Post 34/2020 Monday 26 October My October surprise last week was not really a surprise. It was a continuation of discovering wonder in the out-of-doors. For the first time we walked around Waterford Wetlands, an area maintained for community use by Waterford Mennonite Church, south of town. (Featured image: Sandhill cranes at Boot Lake Nature Preserve)).

In addition to our walk at Waterford Wetlands, we visited three Elkhart County Parks, Goshen City parks and, of course, the Greencroft Goshen campus. The air was crisp, the colors still vibrant, the leaves on the ground swirling with a swish, and some wildlife visible in the distance.

Interactions with the human family remained mostly confined to electronic media. Thank God for the wonder and means of bubble connections.

On Sunday we zoomed to take part in the 11 o’clock worship service at St Anta and All Saints in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, UK. We had the delight of waving to friends as they were ushered out at the end of the service. Later we joined by zoom the 11 o’clock Sojourners class at College Mennonite Church. It was a rich morning, followed by lunch at home and then a walk at Boot Lake Nature Preserve.

In addition to walk photos, I include at the end a few notes on the ancient history of the Electoral College.

Waterford Wetlands

Greencroft Goshen

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City of Goshen

Bonneyville County Park

River Preserve County Park

Boot Lake Nature Preserve

From where did the founders of the United States of America get their idea for an Electoral College?

I’m staying mum on the election about to take place in the USA on November 3. Rather, I’ve been scratching at ancient history related to the Electoral College.

I’ve long wondered from where the founders of the USA got their idea for an Electoral College. They would have known the classics, and if I’m not stretching it too far, would have found a precedent for the Electoral College in the Centurial Assembly system of the Roman Republic (509-27 BCE).

The same principle was evident in the Holy Roman Empire (800-1806). I quote a definition of an elector from The Wordsworth Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (based on the original book of Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, revised by Ivor H. Evans):

“Elector. In the HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE those rulers who formed an Electoral College to appoint the Emperor were called Electors. Their number was eventually regularized by the GOLDEN BULL of 1356 and the seven Electors were to be the bishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne, with the rulers of the Rhine Palatinate, Saxony, Brandenburg and Bohemia. The ruler of Bavaria gained admission during the THIRTY YEARS WAR and Hanover became an Electorate in 1708. The office disappeared with the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.”

Not much more to say, but something to chew on. Time will tell how the Electoral College fares in the future of the USA.

Wonders abound. Boots on, let’s go!

-John