General Authorities of this Church who will vote for McCain in this election and there are General Authorities who will vote for Obama. Does that mean that the person who votes one way is less in tune with the Spirit of God than the other? Not necessarily. Is it possible that two persons could thoughtfully and prayerfully come to a conclusion about two different candidates? I will answer that with a resounding Yes!

Allow me to draw a bit of a scriptural analogy, and forgive me if you feel I'm twisting a principle out of context. The Brother of Jared found himself in a predicament after he had built eight barges in which he and his people would cross the ocean. They had no light. No windows, because they would be dashed to pieces, and no fire because the Lord commanded it so. Because of that commandment the Lord had put them in a position that required an exercise of faith. The Brother of Jared was left to come up with a solution to take them out of darkness, which he did. He "did molten out of a rock sixteen small stones" which he took before the Lord in an almost shamefully apologetic way. "O Lord, and do not be angry with thy servant because of his weakness before thee...we are unworthy before thee...O Lord, look upon me in pity, and turn away thine anger from this thy people, and suffer not that they shall go forth across this raging deep in darkness; but behold these things which I have molten out of the rock." These do not sound like the words of a man who is entirely confident in his plan. But whatever confidence he lacked in those molten "things" he made up for elsewhere. "And I know, O Lord, that thou has all power, and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man; therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness; and they shall shine forth unto us in the vessels which we have prepared, that we may have light while we shall cross the sea. Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this."

So my analogy is this: We voters are going to go (or already have gone) into the voting booth with an armful of stones, varying degrees of confidence, and very likely feeling a bit inadequate despite how transparent or clear the stones may seem. But let's not roll our eyes at our neighbor because his stones are granite and ours are marble. Both plans have elements that may be lame, and/or bad, and/or ridiculous. But they're just stones, man-made and full of thought, energy, and good intention. The best we can do is pray for God to touch them and do our part and act! Neither Barak Obama nor John McCain, in and of themselves or even their own platforms, is the answer to the woes of the country. But God can easily touch either of them and make it so. And I'm committed, regardless of who wins, to make that my ongoing prayer, and to act, otherwise I'll be stuck in a ship with no light on a very long boat ride.

Much love to you McCain supporters. Despite all the rhetoric on both sides, I feel your good intentions and I admire them. If he wins I'll be praying for God to light the stones, and will in turn do my small part in my small sphere. I hope, and hope in good faith, that the feeling is reciprocal.

Seven Years

Christy and I celebrated our seventh anniversary last week. Things are going pretty good so far.

We went to Fresco Italian Grill up on 15th and 15th. She had the seared Ahi Tuna and I had the Lamb Tenderloin.

We ate well.

All That Glitters

Bouvaysa Saytiev

The meat head in me is breaking the blogging hiatus to put a word in for the world's oldest and greatest sport. When I was little I dreamed of competing as a wrestler in the Olympics. I thought Olympians were true heroes, and that the wrestlers were the best of the best. Now I live that dream vicariously through real athletes, watching from my couch with a mouth full of potato chips. It's the Olympics of Michael Phelps right now. For good reason too. The man is amazing, doing things that have never been done. But, he participates in a sport that gives out medals liberally, and there are other story lines to follow though, so I'll point you to one if you're sick of the five sports that are being shown on NBC prime time. Freestyle Wrestling began last night and I was almost in tears in the middle of the night as I watched Henry Cejudo win a gold medal in a stacked weight in stunning fashion. The kid is amazing.

Tonight we'll get the chance to see a living legend, Russia's Bouvaysa Saytiev (multiple time Olympic Champion and six time World Champion). He is on the tail end of his competitive years, but as I watched him win a barnburner in the Russian Nationals this year it was apparent that he has plenty still left in the tank for one more run in Beijing. In the same weight the U.S. is bringing first time Olympian Ben Askren into the fray. Ben is a funny, thoughtful character who looks to "put the chin in China". I've followed his decorated career through the NCAAs. He's funky and an absolute pleasure to watch. If the two men win their first two matches they will meet in the quarterfinals.

Thanks to technology and NBC's online coverage, you can watch every match live online by going to www.nbcolympics.com and browsing to their live coverage. Tonight wrestling gets started at about 7:30 pm.

Growing up with Feist

Last night Christy & I went to see Panama Jack, I mean Feist, play a show up at Deer Valley. I felt like a bit of a yuppie. All around us were 40 to 50 year old Park City folk drinking wine, talking loudly, and wearing revealing designer clothing. I was really confused. Is this the Feist demographic now? Christy assured me that perhaps it was merely the Deer Valley demographic - people who summer up there and attend the shows no matter who is playing in order to socialize and feel young. The opening number, a slow intricately picked guitar solo version of "Intuition", was really fantastic, but these older peeps a few rows in front of us tried starting that annoying side to side hand wave thing, which luckily didn't catch on.

Fortunately for some, and unfortunately for others, several numbers in the kids decided to rush the stage to dance and move. Before the song was over the front was crowded with the moving/dancing sort, and all the poor rich folks who paid top dollar for reserved seating on the front 10 rows couldn't see Feist at all. Nothing was done to send people back to their seats. Christy and I had enough good sense in the moment to go up and be part of that front row crowd rather than get stuck not seeing anything, but we did feel a little bit bad for the people behind us.

Truthfuly we enjoyed every minute of the show, but I came away feeling that maybe I'm getting too old for this. I'm about three weeks away from the big three oh. This is the first time in maybe four years that we've paid to see a bona fide concert on any large scale (with the exception of a somewhat small Sufjan Stevens show in 2005), and those last two that we saw were Wilco and Grandaddy, which were both were a bit of a disaster for us. I don't think I'll stop enjoying live music anymore, but I also don't want to be one of those youthful but aloof and strange feeling older dudes who are more socialite than listener. Maybe, as I head into the thirties, I can find a balance.

Man, I'm so judgmental.

For Emma, Forever Ago

I've raved before about the beautiful single shot musical videos by Vincent Moon over at La Blogotheque, and they continue to do amazing things. I just saw this one of Bon Iver, and had to share.  I've listened to this record more than any other this year, and for good reason I think.   Enjoy!

Moab - a Blaze of Glory

There might be other days during the year when Moab is hotter, but I doubt there are that many. We drove down with Kirk & Missy and Nick & Nicole for the weekend (sans Gus for the first time in his life!) and camped along the Colorado northwest of Moab. We spent a few hours in Arches National Park, ate some great camp food, owned some class one, two, and three rapids on a full day rafting trip, saw Get Smart, sweated it out in a six person tent, were breakfast and dinner for a thousand heat impervious bugs, contracted a mild sunburn, saw some dinosaur tracks, chucked rocks (I'll never grow out of that), ate s'mores, participated in a hand-stand contest, saw first hand how Moab has somehow attracted the likes of: Bon Jovi, Jason Patrick, Bill Murray, Rick Springfield, and Daredevil Dan (the failed daredevil nephew (?) of Evil Kanevil). Most people who know me know that I am somewhat proud to be a mere Life Scout, and that I don't go out of my way to be in the outdoors, but I do enjoy it. This trip wouldn't have been possible without the encouragement and planning of my REI loving friends. Thanks. Christy and I had a terrific time.

Delicate Arch

(L to R) Nicole, Nick, Missy, Kirk, Christy, Brad Pitt

Hitting some small rapids

Working some bigger white water

Christy laughing, probably at one of my funny stories

The ladies at Balanced Rock

Another shot of Balanced Rock

Kirk watches over his breakfast

I Love to Hear Luke Temple

You probably don't have any of Luke Temple's albums in your record collection. I only say that because according to Billboard magazine he has only sold upwards of 3,000 total copies of all his records combined. I'd never heard of him until last fall when I'd read that Temple's Snowbeast was listed as one of Sufjan Steven's favorite releases so far that year. That was good enough for me, so I downloaded it from eMusic. Although I thought it was enjoyable and interesting, I didn't think it was necessarily amazing. After a few listens, however, I was infected with something beautiful that I didn't quite understand. I decided to purchase everything else he's released. Now, after the slow, sincere incubation of winter and spring these songs have sprouted in me a fruit I can no longer devour alone.

Please listen. If you like, you should buy.