I really love this, Ashmae. You get at the mysteriousness of how two people with the same questions, similar life experiences, maybe even similar temperaments, can end up on different paths. I always get squirmy when people talk about “choosing to believe,” or some other willed, conscious process as the explanation for why they are still in the Church while others are gone. We should collectively stop making that attribution error. I also strongly suspect that almost everyone in the pews leaves in one way or another at some point in their lives, and returns on different terms. We are all prodigals, sooner or later. Even if we stay, like the eldest son in the parable, and miss the Father’s abundance because of a narrow focus on our own righteousness… which makes us prodigal, too.