Issuu

Spiritual Corner by Reverend Charles Strietelmeier Their conversation was even rougher than usual. They were talking right past each other, and both were getting frustrated. Finally, he looked across the table and said, “Did I ever tell you about the girl who spent her entire childhood in a basement?” “What?. That’s crazy.” “Yeah, well, it’s all she knew. Concrete walls and floor, water from the sink, the drain for a toilet. Food kind of appeared, or she could rustle up something from the deep freeze. She got to know the furnace very well, and the washer/dryer. But she was comfortable. She found some old sheets and blankets to make a soft spot in the corner, and she made up a little game of finding hidden pictures in the wood grain on the floor joists.” “Was she alone?” “Nah, she and the furnace guy became great friends when he came down a couple times a year to make an inspection and change the filter. And she talked to the people who came down to wash their clothes if they were in the mood. Most of them seemed nice.” “How long did that go on?” “Then one day a guy came in and he figured it out – figured out that she had lived in that basement all her life. ‘My God, you have missed so much,’ he shouted. ‘What are you talking about?’ she said. ‘Well, you don’t know how good the sun feels on your back the first warm day of spring.’ ‘What’s the sun?’ ‘It’s like a light bulb but way better. It’s a big ball of fire in up high.’ ‘I have a perfectly good light bulb. I don’t need a better one. And don’t talk to me about a ball of fire above me. What if it falls on me and burns me?’ ‘It’s not like that. It’s – listen, the wind. You’ve never felt a cool wind blowing in your face on a hot day.’ ‘Is that like moving air? Because I hate it when the air moves. That means it’s going to get really cold down here and then I have to sit right up by the furnace and the flames scare me.’ ‘Well, wouldn’t you like to have people around you all the time instead of just now and then?’ ‘That’s stupid. People don’t do that. They come down to fix the furnace and wash clothes. Why would they hang around?’ “And then it hit him. He was talking to the girl about things she could never understand because she had never experienced anything like them in her world. All he could do was try to persuade her that other people’s worlds were very different for hers. And then maybe he could get her to calm down enough, and trust him enough, that she’d be willing to come out of the basement to see what he was talking about.” “Well, did he? Did she come out of that basement?” “Don’t know yet. You’re the girl.”