Tony Benn on systems
I just came across this extended interview with Tony Benn from Michael Moore's Sicko. This observation seems particularly noteworthy: The task of representation is to change the system to meet the...
View Article$38.9 Billion
This is the amount all U.S. Banks charged in overdraft fees in 2009, according to Harper's. $38,900,000,000. Having had a good deal of personal experience with overdraft fees, I would wager that most...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Trust
Trust is the prime constituent of the social atmosphere. It is as urgent not to damage that atmosphere by contributing to the erosion of trust as it is to prevent and attempt to reverse damage to our...
View ArticleImagine: White privilege
Protest is only seen as fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing themselves as prototypically American engage in it. While this article by Tim Wise for the San Francisco...
View ArticleA Return to Neighborliness
Just over a year ago, when I posted on neighborliness and my hopes for being rooted in a place, Rob and I didn't know how soon we'd be moving back to Three Rivers. In fact, it was exactly five months...
View ArticleRemembering Grandma Marge
My dad's mom passed away this week in Arizona and I won't be able to make it out to the funeral, but my thoughts, of course, have been there with my family all week. Here are some memories of my...
View ArticleThe dying art of billboard painting
One of my first "unofficial" jobs was working for the billboard company for which my mom was an office manager. I swept floors, organized gallons of paint by Pantone color, and painted over old plywood...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Homemade Coffee Jars
For a loooong time, I've been wanting to figure out an alternative way to store the bulk coffee we brew at World Fare. However, with such tight margins all the time, we haven't been able to afford one...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Remembering Grandma D
Birthday cakes. An absurd variety of pies for Thanksgiving. Cookie time at the cottage on Bass Lake in Knox, Indiana. I have no idea what the occasion for celebration was in the picture above, but it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Web site: The Hermitage
After much delay, I finally launched a relatively simple web site design for The Hermitage, a Mennonite retreat community in Three Rivers, Michigan. There are still several design and feature...
View ArticleTuna Noodle Casserole for Grown-Ups
There's a virtual discussion going on right now at the High Calling blog about a book that I have an essay in called The Spirit of Food: 34 Writers on Fasting and Feasting Toward God. It's a very neat...
View ArticleWhat to do with sour milk? Sweet cinnamon biscuits!
Rob and I have a herd share with a local farming family, which means we get a half gallon of fresh-from-the-cow milk each week. Not wanting to wasted any of the precious stuff but also not always able...
View ArticleWalk + Bike + Three Rivers
One of the things I'm looking forward to most about being back in Three Rivers full time soon is being able to park our car most of the time in favor of walking and biking. As a small, rural city, one...
View ArticleMany days or many people: Six-week Bran Muffins
My grandparents on my dad's side moved to Arizona not long after I was born and, while they came to see us in the Chicago suburbs every summer, it was only a few times that our family was able to make...
View ArticleThe burden of "magic"
I'm in the middle of The Magicians by Lev Grossman right now and it's been interesting to see something of a parallel between magic and a Reformed vision for life. I've grown up and worked in...
View Article
