a monday night

me, abe and carlos just had a hugely long and intense political debate. well, not so much political. more thematic, ideological. abe's conservative, carlos is liberal and I'm a moderate. we went from economic policy, immigration, taxes, and welfare institutions to the war in iraq, innocent casualties of war, when war is justified, the u.s. policing role in the world, etc. it was really intense. intense as in I couldn't sit and do my homework so I had to go participate. I can't refuse a good debate.

it's hard, because some things I agree with carlos on, but on some things I don't think his logic always holds and some things I think he's too idealistic and not realistic. abe is also sometimes too pragmatic, I think, and not always willing to accept incredible facts that contradict his ideology. but this debate really helped me see on which issues I lean more left and which more right. I'm definitely economically conservative. most of the time, it was good respectful debate, but towards the end it got pretty heated and, much as I love debate, I was feeling that tension in my chest. so when we ended, I gave them both hugs and told them to spread the love.

and really, that's the end result of all of this political debate anyway. we will do some things wrong when we're trying to do right and I don't think I can or want to be in a position to have to make judgment calls on that. I want to help people on an individual basis where I know that the things I am doing are right in a much more clearcut way than I could judge the effects of national decisions. I know that teaching hygiene to this woman and her children in senegal is going to help them be healthier and hopefully live longer. and be happier. and that's pretty clearcut to me. I can't wait for christ to rule on the earth, when there will be no pain or suffering like this. or war. or starvation. or injustices. until then, I'm going to do my best to start moving in that direction one tiny step at a time. one person at a time. we're all worth it.

also, we had fhe at bro. hyatt's house tonight. only 2 of the spanish boys came, 3 of the russian girls, and me and susan from the french, and we spent a long time there, but it was a wonderful relaxing time. we had a good lesson that we all participated in from preach my gospel and then the boys had to leave for their cleaning check and we girls stayed and talked about so much fun stuff with the family. it was such a cute family - oldest son 16, then 3 girls, then the youngest boy 5. the way they all interacted with each other was great, particularly the oldest brother towards all of the others.haha he told us some of his pickup lines and we approved - he is definitely not a creeper. the little girls were kind of enraptured by us. their home had a wonderful spirit about it - I want my own home to be like that. and I want to raise my sons to be like that. we kept saying goodbye at the door and then kept talking. it was obvious we wanted to stay. I hope they understand why.