Tired Road Warrior

I left Provo on Friday.  Luckily, I didn’t have to drive.  I was physically and emotionally beat.  I needed a break.

After I crashed in Page AZ for 36 hours, the crew from Engineers Without Borders (EWB) headed out to the lands of the Navajo Reservation.  The first day we spent with tribal members living in the very isolated Navajo Canyon.   The area is a Garden of Eden, blessed with several springs (of living water).  The families living there ned help with further developing their water resources.  In the past, there had been water development, but much of the infrastructure is now deteriorated.  The old orchards need pruning.

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About the only official (or near official) Mormon publication I enjoy reading these days is BYU/Magazine.  The recent edition (Fall 2009) is an excellent case in point.  I really enjoyed the Commentary “Loving Our Neighbor” by Barbara Culatta, a BYU professor of communication disorders.  Ms Culatta is a convert to the Church from Catholicism, and has a brother who is a priest.  Her essay was a condensed version of a devotional address given in February.  After reading the one-page sermonette in BYU/Magazine, I decided to find the whole text.

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Years ago, before I could face the pain of dealing with our Regional Office, I stopped at what is now Carl’s Jr for breakfast.  After a delightful snack, I started back toward the SLC Federal building.  As I was leaving the fast-food joint, I heard someone call “Roger,” but I looked around and didn’t see anybody I recognized.  I then heard “Roger” again.  This time a bearded indigent man approached me.  It was an individual that I had gone to graduate school with, an economics major.

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