Red Mango and other Bizarrities...

First off...Bizarrities isn't a word. I realize that, but I like it anyway.

Now, to the meat of the message. Yesterday was an interesting day. I had lunch with the head of the Planned Parenthood Action Council here in Utah. Kind of crazy really. It was just her and I, and we talked, a lot. We got to know each other when I was interning at the Capitol winter of this year. She then offered me a job after the session. I declined on the job, she offered it to me again, I declined again, and then we just met up once to talk about politics...the funny thing is, I don't dig politics that much, but I do dig women's health care...and the welfare of families...So anyway, I didn't take the job because one of my many responsibilities would have been to create legislation and policy to legalize abortion and to flip seats in races so that more abortion leaning folks got in those seats.

Let me first say, I think that in instances of Rape and Incest...when choice and agency were suspended, that abortion should still be thought about very deeply, but can in some cases be an acceptable choice. I DO NOT support elective abortion...so you see, this would have gotten in my way of being effective at this otherwise very intriguing job, because I would have struggled with the morality of it everyday.

Anyway, I hadn't heard from Missy (the director of PPAC) in quite a while, but she wrote me a few months ago, and we set up a lunch.

I'll be honest, I was a little apprehensive to go, but I am glad that I did. We had a lovely positive meeting. I really respect Missy, I do not agree with her stance on a lot of issues, but I respect her immensely for her willingness to engage in meaningful talks about what we do agree on which is most notably, that women have an important role to play in this life. We may not always agree on the role that they should play, but we both want to help women at that is great.

This is what I have been thinking about lately....we so often get in the way of progress because all we see are the differences between us and others. Wouldn't it be grand to see both the similarities and the differences, but opt to care about the similarities? I remember in my International Political Economy of Women class at BYU, my magnificent professor told us a story about these women during the the Yugoslavian Conflict. When the American soldiers were coming through and liberating various villages, they found an apartment of three old women. One was a Croat, one was Bosnian, one was Serbian and yet they were all living together in peace. The soldiers asked the women how they were able to live together in harmony when all their people were killing each other. The women replied that they were all mothers that they knew what it took to create life, and they would not be a part of ending lives no matter what nationality they were. WHAT POWER IN THAT STATEMENT! Look at what can be accomplished when we look at the similarities between ourselves and others rather than focusing on the differences.

This is Missy Bird. She is who I had lunch with. She is the director of PPAC and she is my friend.

This is more or less what I felt about the meeting with Missy. It was very nice to talk to her. We talked about what we were passionate about and we talked about the church a lot. I love the gospel, and I was glad to tell her that I believed many of the things she did, but also had such a strong conviction to the gospel. I appreciate that she cares so deeply for women. I do too, and though we may have different visions as to what helping women really means, I am glad that we were both able to voice our opinions and find a body of things that we could agree on despite those that we could not.

Anyway, at the end of the meeting, I still kind of wondered, why me? Why does she care to meet with me? She knows she won't change my views...she knows I am just a young BYU grad, newly married, conservative, and fully invested in my beliefs...why me? But I need to start thinking, why not me? That is the attitude that will help me accomplish all that I am passionate about. By the end of the meeting, I mostly felt fortunate. Who else has been so blessed with experiences like this where they can sit down and reasonably talk with "the other side" and come away feeling positive about the whole thing, feeling like a new level of understanding was reached between the two, and another layer of respect laid? Isn't that great! I feel very privileged.

Anyway, then I went back to work. Kind of a slow day at work. By the end of work...I really didn't want to go to my LSAT class. Oh goodness...I know I was a very bad girl, but I wanted to see Parker so much, and I really didn't want to study...so I went home. It was a lovely night. We got Red Mango and fed ducks in the park and remembered how it was to be carefree...and then it got cold, and I sat in the car looking at the ducks now...and reality came back to us.

Also, Red Mango is our favorite treat in the whole wide world. It is the most delicious frozen yogurt you will ever experience in your life. We have spent far too much of our very small food budget on Red Mango...but I would say it is worth it.

I thought about it later and realized that there will always be something that I need to do, something that is pulling at me, and if I don't slow down to just spend sometime with those I love most, life will be unfulfilled. I will take a lower LSAT score over missed opportunities to get to know my husband a little better and remember how in love with him I am.

This is a picture of a little boy feeding ducks, it is not the pond we were at, and I do not know who the little boy is, but I liked the sweat pants he was wearing and our camera is broken and google image isn't...but mostly just think about how cute the picture is and imagine Parker and I feeding the ducks instead of the little boy.