In 1967, my paternal grandparents got on a plane and crossed the Atlantic. By all accounts, this was not an easy feat for my grandfather. He stepped aboard that flying machine, compelled to face his terror, only by the irresistible lure of a Mennonite World Conference in Amsterdam. And, of course, a tour of the … More The Mennonite Mile-High Club
First, I need you to know that I don’t blame you. I know you tried your best when you locked me to this post. Or something like your best. You didn’t mean for me to fall over. And, yes, I was definitely leaning jauntily against that pillar when we finished our morning commute and you … More Monologue from a toppled-down bicycle
When I was eight years old, my older brother was baptized and joined our Mennonite Church. Moved by the ceremony, I went home and baptized the family dog. Mine was a shorter ceremony and I can’t say much about our pooch’s appreciation of the doctrine. But he was happy enough to participate in the rite. … More Dogs or Cats – which are more Mennonite?
I was recently perusing the internet and discovered an appalling number of errors in Mennonite bread making. I know there were errors in the past – the historical record is replete with disputes over baking. Not, it is true, in the “mainstream” historical literature, but they’re there if you know how to look. They were … More Bread of Contention
A couple weeks ago, while I was wandering about in the Mennonite Twittersphere, I came across a tweet that I didn’t understand. This is unusual – Mennonite twitter is fairly predictable. And insular. We Mennotweeps form a pretty small community. A while ago, one of my twitter followers met a fellow congregant (in real life) … More Me and all the Menno-Tweeps
Note to regular readers: This is not a Drunken Mennonite blog post. I have finally struck out and written something that is not about Mennonites. Also, no cocktail recipe at the end of this post. Please feel free to go back and re-read your favorite Mennonite posts if that’s more to your taste. There’ll be … More How I spent July 1st Not Celebrating Canada Day
I have noticed a sad lack of Mennonite representation in dystopian literature and cinema. Apart from a couple of cameos in the zombie apocalypse genre, we actually seem to be entirely absent from the world’s terrifying visions of the future. Perhaps the dystopian thinkers imagine that we’ll all just die off in a plague or … More The HandMenno’s Tale
Imagine this: it’s 1941 and a Mennonite farm worker is sitting by his shortwave radio in Canada listening in rapt attention to the news coming out of Nazi Germany, contemplating immigration. Cut to Eastern Europe at approximately the same time, and see Heinrich Himmler touring the land of that farm worker’s youth and cooking up … More Was Opa a Nazi?
As I have mentioned before, I live on the outskirts of one of the largest Mennonite enclaves in Canada. I grew up there. I visit regularly as a lot of my family still lives there. And when I head to a Mennonite relief sale for the closest we get to a festival, it is the … More The Curious Case of Kitchener-Waterloo
Google doesn’t seem to understand Mennonite guilt. Matt Falk tells a joke that Mennonites are just like Catholics but with less dancing and more guilt. I don’t know if he wrote it or just repeated it. It feels like an old joke but it probably isn’t. That’s because we don’t traditionally go about comparing ourselves … More Mennoguilt
