Stanford is hosting an "Evening Labyrinth" at 5:30 PM tonight.
'A what?' you may well ask? Well, it's a walking thing -- you follow the path of a labyrinth laid out on the ground, much as you would a maze, but without the dead ends. It's quite the trend these days, especially among the progressively spiritual. Sounds like the perfect thing for the kids, too, but I'm thinking that maybe we'd not be so welcome. The 'Events-at-Stanford' web page describes the plan thus: "As twilight deepens into evening, experience the serenity of walking the labyrinth in the candle-lit ambiance of Memorial Church. It may be just the path you need to follow after a day of work or classes. Trained labyrinth facilitators available to assist and enhance your labyrinth experience." Not so child-friendly, then. We'd challenge that serenity for sure. We would also, of course, bring youthful joy and exuberance and our indiscriminate love of candles to the occasion. But I'd be worried about those 'trained labyrinth facilitators.' Are they trained in security? I'm figuring they'd certainly frown on anyone jumping straight to the center or seeing how fast they could race the whole thing while running -- backwards. Luckily we all held candles last night at a vigil against Prop 8. That was outside, let us all jump in the air a lot and even honk to our fellow protesters as we left. It was great to see so many families there with their kids and to hear hoots of support from so many people as they drove by. Ada and I drove by the site where we gathered last night again this morning and she said, "Dad, can we honk again like last night?"