In its grammatical structure, English belongs to the Low German language family, a group of languages that developed from a common early Germanic root. The group includes Flemish, Dutch, Frisian, Afrikaans (the Dutch that is spoken in South Africa), Plautdietsch, English and Scots (not Gaelic but the variety of old English spoken by the lowland … Continue reading To better understand English, learn a little French
Whimsy
I don’t have a talent for baking bread
My mother certainly did. She baked the most wonderful loaves and buns of white bread, brown bread, rye bread. Her cinnamon rolls were the greatest. She baked with a wood stove, then a gas stove and finally an electric stove. The only time the bread didn’t turn out was the day she left for parents’ … Continue reading I don’t have a talent for baking bread
Seasons of Gold LIVES!
Congratulations to my dear wife.!
Misinforming the mind
Movies are one of the bad habits that have corrupted our century. They have slipped into the American mind more misinformation in one evening than the dark ages could muster in a decade. -Ben Hecht Hmmm. Wasn't Ben Hecht one of the most prolific American screenwriters of the 20th century?
Why am I still here?
It amazed us when Aggie greeted us by name. This was only the second time we had visited her and at our first meeting she had already passed her 100th birthday. Aggie was an amazing lady all round. She did not need hearing aids; she had glasses, but still read a regular print Bible. She walked with a … Continue reading Why am I still here?
The half-converted farmer
There was a farmer in our neighbourhood who lived a simple life. He had no need of electricity, running water or a lawn mower. He didn’t need a wife either though we heard that there had once been a lady of the house. Perhaps the rustic simplicity of the homestead soon lost its charm. This rustic … Continue reading The half-converted farmer
Mr. Average Canadian
This was first published four years ago. In 1926 Stephen Leacock tried to describe the average Canadian man of his day. Eighty-nine years have passed and Mister Average Canadian of that day is long dead and buried. Therefore, I will take it upon myself to describe his modern counterpart, according to census statistics. In 2015 … Continue reading Mr. Average Canadian
Feeling a bit groggy this morning?
Maybe you should move to Saskatchewan. We ditched Daylight Saving Time more than 50 years ago. More and more studies are demonstrating just how useless is this business of turning the clocks ahead one hour. It does nothing to reduce energy costs, which has been its stated purpose from the beginning. What it does do … Continue reading Feeling a bit groggy this morning?
Yes, I’m Mennonite, and Why That’s Not the Point
I wish I had written this. Like the young lady who wrote this article, I wish to portray to people that Mennonites are “quite dreadfully ordinary.” I am a more or less normal Canadian guy who became a Mennonite 40 years ago because I believed the Mennonite faith to be the most authentic expression of genuine Christianity. I was not raised in a Mennonite church and have never been enamoured of the “Mennonite culture”. Though by now I have grandchildren who are pretty much part of that culture.
This post comes out of a commitment I made to myself shortly after I started this blog. But to understand why, I need to tell you the beginning.
I had sought to publish some short articles through Mennonite publications, but the lists of prerequisites of what is and is not okay to put in said articles was discouraging. In addition, in telling true stories about ourselves, we run the risk of threatening someone else’s privacy. Blogging looked attractive in that no one had to know me or the people I was writing about to appreciate my writing. I wondered if people who didn’t know me could actually find me interesting to read.
I also wondered if someone of my sub-culture (Conservative Mennonite) had anything to offer the world at large. There’s all kinds of hype about the Amish and Mennonites, and I wanted people to read what I wrote for…
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Going paperless
In school we learned poems about log drives in Quebec. Loggers worked all winter in the forests and in the spring the logs were floated down the rivers to the paper mills. That is history, nothing but folklore anymore. There are still lumber mills; there are mills producing tissue paper, computer paper, glossy magazine paper, … Continue reading Going paperless
Flatlander Faith 