An email was just circulated among classmates from my high school. And I thought it so lovely to have this source to let others know when prayer, positive thought, and good will is essential.

The subject of this email is someone who slipped from my memory over the course of my life-rambunctious. She faded away like most of the students who wore maroon and grey caps and gowns on that windy June day in San Fernando Valley in 1966. When the Summer of Love struck one year later, I rambled through the Monterey Pop Festival and became far removed from twelve years of parochial education. Then there were marriages, relationships, kids, jobs, career, more education, and lots of over-the-top hoopla.

I’m discovering that those years of parochial education created some caring people who appear to live within the beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount that we were forced to memorize and recite. And this is where I become perplexed: Who took those beautiful words away from the foundation of Christianity? Judging by the rants and raves I hear from the Christian Right, today’s take on Christianity dumps the good and shouts for fear, racism and a true abortion of how I was taught.

Nonetheless, I will continue to seek peace and make time to see all the good that surrounds us. And, yes, I will pray and think good thoughts for my forgotten classmate who is now in need of these good things that we can do for free.