Snippets

Outside, the northwest wind sounds horrific.  A little over an hour ago, it came roaring in, and the NOAA site says we've had gusts to 49 MPH.  Our high of 60 today will plunge to a predicted low of 12 by morning.  Our prevailing northwesterly flow of late has prevented Gulf moisture from reaching us.  The cold has apparently reached the southern areas, and snow and ice is predicted along the Gulf Coast from Texas to the Florida panhandle.

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John Mast (99) died and was buried this past week.  He was the retired Amish bishop of the Pleasantview area, and was widely known in earlier years in Amish church circles.  With his hearing and eyesight both failing in recent years, life had become wearisome in some ways, and he had no wish to reach the "100" milestone.  Dementia was not one of his problems, and his legendary storytelling ability blessed many right throughout his nineties.

John Mast was the grandson of "Dawdy Mosht," (Grandpa Mast) who is the spiritual progenitor of the Amish of this area.  He was also the ancestor of many who live here.

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Last Friday evening Pilgrim schools had the annual Parent-Teacher Fellowship gathering.  I enjoyed it more than usual--maybe because I had relatively little responsibility for making it happen.  Uncle Paul spoke, reminiscing about the beginnings of the high school and its ups and downs since then.  He also mentioned his pursuit of a Master's degree in Christian School Administration during the summers between some of the school years at Pilgrim.  Gary Miller, Arlyn Nisly, and Harry Shenk each served as Paul's assistant, in that order.

Paul is planning to retire from teaching at the high school at the end of this year.  This is his second retirement.  The first happened at age 65.  In recent years he has been teaching only one Bible class.

Paul told us when he spoke that he's not so very old--not even 80 yet, although he will be 80 tomorrow.  His birthday was yesterday.  In many ways he's a vigorous 80-year-old.  He has had two hip replacements, and recovered from cancer twice.  He is the retired bishop at Cedar Crest.

Before coming here, Paul had served as principal at a residential school in Poplar Hill, Ontario for a number of years.

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Ask someone from the high school food production class if you're local and interested in buying one or more bunches of intermediate day onions.  The bunch will be a mix of white, yellow, and red onions which will grow to  be full-sized bulb onions.  The class is ordering a case of these and each student will pay for four bunches, and sell or somehow pass on whatever they don't wish to plant.  We've also seeded some Candy onions and will be growing them to transplanting size, just for the experience of getting started with growing plants indoors.

I've grown each of the varieties in the mixed bundle and they're been large and tasty.  Unfortunately, none of them are touted as "keeper" onions, but I do find that they usually last longer than the two months they're advertised for.  The varieties are Candy, Super Star (also called Sierra Blanca), and Red Candy.  March 17 is the shipping date.

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Early in February is the next delivery date in Hutchinson for chicken breast meat from Zaycon Foods.  I don't know if the shipment is sold out or not.  I did a blog post on this earlier, and, if you're interested in more details, here's the link.

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A new printing of the books about Anja Miller is ready for sale.   I have some copies that can be mailed out.  For the locals, the books can be purchased at the Gospel Book Store in the same building as Glenn's Bulk Foods.  Mail order copies can be mailed anywhere in the US for a total of $7.00.  The new printing has a full-color cover, and sells for $5.50, without postage.  Tax will be added for the ones purchased at Glenns.

Orders can be sent to me at Miriam Iwashige, 13611 W. Trail West RD, Partridge, KS.  Orders can also reach me at miriam@iwashige.com.  Calling or mailing an order to the school can also work.  I sent an ad to The Budget, so check the classified ads there if that's your cup of tea.

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My sister Linda forwarded to me this information and an excerpt about Shane from a Choice Books Bulletin:

Shane is on the Choice Books LLC Board. I think that means the national board with a rep from each CB region: Pennsylvania, West Coast, Kansas, Midwest, N. Virginia, Gulf States, and Great Lakes. There are two members-at-large, which makes nine members on the board.

 

In a CB newsletter with snippets about some of the board members, this is what Shane's section says

 

--had served two (2) years on the CB LLC Board, three (3) years on the CB of Kansas Board, and 1 1/2 yrs as a sales and service rep at the CB Colorado District.

--married to Dorcas for five (5) years; has two (2) sons--Tristan (2) and Carson (4 months).

--works in concrete construction pouring basements under existing houses. Several years ago he and his wife bought a small farm where they are raising and selling hormone and antibiotic free beef, pork, and chicken. Earlier this year they started developing and building a residential rental investment and management business.

--member of Center Amish Mennonite Church and often teaches Sunday School and leads congregational singing.

--is passionate about preserving and building the music of the church as we sing and worship together.

--enjoys singing, snowboarding, traveling, creative marketing, and spending time with his family.

--lives in central Kansas because of WWII. His Japanese aunt married an American soldier who was stationed in Japan. After the war, they moved back to his hometown in Kansas. When Shane's father immigrated from Japan to the US in the 1970's, he moved to Kansas to be with his sister. Shane now enjoys the juxtaposition of being a non-resistant Japanese conservative Anabaptist that traces his roots to the American military occupation of a nation on which America dropped the atomic bomb.

Hiromi pointed out, after he read this, that his brother-in-law was actually stationed in Japan during the Korean War, which almost immediately followed WWII.  The content of the blurb is still accurate in that American soldiers being stationed in Japan was a direct result of the US having defeated Japan and occupying the country for the years following the war.

My father helped found the local Choice Books ministry and served on the board for many years.  My brother Lowell also has been a board member, so Shane is the third generation of my family to serve in this capacity.

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Hiromi reads Japan Yahoo News regularly online, and the more he tells me about the reports coming out of North Korea, the more I think their present "Highly Esteemed Leader" sounds like what I remember hearing about Idi Amin of Uganda in my youth.  Stomach-twisting atrocities committed in an effort to solidify their own power.  Children executed because their parents or grandparents are seen as a threat.  Vile threats against their neighbors.  Lord, have mercy!

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Yesterday's issue of Time has a feature article about racism in a different form than earlier. It's all laid out in a book by the Tiger Mom, Amy Chua, and her husband, Jed Rubenfeld:  The Triple Package:  How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America.  

The new racism works like this:  instead of denigrating a particular minority, the virtues of a particular minority are extolled to the point that all other groups appear to be inferior.  Chua is Chinese.  Asians are one of the groups cited in the book as having virtues surpassing ordinary Americans.  Others in this category are east Indians, Lebanese, Iranians, Mormons, Nigerians, Cubans, and Jews (like Rubenfeld).  The three traits they all have in common are a superiority complex, insecurity, and impulse control.  These traits result in success.   Most other groups lack these traits.

The author of the Time article, "The Superiority Complex," is Indian.   He or she (Suketu Mehta) is not favorably impressed with the Chua-Rubenfeld book, believing that they ignore many of the factors that have allowed these minorities to flourish in American.  Affirmative Action is one of them.  The author also believes that many of the factors holding back African Americans, for example, have affected the group for centuries,  Coming here in chains and living under slavery is a very different entry experience than being granted a visa that allows entrepreneurial ambitions to be launched immediately, if the right connections can be made and the right skills are already in place.

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Michael Gerson had another good column in yesterday's paper.  It was about the complexities of Obama's persona.

He says that Obama seems to have the ability to see many sides of an issue almost instantly, and Gerson admires this ability.  It has a downside, however, in that this characteristic makes taking decisive action  extraordinarily difficult.

I "get" Gerson's message.  In much less momentous matters than what Obama faces, and scaled down considerably, no doubt, I operate much as he does.  No one will ever write a column about how this looks in me unless I do it myself, and I won't reveal myself to be a fool by doing so.  It does explain, to me at least, one reason why I find it painful to hear Obama criticized mercilessly.

In my opinion, in this column, Gerson struck exactly the right tone--clear-eyed and sensible, not singing the praises too loudly or singing the blues too mournfully.

In my books, absolute certainty in political leaders can be a very frightening thing, and Gerson shows clearly that Obama is not an "absolute certainty" kind of leader.  It's probably a strange thing to find comfort in this, but it works for me.