I am fifteen, just admitted to the sacred precincts of my church’s Youth Group. My first official youth activity? A volleyball game with the Hayward youth–those cool, smart, and with-it people who live about an hour to the north and are driving down specially to play with us, the inelegant, un-cool Sheldon youth. We are […]
“The king of Saudi Arabia died last night.” What kind of everyday life do we live when these are the first words our sixteen-year-old says to us when she comes down for breakfast? “How did he die?” I ask, and “Who will succeed him?” Michael wonders. What does this mean for Saudi Arabia? Will the
Why a Mennonite Housewife Cares about the King of Saudi Arabia Read More »
I have a picture of the two of us on my bookshelf. She is wearing her shiny blue windbreaker with the Wakarusa logo, her short hair mostly black, ruffled across her forehead, a little spiky. Me beside her, arm around her, grinning: deep-set eyes, hair parted flat against my head. I don’t pay attention to
The Things That Woman Gave Me Read More »
A criminal and I have one thing in common. Like any good criminal, I view myself as a good person. Better than most others, probably. “Perhaps the most surprising discovery in my early years of trying to understand the criminal mind was that, without exception, offenders regard themselves as good human beings,” writes Dr. Stanton
The Sweat-Grimed Poppies I Hold in my Hands Read More »
Los Angeles, California. Its sunny streets and sprawling population are a far cry from International Falls, Minnesota, where Carita Witmer grew up. International Falls, nicknamed “Icebox of the Nation” has a population numbering a little over six thousand. Los Angeles? Almost four million. Carita lives with her family in a quiet neighborhood built on a
Women in the Trenches: Carita Witmer, Los Angeles Read More »
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