Finding God

Started the day off right by going to church. Actually, I started the day off right by sleeping in til 10am, which isn't my ideal sleep in time, but better than if I had a job.
Woke up, dropped Claire off at the pool - the Renaissance - and picked up my dad, and off we went to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown L.A.
Pretty awe inspiring, even for an agnostic like me. As much as I casually enjoy architecture, I'm usually unimpressed by modern structures like the Disney Hall and other recent triumphs that look fragile and as though they could fold under a strong wind, earthquake, or even more likely in Los Angeles, rezoning. The cathedral was quite different, and feels almost what walking into the pyramids must have felt like when they were new... not that they were open to the public at the time.
If anything, its as perfect as a church as I would hope one to be. Religious imagery is subtle and classy - timeless yet modern. The emphasis on the tapestries that run along the interior of the cathedral seems to be the local Spanish influence on Catholism, instead of the stations of the cross.
Downstairs from the main hall is the mausoleum, mostly unused of course - the cathedral was completed only two years ago. My dad mentioned that it still smelled lke fresh concrete. As vast as the place is, we found Gregory Peck's vault without even looking.
Parking is $3 for every twenty minutes. However, the Catholics, those clever devils, will validate if you actually attend a mass.
And I need to point out that I noticed many Kerry/Edwards pins on a group of old ladies receiving a docent tour... not a single Bush pin in sight.

suggested download: wbloggar, the blog composition program I use to write my posts. After abandoning it for a couple days to try Blogger's web based interface, I thought I'd lost a post after I clicked the "post and publish" button and was given an error message. Clicking the back button brought me to a blank composition page. Alas, when I fired up wBloggar tonite I founf that it somehow had magically found that lost post, and allowed me to republish it without second thought. Best of all, the program is free. Once they allow Amazon donations along with Paypal I'll give a humble tip.