“Here’s a Health to the Company,” The Chieftains: Celebration

Well, here’s to us all. The beermaking kit finally arrived (actually, it had to be reordered, the original was lost by the Tibetan Postal Service)

In looking over the instructions, they seem pretty straightforward, so we probably won’t kill anybody with our first batch. And Scott, the engineer-boot wearing bass from church, has offered his able assistance with “getting the baby’s head wet.” He brought over some of his own homebrew last summer, most of which was quite, quite tasty.

Me, I’m hoping eventually for a batch of Black Raspberry Hefeweissen, but we have to start small with the two varieties of beermakings supplied with the kit. One is a nut brown ale of some sort, and the other one is a red ale (naturally). And there seems to be a possibility of making hard cider, too. Oooh.

I probably wouldn’t be as into beer as I am if I hadn’t grown up in… okay I’ll just type it: Utah. I had a real problem growing up there, but it didn’t really have a name until recently. In fact, people didn’t want to hear about it, especially if you were on one side and they were on the other. So you if you just wanted to get along, or forget about it, you didn’t talk about it. Which was no solution, either.

Well, it’s now called “The Unspoken Divide,” after a groundbreaking series of articles in the Salt Lake Tribune. The Divide is the social misconnect/disconnect between those Utah residents who belong to the “majority” religion in the state, and those residents who don’t.

Not only does it screw up people over their beliefs, it screws up political discussions, land use, environmentalism, entertainment, you name it. And it’s hard to shake – look at me, I moved away for good in 1976.

The Alliance for Unity was created out of the public reaction to the articles, and also out of the emotional reactions born of the Sept 11 attacks. It consists of several religious and political leaders, of various faiths and beliefs (or lack thereof).

I keep hoping the Alliance will put together a website, but nothing so far. I applaud their efforts and wish them luck of it.

As for me letting go of my own feelings, I’ve cherished them over like a broken tooth for long enough now, I think.

Maybe the next time the nice mishie boys come to the door, I won’t spit vitriol in their faces – they’re just harmless 19 year olds far from home (and even farther from a clue, but that’s okay, they believe what they want).

I don’t want to debate with them or freak them out with solid arguments. I want to let that part of my life go, along with the “those mean kids didn’t like me when I was a kid” mantra that’s been sooooo convenient a hook for hang-ups.

The original articles are buried in a “pay to view” archive at the Trib, but Beliefnet archived them. Note – some of the comments from LDS contributers along the side refer to something called “the mission field.” Just so you know, that’s anywhere that’s not Utah. 😉

The sideroll makes for interesting reading, but it’s the same old same old “defend the faith against all and sundry/you people are religious nuts and you discriminate” debate that is just the thing this Alliance is supposed to address.

Locally, they’re still squabbling over the Main Street land swap with the church and nuclear waste dumps. Hope they get around to doing more to bridge the divide.