Reflecting on my past is currently baffling to me. I say this because I am surprised that I have become in my opinion, a very open minded person. I was raised by what I would confidently call extremist Christians. For the first 10 years of my life, I lived in a small southern Minnesota farm community, on a farm. My step-dad worked full time in a small; self-owned machine shop, on what I would refer to as Main Street. My mother, barefoot, hanging laundry on the clothesline, raising myself and my two younger