September 9, 2008

“We did not know that a child can mourn and grieve. We thought they were too small to understand what had happened.”

“We did not know that children go grieving for a long period. . . . I never used to understand the behavior of orphans.”

“We never knew that anything could be done to help the orphans apart from giving them food and clothes and school fees.”

A few months ago, I discovered a Mennonite online dating service: MennoMeet (a friend asked, “MennoMeet or MennoMeat?”). It’s a members-only network, so to participate you have to apply. Nervous about online dating in the first place, I liked the idea of starting with the familiar and comfortable world of my Mennonite faith background. Anyway, I reasoned, wouldn’t a Menno chap be just the kind of partner I’m looking for? After weeks of fighting the idea of dating online, I finally began the application process.

"You pays your money and you takes your choice.” Several generations of students at Duke Divinity School have heard James “Mickey” Efird use those carnivalesque words to conclude debates over the meaning of a biblical passage. The words take on a new resonance now that students of the Bible can pay their money and receive Efird’s own interpretations via the Efird Bible Study Series, which features videos of Efird teaching and provides accompanying study guides (see efirdbiblestudies.com).

The name Roman Polanski conjures up different responses. To many film buffs he is the Polish wunderkind who rocketed out of the Lodz film school in Poland to direct the dark and mysterious Knife in the Water (1962), a tale of fear and betrayal on the high seas heralded for its thematic complexity and perfect camera placement. Others may identify him with his British films of the mid-1960s, including the terrifying Repulsion (1965), about a shy young woman (Catherine Deneuve), who slowly loses her mind as we witness her decline.