Cogitation 31/209 Saturday 3 August 2019 Where's Shakespeare when we need him? Right at hand, actually. The Shakespeare who more than 400 years ago gave deep voice to the world's ills, its goodness and its hopes in works of tragedy, history, comedy and love--words that ring true today. William Shakespeare bust in the Shakespearean Gardens …
Author: John Bender
Hi, my name is John Bender, retired and loving it. I'm writing to help interested people cross bridges to and from the past. Stories from the past can shed light on life in the present and illuminate the future. We've got a lot of living to do. Let's do it!
Fair fall you
Cogitation 30/208 Saturday 27 July 2019 This morning we walked in warming weather to breakfast at Goshen Family Restaurant on the outskirts of town--four miles round-trip. What's nice about this destination is that we can walk there on the Winona Railway Trail. The trail runs alongside still-in-use train tracks but stays away from street traffic. …
How hot is it?
Cogitation 29/207 Saturday 20 July 2019 This week it's been almost too hot to spend much time outside, though the large shade trees in our yard helped keep us cool. The Dean's List headlined the entertainment at Fernwood Friday night. Fernwood Gardens is 45 minutes away in Michigan. It was too hot to do the …
Making memories, remembering
Cogitation 28/206 Saturday 13 July 2019 Activities of this week, thoughts of a year ago. A walkabout in Goshen, Indiana Blooming in New Hamburg, Stratford & Cambridge Ontario Part of the Cambridge Sculpture Garden.Untitled 1981, by Peter Powyer. Lunch in Paris Paris, where the Nith River meets the Grand River, where cafes overlook the water, …
Let’s underscore our journey together
Cogitation 27/205 Saturday 6 July 2019 Yesterday morning I made a cup of coffee and took it out on the deck. A mourning dove cooed in the distance. A robin sang. A fisherman sat on a pontoon across the lake, stillness and calm held sway in the early morning sunshine. In due time a speedboat …
Dealing with noise
Cogitation 26/204 Saturday 29 June 2019 This morning, fairly early, as we were walking to pick strawberries, we heard a train whistle, a factory humming away, and a motorcycle heading along 15th Street--and the welcome howdy-do of birds singing. There was peace and quiet in the patch. Today was the last day for the of …
A call for Christians to dismantle ‘isms’
Cogitation 25/203 Saturday 22 June 2019 Last Sunday, visiting pastor Oscar Sawali challenged listeners to dismantle "isms." Pastor Oscar Sawali (left) poses with Steve Wiebe-Johnson, Africa director for Mennonite Mission Network. The world is going backwards in terms of racism and religious intolerance, the pastor from South Africa said. He sees the church again being …
Paris, ah fifteenth century Paris
Cogitation 24/202 Saturday 15 June 2019 For the first time ever I'm reading The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Victor Hugo, writing in 1830, placed his story in Paris, 350 years earlier. What a time travel. Slow, long, suspenseful, insightful, intimate, factual, frightening, engrossing, assertive, detailed, fanciful, spirited, funny. . . . Among other features of a …
10 steps in making a new home, home
Cogitation 23/201 Friday 7 June 2019 Twelve miles and 42 years in our former home separate us from a new start in retirement living in Goshen, Indiana. For me it's having lived in the City of Elkhart for 50 years. Change we can, and do. A Gerbera daisy bids welcome at our front door. We're …
A month called June
Cogitation 22/200 Saturday 1 June 2019 May gave way to June, the sixth month. It's a marker of passing time. Sometimes I'd like to stop the clock, hit the pause button. Then I'm reminded how futile, even frightening, such a prospect would be. Standing still happened to the ancient mariner in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, …
It's About Now 