Charlie, Carla, and I bumped into the sons of Bryant & Lynelle Martin and Hector & Lois Troyer at the sheep farm swimming hole this evening. They were enjoying the diving board they had tapconned into the concrete pylon on the east bank probably sometime in the spring. Charming, conversationally able boys, all seven or so of them.
Charlie and I agreed on our amble down the sheep driveway home that there’s something about their old-fashioned Anabaptist culture that we find appealing. I’d even call it alluring. Alluring in the way I’ve always imagined a fully Christian culture would be: creative, down-to-earth, obviously committed to one another yet very openhearted to outsiders, playful, and dedicated to the common good and to the will of Jesus as if the two are nearly coterminous. I suppose I could write that last part about many Christian groups. But these folks appear to do it with such abundant industry and sense of play that it elicits in me something close to envy.