Sunday Fun: No Church (I Said Sunday Fun)

RCAF Station Baden-Soellingen / CFB Baden-Soellingen, in then West Germany, had two cute little churches parked side by side near the end of a street: houses of two denominations, Catholic and Protestant; directly opposite was the base's hospital; and at the end of the street, watching, stood the fire hall with its fire engines and crash-tenders.

When I was five and six years old my dad would take me to the RC place on Sunday mornings. I remember sitting enraptured by the sermons, specifically by their extraordinary length, especially to this then child, and by what I perceived to be utter emptiness. (It's possible I knew that some things in those sermons made little sense but had yet to hurl the word "emptiness" to describe them.)

One day, a moment I remember well, I said to my dad something in such a way as to avoid any potential misinterpretation:

"Dad, I don't wanna go to church anymore."

His immediate reaction: Laughter. The kind aimed towards the heavens when one realizes that his six-year-old is figuring things out fast. And setting firm his own well-considered belief system.

I pray to no one.

Postscript: That former base is now an airport, Baden-Airpark.