by MarianBeaman | Apr 26, 2014 | Coming of Age, Conflict, Education, Literature, Mennonite History, Quotations, Uncategorized
Is a family graduation on your calendar this year? As a faculty member at Florida State College at Jacksonville (then Florida Community College), I attended graduation every year in full regalia with hundreds of ecstatic grads, joyful families, and proud faculty and...
by MarianBeaman | Apr 23, 2014 | Education, Family / Nostalgia, Literature, Memory, Mennonite Lore, Quotations, Uncategorized
News Flash! To mark Shakespeare’s 450th birthday, “the Royal Shakespeare Company is spearheading a three year Jubilee, between 2014 and 2016, that will involve theatre performances, events and live streaming cinema around the world.” * * * * * It’s April 23 in my...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 29, 2014 | Amish, Education, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Uncategorized
When I bring 5-pound bags of Wenger’s famous ham-loaf frozen from Pennsylvania to Florida, the plastic-coated tubs of meat are wrapped in newspaper and then shrink-wrapped in plastic. The wrapping on one of the packages revealed answers to the intriguing question: Who...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 26, 2014 | Education, Family / Nostalgia, neighborhood, Quotations, Tips, Uncategorized
Signs . . . they’re everywhere . . . billboards in the city, stickers on cars, comments on Facebook. I found some wise ones in a novelty shop, on a car, on a piece of paper, on a writer’s sweat shirt. Some you’ve seen before. Others, I hope, are new....
by MarianBeaman | Mar 22, 2014 | Education, Gratitude, Literature, meditation, Memory, Purple Passage, Quotations, Reflection, Uncategorized
Purple Passages with a Fish & a Kiss, March 2014 Edition Winter Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen. Willa Cather, My Antonia If winter comes, can spring be far behind? Percy Bysshe Shelley “Ode to...
by MarianBeaman | Mar 19, 2014 | Amish, book review, Coming of Age, Conflict, Education, Literature, Uncategorized
This evening my alma mater, Eastern Mennonite University, is hosting author Rachel Held Evans, one of the foremost thinkers and writers in evangelical circles today who has appeared on Oprah and The View and spotlighted by NPR, the BBC and The Washington Post. Her...
