Update on the Hawaiian Keiki

Had another brief visit with the other Hawaiian Hastings after class Monday night:  just one of the benefits of teaching at the UH Law School this semester.

My Day with Dani and Friends

Dani and six friends came up to Waimea for the day this past Saturday.  We began with a hike to the back of Waipio.  The morning was clear and beautiful.

We headed up the hill from home.

The stream and pond on top were nice.

The ladies and Waipio Valley.

I went down to the landing below, but only a couple of ladies dared follow me.

Here's the view back towards home.

After we returned home, we decided to show the ladies Waipio from the other end.  Here's the view from the top.

Dani & friend (Kristi, I believe)

Waipio looking south

Waipio looking north

Finally, we ended the day with dinner at Cafe Pesto.  All in all, we had a great day -- even if I was a bit stiff Sunday morning.

Late this afternoon, the sky cleared and Mauna Kea was especially beautiful in the setting sun.

Post Piece on Mormons and Rebuttal

I read this Washington Post article and enjoyed the rebuttal (thanks to Anna's post on Facebook).  The Post piece's negativity about the Church probably says as much about the writer as it does about those of whom she complains.  I believe in ultimate Truth.  But it can be elusive.  See my Twain quote in the sidebar.  Not infrequently the accepted "truth" of the day turns out to have been wrong after additional scholarship appears.  The recent scholarship on the DNA of the native Americans is a case in point:  I didn't worry when the original reports came out that there was no link to the Jews; and I won't base my testimony on the new finding of connections among tribes in the New York area.  I find it all interesting.

There's much that I can't explain, so I set it aside and figure someday I'll understand -- or not.  Worst case, if there is no hereafter, if it was all bologna, I'll be out some tithing, but otherwise will have lived a better, happier and more fulfilling life by having strived to live according to Church teachings and through my Church service and associations.  When I was teaching the Gospel Doctrine Sunday School Class in college, one lesson in the manual discussed the question of whether the prophet Isaiah wrote all of the Book of Isaiah or whether other writers wrote part of it.  Soon after I began the lesson, straight out of the manual, Bishop Pratt raised his hand and asked:  "Does it matter?"  It messed up my lesson, but I never forgot his lesson.  Most of the "mysteries" that I can't explain or the apparent contradictions really are irrelevant to the question of how I should live.

I haven't had a problem with much of the counsel of Church leaders during the last forty years or so since I started paying more attention.  It's clear that the Christian (not just Mormon) believer must exercise a "leap of faith" -- it's part of Biblical Christian doctrine.  (I liked Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling" when I read it years ago.)  I am inspired by C. S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity."  I even notice plausible answers to the "mysteries" in Hawking's theories of the universe.  But I simply don't worry about the doctrinal (or historical) issues that I can't understand or that don't seem to make sense.  Some day I'll understand -- or I won't.  Either way, it doesn't concern me now.

Thanksgiving Day

Christian, Shandra and keiki flew in Tuesday night for the weekend festivities. So nice to have them here. J. Lynn got to play all day with Tristan on Wednesday. Yesterday was the traditional meal, with one variation:  we "brined" the turkey for the first time. It won't be the last. So juicy!  All we needed was more family to make it perfect.

Dick & I

As I began reading the Cheney memoir, I became astounded at how much we had in common.  For instance:
1.  Dick's great-grandparents homesteaded in Nebraska.  He was born there then moved to Wyoming in his childhood.  My grandparents (Hastings) were born in Nebraska then homesteaded in Wyoming after marrying.
2.  Dick's grandparents were named David and Clarice Dickey.  I have granddaughter Clara (aka Clarice or some variation thereof), whose other grandfather is named David, aka Dickey.
3.  Dick's grandfather went broke during the Depression; so did mine.
4.  Dick moved to Casper (sited where the Mormon Trail crossed the Platt River) as a kid; my great-great-great-grandfather crossed through there on his way to the Salt Lake Valley.
5.  In high school, Dick was Senior Class Pres. and dated the homecoming queen, Lynne.  I was Senior Class Pres. and dated both the homecoming queen and Lyn.
6.  Dick went to Yale on a scholarship, got suspended and finished his degree in Political Science at Wyoming (Sep. '63 - May '65).  I got a scholarship to Stanford but went to Wyoming (cheaper after scholarship) in '64 and graduated in Political Science in '68.
7.  After graduation, Dick went to Wisconsin to work on a Ph.D. in political science, intending to teach.  I was accepted at Chicago for a Ph.D. in political science, intending to teach.
8.  Dick never finished the Ph.D., as he got sidetracked after an internship in Washington.  I never got started -- threatened by the draft, I joined the Navy.
9.  Dick counselled with former Wyo. Gov. Stan Hathaway when he was considering running for Congress.  Stan was the prosecuting attorney in Goshen County when my grandfather was Justice of the Peace there.
10.  When Dick ran for the House the first time, his opponent was Bill Bagley from Star Valley.  Bill had worked in my dad's store when I was a kid.
11.  While in the House, Dick served on the Joint Intelligence Committee.  I spent my Navy time in Naval Intelligence.
12.  Dick left Washington at the beginning of Nixon's second term.  I was at Nixon's second inaguration.
13.  Dick worked closely with Adm. Mike McConnell during the first Bush administration.  I served with Lt. Mike McConnell in the Pentagon during the Nixon years.
14.  Dick's gone fly fishing in Star Valley with my friend Paul Stauffer.

  I could go on, but you can see clearly that we were almost, like, brothers.  We probably even passed in the halls on campus.

  So then, I think, was Dick's life the road not taken?  If I'd gone to Chicago in Political Science after the Navy, instead of going to law school, might I have ended up having an internship in Washington, meeting a Congressman, working on his staff, then in the White House, and eventually become Vice Pres.?  Something to think about!

California Trip

We had a wonderful week in Oceanside/San Diego. Herewith a few photos to supplement Courty's marvelous post on the subject.  First, our visit to Sea World.  Don't believe I'd ever been before.  Shamu was great.

I didn't try to get any pix of the dolphin show -- too far away and obstructed view.  Had a better view of the seal show.  They were pretty fun, too.

Then the sea lion ...

... and beluga whale.

Finally, the penguins.

A couple of days later, we met Shan and keiki at Irvine Park.  Court and Betsy clearly getting along.

Tristan was happy to spend time with Tutu.

T in face paint.

Spent some fun evenings playing cards and ended the week with a couple of days on Coronado for meetings.  Sorry I had to come back to work!

Highlights from "Our Sacred Honor"

I'm halfway through the book and want to share a couple of gems.
 
From Ben Franklin -- his self-composed epitaph:
 
The body of
B. Franklin, Printer
(Like the Cover of an Old book
Its Contents torn Out
And Stript of its Lettering and Gilding)
Lies Here, Food for Worms.
But the Work shall not be Lost;
For it will (as he Believ'd) Appear Once More
In a New and More Elegant Edition
Revised and Corrected
By the Author.
 
I've not had many warm and fuzzies about Jefferson despite our visits to Montcello -- largely because my view of him was shaped by Adams' and Washington's biographers.  I pegged him as our first "politician":  two-faced, double-crosser, etc.  However, there was a sweetness in the letter he wrote back to Adams after Benjamin Rush's efforts had provoked a short letter from Adams.  McCullough excerpted snippets in his biography, but I didn't get the full effect.  A longer excerpt below:
 
    But whither is senile garrulity leading me?  Into politics, of which I have taken final leave.  I think little of them, and say less.  I have given up newspapers in exchange for Tacitus and Thucydides, for Newton and Euclid; and I find myself much the happier.  Sometimes indeed I look back to former occurrences, in remembrance of our old friends and fellow laborers, who have fallen before us.  Of the signers of the Declaration of Independance I see now living not more than half a dozen on your side of the Potomak, and, on this side, myself alone.  You and I have been wonderfully spared, and myself with remarkable health, and considerable activity of body and mind.  I am on horseback 3. or 4. hours of every day; ...  I walk little however; a single mile being too much for me; and I live in the midst of my grandchildren, one of whom has lately promoted me to be a great grandfather.  I have heard with pleasure that you also retain good health, and a greater power of exercise in walking than I do.  But I would rather have heard this from yourself, and that, writing a letter, like mine, full of egotisms, and of details of your health, your habits, occupations and enjoyments, I should have the pleasure of knowing that, in the race of life, you do not keep, in it's physical decline, the same distance ahead of me which you have done in political honors and atchievements.  No circumstances have lessened the interest I feel in these particulars respecting yourself; none have suspended for one moment my sincere esteem for you; and I now salute you with unchanged affections and respect.
 
 Perhaps I'll have to give him another chance. 
 
 Rush rejoiced in the reunion of the two old friends and wrote to Adams:
 
  I consider you and him as the North and South Poles of the American Revolution.  Some talked, some wrote, and some fought to promote and establish it, but you and Mr. Jefferson thought for us all.