Driven to Distraction

Manchester-by-the-Sea Bathhouse   by Erika Chan

I grew up in a hippie household

in the 1960s.

The youngest of five,

by a long stretch.

My atheist dad

and my non-atheist mom

did their best to get us to

our Presbyterian church on Sundays.

Photo by Caroline Fernandes

But my religious education

went amiss,

having witnessed my older sibling's

religious revolt,

not to mention my own slight ADD'ishness.

And now

forty years later

I can't say I've come any further

except to know

that we're all connected

and simply

just need

to

love

each other.