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.