On the way back home from dinner on Sunday, after we'd attended the interfaith service commemorating the 8/29/05 anniversary, the little guy piped up from the backseat.

"Mom, God didn't keep the promise that was made. New Orleans flooded. God said there was never going to be another flood like that again."

Yes, the kid is attending religious school. No, I had no idea he was making those kinds of leaps from Tanakh stories and teachings to the present day - until right then.

"Sweetheart, God didn't flood New Orleans. It was people who kept eroding the wetlands that could have been a good buffer from the storm surge, and then the Army Corps didn't keep the levees up, so they burst."

*relief* "Oh, then God kept the promise after all."

pause

"But I still think hurricanes were one of God's mistakes."

It was shortly after that exchange that I read the accounts from the young Homans that their father Michael encouraged them to post. Go read. Go ask the young what they feel about these times in this place. Be surprised. Be amazed. Listen and learn.