Scattering Point: The World in a Mennonite Eye

225 Pages·2003·1.39 MB·English

by  Jeff Gundy

SCATTERING POINT

Scattering

Point
The World in a Mennonite Eye

(cid:1)

Jeff Gundy

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
Published by
State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2003 State University of New York
All rights reserved
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Production by Marilyn P. Semerad
Marketing by Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gundy, Jeffrey Gene, 1952–
Scattering point : the world in a Mennonite eye / Jeff Gundy.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0–7914–5657–9 (hc : alk. paper) — ISBN 0–7914–5658–7

(pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Gundy, Jeffrey Gene, 1952– 2. Mennonites—Illinois—Biography.
3. Gundy, Jeffrey Gene, 1952– — Family. 4. Mennonites—

History. I. Title.

BX8143.G86 A3 2003

289.7´092—dc21

[B] 2002026881
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1. Cathedrals, Churches, Caves: Notes on Architecture,

History, and Worship 5

2. Fantasia with Raspberries, Baby Chicks,

Wine and Roses 37

3. Scattering Point 61

4. Scatter Plots: Depression, Silence, and

Mennonite Margins 87

5. The Notebook in My Back Pocket 117

6. Where We Live: Two Scenes from the Black Swamp 139

7. The Sparrow in the Mead Hall: On Birds, Souls,

and the World 151

8. “Would You Have Left All This for Waldo?”:

Notes on a Partial Pilgrimage 167

Notes 193

Works Cited 205

v

ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1.1. St. Lamberti Church, Münster, Germany. 8

Figure 1.2. Interior of Hidden Church, Pingjum, Netherlands. 9

Figure 1.3. River Limmat, Zurich, Switzerland. 11

Figure 1.4. Täuferhöhle (Cave of the Anabaptists)

near Wappenswil, Switzerland. 12

Figure 1.5. Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris. 26

Figure 2.1. Christian and Phoebe Ringenberg with

the author, their great-grandson, ca. 1953. 38

Figure 2.2. Henry and Mary Stalter’s wedding photo, 1896. 42

Figure 3.1. Map of Livingston County, Illinois. 62

Figure 3.2. Waterway, looking back toward the origin of

Scattering Point Creek. 69

Figure 3.3. Scattering Point Creek. 81

Figure 4.1. Art and Ella Ringenberg with grandchildren. 103

Figure 4.2. Illinois Mennonite Relief Sale Committee, 1960. 104

Figure 6.1. Lauber Hill sign with Reformed

Mennonite church in background. 143

Figure 8.1. Wahlerhof, with Marlyce Gundy in foreground. 169

Figure 8.2. Monbijou, home of Josef Stalter (1786–1853). 175

Figure 8.3. Kirschbacherof, home of Josef Stalter Jr.

(1807–1888). 180

Figure 8.4. In the Wahlerhof courtyard. 183

Figure 8.5. Friedenslinde (Linden of Peace) planted by

Jakob Stalter (1819–?). 185

Figure 8.6. Pillars at base of Friedenslinde. 186

vii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks to the editors of these periodicals, where earlier ver-
sions of these pieces first appeared:
Creative Nonfiction: “Scattering Point”
Conrad Grebel Review: “Fantasia with Raspberries, Baby
Chicks, Wine and Roses”; “Scatter Plots: Depression, Silence, and
Mennonite Margins”
The Georgia Review: “Cathedrals, Churches, Caves: Notes
on Architecture, History, and Worship”
The Heartlands Today: “Lauber Hill”
“Scatter Plots: Depression, Silence, and Mennonite Margins”
was the 1999 C. Henry Smith Peace Lecture. I am grateful to the
C. Henry Smith Trust for its support, and to Associated Mennon-
ite Biblical Seminary, Goshen College, Bluffton College, the 1999
Mennonite Health Assembly, and Eastern Mennonite University,
where earlier versions of the lecture were presented. Thanks as well
to all those who took part in discussions of the lecture, many of
whose comments and suggestions enriched the final version of this
piece.
“A Black-Haired Girl in the Rain” was first presented in dif-
ferent form as a convocation address at Goshen College on April 7,
1999.
A shorter version of “The Notebook in My Back Pocket”
appears in the Festschrift Minding the Church: Scholarship in the
Anabaptist Tradition, edited by David Weaver Zuercher and
Michael King and published by Pandora Press, U. S., in 2002.
The poems “Rain” and “Ancient Themes: The Martyrs and
the Child” appear in my book Rhapsody with Dark Matter
(Huron, Ohio: Bottom Dog Press, 2000). Reprinted by permission
of Bottom Dog Press.
ix