PAGES Fall 2000 Editorial
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Editorial, Fall 2000 issue of PAGES:
"Looking Around Me"
"I like stories. I think we all like stories. And essentially history is a string of narratives that give meaning to life. Through stories we can reach out more empathetically, more sensitively, to the hurting of this world."
When I read these words next to a photo of Mennonite scholar/historian, Robert Kreider, on the Mennonite Web site, "Third World Café," I realized why books of "personal story" tend to pile up on our coffee table. The Life and Times of William Jennings (1874-1972) is an engrossing tale about a most unusual Mennonite. Jennings — a farmer who served his adoptive church in Tennessee as janitor, mission superintendent, pastor and bishop. In his later years, he also became a widely known evangelist in the East and South whose "children's meetings" delighted adults as well as children. He and Anna (Good) had eleven children — all bound together by the Family Circle Letter started by Anna more than 75 years ago. (Written by a grandson and his wife, Merrill and Boots Raber, available from Graphic Images, Inc. Newton, KS.
Some of you will also read with interest two recent Pandora Press releases: A Little Left of Center, (in which former Gospel Herald editor, Daniel Hertzler, reviews his life and shares his reflections/insights about serving the church as a writer/preacher. The Merging: A Story of Two Families and Their Child by Evelyn King Mumaw places King's "parents' and her own youthful life in the context of Anabaptist-Mennonite history."
Two others were gifted to Sam and me just within the past month. At the recent "Aging with Spirit" conference I referred to the gift some older adults hand on to family friends as they tell and write about their lives. I mentioned one memoir written by the weekend's speaker, Katie Funk Wiebe, entitled The Storekeeper's Daughter. In this little personal story Katie creatively spotlights her Canadian family experience while also bringing into focus for us the larger Russian Mennonite story.
*Erica Hege Shirk (there with husband, Frank) quietly handed me a copy of her own family story entitled, One Farm Two Wars Three Generations. Sam and I are captivated by this account of French Mennonite experiences. As the sixth in a family of 16 Erica laces together the unique perspective of grandparents, parents, and that of her oldest sister, Dora — and of course her own. Parents of nine children, Erica and Frank, live in Lancaster County, PA. (Copies of this book may be requested personally: 177 East Main Street, Leola, PA 17540).
Not all on our list are told by Mennonites. In August we hosted Becky Bibbee, a retired Methodist missionary. Eighty-eight year old Becky drove her trusty Chevrolet ('85) all the way from Florida bringing 19 year-old Sarah Kunjam, her "granddaughter from India" to begin studying at Eastern Mennonite University. (This is a great story of its own). Becky was a fascinating guest who knew more than we of the history of Mennonite missions in India. This week in the mail we received a copy of Becky: Only to India (by Joy Bray, Wesley Press, 1990) and now we see why we enjoyed meeting this Becky.
As an alternative to suddenly turning author, we can sometimes find a scribe to give it shape. As He Leads is Joy (as told to Marie E. Cutman) was drawn from journals and letters of Dora M. Taylor, missionary nurse to Honduras. Dora was still at work in the early sixties while my husband, Sam, served there as a young volunteer so her account brought into focus his own store of memories.
Such story does "give meaning to life." A closing comment about the novel I mentioned earlier. Stones from the River (Scribner, 1994) tells of "ordinary people living in extraordinary times" declares the book cover. I am seeing the events occurring in Nazi Germany before and after World War II through the eyes of Trudy, a Zwerg (dwarf). I do not find it an easy book to read — this is painful history.
Story from one person's point of view enlarges my own. I leave you with a challenge to take the time and pay the price of passing on life's meaning to those who follow us.
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