Strangers and Friends

I have to warn you that this column is almost, but not quite political in nature, and I promise not to include any endorsement for either presidential candidate. 

I know that there will be a lot of talk in the next two months about religious beliefs, because one candidate is openly Mormon and the other professes to be Christian, though he also has roots in Islam.

I have never, to my knowledge met a Muslim, so I cannot speak for what I believe any person of that religion truly believes.  As in all religions, there are good and bad people in the mix.  However, I tend to give our president the benefit of a doubt and accept that he is what he says he is, a Christian.

The Challenger does come with some baggage, much like JFK did when he ran for and won the presidency.  He was the fist Catholic ever elected to that high position. We’re supposed to keep religion out of politics, but we cannot help ourselves, we do have some prejudices when it comes to those topics.

I want to relate to you my one encounter with a family that practices Mormonism.  It was in Utah and took place on that mountain hike my wife and I took up Mount Timpanogos to Timpanogos National Cave last summer.

In case you weren’t privy to my journal, I’ll tell you that the hike up and back covered about 3 miles, 1100 feet of elevation and 3½ hours.  Judy and I each took one liter of water to drink, but no food.  We learned quickly that we had made a mistake!

On the way up the trail we stopped frequently to rest and hydrate.  What should have taken about 90 minutes turned into a full 2-hour trek.  At some point on our journey we met up with a family of 6 who had stopped along with us at a bench.  The littlest member, a 4-year-old girl, must have thought we resembled her grandparents, as she became very friendly and chatty. The family was from Provo, only a few miles away.

When we reached the cave entrance, we had missed our tour time, but were allowed to go on the following one that wasn't entirely filled to the maximum of 20 people. It turned out that the family we had met, the Locketts—not their real name—were also on that tour.  We all went on the hour-long trip through the cavern.

The exit from Timpanogos Cave is about a half-mile from the entrance and, since cave rules prohibited taking walking sticks or strollers and such into the cave, retrieval of those items entailed a long walk back across the mountain with more ups and downs.  I was content to leave the walking stick behind, but it was not to be.

The two older Lockett boys volunteered to go back up to the cave entrance to get my “cane” for me. They trudged up the trail and returned with the stick in about 10 minutes. I thanked them and then we started back down the trail.

We continued to catch up to the Lockett Family at several rest areas on the way to the bottom of the mountain, and they graciously offered us some of the snacks they had brought with them.  On the second or third offer we took them up on it, as hiking was hard, hot work, we had used up all of our water and I was getting hungry.  We received some granola bars and some juice, for which we expressed our thanks once again.

At the parking lot, we parted ways and wished each other well.  There had been no attempt to proselytize, but there certainly was a friendly and caring attitude. 

I had been told that Utah was a nice place to visit, but if you are not a Mormon you wouldn’t want to live there, as they are very stand-offish.  Well, I certainly couldn’t find anything to be further from the truth when we met and shared this caving experience with the Locketts. They were the kindest and friendliest people I would ever hope to meet.

I have always loved Utah for its scenery and variety of attractions, but now I have good reason to love its people as well.  I go back there as often as I can.