We moved
to Denver, Colorado shortly thereafter and never again returned to the Midwest. While we
had already lived in Colorado for brief periods before this time we had always returned to
Wisconsin and I had previously not escaped the influence of my Catholic world there. Now
that world would pass away.
In the American West I came into contact with the beauty of
the Rocky Mountains and felt their mystical power. I transferred my devotion to these
snowy peaks. Catholicism for me was mainly of the Midwest, the farmhouse and my
grandparents.
In Colorado the beauty of nature and the
mountains dominated over the church, which seemed out of place in the greater universe
where there are no manmade boundaries.
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