For The Children, For The Future (Repost)

I am saddened to see so much argument in favor of so-called same sex marriage based on the assumption that "marriage" is personal affair between two people. Marriage is not and never has been a personal affair between two people. Marriage, throughout the thousands of years of human civilizations, has often varied with regards to the specific rights and obligations of the people involved. One thing, however, has remained constant: marriage is the socially endorsed union of a man and woman for the continuation of their family and lineage, and of the greater social structure, through the bearing and rearing of children. It is not surprising that we find marriage being radically redefined by "Generation Me". I know, I belong to this generation. I see the evidence all around me. Self-fulfillment, self-expression, and self-absorption are paramount. I should be able to marry whomever I want. And if that relationship ceases to meet my needs, I should be able to discard the marriage like an old pair of shoes whose color no longer pleases me. Oh, and society should give me a pat on the back for being so honest with myself in my search for personal fulfillment. I hate to break it to you, folks, but this is not what life is about. And this kind of attitude is most certainly not going to lead to a happy, healthy, productive society. Marriage and families are not about self-actualization. They are about building our future. They are about bringing children into the world within the security of a family including a father and mother, grandfathers and grandmothers, and the social support and endorsement that facilitate the children's future. We lament the state of the family in our country. We are faced with an epidemic of children born to unwed mothers, children of divorce, and the rampant breakdown of marriages and families. Can we not see that the past forty years or so have seen a weakening of the fundamental institution of marriage that has facilitated the current state of affairs? We introduced no-fault divorce to allow marriage partners to "get out" of a union that was no longer meeting their needs--did we look ahead to see that we were making marriage less binding than a common business contract? We liberated ourselves from moral restrictions that would limit sexual relations to marriage--did we stop to consider that we were stripping from the act that creates human life the soil and foundation upon which that life must take root? We legalized unrestricted abortion--did we recognize that we were undermining the value of human life itself as we bow to personal Choice? In every one of these cases it is the smallest, the weakest among us--those who are and will be our future--who bear the consequences for our choices. Whatever happened to accountability? Freedom of choice was never meant to be freedom from consequence, nor can it be. The consequences must be born. In our society, it is our children, born and unborn, who bear those consequences. Our nation was founded on principles of freedom, virtue and self-sacrifice. We who hold its destiny in our hands today. We, who will determine the world our children will grow up in and inherit, need to embrace all three of those values. Sometimes what I want must be set aside in favor of what my society needs. And right now our society does not need for the meaning of marriage to be further diluted. Marriage, as the life-long union of a man and a woman who will bear and raise the next generation of children, must be preserved. We cannot afford the loss of meaning that will occur if we re-define marriage to include same-sex (and inherently infertile) relationships. We as individuals make choices. We as a society also have a choice to make. We must choose the future. Support America's families. Support America's future. Please vote yes to protect traditional marriage in California, Florida and Arizona.
YES on California Proposition 8 http://protectmarriage.com/
YES on Arizona Proposition 102 http://yesformarriage.com/
YES on Florida Proposition 2 http://www.yes2marriage.org/

Work and Play

Bartholomew, our betta fish, died this week. We were sad to see him go. Actually, though, I was surprised he survived as long as he did; I'm not a very confident fish-keeper. Bartholomew came to us by chance in January. I was walking out of the BX one day when someone asked me if I liked fish. Now, I was thinking of fish to eat, and said yes. He then showed me a little red Betta in a glass vase. He said he had received it as a door prize and didn't know what to do with it. I thought the kids would enjoy having a fish, so I happily accepted it. I went to check on him on Thursday morning and found him dead. I hope he had a happy life. I told the kids, and dug a little hole in the garden for him. We might just have to get another pet.

On a happier note, we had a busy day of work and play yesterday. In the morning we had signed up for Proposition 8 sign waving. There was a huge neighbourhood yardsale going on here, so we set up near the entrance with our signs and pamphlets. We had a lot of positive responses, particularly from the many latinos who came by.

After about an hour we had to hurry home to get ready for a baptism. Nathan was conducting the service, and Lily and I were singing as part of a musical number. The song was "If the Savior Stood Beside Me". I posted the words to this song recently, as it was our Song of the Week not long ago.

On the way home from the baptism we stopped by our community fall festival, and stayed for two hours. They had pony rides for the kids, and a mini train ride and other entertainment. The pony and the petting zoo were definitely the highlights. Kids always love animals. I do too, come to think of it. The petting zoo had chicks that Lily and Luke were actually able to pick up and hold, as well as goats, a sheep, guinea pigs, a young pot-bellied pig, and several rabbits. The pot-bellied pig was about the same size as the rabbits. There was a llama as well, but it wasn't very interested in being petted. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me.

By the time we got home, I really wanted to take the rest of the day to recoup, clean the house, maybe catch up on some laundry. Lily had other plans though--she knew there was a Halloween Pary/Trunk-or-Treat at the church in the evening, and was planning to go. I hadn't made any plans for Halloween costumes, but Lily said she wanted to be an angel, so we went to work making angel wings. You can see the results above. We went to the party, the kids came home with lots of candy. By the time we finally got everyone to bed, Mom and Dad felt like it had been a very long day!

More Prop 8 Food For Thought

I came across a great blog post today, summarizing many of the legal battles taking place around the country as those who try to stand up for their religious convictions and traditional values are taken to court by those claiming such a stance breaches their civil rights as same-sex couples. Read the post here.

Proposition 8 Food for Thought

If you think same-sex marriage won't change your life, think again.

What same-sex marriage has done to Massachusetts

Tot School #2

Lily's "Van Gogh" style painting.

Maybe she inherited my Grandpa's artistic talent.

We've been bringing home lots of library books on trucks, tractors and other machines for Luke lately. Here are a few--I bet we've got a dozen in the house right now.

Storytime!

And there's the tractors at work in the sandbox!

I'm trying to find ways to do music instruction with Luke. Lily started learning violin when she was his age, and I would like to do the same with Luke. Trouble is, he doesn't focus nearly as long as she did at that age. I can think of two reasons for that: A) He's a lot like me; b)He's a boy. The combination is dangerous. Anyway, we've done a few short lessons on holding the violin and bow, but he doesn't seem ready to play a particular not yet, or even to just bow on one string. I've debated whether to wait for him to grow up a bit or just do things slowly. There are advantages either way. If I wait, he will (hopefully) learn faster. If I push forwards now, he gets that experience and discipline.

We made used of those tractors to do some letter-tracing in the sand. I drew the letters with my finger, then Luke followed them with his tractor.

Ups and Downs

Monday night is our Family Night, sometimes called Family Home Evening. Our church encourages every family to keep Monday evening free from any outside activities, and make it a special time for parents to teach children the gospel and for family members to spend time learning, worshiping and playing together. We were all feeling tired last night and didn't do anything very formal, but I really enjoyed watching Nathan playing with the kids. They put on some swing music and danced, and he made them a forklift (yes, that's what the chairs represent; Luke is into trucks, tractors and other machines--typical boy stuff!)

I was so happy having my family gathered together having fun. Honestly, I think taking the kids to Disneyland would be a lot more stressful and not as much fun. Exciting, yes; but not this kind of simple, happy-we're-together kind of fun.

Today was a bit rough. Nathan missed his bus in the morning, he overslept. I don't really blame him--we've all been feeling a bit under the weather, and the kids have not been sleeping well; we've both been getting up with them during the night. Anyway, by the time he came back from the bus stop all the kids were awake so we piled into the car and drove him the 20 miles to work. After dropping Dad off the kids and I stopped to visit Grandma and Grandpa Williams, not our real grandparents but some dear friends who have subsituted for us out here with no family near by. We used to live just a couple of blocks away, and miss them since moving. We had a fun visit and Grandpa noticed that our front driver's side tire was nearly flat. I felt that was a real blessing--I don't think I would have ever looked at it and we would have had a flat tire somewhere on the freeway. We drove very carefully the 4 miles to Costco; our tires are under warranty there, so they did the repair for free. The kids and I wandered around while waiting for the repair, tasting samples (the entire purpose for a Costco visit, in the kid's opinion) and testing out the Christmas toys on display. By the time we got home I was feeling really ill, so I was just glad to sit on the sand at the playground while the kids played. Esther demonstrated her adventurous spirit by climbing up the twisty slide--it's taller than my head at the top, so it was a pretty good climb for her. I had to follow her up so she didn't fall off somewhere at the top, and found it quite a challenge myself.

After we came in I read a few chapters of "Thimble Summer" to the kids, while we waited for Daddy to come home. It's been a pretty quiet evening, and I'm ready to go off to bed. I hope we all feel better tomorrow!

Proposition 8 and Our Children

Robb and Robin Wirthlin actually used to live in our town in California. About 3 years ago they moved to Massachusetts. This is their experience with same-sex marriage being taught in public schools.