by MarianBeaman | Jul 7, 2021 | Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite Lore, Quotations, Uncategorized
July is Mother’s birthday month. If she were still living, she would be 103 years old on the 23rd. Like most Mennonite women in the 1950s, Mother Ruth expended energy in keeping house, making meals, and preserving a garden...
by MarianBeaman | Jun 23, 2021 | blog, Education, Family / Nostalgia, meditation, Nostalgia, Quotations, Uncategorized
When you pass a mirror, do you deliberately walk on by, or do you make a point to look into it? The Evil Queen in the tale “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” stared with vengeful intent into a mirror and chanted, “Mirror, mirror on the wall/Who is the fairest of them...
by MarianBeaman | Jun 9, 2021 | blog, Conflict, neighborhood, Quotations, Uncategorized
Two women were approaching their car, parked under the pines at the Southeast branch library on Saturday. Returning from the library’s front door as I was stepping out of my own car, the older woman yelled across the parking lot, “Sorry, but the library is...
by MarianBeaman | Jun 2, 2021 | blog, Coming of Age, Family / Nostalgia, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Nostalgia, Quotations, Reflection, Uncategorized
Did you know that, Boomers and Gen-Xers are looking back to their youth, collecting . . . Cassette tapes Vinyl LPs Polaroid cameras Manual typewriters . . . even decades old video games So says, Jeff Nilsson in “Nostalgia is Good For You,” an article from The...
by MarianBeaman | May 26, 2021 | blog, meditation, popular culture, Quotations, Uncategorized
A Memorial Day Tribute When I play Ravel’s Left Hand Concerto, my goal is to make it sound like I have THREE hands, so says pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. The Back Story Pianist Paul Wittgenstein who lost his right arm because of a bullet wound in WW I,...
by MarianBeaman | May 19, 2021 | blog, Conflict, Memory, Mennonite History, Mennonite Lore, Quotations, Uncategorized
Memorial Day is celebrated this month and I’m think of my forebears living through the World Wars . . . My Grandfather Henry Longenecker and my Father Ray Longenecker were Mennonites. Both registered for the draft during one of two world wars Grandfather Henry...