Seeking a Unified Universe

About the Book

My earliest memory was of a bath in the middle of the day. I was accustomed to baths early in the morning or late in the evening. I was not expecting a bath in the middle of the day. Mom’s purpose was to prepare me for a birthday party. I don’t remember the party or the boy honored, or even the bath—just the unusual fact of it. It was an exception to a rule. Across the street from our apartment in north Seattle, Washington was a school—Seattle Junior Academy. My mother, Inas Ziegler, taught there. The school had nice large swings on the playground that I loved to swing in. I am sure my mother and my father (J. G. Ziegler) both frequently pushed me on the swings. But I do not remember that. I remember my Grandma Grace Ziegler pushing me on the swings. Another exception to a rule. My next memory was being babysat in the evening with my brother Jim in an older couple’s home. What made that memorable was that they ate cold cereal in the evening. I had only eaten it in the morning. Another exception to a rule. My father and mother had gone out for the night conducting evangelistic meetings—playing the piano, singing, making chalk drawings, preaching, and showing slides on the screen. My parents were very successful in their efforts, and attracted a lot of favorable attention from the higher ups in our church. Growing up in such a family was an exception to the general rule in the church. It tended to make one either rebellious or specially conformant to what one perceived as the truth. I early chose the latter approach. My next memories were from our next home in a peach orchard in Kirkland, Washington.

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