Who would have known that a memorial service could be this life-infusing?! Honoring her by wearing happy colors rather than garments of mourning, we gathered with a vague feeling that this would be intense and “inspirational,” but we had no idea what we were in for.

Do you have any idea how much tenderness you evoke? As you grapple with loneliness, friendships, and the conflict between permanence and transience, the fresh glow of childhood trust still peers through your eyes, even as maturity’s firmness is settling into your face.

What would be left of you if your faith was subtracted? What parts of your emotions, relationships, ethics would remain? Would your physical life change? Your finances? Granted that we are body, soul, and spirit, does that mean two-thirds would remain if that one, troublesome part, the politically incorrect faith, was amputated?