Moisture-laden clouds are gathering. They are blue-black in color. The weather forecast calls for torrential rains. The word “torrential” is used frequently in these climate change days. Flash flooding is an ever-present danger. Our weather is changing in real time.

I remember my days in Chicago. They seemed carefree if you did not look too closely. We lived in a house that reminded me of the home that the Beav and Wally lived in on the television show Leave It To Beaver. I identified with their TV lives as I had a similar cadre of friends who lived on my street. There were Danny and Pauly, who came to my house regularly. Pauly was younger than Danny and me and laughed at everything. Pauly was good-natured. Once he was laughing so that I told him to stop unless he wanted me to hit him with the toy gun we were playing with. Pauly found this pronouncement especially funny. After I hit him, a bump the size of a goose egg appeared immediately. I felt bad, but the deed was done. Danny and Pauly went home. I apologized and gave Pauly the offending toy gun.

We all went to see Lady And The Tramp at the Chicago Theatre. The Theatre’s Marquee was brilliant. Steve and Susie, along with Danny Pauly and Ivy, were all in attendance for the movie’s premiere. It was Christmastime, and the Chicago streets were replete with shoppers carrying magnificently wrapped gifts. I had a bit of a crush on Lady as well as Susie, Steve’s older sister. I could visualize living in the home with Jim Dear and Darling, Lady and Tramp, and pups. Jock and Trusty reminded me of Steve Pauly and Danny.

Neva J enjoyed the Twist by Chubby Checker. She twisted daily. I did not twist. We attended a church service in a house one evening. The living room and kitchen were packed, and when the service concluded, one of the attendees told us we had listened to their prophet and that he would never die. I was four years old and thought that the church members had been conned. Their eyes were aglow with what they believed was heavenly light. I wondered how we came to attend such a bizarre church service.

Whispers and furtive glances filled our Leave It To Beaver Home. Something was shaking just under our foundation. Dad passed by my bedroom door carrying Neva J and crying. Red lights circled my bedroom. Soon, we moved to Southern Illinois to a town called Eldorado.

Grandma A and Aunt Wanda, and Aunt Vema lived in Eldorado. In those early days, Vema and Guelda both lived with Grandma A. Wanda, and the family had just returned from Alaska. The Hayes family had my cousins Brenda and Billy. Brenda walked with me to school for many days as she was in 8th grade and I was a new first grader. Brenda was wonderful. She listened to me and smiled at the things I told her. My bedroom in the Haunted House on Illinois Avenue was in a narrow utility closet. I had to enter it by climbing onto the bed. We shared the Haunted House with the Hayes family for the first month. Neva J asked me how I enjoyed my first day, and I told her that I had had enough of school and would not be returning. She laughed like Pauly and said I would be attending school for a long time.

I loved the first-grade desk with its top that functioned as a lid for a compartment where you kept your paste, ruler, and books. I loved learning. I have always been an introvert, or at least since Chicago. It was not long into my first-grade experience that President Kennedy was assassinated.

So we bring our memories to the table of life. Some of us sit boldly and purposefully to represent our values, while others sit humbly and appreciative of the opportunity. We humble folks know life’s reversals. We understand what it feels like to be on Leave It To Beaver’s pristine street and to be in the lowest part of the slough of despond. I watched a documentary regarding fundamentalism’s foray into Brazil. What sounded good, bringing the message of Christ to Brazil, ended up as a cruel malformation of the original intent.

I am reminded of the desire of fundamentalists to have prayer returned to schools. I often wonder what they are speaking of, as people can pray anywhere they are. Could it be that they want their prayers and political agenda to be public in the public schools? No one has the corner on faith or understanding. When they assure you that they do, they are like the little church group in Chicago who believed that their prophet would never die.