From the Back of my Brain

I lost my faith in a higher power for the first time when I was sixteen.

The summer after, I interned at a visitor center at a national park.  Ministers of different denominations would come into the park and put on services in the amphitheatre.  I worked alongside this older ranger, his name escapes me now.  When visitors would come up and ask him when and where the services were taking place, he would snap his response and get really irritated.

One day I asked him why he was so ornery about visitors going to services at the park.  He responded with something like, "They are here in one of the most beautiful places in the world.  You want God?  Go fucking pray to a tree."

I am not sure why that has stuck with me over the years.