Every Sunday morning The Old Fool tells the family dog that this is Sunday, a day decreed by God to be a day of rest for man and beast. She immediately goes to her cage expecting a treat and hopes peacefully for her family to return.
The Old Fool went first to the Waterford Mennonite Church. When he entered the congregation was singing “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.” The OF thought of Diana’s mother because that was a favorite song of hers. This Sunday was special because it was Diana’s 13th birthday.
Waterford was the OF’s choice of church because Kasandra, a great granddaughter, was playing the trumpet for the first time during the offertory.
After the offertory, the OF went to the College Mennonite Church to meet with the Borderlands group during the Christian education hour. The meeting began with the reading of an essay that argued that this was prime time for the American people to demand strict gun control.
This quickly revealed that group members had different experiences with guns. We were not gun owners now, but a Canadian among us had never pulled a gun trigger. Another member grew up in a Lancaster Mennonite community and had been raised to be an enthusiastic hunter.
The OF revealed that as a young boy of ten he had begun to patrol his father’s farm with a 22 rifle and aimed to kill sparrows, starling, snakes, rats, ground hogs and other of God’s creatures considered vermon. He said that his mother trusted him with only three bullets at a time.
The group agreed that some form of gun control would be good for society. But there was a consensus that politicians would not be able to do any thing meaningful to control guns and that it was unlikely that the church or the Amercian people could do much about it.
The Old Fool returned home to Diana’s birthday party. But he is still pondering. What makes our Borderland study group different from the National Rifle Association? Could it be that we have each voluntarily chosen not to exercise the right guaranteed to us by the second amendment to the constitution? Is there not hope in that many citizens do voluntarily choose to exercise the right not to carry a gun?
Hi Martin—and no I won’t call you the “old fool”, you sound like a very wise one to me!
At any rate, this gun thing seems to be the topic of the day wherever I have been this weekend. For myself, my father always owned a gun and it hung on a hook in our big kitchen, used only for hunting season. But Vernon, my husband was not a hunter and so we never had one. Most of my nephews are avid hunters –in fact they take their little boys out with them as young as six. While our sons, are such animal lovers that they could not even shoot a bird. I don’t have anything against shooting deer and such especially when it gets used for food supply, which my fathers killings of rabbits and pheasents surely did—get eaten that is. I have heard that they do not guns in England and you never hear of gang shootings like here in the states. I have a feeling that nothing different will be done here, once the recent incident fades away.
What can we do? Nothing as far I can tell.
BTW, I am feeling much better these days, time does heal to a certain extent, I am still so lonely living alone, but my sister lives just across my yard. Still it is not the same, but I have found that time passing does take away the worst of the pain and depression. God bless you and keep you. I always enjoy your writings. Freda
Good to hear from you again, Freda. I wish the miles did not separate us from face to face contact. But it seems right, right now.
I come from a family of hunters. I enjoy hunting, if I don’t have to walk too far. I got a nice six point buck last season. I see no need for a person to have a hand gun. I wouldn’t want to shoot another human being.
yes, we must be reasonable, but I think the many who are not reasonable are the problem. Good to hear from you.