Magical Memoir Moments
Digging Up a Hidden Heritage
Since I am the first person in both sides of my Mennonite family to go to college, and since my family praised “common sense” over too much “book learning,” I was surprised to discover recently that some of my earliest ancestors in America were actually public school pioneers. I should not have been totally surprised…
Separation of Church and State
The reason my family today is American and not Swiss is due to religious persecution. How to explain this? My religious ancestors left behind few words for future posterity. Felix Manz and Conrad Grebel, the earliest Anabaptists, were well-educated, ardent seekers during the early Reformation, who disputed with the leader of the Reformed movement, Ulrich…
My Husband’s Project: Biographical Geneaology
What do retired people do all day long? Stuart and I have been answering that question a little differently every year for the last eighteen years. Stuart retired from Goshen College in 2004. I left my last full-time position in 2010. For 28 years we both worked at Goshen College, changing jobs (I had nine…
Dora Dueck: A Memoirist’s Memoirist
I received an advance reader’s copy of this lovely book: When I first saw the cover of this book, which will be released on June 1, 2022, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. It looks topographical, both scientific and mysterious. It suggests far more than its spare language and amorphous images indicate. According to…
The Purpose of Memories: The Question I Am Carrying from May
The month of May zipped by so fast. It was a full month. It was a busy month. Let’s start with this man and his talk at the Family History Conference: New Arrivals in a New Land, in Lancaster, PA, on May 20. John L. Ruth, historian and storyteller, told how three ships came sailing…
MJ Sharp: A “Sparkplug” Who Lived and Died for Peace
Perhaps you read about him or heard about him on the news? The young United Nations peace worker who was kidnapped in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on March 12, 2017, and whose body, along with a colleague’s, was found in a shallow grave on March 26? His name was Michael Jesse Sharp. He…
What Hath John L. Ruth to Do with Hillary R. Clinton?
Mennonite historian and storyteller John L. Ruth doesn’t usually wade into national politics. So I was surprised to find the photo below on p. 376 of his book Branch: A Memoir with Pictures. Not since H. S. Bender announced Marilyn Monroe’s suicide at the 1962 Mennonite World Conference has a more surprising juxtaposition occurred. In…
Rest, Rock, and Roll: Some Thoughts about Rhythm from the Road
We’ve been a rockin’ and a rollin’ again! We don’t exactly jitterbug like these couples, but we are on the move! In fact, I’m writing these words in Indiana on the way to Ohio. Last week we visited Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. This morning we started out with breakfast with a dozen people who attend…
Grandparenting: How it Helps Us to Simplify
I’m sitting at my desk, looking out at the mountains, and thinking about speaking to more than 100 Mennonite women this Friday night at the Amigo Centre, a place I know well, not too far from Sturgis, Michigan. The subject is Recovering Simplicity, a topic that Mennonites have grappled with for a long time and…
Black Like Me: What I Learned by Listening to Black Voices Then and Now
Even though no black students were enrolled at Warwick High School in Lititz, Pennsylvania, 1962-1966, the years I attended, I was not completely unaware of the Civil Rights Movement. I had Mr. Price for my American history teacher. He urged us to read about injustice and imagine what it must be like to deal with…