Maybe I'll start measuring my life in airport layovers - 2 August 2008

I may have invented the memory, but I recall my parents taking me to an airport when I was young and taking a ride on a small plane - I think just so I'd have the experience.

If they'd only known, they probably would have saved themselves the trouble.

Today is our travel day from Tanzania to South Africa. Both of us being cautious by nature, we made plans to get to the airport 2 hours early, which turned out to be a good thing, since our flight was an hour earlier than scheduled (and by scheduled I mean scheduled 2 weeks ago, not 6 months ago).

Courtesy of the extra hour, we ended up spending over 7 hours at the Dar es Salaam airport, which in turn allowed me to read Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer. It was one of Jennifer's books - I've finished all of mine already.

The book is captivating - it interweaves multiple narratives related to Mormonism, including the history of the official Mormon church along with a number of fundamentalist sects. At its heart, though, it is the story of a gruesome crime committed by religious extremists.

I'm not going to digress into a religious discussion here - we'll save that for when I'm not travelling, but a couple of points in the book surprised me regarding the political clout of Mormonism. Regrettably I don't have the book with me, but if you'll permit me to paraphrase:

• In my lifetime it will become impossible for a candidate to win the presidency of the United States without the support of the Mormons
• Mormonism will take its place alongside Christianity and Islam as the third major world religion, a uniquely American religion

Both of these stunned me - I had no idea.