News 11/8/2009
I really prefer to write thoughtful and edifying blog posts, but find myself reverting often to the reporting of facts, for lack of time to be reflective enough to produce anything thoughtful and edifying. Here goes.
************************
Last week we had guests from Japan--people who came to us by a circuitous route, through cousin Don's wife Doris (Sensenig)'s brother Ken, who works for MCC in PA, and first had contact with Nanami Suzuki. Ken had just met Joel, so he introduced them to each other by email, and Nanami and Joel have corresponded ever since. Nanami's husband Koji accompanied her on this trip to our community, and Joel and Hilda were their hosts for the week long visit.
Both of the Suzukis are professionals with PhD's. As single people, they were employed in the pharmaceutical industry in Japan in separate companies. When they became engaged she was given an ultimatum: Either she would need to leave the company or her husband would have to join her at her company. She was angry at first, but then decided to go back to school and pursue a different area of study. That's when she got into anthropology. Now she works for the National Museum of Ethnology in Kyoto, Japan. She is preparing an exhibit on the Amish and Mennonites. Both of the Suzukis speak English, she more confidently than he.
Koji spent one year at Yale as a research fellow. Interestingly, when he and LeRoy H. compared notes, they realized that they were at Yale the same year, but their paths had never crossed--not surprising, given the fact that LeRoy's major was English, and Koji was a chemist.
Nanami tells us that her fascination with the Amish and Mennonites stems from the fact that they are a "helping" culture--both among themselves, and within the world community. She says that people in Japan are very interested in this culture, especially since they heard the news reports from Nickel Mines, PA several years ago.
Nanami and Koji are the epitome of what is fine in Japanese culture and manners. They are unfailingly gracious, and charming all around. Alert, interested, accommodating, adventurous--the kind of guests everyone loves to entertain. They apparently have a warm and loving husband/wife relationship, and work together extremely efficiently. He is their navigator, and has an uncanny sense of direction and ability to locate any place he wants to go. Three days after they went to the Amish Community Building to the sewing, they were at school, having arrived after observing several homeschools in the Partridge/Nickerson area that morning. "Isn't the ACB 'that way' on this same road?" he asked. It is. I couldn't believe he put that together, having reached the area by entirely different routes both times.
I'm not sure what they understand of our motivations as Christians, although they certainly understand more now than they did when they first came. Joel gave them a Japanese NT that he had purchased to read by himself to practice Japanese. He decided they would likely make better use of it than he was ever able to do.
My parental family hosted an American 'picnic' supper for them one evening, with grilled hamburgers, baked beans, potato salad, and vegetable relish plate, with apple pie and ice cream for dessert. The next evening they were here for an early Thanksgiving Dinner--turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, cranberry salad, oriental cabbage noodle salad, and pumpkin pie. On Sunday noon, they were here again for a final meal before departing for Wichita. That time we served a simple meal of turkey pot pie, applesauce, tossed salad, and a delicious cream puff dessert that Hilda made. These were good times.
Two things I did reflect on--Right after I vilified "greedy" pharmaceutical companies on this blog, I met these perfectly unselfish top notch pharmaceutical chemists. I wonder if the Lord smiled to Himself when he arranged this. Koji made a very unusual choice several years ago when he opted to check out of his lucrative, but very demanding work schedule (get up at 5 to commute 2 1/2 hours to work, arrive home at 10:30 p.m., eat, and go to bed to do it again the next day). He left that behind in favor of working for the company only one week out of every month, and having the freedom the rest of the time to travel with his wife, or assist her on the job.
I also remembered again how much the Amish/Mennonite culture has in common with Japanese culture, especially in work ethics, and group consciousness. To be sure, contrasts are also present. We are straightforward, and they are ever-so-careful to be unoffensive--to the point of not saying "no" when they really mean no. Hiromi is a great help in sorting through matters like this. I see too that, while we end up with some of the same values, we do have very different underlying motivations.
**************************
On Tuesday of last week, our school took the first field trip of the season. We went first to Quivira Wildlife Refuge. We saw several interesting birds, although, probably partly because of north winds, not too many migratory birds were resting on the marshes the day we were there. With the benefit of a tail wind, they were hurrying along to their wintering grounds. However, the biologist's guidance was very interesting. We learned, for example, that Quivira is a salt marsh because of underground mineral deposits that make the water salty. It is fed, however, by a freshwater creek, so the salt content is diluted, especially in some areas. Inland saltwater is unusual. The area was sand dunes at some point in the past, so the natural habitat is sand prairie. However, several non-native tree species have gained a foothold (Siberian elm, Black locust, Mulberry, and Russian Olive) and are changing the landscape. A systematic removal of these tree species is underway.
Many of the trees had small new leaves, exactly as they have in the spring. The biologist told us that in August or September there had been a devastating hail storm that stripped the trees of their leaves. This re-leafing was the eventual response. No one seems to know what the effect will be of going into winter with this much new growth. The cattails on the marsh were chopped to about half height by the hail, with very few seed heads in evidence.
We missed the Whooping Cranes by two days. They stopped off on their way south, and will probably move on when the next norther moves in.
Quivira is in the Central Flyway, and is a stopping place for most of the entire population of several migratory species. The Mississippi Flyway, and Flyways along both American coasts are other North-South migratory routes, but it's fair to say that the Central Flyway is the most heavily trafficked.
Our next stop was the Ellinwood tunnels. Going into the tunnels is stepping into a 1925 world--literally. The entrance to the tunnels was locked when Prohibition came in in 1925, and the padlock was finally sawed off in 1979--at the command of a wealthy, resourceful woman who was the owner of the underground property, and the sole surviving heir of what had once been considerable family wealth.
The original settlers of Ellinwood were from Munich, Germany, lured here by reports of summer temperatures "sometimes reaching 85 degrees," and winter snowfalls reaching 2 inches. (The 1870's, when this was written, were a time of terrible blizzards, as described in Laura Ingalls Wilder's book The Long Winter. So much for the veracity of these settler solicitations.) When the Germans arrived in Ellinwood, they set about to recreate what Munich has, an underground city as lively as the above-ground one. The business district was two blocks long, both above and below ground. The sidewalks above ground were over the coal bins below ground, with the underground walkways skirting the coal bins. Everything was constructed with bricks, made from a rich clay vein south of town.
Going underground made sense in Kansas, because of more moderate temperatures, and protection from wind and storms. Many of the businesses were saloons, and the underground was open only to men. The businesses served people who came through Ellinwood on the Santa Fe trail--about 100 covered wagons a day in 1879--down from 400 earlier.
When the heiress, Adrianna, was growing up, she knew about the property her family owned "down there," but she was never, never to go there. But after her parents died, she did just that, and found a harness shop, a barber shop, and a bathing room just as it had been left more than 50 years earlier. It still looks that way.
Meanwhile the lawyers in town had decided that, because of the danger of lawsuits, the underground was too risky to open to the public, so they busily filled in with rubble most of the underground, but Adrianna faced them down, and refused to have that done to her property. Instead she called in a government organization from Kansas City, now known as OSHA, and they did what it took to make it safe. They installed electric lights and removed the plate glass from store fronts and bricked it in. Adrianna had the means to pay them to do so. Now it's possible for a tour guide to nail an unsuspecting member of a tour group, and have him sit down in the barber's chair for a haircut, a tonsillectomy, and a bloodletting, all in one easy application. He picked on Brandon, who was the last boy into the room.
Don't miss the tunnels, if you ever get to Ellinwood, KS. It's about an hour's drive NW of here.
************************
Wes called tonight. He's back from D.C. and feeling ill tonight, with an elevated temperature. I'm not sure how everything will come off tomorrow if he's not there. It's one thing to cover for him in a planned absence, and quite another to do so "on the fly."
It's a good time to test my resolve to urge anyone (I had students in mind.) who is ill to stay home till they fully recover. We have not had many absences because of illness this year, and we'd like to keep it that way. Several of our students really love to have perfect attendance, and don't seem to know when staying home is preferable to coming to school.
I had my own resolve tested last week. I nearly lost my voice, and I'm sure listening to me was sometimes painful for the students. I also had almost constant, but not severe, pain on my right side, where I imagine my appendix to be. But I never had an elevated temperature, and my throat never really hurt, so I carried on, and it proved to be the right thing to do, as I am better on all fronts now, although my voice goes astray very quickly when I try to sing.
*********************
Today is my brother Lowell's birthday, and my sister-in-law Rhoda's birthday as well. Lowell is in India, along with David Y., conducting a seminar for pastors in Orissa state. Just a year ago, the planned seminar was canceled because of a wave of persecution that was being directed at Christians. So this year, the gathering promises to be valued on all sides, even more than usual.
*********************
In composition class, we're trying our hand at writing ironic paragraphs and essays. I dredged up two blog posts on the subject--one an example (Veiling Innovations), and the other an examination of the difference between cynicism, irony, sarcasm, etc. One was written a year ago, and the other 2 years ago, in November.
I really don't think my own writing is usually the best example of what I'm trying to teach my students, but I find that I turn to it sometimes because it's the easiest thing to lay my hands on, and I know exactly how to explain what the author was thinking.
The students rightly wonder how it's possible to speak or write with irony, without venturing into sarcasm and cynicism. I know I don't always do this right, so what should I say? I tell them to try not to direct jabs at people; ideas are usually fair game. I also recommend that they pay close attention to what will be readily understood by their audience, steering clear of anything that will not convey the intended message.
***************************
The elderly in our congregation are an interesting lot. Lydia, whose daughters take care of her constantly, spent part of last week at Mennonite Manor, while her daughters took a well-deserved vacation. Lydia would much rather be at home, and she had some good ideas about who could take her there. Rachel, who works there, seemed like a good option, and today, also Susanna, who spent part of the Sunday service with her. "Did you bring your car? Good. Then I can go home with you."
She has a cute way of inquiring about what is going on around her, when she's afraid she's missing out. If someone speaks in tones too low for her to understand, she asks, "Is this something I should know about?"
Edna, who has Crohn's Disease, has had at least 5 bypasses during cardiac surgery, and has been diagnosed with cancer several times, fell yesterday, and broke her hip. She is 82. She is the premier quilt maker in our congregation, and is a real prayer warrior. All of us wish she could stay well for a long time.
*************************
Leanna H.'s mother in Missouri is very ill. With her children scattered from Alaska to Florida, Leanna has been the main family helper, even though she is one state away, and has five young children to care for here. The most recent troubling discovery is a mass on Leanna's mother's lungs.
*************************
Arlen Mast preached today. His father and grandfather are the current and retired bishop in the Old Order Amish church here. He attends regularly at Arlington, and this was only the second time he attended a Sunday morning service in our church.
He was easy to listen to, and preached an interesting sermon.
************************
We had almost a whole week of lovely sunny weather, and the newly planted wheat is impossibly green, and some of the harvesting got done. Most of the milo is still trying to finish ripening, but corn and soybeans are ready. Farmers are having to skirt mudholes to get in the crop. People got another cutting of hay put up this past week. I don't know if that was cutting number four or five for the season. It's been a strange late summer and fall season.
************************
The House of Representatives passed healthcare legislation last week. Now it goes to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. If it passes there, President Obama will certainly sign it into law.
************************
I watched the documentary Food, Inc. yesterday. Although there wasn't a lot of information that was new to me, I think it's a pretty powerfully packaged message. We plan to show it at school to introduce the next current events study: American Food and Water Supply Issues.
**********************
Grant just gave me a sample of the ribs he and Kenny smoked and grilled this afternoon. Mighty fine.
**********************
On the Wednesday evening the Suzukis were in church, the topic scheduled for discussion was "Buddhism" by Joe K. The people who planned the topic reconsidered, and the topic was postponed. In some ways, having real live Buddhists present for that topic might have been neat, but the usual format would probably have made it more awkward than cool. It's re-scheduled for this week.
************************
Last week we had guests from Japan--people who came to us by a circuitous route, through cousin Don's wife Doris (Sensenig)'s brother Ken, who works for MCC in PA, and first had contact with Nanami Suzuki. Ken had just met Joel, so he introduced them to each other by email, and Nanami and Joel have corresponded ever since. Nanami's husband Koji accompanied her on this trip to our community, and Joel and Hilda were their hosts for the week long visit.
Both of the Suzukis are professionals with PhD's. As single people, they were employed in the pharmaceutical industry in Japan in separate companies. When they became engaged she was given an ultimatum: Either she would need to leave the company or her husband would have to join her at her company. She was angry at first, but then decided to go back to school and pursue a different area of study. That's when she got into anthropology. Now she works for the National Museum of Ethnology in Kyoto, Japan. She is preparing an exhibit on the Amish and Mennonites. Both of the Suzukis speak English, she more confidently than he.
Koji spent one year at Yale as a research fellow. Interestingly, when he and LeRoy H. compared notes, they realized that they were at Yale the same year, but their paths had never crossed--not surprising, given the fact that LeRoy's major was English, and Koji was a chemist.
Nanami tells us that her fascination with the Amish and Mennonites stems from the fact that they are a "helping" culture--both among themselves, and within the world community. She says that people in Japan are very interested in this culture, especially since they heard the news reports from Nickel Mines, PA several years ago.
Nanami and Koji are the epitome of what is fine in Japanese culture and manners. They are unfailingly gracious, and charming all around. Alert, interested, accommodating, adventurous--the kind of guests everyone loves to entertain. They apparently have a warm and loving husband/wife relationship, and work together extremely efficiently. He is their navigator, and has an uncanny sense of direction and ability to locate any place he wants to go. Three days after they went to the Amish Community Building to the sewing, they were at school, having arrived after observing several homeschools in the Partridge/Nickerson area that morning. "Isn't the ACB 'that way' on this same road?" he asked. It is. I couldn't believe he put that together, having reached the area by entirely different routes both times.
I'm not sure what they understand of our motivations as Christians, although they certainly understand more now than they did when they first came. Joel gave them a Japanese NT that he had purchased to read by himself to practice Japanese. He decided they would likely make better use of it than he was ever able to do.
My parental family hosted an American 'picnic' supper for them one evening, with grilled hamburgers, baked beans, potato salad, and vegetable relish plate, with apple pie and ice cream for dessert. The next evening they were here for an early Thanksgiving Dinner--turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, cranberry salad, oriental cabbage noodle salad, and pumpkin pie. On Sunday noon, they were here again for a final meal before departing for Wichita. That time we served a simple meal of turkey pot pie, applesauce, tossed salad, and a delicious cream puff dessert that Hilda made. These were good times.
Two things I did reflect on--Right after I vilified "greedy" pharmaceutical companies on this blog, I met these perfectly unselfish top notch pharmaceutical chemists. I wonder if the Lord smiled to Himself when he arranged this. Koji made a very unusual choice several years ago when he opted to check out of his lucrative, but very demanding work schedule (get up at 5 to commute 2 1/2 hours to work, arrive home at 10:30 p.m., eat, and go to bed to do it again the next day). He left that behind in favor of working for the company only one week out of every month, and having the freedom the rest of the time to travel with his wife, or assist her on the job.
I also remembered again how much the Amish/Mennonite culture has in common with Japanese culture, especially in work ethics, and group consciousness. To be sure, contrasts are also present. We are straightforward, and they are ever-so-careful to be unoffensive--to the point of not saying "no" when they really mean no. Hiromi is a great help in sorting through matters like this. I see too that, while we end up with some of the same values, we do have very different underlying motivations.
**************************
On Tuesday of last week, our school took the first field trip of the season. We went first to Quivira Wildlife Refuge. We saw several interesting birds, although, probably partly because of north winds, not too many migratory birds were resting on the marshes the day we were there. With the benefit of a tail wind, they were hurrying along to their wintering grounds. However, the biologist's guidance was very interesting. We learned, for example, that Quivira is a salt marsh because of underground mineral deposits that make the water salty. It is fed, however, by a freshwater creek, so the salt content is diluted, especially in some areas. Inland saltwater is unusual. The area was sand dunes at some point in the past, so the natural habitat is sand prairie. However, several non-native tree species have gained a foothold (Siberian elm, Black locust, Mulberry, and Russian Olive) and are changing the landscape. A systematic removal of these tree species is underway.
Many of the trees had small new leaves, exactly as they have in the spring. The biologist told us that in August or September there had been a devastating hail storm that stripped the trees of their leaves. This re-leafing was the eventual response. No one seems to know what the effect will be of going into winter with this much new growth. The cattails on the marsh were chopped to about half height by the hail, with very few seed heads in evidence.
We missed the Whooping Cranes by two days. They stopped off on their way south, and will probably move on when the next norther moves in.
Quivira is in the Central Flyway, and is a stopping place for most of the entire population of several migratory species. The Mississippi Flyway, and Flyways along both American coasts are other North-South migratory routes, but it's fair to say that the Central Flyway is the most heavily trafficked.
Our next stop was the Ellinwood tunnels. Going into the tunnels is stepping into a 1925 world--literally. The entrance to the tunnels was locked when Prohibition came in in 1925, and the padlock was finally sawed off in 1979--at the command of a wealthy, resourceful woman who was the owner of the underground property, and the sole surviving heir of what had once been considerable family wealth.
The original settlers of Ellinwood were from Munich, Germany, lured here by reports of summer temperatures "sometimes reaching 85 degrees," and winter snowfalls reaching 2 inches. (The 1870's, when this was written, were a time of terrible blizzards, as described in Laura Ingalls Wilder's book The Long Winter. So much for the veracity of these settler solicitations.) When the Germans arrived in Ellinwood, they set about to recreate what Munich has, an underground city as lively as the above-ground one. The business district was two blocks long, both above and below ground. The sidewalks above ground were over the coal bins below ground, with the underground walkways skirting the coal bins. Everything was constructed with bricks, made from a rich clay vein south of town.
Going underground made sense in Kansas, because of more moderate temperatures, and protection from wind and storms. Many of the businesses were saloons, and the underground was open only to men. The businesses served people who came through Ellinwood on the Santa Fe trail--about 100 covered wagons a day in 1879--down from 400 earlier.
When the heiress, Adrianna, was growing up, she knew about the property her family owned "down there," but she was never, never to go there. But after her parents died, she did just that, and found a harness shop, a barber shop, and a bathing room just as it had been left more than 50 years earlier. It still looks that way.
Meanwhile the lawyers in town had decided that, because of the danger of lawsuits, the underground was too risky to open to the public, so they busily filled in with rubble most of the underground, but Adrianna faced them down, and refused to have that done to her property. Instead she called in a government organization from Kansas City, now known as OSHA, and they did what it took to make it safe. They installed electric lights and removed the plate glass from store fronts and bricked it in. Adrianna had the means to pay them to do so. Now it's possible for a tour guide to nail an unsuspecting member of a tour group, and have him sit down in the barber's chair for a haircut, a tonsillectomy, and a bloodletting, all in one easy application. He picked on Brandon, who was the last boy into the room.
Don't miss the tunnels, if you ever get to Ellinwood, KS. It's about an hour's drive NW of here.
************************
Wes called tonight. He's back from D.C. and feeling ill tonight, with an elevated temperature. I'm not sure how everything will come off tomorrow if he's not there. It's one thing to cover for him in a planned absence, and quite another to do so "on the fly."
It's a good time to test my resolve to urge anyone (I had students in mind.) who is ill to stay home till they fully recover. We have not had many absences because of illness this year, and we'd like to keep it that way. Several of our students really love to have perfect attendance, and don't seem to know when staying home is preferable to coming to school.
I had my own resolve tested last week. I nearly lost my voice, and I'm sure listening to me was sometimes painful for the students. I also had almost constant, but not severe, pain on my right side, where I imagine my appendix to be. But I never had an elevated temperature, and my throat never really hurt, so I carried on, and it proved to be the right thing to do, as I am better on all fronts now, although my voice goes astray very quickly when I try to sing.
*********************
Today is my brother Lowell's birthday, and my sister-in-law Rhoda's birthday as well. Lowell is in India, along with David Y., conducting a seminar for pastors in Orissa state. Just a year ago, the planned seminar was canceled because of a wave of persecution that was being directed at Christians. So this year, the gathering promises to be valued on all sides, even more than usual.
*********************
In composition class, we're trying our hand at writing ironic paragraphs and essays. I dredged up two blog posts on the subject--one an example (Veiling Innovations), and the other an examination of the difference between cynicism, irony, sarcasm, etc. One was written a year ago, and the other 2 years ago, in November.
I really don't think my own writing is usually the best example of what I'm trying to teach my students, but I find that I turn to it sometimes because it's the easiest thing to lay my hands on, and I know exactly how to explain what the author was thinking.
The students rightly wonder how it's possible to speak or write with irony, without venturing into sarcasm and cynicism. I know I don't always do this right, so what should I say? I tell them to try not to direct jabs at people; ideas are usually fair game. I also recommend that they pay close attention to what will be readily understood by their audience, steering clear of anything that will not convey the intended message.
***************************
The elderly in our congregation are an interesting lot. Lydia, whose daughters take care of her constantly, spent part of last week at Mennonite Manor, while her daughters took a well-deserved vacation. Lydia would much rather be at home, and she had some good ideas about who could take her there. Rachel, who works there, seemed like a good option, and today, also Susanna, who spent part of the Sunday service with her. "Did you bring your car? Good. Then I can go home with you."
She has a cute way of inquiring about what is going on around her, when she's afraid she's missing out. If someone speaks in tones too low for her to understand, she asks, "Is this something I should know about?"
Edna, who has Crohn's Disease, has had at least 5 bypasses during cardiac surgery, and has been diagnosed with cancer several times, fell yesterday, and broke her hip. She is 82. She is the premier quilt maker in our congregation, and is a real prayer warrior. All of us wish she could stay well for a long time.
*************************
Leanna H.'s mother in Missouri is very ill. With her children scattered from Alaska to Florida, Leanna has been the main family helper, even though she is one state away, and has five young children to care for here. The most recent troubling discovery is a mass on Leanna's mother's lungs.
*************************
Arlen Mast preached today. His father and grandfather are the current and retired bishop in the Old Order Amish church here. He attends regularly at Arlington, and this was only the second time he attended a Sunday morning service in our church.
He was easy to listen to, and preached an interesting sermon.
************************
We had almost a whole week of lovely sunny weather, and the newly planted wheat is impossibly green, and some of the harvesting got done. Most of the milo is still trying to finish ripening, but corn and soybeans are ready. Farmers are having to skirt mudholes to get in the crop. People got another cutting of hay put up this past week. I don't know if that was cutting number four or five for the season. It's been a strange late summer and fall season.
************************
The House of Representatives passed healthcare legislation last week. Now it goes to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. If it passes there, President Obama will certainly sign it into law.
************************
I watched the documentary Food, Inc. yesterday. Although there wasn't a lot of information that was new to me, I think it's a pretty powerfully packaged message. We plan to show it at school to introduce the next current events study: American Food and Water Supply Issues.
**********************
Grant just gave me a sample of the ribs he and Kenny smoked and grilled this afternoon. Mighty fine.
**********************
On the Wednesday evening the Suzukis were in church, the topic scheduled for discussion was "Buddhism" by Joe K. The people who planned the topic reconsidered, and the topic was postponed. In some ways, having real live Buddhists present for that topic might have been neat, but the usual format would probably have made it more awkward than cool. It's re-scheduled for this week.
posted by Mrs. I at
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