The Sunday Block Changes

Ahh Sunday...a day of rest and renewal and today, trauma. Why trauma? Our Sunday block schedule changed today. For those of you unfamiliar with the term "block schedule," let me define. First things first, it has nothing to do with my new-found ability to work on engine blocks - I have no such talent. The "block schedule" refers to the three-hour block of meetings that we Mormons attend each Sunday. That's right - three of hours of getting religion. For the last year, our ward has met at 9:00AM, getting us home right after noon. Those sweet days are gone. We moved to the 11:00AM - 2:00PM block today. I am going to have to get used to it. I much prefer starting earlier. It sets the tone better for me. And it's not like it lowered the noise level at Church (some argue that later Church works for younger kids' nap times - I'm not buying it). It was also the day when kids move up classes and that affected Parker the most. He's now officially out of Primary and into Sunday School and Young Men's. He got it figured out, although it was funny when he got home he complained that there's nothing to do (read: keep him entertained) like there was in Primary. That lamentation brought a big smile to his mom's face.

I really like our Gospel Doctrine teachers, the Castletons. Our course of study last year, the New Testament, came alive in their hands and I am looking forward to the study of the Book of Mormon this year. It's a familiar course of study but I sense that the Castletons will bring some new insight.

One thing about this new schedule is that it breaks my routine of reading the Sunday New York Times in one setting. I read a couple of sections before leaving for Church and got it finished up this afternoon. There was an interesting article in the New York Times Magazine entitled "What Is It About Mormonism?" The author, a Harvard academic named Noah Feldman, poses some interesting thoughts and while there things I would dispute in the article, it's worth reading. Here's a link to the magazine:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/index.html

Mr. Feldman's closing paragraph in the article is excellent: "America changes, too. Today the soft bigotry of cultural discomfort may stand in the way of a candidate whose faith exemplifies values of charity, self-discipline and community that we as Americans claim to hold dear. Surely, though, the day will come when we are ready to put prejudice aside and choose a president without regard to what we think of his religion."

I hope that day comes soon - that we can put prejudice, of any kind not just religious, aside, and elect the best candidate for the job.

We'll have dinner with friends tonight - Thai Chicken on the menu - excellent. As a result, have to DVR the new "Simpsons" episode as well as "The Amazing Race." Truly the best things about television and it's a pretty shallow pool.