It is Saturday afternoon and the football game in South Bend is at half time with Pitt leading by three over unbeaten Notre Dame. But The Old Fool, fool that he is, chooses to think about the election and the monster storm Sandy. Nature is forcing the nation to think about what it does not want to: climate change. How many storms will it take till our nation listens to its scientists and citizenry, and to nature’s alarm?
So The Old Fool’s mind turns from Hurricane Sandy to the elections. He highly recommends Sojourners Magazine, a non-partizan journal that thinks deeper than we get from competing TV ads. The writers consider themselves to be evangelical in faith and progressive in practice. You may wish to explore the “Daily Digest” edited on line by Duane Shank, senior staff member of Sojourners Magazine.
The link to Duane will yield a lot of valuable infomation about him, but it will not tell you that Duane is the son of Luke Shank. Luke and the Old Fool were first cousins. The two boys played together and Luke guided their play on the forest trails that surrounded the village of Pond Bank, Luke’s home. Luke and The Old Fool were room mates in the home of Lewis Martin when they went to Eastern Mennonite School. Both boys were ordained ministers by the Lancaster Conference but they were separated in ministry by a thousand miles.
Duane Shank, Rhoda and Martin Lehman in Goshen, Indian
The two first cousins had an hour long reunion as they neared retirment age. Friendship was quickly renewed and they soon learned that they were on the same page on the issues then facing the church.
Now Luke is gone. Duane and his daughter came to Goshen for lunch with the Old Fool for a lunch in Goshen. The Old Fool is thankful for the son of his first cousin.
The Old Fool is aware that Notre Dame narrowly won the final minutes of the football game. But that is a small matter compared to the issues facing the nation. He will vote in the direction of what he believes is fairness for women, poor and strangers.
