Fall out

As children we often have perfect faith in our parents (our gods) and the world that is presented to us. Over time we slowly learn that we cannot always count on people, or circumstances. People let us down, even the ones we trust most, or don’t live up to our ideals, parents are not always all knowing, all loving deities but common human beings facing hurdles and challenges and tests of character that they do not always overcome. As small children everything is bigger than we are and faith in something even bigger is not much of a stretch, to imagine daddy always catching us, the freeway extending to eternity and some giant god figure always looking out for our interests. But eventually we grow up and have to face the emotional letdown of being in charge of ourselves, our own wellbeing and our own moral code. This is the point at which many religions step in to fill the gap. So is a child brought up in a religious culture less likely to face a crises of faith later in life or during troubling events?
As a child with perfect faith in the world, and everything in it, I remember the terror I felt when I first heard of “Galloping Gertie” the bridge across the Tacoma Narrows that buckled in a heavy windstorm, and realized that the things built by man were fallible. I was terrified to cross bridges by car for many years after that. It was also my first introduction to the devastation possible in nature. Something I had been brought up to feel I was connected to and a part of. Now the natural world that I had never really distinguished as a force separate from the rest of my world became suspect and angry and dangerous. The very idea sent me hiding under a blanket in the back seat for years, and I had travel terrors about drowning in a car until well into my twenties. But it wasn’t really the force of nature I feared, but the arrogance of man. To this day even extreme weather and natural events such as earth quake, hurricane and tsunami fail to strike fear in me despite evidence to the contrary. My personal trust in nature itself and connection with the earth and the natural world prevails even when faith in every other part of life or belief systems has failed.