Hopewit

  (Note: There’s a painting following this text. Please give it a look before going on.) Were Jesus to be listening in on the current conversation in Western politics, and if he were to be asked what he made of it all, given that many who count themselves as his followers are loudly involved, what would his reply be? I, of course, can’t claim to know. I expect he would have replied with a parable like “The Good Samaritan,” or “The Prodigal Son,” and like the scribes, the pharisees and the teachers of the law (and his disciples, frequently) in his time, each would interpret what they’d heard as support for what they’d already embraced as truth. Maybe he’d shrug and say, “It appears subtlety won’t work … again, so here’s a thought: whatever you do or say, I judge on its conforming--or not--to one very simple standard, and that is that your words and actions respond to your love of God and that which he’s created for your benefit, and that it wishes for your neighbour every...

  I occasionally listen to Bill Maher monologues on one of the American Network’s late-night shows (also on YouTube). He’s one of those anti-woke, “stop being so sensitive” public figures who in a recent episode invoked that old “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” shibboleth plus the “get over it already; they’re just words” sentiment. The attitude seems to be an accompaniment to a larger “free speech” theme where taking exception to what people are saying or writing is interpreted as an attempt to force them to shut up, to rob them of the right to say what they’re thinking. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an American house representative—who’s gained notoriety for her outspoken, arbitrary pronouncements on just about everything—publicly decried the judgment against Alex Jones for lying repeatedly that the Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax: “He was just speaking words,” she said. I think thoughts and write words. More than that, I publish them occa...

  Henry J. Epp (1883-1965 )   (GRanDMA #433980) A Eulogy : Translated from the German and annotated by George G. Epp, nephew of Henry J. Epp. The document appears to have been written to be read at Uncle Henry’s funeral but I personally don’t know who wrote it or read it there. Henry J. Epp was born on October 3, 1883 in Gnadental, Baratow-Schlachtin, i Southern Russia. His parents were Jacob and Helena (Janzen) Epp. In 1893, he emigrated with his parents and siblings to Canada, spending an initial year in Manitoba. In 1894, they moved to what would become their homestead in the Rosthern area where Henry experienced with them a new beginning and the hard work that pioneer life required. Because his three older brothers (Jacob, David, Peter) were able to manage the work on the home farm, his father would often send Henry to help out at neigbbours’ farms; this resulted in his being able to relate how he had once ploughed with oxen for an uncle. His education was o...