Two books have trickled their way across my field of vision in the last several months. I say trickled because that is how I read these days. I do not like to waste time while my optometrist, ophthalmologist, and ENT surgeon all have officious looking diagnoses about what’s happening with my eyes! Reading, a lifetime habit I am not ready to give up just yet. You take in a view sentences, think, reflect, and wipe the eyeballs sentence by sentence!
Definitely
worth the effort, however, I have enjoyed reading these two authors back to
back – almost simultaneously - two persons who probably know nothing about each
other, two very dissimilar titles, and a theme that keeps intermingling in my
thinker page by page by page. Becoming Kin by Patty Krawec [i]
is the subject of a book study I am currently participating in. The second book
is a happenstance ‘light reading’ (not!) publication I now own thanks to a
freebie I scored a couple weeks ago, Russian Mennonites: A Broken Path to
Civility by Walter Braul.[ii]
Some wonder why not just rest your eyes. My answer is that this is the life
throb even while eyes, ears, nose and throat get attention from over-stressed
professionals in an over-stressed health care system.
Two books
very much of life going on YVJ.
Patty Krawec is an Aanishanabi mid-career social worker. Walter Braul, recently
deceased, served as a professional lawyer for fifty years. Two different authors, not only by profession,
but by lineage and origin. Therein is my intrigue and inspiration. The lawyer,
a Mennonite with family roots in Holland, describes the sojourn of ‘his
people’, much beyond his immediate clan. It is an analysis of his forbears’
journey through Poland, Prussia, Russia, and a two-staged emigration to
Canada. Patty Krawec tells stories, some of them ancient and some of them
like yesterday. They are stories less of her ‘clan’ but ancient stories, most
of them repeated by elders and knowledge keepers, spiritual stories alongside
Bible stories. Her theme stretches way down deep, way down before today’s
colonial interpretations which most of us Christians find ourselves in. Braul’s
historical analysis has no reference to personal faith. Patty Krawec’s personal
faith is consistently evident as she writes about kinship!
Both of these writings provide not only solid believable information on their respective lineages, but much food for thought on the shaping of nations and us beings within and beyond, over the centuries.
Krawec, on the other hand, reaches even further back in her lineage (Creation story in the Bible? Creation stories alongside the biblical? Yes indeed, she writes about it). Her lineage includes a Mennonite grandmother and Ukrainian grandfather (white mother and indigenous father), she reflects on her and her children’s identity on this Turtle Island, making a strong point to her clan that their indigenous history cannot continue unless they enter into relationships not only with the colonialists who have come along, but also inter tribally. The story line of this fascinating read includes many references to her Christian faith including church frustrations and connectedness (easily understood by this preacher), so much so that you cannot but feel her faith.
There
is a teaching here from both of these, and it is a learning that would be
helpful for modern day Anabaptists to consider. Acknowledge we are colonialists
benefiting from privileges in Canada and U.S. at the expense of the Indigenous
who were here before us – similar point being made by Braul regarding the
Mennonites’ considerably privileged vantage in Russia. Hear! Hear!
Both
of these authors have a prophetic word for this day. Here is a
statement that Braul’s son makes about his father’s book, “It is not narrowly
academic, nor is it simply devotional history. Instead, it seeks to interpret
long patterns across centuries. It brings history, theology, philosophy, and
political thought into the conversation.” [iii] Good perspective from an
attentive son, he offers a challenge to today’s historical societies to invite
careful self-examination. “Strong communities are not weakened by honest
reflection; they are strengthened by it.” [iv]
As indicated at top, the reading of these two books has been a watery project. Even after these two compelling reads, I conclude this blog with the perspective which is mine. I still says it as I sees it, and maybe someday shall have conversation with both regarding their tomes.đŸ˜‰Among all the books or podcasts or workshops available these days, there is a message, perhaps a reminder, to all authors, historians, lawyers, social workers, and yes, politicians, young, old or in-between. My wife and I receive a snippet of that richness every morning as we give attention to Rejoice!, daily devotional readings published by MennoMedia. [v] Here is the Bible reading for today: 18 You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. 20 He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. 21 Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God (1 Peter 1:18-21).
[i]
Patty Krawec, Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and
Reimagining Our Future (Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2022).
[ii]
Walter Braul, Russian Mennonites: A Broken Path to Civility (Altona, MB:
Friesen Press, 2025).
[iii]
Bryan Braul, “Introducing Russian Mennonites: A Broken Path to Civility” The
MHSA Chronicle (Vol XXIX, no. 1,
March 2026), p. 19.
[iv]Ibid.
[v]
Vol 61, no. 3.
