reamSeekreamSeekerer MagazineMagazine DD Voices from the Soul

Real Ballerina Kathy Nussbaum Life Passages: Our India Assignment Earl Zimmerman Monks and Amish Gene Stoltzfus Kingsview May You Tell Me Your Secret About Marriage Michael A. King Beneath the Skyline I Want to Live Like a Purple Martin in a Saguaro Deborah Good When I Was Eighteen Mary Alice Hostetter The Bible Tells Me So...Or Does It? Randy Klassen Ink Aria Putting My Best Foot Forward Renee Gehman and much more

Summer 2008 Volume 8, Number 3; ISSN 1546-4172 Editor IN THIS ISSUE Editorial: A Ballet of Cultures Michael A. King Summer 2008, Volume 8, Number 3 Assistant Editor In telling us of being a “real” balle- standings. Some might choreograph Renee Gehman Editorial: A Ballet of Cultures rina, Kathy Nussbaum provides an the dance to favor one culture or the Editorial Council Letter 2 engaging image through which to other more than Klassen does, but David Graybill, Daniel Poetry view this issue of DreamSeeker Maga- whatever the ideal balance, Klassen Hertzler, Kristina M. King, Ted Grimsrud, Friendship • 19, Mary Alice zine. This is because many helps us enter a life-giving bal- Richard A. Kauffman, Hostetter, Harvest of Souls • 30, Alan Soffin, I of these articles in some Many of let. Paul M. Schrock Have Been Later On • 41, David Wright, Like way explore a ballet of cul- these arti- Renee Gehman zooms in Columnists or Trees Planted by Streams of Water • back cover tures, or occasionally, its cles in some on one aspect of the biblical Regular Contributors Real Ballerina 3 absence. versus contemporary cultures Renee Gehman, Deborah Kathy Nussbaum Earl Zimmerman tells way explore Good, David B. Greiser, ballet: foot washing. With both Life Passages: Our India Assignment 6 of his and wife Ruth’s en- a ballet of Daniel Hertzler, Michael A. humor and candor she takes us Earl Zimmerman gagement in the ballet of cultures. inside preparations for the ex- King, Nöel R. King, Mark R. their own and Indian cul- perience and helps us wonder Wenger Monks and Amish 10 ture. Gene Stoltzfus invites us to wit- how we experience the fullest mean- Publication, Gene Stoltzfus ness, of all things, a ballet of Amish ing and humility of this particular Printing, and Design Kingsview 13 and Buddhist cultural gifts. My col- dance between cultures. Cascadia Publishing House May You Tell Me Your Secret About Marriage umn on marriage is not primarily a Noël R. King sounds a cautionary Advertising Michael A. King ballet of cultures yet was set in motion note: What if the goal of the ballet is Michael A. King Beneath the Skyline 16 by a question from our African “son.” for a giant to plump us up for eating? I Want to Live Like a Purple Martin in a Saguaro Deborah Good is seeking to visu- Contact Might her fable invite us to ponder 126 Klingerman Road Deborah Good alize what more graceful ballet might how in fact cultural relations can be a Telford, PA 18969 When I Was Eighteen 21 emerge if U.S. views of land owner- ballet and not a dominance—even if 1-215-723-9125 Mary Alice Hostetter ship were less focused on private by seduction that at first feels good— [email protected] property and open to learnings even of one culture by another, as so often The Bible Tells Me So. . . Or Does It? 23 from the culture of a purple martin. Submissions Randy Klassen happens? Occasional unsolicited sub- Mary Alice Hostetter tells of that The books Daniel Hertzler re- missions accepted, 750-1500 Ink Aria 26 life-defining moment in which she views turn out to focus on the ballet words, returned only with Putting My Best Foot Forward leaves her Mennonite subculture. between Jesus’ culture and ours. Who SASE. Letters invited. Renee Gehman Where does she go? She doesn’t tell us, was Jesus to his people? Who is he to Subscriptions The Turquoise Pen 29 but her steering wheel seems pointed us? How do we dance with the real Je- Standard rates in U.S. My Giant toward the larger American culture. sus, not just our fantasy of who he $14.95/yr. in US, automatic Noël R. King Now, by the very act of looking back was? These are some of the matters Jan. renewals, cancel any time. Books, Faith, World & More 32 at the leaving, she implicitly weaves Hertzler explores. Single copy: $3.75 For the Record on Jesus: Reviews of Recovering for us a ballet of the subculture she left Finally, is it too much of a stretch Free online: Jesus and of Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes and whatever one she now writes to see Dave Greiser as plumbing www.CascadiaPublishingHouse.com/dsm Daniel Hertzler from within. learnings from a ballet between ordi- DreamSeeker Magazine is Reel Reflections 37 Randy Klassen wrestles with how nary and prison cultures, and Alan published quarterly in spring, Redemption Accomplished: A Review of contemporary culture treats God as Soffin between the consumerist cul- summer, fall, and winter. “The Shawshank Redemption” speaking (or not) through the Bible. ture and whatever culture transcends Copyright © 2008 David Greiser We might see him as seeking a ballet it? ISSN: 1546-4172 (paper) of biblical and current cultural under- —Michael A. King ISSN: 1548-1719 (online) Devotion Unspoken 40 Alan Soffin Dear Editors: Real Ballerina Please pass on my gratitude/admiration to your editors and the writer responsible for such strong poetry as “I think of Ohio, and the trains at night, / So long ago. / The Kathy Nussbaum long, dark, hollow call / Of other times,” by Alan Soffin (Spring 2008). Superb! —Jeremy Frey, Tucson, Arizona

A couple of years ago, I drove my son to the Rich- mond Ballet School of Dance for a school activity. On my way out of the building, I passed a door with a win- dow, behind which I heard the muffled sound of a pi- ano playing classical music. I looked in and saw a group of little girls in pink tights and ballet slippers lined up at the ballet barre. I felt a wave of sadness that took me by surprise. By the time I reached my car, I was crying. Not until I saw that room full of little girls doing pliés did I remember how much I had longed as a child to become a balle- rina. I used to take the “B” volume of our World Book encyclopedia and find the ballet section. The well- worn, dog-eared pages showed the basic positions for ballet instruction complete with illustrations that I re- call vividly. I practiced them for hours pretending that I was a real ballerina. I pretended in the way that only a child is able to do . . . with unabashed and complete surrender to the power of my imagination . . . the kind that completely encompasses one’s being and makes time stand still. That was how I danced. Despite my unwavering belief that I was perform- ing graceful pirouettes and jetés, the average on- Letters to DreamSeeker Magazine are encouraged. We also welcome and when possi- looker no doubt saw an ordinary six-year-old girl with ble publish extended responses (max. 400 words). 3 4 / SUMMER 2008 DREAMSEEKER MAGAZINE / 5 arms and legs flailing about, spinning I was really a princess from a for- monsters, saving the good ones. I re- Ruth joined me in my imaginary and jumping all over an imaginary eign land temporarily staying at 305 flect back to him, “You are so brave world, and in doing so she mirrored stage—accompanied by vinyl record- West 25th Street, and Ruth and I were and strong! You saved everyone!” back the goodness that she saw in me. ings of classical ballet scores, bought frequent guests on the Mike Douglas Without directly talking about My very being was inextricably by my mother with Green Stamps and Show, filmed in my living room. being violated by an older step shaped by her amazing presence in played gloriously on our There we answered lots of brother, over time this little boy is ex- my early life. Despite her physical 1964 console stereo. I was lucky important questions very periencing reparation. Just as Ruth’s death seven years ago at age 85, she re- But I was lucky enough enough to have a intelligently, finishing off presence in my virtual experience of mains permanently part of the magic to have a Benefactress the appearance with me ballet is permanent, I hope that this of my childhood—and my memories Benefactress who, unlike the average singing the proverbial child and I are co-creating a lasting, of being a real ballerina. onlooker, believed fully in who, unlike the ballad into a hair brush. virtual memory of him as a knight: my imaginary world. Her average onlooker, I am now 47 and strong, brave, and full of goodness. —Kathleen Zehr Nussbaum is a Li- name was Ruth Hummel. believed fully in never actually took ballet The tears that came when I saw censed Clinical Social Worker, Inter- She was the equivalent of a my imaginary lessons (or appeared on those precious, little girls in the ballet nationally Certified Child and Play doting granny. Ruth was world. Mike Douglas). But class were tears of sentimental recol- Therapist, and clinical supervisor. In no blood relation and had sometimes I feel as if I re- lection. The were tears triggered by 2007, Kathy wrote, illustrated, and no children of her own, so she claimed ally know what it is like to be a balle- the adult, bittersweet “memories” of self published a short story for adult us (my brothers, sister, and me) as her rina, as if I have actually danced flying down the stairway of our row women that celebrates the Feminine own. No grandparent or auntie, or “Swan Lake” with Mikhail Barysh- house (inspired by the televised airing Divine. Kathy lives with her hus- parent for that matter, could have nikov in Russia, or England, or New of Mary Martin in “Peter Pan” in the band Phil and sons Zachary and Ja- worshiped me more than Ruth did. York. I often dream I am a ballerina early 1960s), of having once been a cob in Mechanicsville, Virginia. A registered nurse standing at and my body is moving fluidly and real ballerina and a real princess, and Kathy welcomes your thoughts and about four feet, eleven inches, Ruth gracefully across a stage. of Ruth’s unconditional delight in feedback at Knussbaum11057@ was part adult, part child, part Mary Maybe I was a ballerina in a previ- everything I did. comast.net. Poppins. Ruth thought I was the most ous life, or perhaps these are memo- amazing and beautiful ballerina ever ries from the collective unconscious. born. She would ask me time and More likely, the power of my imagina- again, in all sincerity and earnestness, tion as a child, along with the help and to please dance for her. I can still see witness of my benefactress, was po- her smiling broadly and bouncing tent enough to create what can only gently to the music’s rhythm as she be described as a “virtual” memory. tirelessly watched me perform “Swan Lake,” “Giselle,” “Sleeping Beauty,” I grew up to be a child and play thera- and the “Nutcracker Suite.” pist. I have treated hundreds of chil- Throughout my childhood, my dren over the last 20 years, and I often imagination and play fortified and think of Ruth when I am working. comforted me. Ruth was both inter- The power of a child’s imagination ested in and accepting of my imagi- coupled with helpful, appropriate nary machinations. Because she never mirroring from a caring adult is at the treated them as if they were silly or core of the healing relationship. childish, she became a trustworthy As I sit with an eight-year-old, I playmate who was privy to my inner watch him put on a knight’s costume. world. With a pretend sword, he kills the bad DREAMSEEKER MAGAZINE / 7

EMU and my past experience on the an expensive phone call to our family field. during Christmas and hope we’d have Both of us felt a pull to return to a clear connection. Asia, where we had previously spent eight years. It was hard to explain; we Saying hello to our new world has felt an inner tug in our spirits. And we had different challenges. To be hon- clearly wanted to follow Jesus wher- est, our lifestyle in North America had Life Passages: Our ever our adventure would take us. slowly grown cushier than we real- Saying goodbye, however, was ized. Our 50-plus-year-old bodies India Assignment much more difficult than we had complain more about physical dis- imagined. We underesti- comfort and stifling heat mated how firmly we had Both of us felt a than our young adult bod- put down roots in Virginia, pull to return to ies did 25 years ago. We Earl Zimmerman where we had lived and Asia, where we expected the smog and the worked for the past 14 years. press of people in a large had previously Our identities were deeply Asian city but were still shaped by our family, our spent eight not prepared for the inten- many friendships, and our years. sity of Kolkata (Calcutta), professional roles, mine as a the city we now call home. Maybe it was a 10-year itch. Our children some- pastor and teacher and Ruth’s as an I knew the statistics on India from times tease me that I’m like Pa Wilder in Laura Ingalls administrator. classes I had taught at Eastern Men- Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series. When things There were the many memories nonite University. One-third of the get too settled I have an inner compulsion to move on. associated with our passive solar more than a billion people who live in Or maybe it was one of those change-of-life decisions. home we had built when I was a semi- India earn no more than one dollar a I like to think it was the prompting of the Spirit, nary student. Our children had spent day. But such statistics are not the but I’m more cautious about claiming divine guidance many of their growing years here. same as actually seeing how the con- in such matters than I once was. Perhaps that’s because Ruth had spent countless enjoyable stant influx of economic and political of all the political and religious leaders who claim hours laying out and caring for our refugees over the past decades has God’s leading in ways that are rather dubious. I’m flower gardens, perennials, and shaped Kolkata. The global gap be- more aware of our capacity to deceive ourselves than I groundcovers. tween rich and poor has grown wider once was. The hardest part was saying good- in the years since we lived in the In any case the decision to take an assignment with bye to our three children. They had Philippines. the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in India gone with us to the Philippines on our At the same time, a third of India’s with responsibilities for programs in Afghanistan, In- first Asian sojourn. Now they had people are doing quite well in the new dia, and Nepal was an exciting new challenge. Ruth their own lives, and we would have to globalized economy, thanks to infor- and I were keen to learn from people outside our relate through emails, phone calls, pe- mation technology and Indian re- American context. She wanted to build closer rela- riodic visits, and the wonderful new sourcefulness in various other fields. tionships with many Asian students she had come to technology of calling from computer India is also home to a cultural and re- know during her years as co-director at the Center for to computer while using a web-cam- ligious history thousands of years old. Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite Uni- era through which we can see each Indian intellectuals are among the versity (EMU). I was feeling more and more distance other. There was no such thing when best in the world. And Kolkata is a between the global ethics courses I was teaching at we went to the Philippines back in the hub of such artistic and intellectual 6 1980s. In those days we’d put through genius. 8 / SUMMER 2008 DREAMSEEKER MAGAZINE / 9

Ruth and I had read many books quickly we’re beginning to feel at schemes, raising social awareness, and tion where it all comes together and and watched various films on India to home. adult education are all part of their ef- God’s reign is brought closer. “Your prepare ourselves for our new assign- Along with other MCC staff, we forts in social transformation. They kingdom come, your will be done on ment. But nothing could prepare us recently visited a development project believe women are crucial to the well- earth as it is in heaven.” for our arrival in Kolkata. It rapidly near the Bangladesh border. We en- being of the family and the entire sank in that this was all quite foreign, joyed the verdant green scenes of community. Empowering women is a —Earl Zimmerman is the author of even though we had previously lived growing crops as our train traveled key to the empowerment of their vil- Practicing the Politics of Jesus: En- in Manila, another huge through the rich river lages. gaging the Significance of John Asian city. We would need Ruth and I had delta. At the end of the How we wish the faithful support- Howard Yoder’s Social Ethics (Cas- to start over in a very dif- read many books train line, we walked to ers of MCC in North America could cadia, 2007). He and his wife Ruth ferent life. We swallowed and watched vari- the river and were fer- have been there with us to see the are the Mennonite Central Commit- our rising panic and tried ous films on India. ried across on small many ways in which their contribu- tee Regional Representatives for In- to put on a brave face. . . . But nothing boats. We then climbed tions are put to work. Ruth and I have dia, Nepal and Afghanistan. They What had possessed us to onto motorcycles that the blessing of serving at the intersec- live in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. could prepare us leave our secure world in had been converted into Virginia? for our arrival in huge tricycles for carry- Such panic was quickly Kolkata. ing passengers. calmed by the welcome we When we arrived the received from the Indian MCC staff. local welcoming committee showered They were a wonderful oasis in this us with music and flower petals. They strange teeming city. We saw the pas- proudly showed us their beautiful sion on their faces as they explained demonstration farm in the middle of the various ministries they were in- the vast delta, interwoven with canals volved in. And they so much wanted and small rivers. us to succeed. In this very poor area, seasonal agricultural workers earn only $25 a After three months at language month and primary school teachers school studying Hindi, we’re now in earn about $125 a month. Local the thick of working at many social women’s groups and farmers’ groups service and peacebuilding ministries. are working hard to transform their After busy days in the office we enjoy villages and create a better life for their walking around our neighborhood. families. One women’s group was in We walk past many small shops and charge of preparing the gourmet feast streets full of people. We pass flowing for our outdoor picnic. It was so re- water hydrants where people are warding to see their pride and confi- washing. We pass machine shops that dence in hosting us. They are clearly spill over onto the sidewalks. We pass determined to create a flourishing poor laborers who have thrown up a community. piece of plastic supported by sticks Some of the challenges they told against a wall as temporary shelter. us about are the dowry system and And we meet desperate beggars seek- early marriages that force women into ing a handout. People everywhere are prescribed roles with little future. In friendly, and we’re surprised at how addition, micro-credit economic DREAMSEEKER MAGAZINE / 11

doors, but I sensed emotional trauma lead to suspicions. Eventually the and trouble. monks agreed to take on the task. To a child, the solution seemed They and their civilian supporters simple: If there was a problem, just carried on the work without gossip. stop being Amish. I was not attracted to their life of horses, buggies, oil On October 2, 2006, five Amish lamps, and suspenders. Later my atti- girls were lined up and shot in a sim- Monks and Amish tude changed as I became more im- ple one-room school building in pressed with their conviction and Pennsylvania. The world was shocked tenacity for healthy living, compas- and held its breath as our “civiliza- sion, and faithfulness in a mean world tion” tried to explain to itself the rea- Gene Stoltzfus enraptured by skin-deep To a child, the sons for one more school Hollywood love. solution seemed shooting. The encore was As a young civilian even more positively scan- volunteer in Vietnam dur- simple: If there dalous when the world ing the war, I came to was a problem, learned that the Amish know the Buddhist com- just stop being reached out to the family of Buddhists and Amish, two communities from munities there, the distant Amish. . . . Later the perpetrator who took widely different parts of the world who refuse to use cousins of the Burmese my attitude his own life. They offered violence against enemies, are in my imagination these monks. On June 11, changed. . . . forgiveness and support, days. Both had members who were killed by someone 1963, three weeks before I sharing some of the mil- from outside their community. Both refused to retali- arrived in Vietnam, Buddhist monk lions of dollars of contributions they ate. Both consider the person or persons who killed Thich Quang Duc burned himself to received to help the victims’ families. their members worthy of love and forgiveness. Both death at a busy Saigon intersection to Today the school has been torn have developed teachings, styles of social formation, protest the persecution of Buddhists down and sod planted where children rituals, and tough disciplines over centuries. by the Vietnamese government. Self- once learned to read. Was this event of We can learn from these communities which have immolation in Vietnam by monks has terror a defeat or the suggestion of an- tried, if imperfectly enough, to build a culture of a long history, often but not always in- other way worth noticing? peace. In both communities nonviolence is not sim- terconnected with political protest. In Burma the monks who are not ply a political tactic but a way of life. For the Amish Two years later as a volunteer in in detention by repressive mili- people and the Buddhist monks, nonretaliation is so Nha Trang, a city north of Saigon, I taryrulers who call the country Myan- deeply rooted and beyond question that outsiders was asked to be treasurer of the emer- mar, have returned to their pagodas. with utilitarian lenses can be startled by the conse- gency relief committee at the pagoda There they practice meditation, quences of these deeply held convictions. where Thich Quang Duc once prayers, daily begging, and study Both my mother and father came from families resided as a monk. The huge Ameri- Buddha’s Middle Way. When months that had Amish roots. They used Deitsch (Pennsylva- can troop buildup in 1964 in the Nha before they suspended services to the nia Dutch) to talk to each other when they didn’t want Trang area created refugees; the military in many areas of Burma, they us, their children, to understand. As I grew up, Amish lifestyle of these foreign soldiers was had dusted off one of the most ancient people regularly came to our home to see my father, also exacerbating conditions for the tactics of nonviolent culture—passive Mennonite pastor and bishop, and discuss problems whole population. I reluctantly resistance and noncooperation. occurring in their communities. I was usually cut out agreed to a brief tenure on the com- Through the centuries young of those conversations either by language or closed mittee, knowing that access to money Amish have from time to time been 10 in those desperate conditions could conscripted into national armies. 12 / SUMMER 2008 KINGSVIEW Since the Amish refuse to engage in vent ways to overcome new problems military service, Amish conscripts of living in a world infused with cul- practice various forms of noncooper- tures of violence and therapies teach- ation when alternative service is not ing adjustment to ego needs. an option. Some refuse to put on a Amish biweekly worship hours uniform. Others refuse to march or probably wouldn’t grab the fancy of take on any assignments. Their ac- many, although the community tions have led to responses from offi- meals that follow reflect culinary tal- May You Tell Me cers ranging from tolerance to angry ent and abiding hospitality. The best punishment, even death. vegetarian food I have tasted was with Your Secret About For both of these communities, monks in Vietnam pagodas. Most acts of noncompliance and passive re- young Amish return to the church af- Marriage sistance are a method of love and ter “sowing wild oats.” Both commu- preparation for reconciliation. Pun- nities have identifiable garments ishment is never an end in itself. Both developed over a long history of learn- understand noncooperation to be a ing to treat the earth and each other Michael A. King necessary stage of building a culture kindly and respectfully. Both look of peace that is in accordance with the back to the spiritual courage of their will of God or the higher truth. founders and continue to invent the As I write, there are memorials, fu- way to faithful living. nerals, and last rites for monks who The theology/cosmology of the died praying with their nonviolently Buddhists and Amish are worlds and “Mr. and Mrs. King,” wrote our African son protesting feet in Burma’s streets. centuries apart. However, the out- (who took on this role when our families adopted each Thousands of their supporters had to working of their gentle hands in other due to our daughter’s year of living with his), decide if it was safe or worth the risk to peaceful living reflects courage, confi- “may you tell me your secret about marriage.” He attend these rites for the monks and dence, and innovation and is a chal- asked this, he said, because he sees people marry, then their civilian coworkers. lenge to all of us. I and we can soon divorce. We were saddened by this evidence that In all cultures, the most deeply continue to learn from them about divorce is a cross-cultural tragedy, moved by his inter- held values of faith and vision are ritu- the creation of a beloved community est in our marriage, and stirred to thought. alized at funerals and memorials. and the liberation of God’s people and Many of our friends’ marriages haven’t made it. These events can evoke more repres- earth from the toxic stuff of our time. We’ve watched their rifts broaden until too wide for sion. However, they are also the mo- crossing. We’ve navigated such awkwardnesses as ment to announce renewed vision — For 17 years, Gene Stoltzfus was Di- which ex may prefer to attend which party with which and hope. As the dead are remem- rector, Christian Peacemaker Teams. child. bered, thousands of soldiers and their Since retirement he has been living So why are we still married? Not because we’re per- officers wrestle with how to live with with wife Dorothy Friesen in Fort fect, our children who leave the room whenever one of the murders that they carried out. Frances, Ontario. During and fol- the infamous Michael-Joan “negotiations” erupts, These two communities are both lowing the Vietnam War, he worked would confirm. Not because it has been happily ever growing. Amish membership now in Vietnam and elsewhere in South- after; we have dug many a canyon of our own. We approaches 200,000. New Buddhist east Asia, where he spent many days think longingly of the thousands we spent, early in communities are springing up around with Buddhist monks. This article marriage, on counseling. Oh, if we could have in- the world. Neither offers an easy path. first appeared in his blog at gstoltz- vested it instead, those decades ago, and reaped the Both communities continue to in- fus.blogspot.com. 13 14 / SUMMER 2008 DREAMSEEKER MAGAZINE / 15 miracle of compounding, now if we something with our lives beyond the “my” carrel, middle of second floor cherishing it—whether under cot- hit rough patches our Money-We- same-old same-old. Joan debated be- facing Lehman Auditorium, we got to tonwoods in the desert Southwest, Didn’t-Spend-on-Counseling Fund ing a missionary to Russia. I investi- talking about the leaves. It was au- mango trees in Africa, or the common could send us to smooth things out gated spending time in Poland with a tumn, and as so often on the EMU old maples on our front lawn. there by crystalline rivers and blue la- Mennonite service agency. Neither campus, the leaves were hauntingly So there you have it, dear son: goons. dream came true. Yet how often, these lovely. We found out that both our Common mission. Nice more than So what is our secret? Probably three decades later, we realize that one spirits ached with longing in the pres- mean. The leaves. that we have no secret. of the strongest ties that ence of those leaves and that the shar- We’ve only been forced to We’ve been forced binds us remains that ing of the longing made the aching —Michael A. King, Telford, is owner learn, by trial and error to learn, by trial ongoing yearning to do even sweeter. and publisher, Cascadia Publishing and God’s undeserved and error and something more with The leaves have become our short- House LLC; and editor, Dream- grace mixed in, some our lives. So we’ve spent hand. They stand for everything in Seeker Magazine.This article was God’s undeserved combination of the same countless hours listen- God’s creation that makes our spirits first published in The Mennonite principles most couples grace mixed in, ing both to the other’s not only ache for the beauty out there (Oct. 2, 2007, p. 30), as a “Real have to practice to stay some combination individual call of the but also throb with the joy of jointly Families” column. married amid the many of the same princi- soul as well as exploring pressures turning odds of ples most couples what our souls are call- making it no better than have to practice to ing us to offer together. 50-50. stay married. Second is a principle What are those princi- so simple probably ples? We don’t claim to know them all. most of us have to get kicked around a Maybe there are 10, and each couple good long time by life and each other has to pick their essential handful. before we believe in its power: be nice But for us they seem, the older we get, to each other more often than mean. Re- to be boiling down to three. cently we ran across John Gottman’s That would be negotiating “magic ratio,” which, based on re- money, sex, and power, right? Actu- search into hundreds of marriages, ally once upon a time yes. The first suggests that a marriage needs five half of our marriage did seem to re- positive interactions for every nega- volve around resolving that classic tive one. Fall below 5 to 1, and expect trio. Again and again we had to fight trouble. our way through to fresh accommo- I tested this as crassly as I could: I dations in these areas. But in the started phoning Joan and telling her I midst of matters so complex whole was just trying to get closer to 5 to 1. tomes on their implications for mar- Even this method of implementing riage have been written, simpler, gen- the ratio turns out to generate delight- tler principles turn out also to have fully tender mutual energies. been trying to be noticed. These are Third is what Joan and I have our current three: come to call the leaves. Yes, the leaves. First is sharing a sense of mission. Early in our relationship we’d lie on When we first met, Joan still a the floor under the library study ta- teenager and I barely in my twenties, bles at Eastern Mennonite University we were both dreaming of doing and talk and talk. One day under DREAMSEEKER MAGAZINE / 17 BENEATH THE SKYLINE What does it mean to own—a credited by many for a speech he sup- couch, a dog, a business, an acre? posedly gave in response to an 1854 There are the legal definitions. treaty proposal. “How can you buy or But day to day, the personal experi- sell the sky,” he asks. “The land? The ence of knowing I have control and idea is strange to us. If we do not own primary responsibility over the freshness of the air The understand- everything I own infuses me and the sparkle of the I Want to Live Like a with a sense of—oh, I don’t ing of private water, how can you buy know what for sure—iden- land ownership them?” Purple Martin in a tity, wealth, power, security, we accept today With a little Internet and, grandest of all, SELF- with hardly a sec- research, I find that the Saguaro SUFFICIENCY, the drug ond thought ar- historical merit of cred- that carries us all forward on rived on boats iting Seattle with these the rivers of capitalism. words is dubious at best, In the Blue Ridge from Europe. . . . that the “Chief Seattle” Deborah Good Mountains of West Virginia, I who has been attached to this speech traipsed around the land I may own and marketed by myriad environ- someday soon. There are a dozen or so mental causes is, as one anthropolo- lots for sale, each labeled with a num- gist puts it, “a fabrication by whites for ber nailed to a tree. I stood on Lot whites.” (William S. Abruzzi, “The 1203, watching water gush over rocks Myth of Chief Seattle,” Human Ecol- For a year or two in high school, the most expensive and down a ravine, wondering how ogy Review, vol. 7, no. 1, 2000, pp. 72- thing I had ever owned was a pair of hiking boots. any of us could think it possible to 75). Then it was a down comforter and, later, a CD player. own part of a stream; or the leaves-to- Even so, evidence does suggest In the years since, I have grown a much longer but dirt mixture softening a hillside; or its this: The understanding of private mostly unimpressive list of “things owned, over 100 moss, its trees. land ownership we accept today with dollars”—bike, floor rug, mattress, computer, and, as In reality, I suppose no one owns a hardly a second thought arrived on of a few years ago, a light blue Honda Civic. stream. The molecules of bonded hy- boats from Europe, right alongside None of these compares to a purchase I am pon- drogen and oxygen are there and then the guns and disease that nearly wiped dering today. I have good reasons to consider it. Still, I gone; it would be impossible to grab out the peoples already living here. If stumble at the thought of attaching my name to a pos- hold of them with your bare hands if you trace history back far enough, all session as invaluable and undomesticated as this: one you tried. land that is today “owned” by individ- acre of West Virginia woods, selling for 30 thousand You could, if you wanted, kneel on uals or entities was first acquired dollars. the bank with a mayonnaise jar, fill it, through conquest—usually racist, Property ownership is, of course, commonplace. and cap it. You could set the jar on bloody, and violent. The people I know are more likely to invest in a house your window sill to catch bits of sun- With this history in mind, and the or a condo than in a patch of maples and poplars. Nev- light like magic floating dust. You realities of real estate markets, credit ertheless, for a non-homeowner like me, the prospect could claim you had captured part of a ratings, and my own ambiguous life of buying land is a bit like grabbing hold of a new and stream, but you would be wrong. You plans, I feel in no way qualified to unfamiliar branch in the tree I’m climbing, hoisting would be the proud owner of a may- make a decision about purchasing myself up, and freeing my head from the foliage to onnaise jar filled with water. land. The experience is yet another re- look around at my life. Chief Seattle of the Duwamish minder of how much I live my life like 16 and Suquamish Indian tribes has been a kid growing older: inquisitive, un- 18 / SUMMER 2008 DREAMSEEKER MAGAZINE / 19 certain, and slightly terrified of the “bite us in the backside,” as Barbara them swim their lobster-like claws to mom, an acre of woods along the vast amount I don’t know. I suppose Kingsolver recently put it in her com- its edge, watched them tumble into western border of Rolling Ridge we are all perpetually under-qualified. mencement address at Duke Univer- the water below. Study Retreat Community We can only do the best we know how, sity. “We’re a world at war,” she said, Is it possible, I ask myself, to hold (www.rollingridge.net). She hopes ask for guidance from everyone we “ravaged by disagreements, a bizarrely my one acre of land (and everything I this one acre of hillside will be better can, make our decisions, breathe, globalized people in which the extrav- own) like this? Gently, creatively, and off with them as owners, rather than hope for the best. agant excesses of one culture daily, letting it go? the investors or developers who might Our culture’s wash up as famine or flood land with it instead. She can be I worry about settling, obsession with on the shores of another.” —Deborah Good, Philadelphia, Penn- reached at deborahagood@ sylvania, is likely to buy, with her without thinking, into personal own- Early in the summer, I gmail.com. conventional patterns of stayed with some of my fam- ership is com- living that could tie me like ily at a cottage we had rented a dog on a leash to needing ing around to for the weekend. When the a high-paying job. Con- “bite us in the tomato soup was hot, I Friendship . . . (in memory of Rod Childers) ventional living expects us backside”. . . . grabbed a dishtowel from Rod, my friend—or, as we called you back then for reasons I’ve long to graduate, marry, buy one of the cabin-kitchen’s forgotten: “Pidge.” houses, fill our houses with things, drawers and set it on the table, as a hot It’s been more than thirty-five years. Does anyone still remember? have kids, add additions to our pad, beneath the pot of soup. The I remember. I don’t want to forget. I can’t forget. My heartache has only houses, fill our additions with new plastic measuring cup I found in one deepened. things. We should buy everything we of the cupboards made a splendid la- need. Then we should buy even more. dle, and the silverware drawer pro- You started four years. Varsity fullback. As we said then—built like a Pretty soon we realize we are doing duced just enough soup spoons for brick shit-house. little more than treading water. Now the four of us. Four was all we needed. Solid. Hard. Low to the ground. Not easily stopped. we absolutely must have a high in- The irresistible force moving the immovable object for a four-yard come just to keep our heads up where When we were kids, my younger gain. the oxygen is breathable. We call this brother and I used to crouch over the Then you’d get back up (more slowly in the fourth quarter). self-sufficiency. creek with plastic cups poised in our We can be more creative than that. hands. We nudged stones, flipped December 1971. The immovable object was a semi. No getting back Our kindergarten teachers taught them, and watched the crayfish scut- up. us to share the toys we played with. In tle around exposed and frantic. We They came by the dozen. Young and old from Elkton—those who adulthood, we would do well to re- loved to listen to them clicking their cheered you on. learn this lesson. I try to take note of way around the water in our plastic Rivals from Drain, Yoncalla, Oakland. They cried, too. alternative ownership models: car- bucket. More than thirty-five years ago—can that really be? shares, land trusts, housing coopera- Afterward, we counted the cray- tives, families who choose to own as fish, sized them with our eyes, prided Now, you are alone, there on the hillside above the Umpqua. It is a little as possible. ourselves on our largest catch, and, at beautiful spot. This is creative: In a front yard in the end of the day, returned them to Since 1984 my dad, our coach—we called him Buzz—is only a long Tucson, Arizona, a purple martin the stream. My brother and I knew jump shot away. pokes its head out of the home it has the small creatures wouldn’t do us any That will keep me coming back from time to time (I saw your grave, built in a saguaro cactus, in a hole left good at home and would not survive summer of ’07). by woodpeckers. long in our captivity. I imagine us But now Buzz has his Betty nearby. You’ll always be there alone. Our culture’s obsession with per- sighing, a little sadly, as we tipped the “Rodney Vern Childers. Born December 1954. Died December 1971. sonal ownership is coming around to bucket and, one by one, watched Number 35.” We had good times together— The rapids. My first drunk. Noticing girls. Playing ball. A few fist- fights. Wasting your dad’s window panes with BB guns. The analgesic balm in the jock (I didn’t think that was funny). Mr. Cotreaux’s confrontation after you fire-crackered his garage. “I want to tell you something, Mr. Rod Childers!” When I Was Now it is more clear to me (kids don’t appreciate these things enough). The kindness, the wisdom, the humility. You were a true friend. Eighteen

A little league trip. The excitement of the drive-in stop. When you live in Elkton, Oregon, fast food is a rare treat. Mary Alice Hostetter But I was broke—too ashamed to let on. How did you know? You had some spare change, no words needed to be said.

The sleepovers. Eighth-graders talking till dawn. There’s no God, we’re on our own, I said. You weren’t so sure. That talk-show philosopher from San Francisco we listened to at night, When I was 18, I left home and never looked Ira Blue, said we need faith to be human. back. I borrowed my brother’s ’63 Corvair, white By the time I realized you (and Ira) were right, you were gone. How did with red interior. I loaded it with the few things I you know? wanted to take with me as I left my first eighteen years behind to go to college. Football. You started as a freshman—the rest of us were scrubs. I left behind the clothes that embarrassed me Game day, the scrubs run out at the end of the line. You ran out with with their differentness—handmade dresses and ill- me, the last two guys. fitting hand-me-downs, the aprons my mother said Each game, four years, you and I bring up the rear—even as all-stars. would protect those dresses so they’d last longer, as if How did you know? that was a good thing. Other clothes, the few things I’d bought on my own, I packed in the blue American Yes—you were a friend. I know that now much more than I did then. Tourister suitcase my oldest brother had given me for There is no love without loss. No friendship without sorrow. high school graduation. Later, when I had access to We always will have to say goodbye sometime. television, I would see that it was the suitcase they You weren’t taken for my benefit (though benefit I have). showed being dropped from airplanes and landing We learn through our tears, bittersweet. undamaged, the contents intact. Dear God help me not waste this gift. I packed my own checkbook, my high school —Ted Grimsrud, Harrisonburg, Virginia, teaches theology and peace yearbook, where my friends had covered the pic- studies at Eastern Mennonite University and about once every ten tures with notes recounting all of the wonderful years writes a poem. times we had had. Under my picture it said I was “everyone’s friend.” I packed my dictionary, a few books, and the Wiss scissors another brother had given me for high school graduation. It seemed an 21 20 22 / SUMMER 2008 odd gift, but useful, and I have them my brothers and sisters, waited for the even now. bus to come over the crest of the hill. The white Corvair purred as I On cold winter mornings it seemed to started down the long lane, shifting take forever. I did not think about all smoothly into second gear. I did not those years or about my brothers and notice the catalpa trees that lined the sisters. I was leaving. edges of the lane. I did not I went past the chin- notice the brown tassels on I did not even chilla farm that was now a The Bible Tells Me the corn ready for harvest glance at the used car lot. Before the or the soft greens of the al- chinchilla farm or farm was built on a piece So...Or Does It? falfa fields almost ready for give it a second of land bought from our the third cutting. I did not thought as I neighbor, I had never look at the tomatoes in the drove by. I did heard of chinchillas. We fields, still a few green ones went to the open house Randy Klassen and lots more ripe and not care why it when they invited the ready for picking, toma- came or why it community, because we toes that would be canned left. That day I were curious to see these with no help from me. I was leaving. strange animals. Ours was did not pay attention to not a “fur coat” sort of the cows coming down the path for town, so it was not for ours or our As kids, some of us sang, “How do I know? The milking. It would not be me closing neighbor’s coats that they were grow- Bible tells me so.” I was excited to hear that the Bible the stable door behind them. ing the chinchillas. did indeed tell me much of what I needed to know. I turned right at the mailboxes I did not even glance at the chin- Later I saw that it contains a wealth of wisdom about onto Denlinger Road. It didn’t seem chilla farm or give it a second thought God, about us, and about how we are to live. quite right that the road was named as I drove by. I did not care why it I often heard “the Bible says” before a pronounce- for the other family whose farm was came or why it left. That day I was ment that called for divine authority. The preacher bordered by the road. They had only leaving. wanted to convince the audience that what he be- one child, and there were twelve of us. lieved or wanted us to believe was God’s will. So he But, my father said, he had never been —Mary Alice Hostetter, Char- backed his belief with the Bible’s infallible authority. involved in politics, and the Den- lottesville, Virginia, after a career in But do any of us who claim such authority really lingers were, so that was that. I did not teaching and human services, has know what we are saying? Are we actually hearing and glance at the road banks where I had now chosen to devote more time to sharing the heart of God? Or are we using the Bible to picked bluebells and violets for her lifelong passion for writing. support our preferred views about God and conduct? Grandma Denlinger when I was Among the themes she has explored We sometimes forget that when we use the word walking back from the bus stop. are reflections on growing up Men- Bible we are referring to an amazingly varied library of I turned left at the bus stop where nonite in Lancaster County, Pennsyl- 66 books written over some 1500 years. Each book for all those years I had waited with vania, during the 1950s and 1960s. was written for a specific purpose, in a unique style, at a particular time in history when its message seemed most relevant. The oldest stories were orally shared before writing was used, which raises questions about their historical accuracy. In seminary I learned that biblical literature 23 24 / SUMMER 2008 DREAMSEEKER MAGAZINE / 25 includes poetry, metaphor, romance, hate your enemy,’ but I say to you, them against the rock” (Ps. 137:9). Maybe that is why references to legend, proverbs, visions, parables, al- “love your enemies.” A major New David, if he wrote that, might ponder “love” appear over 400 times in this li- legories, prayers, apocalyptic and Testament theme has to do with over- what to do with this in light of Christ. brary we call our Bible. Jesus affirmed prophetic parts, historical sections, coming evil with good, but since that Or from prejudicial generaliza- that love for God and love for neigh- doctrinal letters, and more. is indeed difficult, some people re- tions, “Cretans are always liars, vi- bor ranked number one and two of all I enjoyed noting that Jesus used treat to the Old Testament passages to cious brutes, lazy gluttons. . . ” (Titus God’s commands. Paul caught that the humor of hyperbole in some of his gain biblical justification for killing 1:12-13). With apologies to the citi- when he said, “The only thing that teachings: “If your right the enemy. Then they can zens of Crete. Or a male chauvinistic counts is faith working through love.” eye causes you to sin, Inspiration did not claim that “the Bible says comment like, “Adam was not de- (Gal. 5:6). That’s it! It may be difficult tear it out...and if your keep Scriptures so” even though Jesus re- ceived, but the woman was deceived to put into practice, but I cannot but right hand causes you to from grammatical jected violence as an option and became a transgressor, yet she will be impressed by this repetition of the sin, cut it off” (Matt. errors. . . . Or for God’s children. be saved through childbearing” (1 love emphasis. 5:29-30). Don’t take from numerical in- Tim. 2:13-14). Could the apostle of The Bible tells me so, or maybe, as that literally! art of our problem, I be- salvation by God’s grace granted Christians we ought to say, “Jesus tells consistencies. . . . P Many of the teach- lieve, is a misunderstand- equally to men and women have writ- me so.” After all, for the Christian, Je- ings of the apostle Paul Or from occa- ing of, “all Scripture is ten those lines? I wonder. Many schol- sus and not a book—even if the best we might take literally, sional nasty com- inspired by God” (2 Tim. ars do. Yet this text is still used to one ever—is “The Word of God” but some, such as his ref- ments. . . . 3:16-17). We think that if subordinate women. (John 1:14). We need to avoid idoliz- erence to women for- God inspired it, the Bible The fact is, the books in this li- ing it. Unthinkingly applying to the bidden to teach or have authority over must be flawless. I thought that until I brary were written by fallible men Bible terms like infallibility or in- a man, many of us would omit from recognized that all of the New Testa- who reflected the hopes or fears of errancy can amount to “bibliolatry,” that list. And it is probably best to ment was not even written or in- their particular time and place. Their as Karl Barth called it. leave many of the instructions from cluded in what is called “all Scripture” expressions were colored by struggles The Word of God is a dynamic Leviticus to a past era. Shrimp and os- in this passage. with God and those whom they were revelation of divine truth, not simply trich meat can be good for you, al- More important was my failure to addressing. These writings call us, scribal inscriptions on paper. We be- though forbidden in Leviticus recognize the purpose of God’s inspi- centuries later, to wrestle with an un- lieve that God has spoken in the past 11:10-17. Leviticus also commands ration, which was to make the Scrip- derstanding of what God intended to through the prophets and can still do that adulterers, homosexuals, and tures “useful for teaching, for reproof, say to them and now to us. This calls so today, if we listen carefully. But those who curse God be stoned. Exo- for correction and for training in for humble reliance on both sound God’s clearest and most profound rev- dus includes those who work on the righteousness so that everyone who scholarship and the Holy Spirit to rec- elation is in and through Jesus Christ. Sabbath in the list of persons to be ex- belongs to God may be proficient, ognize and apply what God is saying Therefore it is best for me to give my ecuted. equipped for every good work.” To be to us through this amazing collection. attention to the One I call Lord and, There are about a thousand verses trained in righteousness so that we are Ultimately, we believe God has hearing his words, follow where the in the Old Testament which advocate a people of good works is the empha- spoken most clearly in Jesus Christ, so living Word of God leads me. violence against an enemy. Those do sis here. we want to acknowledge his lordship not sound like the “Father” in Jesus’ Inspiration did not keep Scrip- over the Scriptures as well as over our —Randy Klassen, Walla Walla, Wash- parable of the prodigal son. tures from grammatical errors. Mark, lives. Then the purpose of God's in- ington, is retired pastor of the Evan- Jesus helps us here by saying sev- who made a few, is grateful. Or from spiration will be fulfilled. gelical Covenant Church and eral times, “You have heard it said... numerical inconsistencies. The writ- The wonder is that through these author of Jesus’ Word, Jesus’ Way, but I say to you. . . .” He upgrades the ers of Kings and Chronicles thank fallible writers, God’s Spirit inspired What Does the Bible Really Say ethical standards, as in Matthew you. Or from occasional nasty com- them to say what we needed to hear to About Hell, and, with his wife 5:43-44: “You have heard that it is ments, such as “Happy shall they be bring us salvation in Christ Jesus and Joyce, of the forthcoming Loving said, ‘you shall love your neighbor and who take your little ones and dash enable us to become saved people. Enemies. INK ARIA DREAMSEEKER MAGAZINE / 27 uct of the USA, created in New York? way master should be washing feet of Oh well, at least I’m stimulating the servants—declares this unacceptable. economy, I thought. But he concedes when Jesus rebukes Rinsing my feet in him, saying, essentially: warm water before towel- How could I possi- No foot washing? Then drying them, I checked bly experience the no share in me. the clock and regretted same humility hav- Jesus goes on to Putting My Best that I would have to by- ing my Salsa-pol- wash all the disciples’ pass the foot scrub’s com- ished, tea-tree- feet. Then he explains Foot Forward plementary foot repair oiled feet washed that he has been model- balm, featuring aloe vera ing for them the servant and chamomile. I quickly as I would if I pre- lifestyle he wants them clipped my nails and set sented feet to to lead, a life of never Renee Gehman about applying two coats washer callused perceiving themselves of a dramatically red pol- and sans-Salsa? to be better than any- ish named Salsa. one else. Second coat applied and dried, I It’s a beautiful tradition, really, gave my feet a final inspection. Satis- laced with humility and intimacy and fied, I slipped into my black heels, community. As the washer, I experi- Reaching into the depths of a linen closet, to a grabbed my keys, and was out the ence humility: I bend down to an- shelf filled with multitudes of cosmetic-and-beauty- door. other’s feet and do something that in product-gifts of Christmases past, my hand rested on I was ready for foot washing. Jesus’ time was reserved for the house- a plastic container marked with graphics of white hold servant—and in my time is seen snowflakes and green footprints. Ithink it was somewhere between the as dirty or awkward or both. In having A natural herbal exfoliating treatment specially for- first and second coats of Salsa that I my feet washed by another, I also ex- mulated with rare earth pumice granules to gently scrub started to question the ethics of my perience humility, having to yield the away rough dry skin. Enriched with the antiseptic, de- preparation for foot washing. This dirty work of my own personal hy- odorizing, and healing properties of Australian Tea Tree would be my first foot-washing expe- giene to the hands of another, dealing Oil, cooling Mint & Wintergreen, and soothing botani- rience, and though I thought I had with the discomfort of being served cals to condition and revive dry, callused skin during ex- done well to allow this extra time in by a peer as if I am “higher up” than foliation. the morning to get ready for it, it just she. Perfect. somehow didn’t seem quite right. When I over-prepare, then, the I contemplated the various superior-sounding in- Look at the circumstances of the humility is lost on both sides. After gredients as I massaged them into the neglected soles situation we are trying to model, the all, why should my washer find the ex- of my feet. If the earth pumice granules were rare, did Foot-Washing Prototype: Jesus and perience of touching finely pedicured that mean I was perpetuating their scarcity, or were disciples are gathered for dinner on a feet distasteful? On the contrary, her they somehow being replenished? Why were Mint day not too far from the crucifixion, hands will probably smell quite pleas- and Wintergreen capitalized? Does “American For- when out of nowhere Jesus—Son of antly of Australian Tea Tree Oil after- mula” sound as enticingly exotic in other countries as God, teacher and master of the disci- wards. And Mint and Wintergreen, “Australian Formula” does to me? ples—gets up from table, fetches a capital M and W. Why did I feel a little cheated when I discovered in basin of water, and stoops to wash the As for me, how could I possibly the container’s fine print that this was actually a prod- feet of Simon Peter. Peter, embar- experience the same humility having 26 rassed by this atrocious faux pas—no my Salsa-polished, tea-tree-oiled feet 28 / SUMMER 2008 THE TURQUOISE PEN washed as I would if I presented feet to tem” in a church tradition meant to washer callused and sans-Salsa? symbolize what Jesus called me to? That is meant to teach me about hu- Am I suggesting that a favorable way mility and servanthood and unity? to prepare for foot washing would If Jesus had wanted his disciples to have been to run a marathon the day prepare to have him wash their feet, before, wearing those lucky socks he would have warned them. Instead, worn without washing throughout he surprised them, forcing them to My Giant my rigorous 20-week training pro- come as they were. And considering gram? Or that the lessons of foot that those were days of dirt roads, that washing would have been more effec- these were men who spent a lot of tive if my sister in Christ had to wash time walking around or in boats, and Noël R. King my feet when I had a bad case of foot that this was the Son of God with the fungus? (Apologies to any readers towel tied around his waist and basin whose appetites I’m spoiling.) No, I at his feet, I imagine this was a situa- don’t think so, and furthermore, I cer- tion more embarrassing and hum- tainly hope not. bling for the disciples than it could But would it have been so very bad ever be for me. Sometimes, when I eat too much, I worry that if I had gotten out of bed that morn- Dear Next Person to Wash my maybe something else is going on here, that a giant is ing as usual, taken the usual shower, Feet on Communion Sunday: Don’t fattening me up for the feast. and walked into church with my worry, I won’t walk around in the dirt How am I to know what kinds of powers a giant chipped-nail-polish-nothing-spec- and the bottom of a fishing boat to might have—say, one who is to me as I am to an ant, tacular-everyday feet? Why didn’t I properly prepare for an authentic ex- in brain power and everything else that pertains? just do that? perience. But please don’t get your Maybe on the day I go shopping at the grocery I wanted to put my best foot for- hopes up for feet that have no need for store, my giant KNOWS that I am headed there the ward. I wanted to give my foot washer washing. minute I get in my car and drive down the road, a break. I wanted her to behold my green mesh bags in tow. Maybe he is the one who pedicure and think, Oh this’ll be a piece —Renee Gehman, Souderton, Pennsyl- pushes the egg nog in front of the milk just seconds of cake!These are not abominable sins. vania, is assistant editor, Dream- before I arrive. Maybe he is who then makes sure to But, I then reason with myself, what is seeker Magazine, and a meditator draw my attention to bacons and eggs, cheeses, and to be gained from “cheating the sys- on foot washing. chocolate bars on my way to the ice cream compart- ments. My giant is probably even the one who whispered in my thoughts that other day to try the new triple fudge chunk browny delight with whipped cream and sour cream ripples I saw squatting in the display case, resplendent and all by itself. My giant is really very good at what he does. I just wonder if I am the only one he is fattening up special this month or if I am one of a flock. Regardless, I plan to enjoy my time while it lasts. I LOVE this ravioli, for instance! And I LOVE being 29 30 / SUMMER 2008 so round and so plump! I feel her Turquoise Pen column, Noël R. sooooooooo delicious!!! King, Scottsville, Virginia, reports on strange and wonderful things, in- —As circumstances warrant, through cluding her giant.

Harvest of Souls I envy Henry. The corn is harvested, Like the children who gathered up front Chopped and blown into silos; Before the sermon to hear the minister’s wife tell the story Hay bales stacked in the barn; Of Jesus’ miracle with loaves and fishes, Potatoes heaped in the root cellar. Henry is innocent, It’s revival season, time for the harvest of souls. Not doomed to eternal flames By a merciful God. The evangelist comes from way up state, —Mary Alice Hostetter Comes for a weeklong series, Sermons each evening with enough hellfire and damnation To cause sleepless nights For those, like me, not born again.

Everyone but me, it seems, knows it’s my time. At fourteen, my soul is ripe for harvest. My parents, the entire congregation, Hold their breath in prayerful anticipation.

Each night I sit through sermons, Through invitation hymns… “Just as I Am,” “Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling,” “I Surrender All.”

On the other side of the church I see Henry, a boy about my age. “Poor slow Henry,” My mother always says. Henry smiles as he strings Cheerios on red yarn, Paying no attention to the evangelist As he roars his warning about the fate Of those not born again, His face flushed with the exertion.

31 BOOKS, FAITH, WORLD & MORE DREAMSEEKER MAGAZINE / 33 naiveté will focus on that give and At points as I work my way take between text and audience; it will through the book, I grow a little weary maintain that Scripture is more like a of the pace. Yet when he comes up lively and open-ended game between with generalizations from time to its world and the world of “Scripture is time, we are able to follow the reader than it is a closed him. “Opinions vary book whose meaning is ex- more like a lively quite radically,” he says, For the Record hausted by the standard and open-ended “on such centrally impor- theological lexicon” (119). game between its tant questions as to how on Jesus Yoder Neufeld is very world and the God intervenes in human careful. He reviews repeat- world of the affairs, that is, whether edly the scholarly assump- reader than there are miracles of this tions that thus and so kind” (114-115). Well, of it is a closed Daniel Hertzler about Jesus is impossible or course he is right. not likely. Yet he states his book . . . .” Regarding the birth of position early on. “The ‘stuff’ of Jesus Jesus, he writes, “My own position is matters a great deal to me as a believer. one that recognizes a mystery at the As much as I am a believer, I am at the core of these narratives, one that nei- same time a scholar....I believe that it ther science nor history are in a posi- Recovering Jesus: The Witness of the New Testament, by is appropriate and illuminating to tion to judge” (121). The second Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld. Brazos Press, 2007. bring to the study of Jesus the tools of naiveté, no doubt, and, if we wish, we a scholar who is trained not only in are welcome to stand there with him. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in theology, but in the study of history If not, it will be up to us to account for the Gospels, by Kenneth E. Bailey. IVP Academic, and literature, especially as they relate what we find in two gospels about the 2008. to the biblical literature” (19). birth of Jesus. He goes on to point out Of the making of books about Jesus there seems to be So from time to time he reviews that, of the New Testament writers, no end. These two books commend themselves be- scholarly challenges to the tradition only Matthew and Luke speak of the cause each author walks the narrow path between and then states his opinion, not gen- virginal conception, so he leaves the scholarship and the needs of ordinary folks who want erally as dogma, but more as possibil- issue somewhat open-ended. to be apprized of the findings of scholarship without ity. From this perspective, he works He wonders about physical ele- being overwhelmed by the details. his way through the topics of impor- ments and symbolic elements in the Yoder Neufeld is aware that his is a delicate task. tance, beginning with the four account of the curing of the Gerasene On the one hand, there are the skeptical scholars such gospels and how they are both similar Demoniac without coming down as John Dominic Crossan and others in the Jesus Sem- and different. He concludes that what hard on either side. Regarding the ac- inar, along with the implied skepticism of the students we can know about Jesus is tied up count of the so-called triumphal entry he teaches. On the other hand, he is committed to be- with the witnesses. “If we send the he writes, “Despite the evident diffi- ing faithful to the tradition as indicated by the subti- witnesses out of the room, the inter- culties such data present to the histo- tle. view with Jesus is over, because he rian, there is no reason to think Jesus His position is evidently in line with The Second turns out to have left with them. How could not have deliberately wanted to Naiveté Mark I. Wallace describes in his own book. frustrating for the scholar who wishes signal to his followers his mission as a Wallace proposes that “A hermeneutic of the second it were different. But, from the per- peaceable messiah” (233). spective of a believer, should it be any As for the death of Jesus, he is care- 32 different?” (79). ful to avoid overloading either the 34 / SUMMER 2008 DREAMSEEKER MAGAZINE / 35

Jews or the Romans with the responsi- the benefit of all who care about the is- him into fellowship within the com- historical references, Old Testament bility. For the resurrection, he reviews sues. munity. These actions began with the correlations, cultural interpretations, certain interpretations from those This, of course, is our tradition, father running down the road. An and theological observations. In addi- who see “the New Testa- and probably his grand- Oriental nobleman with flowing tion to his knowledge of biblical lan- ment accounts as the “. . . Both human- mother could have said robes never runs anywhere. To do so is guages, he has access to various rough equivalent of a sci- ity and divinity much the same. But in humiliating” (Poet and Peasant, 181). Middle Eastern translations. entific report” to those are required to these days of scholarship Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes In the first chapter he seeks to re- who “think of the resurrec- give a faithful and technological won- deals with textual and structural mat- deem the much-maligned innkeeper tion as a mythological way ders, some of us cannot be ters but generally on a more popular of Luke 2, who is said to have found of expressing the ongoing rendering of the satisfied with the first level. Bailey applies his method to a no place for Joseph and Mary in his relevance of Jesus” (287). Jesus who naiveté. If not, we are wel- variety of subjects: The Birth of Jesus, “inn.” Bailey observes that since He concludes by reference emerges in the come to follow Yoder The Beatitudes, The Lord’s Prayer, Joseph “was descended from the to Matthew’s observation New Testament.” Neufeld in his articula- Dramatic Actions of Jesus, Jesus and house and family of David” (Luke that “some doubted” in tion of the second. Women, and Parables of Jesus. Any- 2:4) he would have had numbers of 28:17 and finally with John 28:29, one wishing to preach or teach from relatives in Bethlehem, and any of “Blessed are those who have not seen Kenneth Bailey’s unique contribu- the texts covered will find Bailey’s in- them would have been eager to pro- yet have come to believe” (289). tion to scriptural interpretation terpretations useful. vide lodging. As documentation for The final chapter “Jesus—Christ comes from having been born in the The author acknowledges the this point, he says the word for inn and Lord” addresses matters of partic- Middle East and spending his profes- “gathered up” nature of the material could also be translated as “guest ular concern to Anabaptists. In this he sional life there. In her endorsement when he writes in the preface, room.” And from the arrangement of painstakingly works his way through of the book, Edith M. Humphrey of This book came about in a typical peasant dwelling, which he Old Testament, Inter-testament and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary stages. Some of the chapters shows in this chapter, putting Jesus in New Testament sources to pursue the writes, “Kenneth Bailey does not offer were originally transcriptions a manger was not anything unusual. question of what sort of person Jesus new perspectives, but ideas frequently of professionally recorded He would have been right in with the was understood to be, focusing on the as old as the earliest church and as the video lectures.... family. A footnote on page 36 refers to titles ascribed to him. “The basic ancient church fathers, that may well Other chapters are com- a Christmas musical Bailey has writ- question this chapter intends to ex- be new to many of his Western read- posed of new material on stud- ten entitled Open Hearts in Bethlehem plore is this: how did the man from ers.” ies of parables that I published (Westminster/John Knox, 2005) Nazareth come to be venerated as Son Bailey’s specialty has been the nearly three decades ago. The which is “constructed around the of God, or even as God?” (297). He parables of Jesus, and I have his com- majority of these chapters are ideas presented here.” borrows from James Dunn the con- bined volume, Poet and Peasant and presented here for the first What Bailey says here makes sense cept “spectrum of respect” and finds Through Peasant Eyes published by time.... to me, although I find it curious that that “At one end of the spectrum Jesus Eerdmans in 1983. It is a quite sophis- The chapters are a selec- no translation seems to follow that is only human, however special; at the ticated study of parable structure. But tion....The goal is to offer reading. However my UBS Greek- other end he is solely divine” (300). what interests me more than the brief glimpses of some of the English dictionary translates After reviewing the evidence from structural studies are his observations treasures that await us as West- kataluma as “room, guest room; inn.” titles as well as “christological from Middle Eastern culture. Regard- ern isolation from Middle So Bailey’s reading is given preference Hymns,” he concludes that “Our in- ing the parable of the Prodigal Son he Eastern interpretation of the in this dictionary. vestigation has shown that both hu- writes, “What the father does in this Bible is slowly brought to an The same method used in the first manity and divinity are required to homecoming scene can best be de- end. (9) chapter is followed throughout the give a faithful rendering of the Jesus scribed as a series of dramatic actions book. Beginning with the second sec- who emerges in the New Testament” calculated to protect the boy from the Bailey’s method is to begin with a tion, the Scripture texts are included (327). He offers this as his position for hostility of the village and to restore study of the text and enrich it with in the book. With the Beatitudes and 36 / SUMMER 2008 REEL REFLECTIONS the Lord’s Prayer, this takes only a lit- As for why Jesus’ sermon so in- tle space. When the texts are longer, censed the locals, Bailey proposes that their length means that the book is the people at Nazareth were “settlers.” well over 400 pages. “Galilee had become ‘Galilee of the Having the text in front of us is Gentiles’ (Isa. 9:1; Matt. 4:15). In the convenient and perhaps necessary to second century Maccabean national- display the detailed textual study. But ism sought to ‘create facts on the it does add pages. Also, the essence of ground.’ The plan of action was to Redemption each chapter is summarized at the end move Jewish settlers on to the land in and in one case this runs to 15 points. Galilee” (152). Bailey asks how such a Accomplished I found myself skimming these sum- group would view Isaiah 61. Cer- maries, but maybe if I were studying tainly not as Jesus interpreted it. A Review of “The Shawshank Redemption” the text for a sermon I would take Reading Bailey on Luke 4 helps us them more seriously. to feel the conflicts Jesus faced and Chapter 12, “The Inauguration why he was crucified. Separated by Dave Greiser of Jesus’ Ministry,” is a study of Luke years and a wide cultural gap, we are in 4:16-31 that analyzes and interprets danger of failing to see the urgency of Jesus’ address at Nazareth. (I think the situation and the message. Bailey this may be a lecture I heard at Tantur, offers to bring these front and center. east of Jerusalem, in 1990). Bailey ob- serves that the text quoted by Jesus in Recovering Jesus is a carefully orga- By the time this issue of DreamSeeker Magazine Luke 4 does not quite match the text nized presentation, one to read and goes to press, it will be late summer—traditionally the we find in Isaiah 61. He writes: “It is think about. Jesus Through Middle big-budget, blockbuster season. Summer at the cin- often assumed that Luke (or his Eastern Eyes is more wide ranging and ema is generally long on action and short on sub- source) did the editing. It is also possi- occasionally a little sloppy, as if the stance. While I will certainly get out and see the next ble to trace the editing to Jesus” professor suddenly remembered an “Batman” installment, and might even relive part of (149). This suggests that Bailey, like anecdote or a quotation and slipped it my childhood by enjoying “Get Smart,” there’s noth- Yoder Neufeld, follows the second in. It is a book to keep handy and pull ing on the horizon that beckons me toward a review. naiveté. He is aware of scholarly down when we find ourselves at work That said, I’m going to indulge in that great old doubts and assumptions but not on any of the texts included in the television tradition, the “rerun,” by reviewing an older bound to them. book. The more we can know about film. Since moving to isolated Hesston, Kansas, cable For evidence that Jesus may have Jesus and the context where he lived, television has assumed a larger share of my movie- edited the text, Bailey observes that the better we are able to say whether watching diet. Some days I think that cable TV end- “Jesus lived near the beginning of the we really mean to try to follow him. lessly recycles the same dozen or so movies. But for rabbinic period of Jewish history.” every mediocre action film that shows a dozen times a Rabbinic rules for the reading of —Daniel Hertzler, Scottdale, Pennsyl- month (fill in “The Bourne Identity” and any James Scripture showed that it was required vania, first heard Bailey lecture in Bond film here) there is the occasional gem (“O to read the Torah as written, but in the 1990 at Tantur, an ecumenical study Brother, Where Art Thou” or the second “Spiderman” prophets one was allowed to skip center between Jerusalem and Beth- movie). But the film I find myself drawn to watch over some verses. So Bailey suggests that lehem. He remembers Bailey as both and over again is director Frank Darabont’s “The Jesus was following accepted practice well informed and eager to inform Shawshank Redemption.” by doing some editing of the text his audience. He talked like a ma- (155-156). chine gun. 37 38 / SUMMER 2008 DREAMSEEKER MAGAZINE / 39

“Shawshank” is one of those films Red’s advice to new inmate Andy gains one form of “redemption” when where Andy has gone and rejoins him. for which viewer appreciation has is to learn to live without thinking he escapes while at the same time im- Meanwhile the inmates tell and retell grown with time. Based on a short about the future. When Andy tells plicating his captors in wrongdoing. the details of Andy’s life. story by Stephen King, the film was Red about his dream of living in Mex- And Red finds redemption when, Okay, so it’s a stretch. But it’s a only moderately successful when it ico one day, Red warns, “Don’t think against all hope, he is paroled and great story, too. If you haven’t seen it was first released in theaters in 1994. about Mexico, because it’s down joins Andy in his little piece of Mexi- in a while, rent “The Shawshank Re- After its brief theater run, it moved there, and you’re in here.” can heaven. demption.” The writing, the acting, quickly to video rental. Robbins’ Andy is an enig- At the risk of causing some eye- and above all the story are well worth From there the film’s repu- The film matic loner, wrongfully con- rolling among my readers, I’ll point the time. tation seemed to take on a holds other victed of murdering his wife. out that some have teased out a life of its own. In 1995 it hidden trea- Far from following Red’s ad- Christ-figure, Andy’s character. Andy —Dave Greiser watches movie reruns was rated the top rented sures I only vice, Andy cultivates hope lands in evil Shawshank as an inno- and ducks tornados in his basement video of the year, and by through nurturing an inner cent. He takes on the fleshly life of an in Hesston, Kansas. The rest of the uncovered af- 1999 the Internet Movie life that the penal system can- inmate and suffers unjustly at their time he teaches pastoral ministry Database announced that a ter several not extinguish. hands. He descends, literally, into the courses at Hesston College as well as poll of its readership had viewings. One of the many memo- bowels of the earth and escapes. Associated Mennonite Biblical Sem- pronounced the film the rable scenes in the film in- When Red’s captivity ends, he goes to inary—Great Plains. “Greatest Movie Ever Made.” At a volves Andy’s locking himself in the more anecdotal level, I cannot count warden’s office and playing a Mozart the number of conversations I have recording over the prison’s loudspeak- had with people who, on learning of ers. When he is released from solitary my interest in movies, quickly ask me confinement 30 days later, the in- if I have seen “The Shawshank Re- mates ask him how he survived. He demption.” responds that he had Mozart to keep What is it about this film that has him company. We need music, he resonated so deeply with viewers? I says, to remember that there are places can only guess the answer, based on in the world that are not made of my own personal response to it. stone. “There’s something inside that “Shawshank” is indeed a story of re- they can’t get to...that’s yours.” demption—redemption and hope. It The film holds other hidden trea- is a profound feel-good story. sures I only uncovered after several To be sure, the film is well crafted viewings. One of these is the deliber- and extremely well acted. Veteran ac- ate pacing of the story. Time moves tors Morgan Freeman and Tim Rob- slowly in this film, just as time must bins, in their lead roles as Red move slowly for those who are incar- Redding and Andy Dufresne, have cerated. Emotions are present but are each enjoyed outstanding careers as always muted, owing to the predatory character and lead actors. Neither has nature of prison life. To show human ever been better than in this film. weakness is to flirt with one’s own de- Freeman plays aging inmate Red with struction. a wise nonchalance that nearly covers But the greatest treasure in this over the melancholy he feels from too film is the multiple layers of redemp- many turn-downs for parole. tion in the story. Andy eventually DREAMSEEKER MAGAZINE / 41

death that stalked the glory of the mu- was so small in the world, the listeners sic, and the modesty, as well, with so few in the world, and the music so which the building yearned for what little heard in the world. ennobles life. What was present was civiliza- —The interests of Alan tion—not its compassion but its pas- Soffin,Doylestown, Pennsylvania, sion, its upward reach from the include philosophy, religion, reflec- Devotion primordial toward what invisibly en- tions on culture, filmmaking, writ- nobles. So fragile in a world whose ing, classical, jazz, rock, and Unspoken gods are change and goods. I thought, international music. I guess, of death—for the building

Alan Soffin I Have Been Later On (With a nod to Aldous Huxley)

I have been Last night, at a small, Episcopalian church in Later on! Doylestown, I heard the Philomel group play Tele- I know not how. mann, Vivaldi, and Bach. The music was the sound of human feeling. A double miracle: that feeling can But there be heard and that its hearing can be shared. I wandered Though enveloped in the glory of the music, I at Plastic pastures one point realized it flowed out upon a sea of gray. If Under there was anyone under forty in the audience, I Thousand-channeled Skies, missed that person. The rest were silver-haired or And heard no sound bald. That was not I was aware, at the same time, of the gothic- Pre-recorded. arched stained glass windows, the blue-tinted apse rising in a Gothic taper behind the players and the si- No meal I ate lence of the cross suspended before the altar, painted, That was not with its own painted cross, on which Christ was Manufactured— painted, silent and suspended. Devotion, unspoken, In the same plant to something higher, prevailed—a wordless upward- As opinions— ness in which the only supplication was the sound of Antiseptically. human feeling woven into beauty by the body and the mind. I had my genes done. The whole was stillness of a time-unfettered kind, made stiller by the imminence of death—not just the death that neared us aged listeners, but the 40 Read DreamSeeker Magazine linking readers and authors interested in attending to “voices from the soul.” Subscriptions billed for issues left in calendar Post, year (we publish quarterly) at $3.75/issue. Suppose Postmodern pedagogues you subscribe midyear: we’ll bill $7.50 for two issues. Sealed with Subscriptions renew each January at $14.95 ($15.85 Upraised finger PAresidents) for coming year, but you may cancel any Students’ lips time. (Can. pay in US funds $5.00/issue, $20/year, or contact us to pay by VISA/MC. Other countries ask.) To keep them from Contact options: • send form to 126 Klingerman Imprisonment Road, Telford, PA 18969 • 1-215-723-9125 In Language. • [email protected]

What some now call Or explore DSM free at www.CascadiaPublishingHouse.com/dsm/ "God’s word" At last was Patented. Yes, I want to subscribe to DSM for (check one) myself ___ as described above or to give ___ to the person(s) named on separate sheet and will pay when billed. The "market" ran Name ______Around the world— Address ______A belt, a single box— In which ______All clerks were E-mail ______Phone ______C.E.O.’s and worked Around the clock. Submissions to DreamSeeker Magazine All news reports Or perhaps you already subscribe to DreamSeeker Magazine and are an Were fun. author interested in being published in DSM, as a growing number of writers are. Then what? Indeed a key part of the DSM vision is to support Oh Brave reality! the work of gifted writers—without whose inspired contributions the That makes such comfort magazine, of course, could not exist. However, the limited space available Of mortality! in a quarterly magazine does not allow us to accept numerous unsolicited —Alan Soffin articles, particularly once we make space for articles by regular colum- nists and those we solicit. However, we do want to publish some unso- licited writing, aim to treat all unsolicited submissions respectfully,and accept as many of them as we can. To submit, send queries or articles by e- mail to [email protected] or to the Telford address above. (Note that articles submitted by mail without SASE are unlikely to be returned.) Even as we can only publish a modest number of unsolicited articles, we do very much encourage feedback, including short letters for publica- tion and occasional longer response articles (350-400 words).

42 Herald Press—Summer Titles New from Cascadia Publishing House

Practicing the Politics of Jesus: Death and Life in America The Origin and Significance of Biblical Healing and Biomedicine John Howard Yoder’s Social Ethics “In this remarkable book, Raymond Earl Zimmerman Downing puts biomedicine under the lens, “Zimmerman . . . has produced a very useful not of the scientists’ microscope, but of the volume....Yoder’s The Politics of Jesus ...has influenced generations....Zimmerman’s narrative of the Christian Bible.” work setsYoder’s seminal book firmly in the —Farr Curlin, MacLean Center for Clinical context of the latter’s life story; the result is Medical Ethics both a satisfying, brief account ofYoder’s life Paper, 160 pages, $15.99 and a summary of his major ideas.” —J. Birdwhistle, Choice: Current Reviews forAcademic Libraries 6 x 9” trade paper 276 p, $22.95 US/Can. On the Way with Jesus Copublished with Herald Press. A Passion for Mission In On the Way with Jesus, Richard Showalter puts his passion into words as he explores the multiple dimensions of Christian mission. Borders and Bridges: Mennonite He encourages the church to enter more fully Witness in a Religiously Diverse World into its mission both locally and globally. ed. Peter Dula and Alain Epp Weaver Paper, 130 pages, $16.99 “If you long to develop habits of listening that enable you to hear Jesus Christ as the Word in the midst of all the voices around us, then this book is for you.“ —Nancy Heisey, Associate Professor States of Exile: A Vision of Diaspora, of Biblical Studies and Church History, Eastern Mennonite University; President, Witness, and Return Mennonite World Conference Polyglossia: Radical Reformation Theologies “Alain Epp Weaver helps us not only imagine 5.5 x 8.5” trade paper 188 p, $19.95 US/Can. new ways of approaching the violence in too Copublished with Herald Press. much of the Middle East, but also fresh ways to approach questions of theology and poli- tics.”—Mark Thiessen Nation, Eastern Mennonite Seminary ORDER . . . From Amazon.com, BN.com, Herald Press, your local bookstore or Paper, 216 pages, $18.99 • [email protected] • 1-215-723-9125 • 126 Klingerman Rd.; Telford, PA 18969 Shipping: best method $3.95 1st book, $1.00 each add. book (Can. $6.95/$3.00); PAres. 6% state tax

Seeking to value soul as much as sales 1 800 245-7894 x 278 • www.heraldpress.com For more information and order options visit www.CascadiaPublishingHouse.com New from Cascadia Publishing House The new name of Pandora Press U.S.

Under Vine and Fig Tree: Biblical Theologies of Land and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict ed. Alain Epp Weaver

“The living experience of the authors New sharing in the hardships of this land has Beyond Me generated this book’s wisdom and witness. Their perspectives offer new dimensions Grounding Youth and great depth to the theological exegesis Ministry in God’s Story of the local Palestinian people and land— considered by many theologians as the fifth gospel.” Inspiration and practical —Zoughbi Zoughbii, Director, Wi’am ideas to help youth Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center workers guide youth 5.5 x 8.5” trade paper 204 p, $19.95 US/Can. beyond the consumerism Copublished with Herald Press. and alienation of today’s culture, to God’s culture of New from DreamSeeker Books community, discipleship, and compassion. That Amazing Junk-Man: The Agony and Ecstasy of a Pastor’s Life Truman Brunk $18.99 “Brunk, storyteller extraordinaire, has finally committed some of his best to print. They come from his rich life as a builder of houses and more importantly as a builder of human beings. Some of his stories are part “Loewen provides hope and strategy that is Garrison Keillor and part Mark Twain.” theologically solid, congregationally owned, —Gerald W Kaufman, L. Marlene Kaufman 5.5 x 8.5” trade paper and doable.”—Chap Clark, 216 p, $14.95 US/Can. Fuller Theological Seminary Copublished with Herald Press.

www.mpn.net ORDER . . . From Amazon.com, BN.com, Herald Press, your local bookstore or • [email protected] • 1-215-723-9125 • 126 Klingerman Rd.; Telford, PA 18969 Canada: 1 800-631-6535 Shipping: best method $3.95 1st book, $1.00 each add. book (Can. $6.95/$3.00); PAres. 6% state tax USA: 1 800-245-7894 Seeking to value soul as much as sales For more information and order options visit www.CascadiaPublishingHouse.com New from Cascadia Publishing House New from Cascadia Publishing House

Stumbling Toward a Genuine The Work of Jesus Christ Conversation on Homosexuality in Anabaptist Perspective Ed. Michael A. King Ed. Alain Epp Weaver and Gerald J. Mast “Stumbling . . . is a compelling read. . . . A colleague of mine commented that per- his book makes a significant haps it is coming a decade or more too late. T contribution to vigorous schol- Maybe he’s right, but I’m not sure we were arly discussions about the non- ready for it then. Hopefully we are now.” violent reconciling ministry of —Carolyn Schrock-Shenk, Associate Professor Jesus and the church’s responsi- of Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies, bility to preach peace.” —Kim S. Goshen College, in the Foreword Phipps, President, Messiah College 6 x 9” trade paper 312 p, $22.95 US/Can. “These essays offer a fitting trib- Not copublished with Herald Press. ute to the creative, frequently provocative, work of J. Denny Weaver.” —John D. Roth, New from DreamSeeker Books Professor of History, Goshen College A Usable Past? A Story of Living and Thinking Vocationally at the Margins “Beware! You cannot read these Paul Peachey essays and be unmoved or re- moved from the work of Jesus “Born in an Amish home, Peachey has cov- Christ in an Anabaptist perspec- ered a wide cultural and spiritual terrain. He tive.” —Dorothy Nickel Friesen, Conference Minister, has lived, worked, and studied in many Western District Conference of Mennonite Church USA countries, traveling more widely than most diplomats. His story entertains, informs, “Finally, an entire book engaging Weaver’s significant and creative and provides a unique, even provocative in- contribution to anti-violent atonement theory!” —Sharon L. Baker, terpretation of how God acts in history.” — Assistant Professor of Theology and Religion, Messiah College Calvin Redekop, Sociologist and Author 6 x 9” trade paper 6 x 9” trade paper 256 p, $16.95 US/Can. 256 p, $16.95 US/Can. Copublished with Herald Press Copublished with Herald Press.

ORDER . . . From Amazon.com, BN.com, Herald Press, your local bookstore or ORDER . . . From Amazon.com, BN.com, Herald Press, your local bookstore or • [email protected] • 1-215-723-9125 • 126 Klingerman Rd.; Telford, PA 18969 • [email protected] • 1-215-723-9125 • 126 Klingerman Rd.; Telford PA 18969 Shipping: best method $3.95 1st book, $1.00 each add. book (Can. $6.95/$3.00); PAres. 6% state tax Shipping: best method $3.95 1st book, $1.00 each add. book (Can. $6.95/$3.00); PAres. 6% state tax

Seeking to value soul as much as sales Seeking to value soul as much as sales For more information and order options visit www.CascadiaPublishingHouse.com For more information and order options visit www.CascadiaPublishingHouse.com Like Trees Planted by Streams of Water On this small bluff, lives hang like leaves. A psalm trickles and surges in roiling eddies and worried curves.

The Illinois could erode the banks. All the new and old oaks could tumble into a templed dam. But roots twist hard instead beneath the river’s silted bed. They fill and feed the farthest leaves that burn until lives fall to the water in flames. The colors catch and wither in human debris. Between a milk carton and one rented ski, a single, silver fish breaks the gray-green surface of its world, like a tiny god might puncture the sky. —David Wright and his family live in central Illi- nois. He teaches writing and literature at Wheaton College and is the author of A Liturgy for Stones (DreamSeeker Books, 2003) the col- lection from which this poem comes.