Fears and Stuff

Yesterday we took a long walk into some areas of downtown we've been wanting to explore. There were several groups of activists on busy corners with posters and megaphones, shouting their messages of repentance, political action and local music (of all things). Most of them exploiting people's fears about salvation, the economy, the Middle East.
We took the monorail from Westlake Center to the Seattle Center intending to walk home. At the Seattle Center we saw that an Italian Heritage Festival was going on and since Stephen spent 2 years in Italy, we had to stop and check it out. We got to the children's stage in time to see a puppeteer show- the Italian version of Cinderella. Odessa squealed with delight when the puppets first popped in and out of the windows and we thought she was the perfect age to appreciate the show. Pretty soon though, she was squirming out of her seat to sit in my lap and whimpering "I want to go home" over and over. She was very distraught, so we finally left. We were both dissapointed because we were enjoying it and so was Ada! Like we had supposed, she finally admitted on the way home she was scared of the puppets (I detect a future clown hater).

This week seem to be full of things that might prove fearful. Stephen and I have had long discussions about the economy and how a recession might affect us. On one hand, I take the reports seriously that this is a major crisis. On the other hand, I have been to 2 dinner gatherings this week and afterwards I realized that none of us even brought up the economy. Part of me is bewildered about how to take in the whole situation. I guess it's hard to freak out about something that hasn't yet changed anything about your everyday life. We missed the debate, so watched it yesterday on the computer. Now we're analyzing which candidate provides the least number of propositions to fear. Why are campaigns all about picking the lesser of 2 evils? Probably because they are always pointing out each others faults, so you are constantly comparing who is worse.
In a favorite scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants (revelations given to Joseph Smith) it says "if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear". So we're looking at how we're prepared and what we can do to be more prepared for whatever things may come. It's an uncertain world, but I think we will just try and do as I have heard both of our parents say before and "keep on keeping on."