The Latchkey and the Lock: How a Generation Built for Survival Must Learn to Kneel

On the Durable Strength and Stubborn Barriers of the Gen X Soul

My generation learned to pray with our hands, not our lips. My first altar was an empty house after school. My first congregation was the flickering glow of a television test pattern. My catechism was the sound of a key turning in a lock, the definitive click that meant I was on my own until the headlights swept the driveway. We were not taught to ask f…