Regarding Paul Schrag’s request for greater diversity from folks who write letters to MWR, I have enjoyed reading the Letters & Comments ever since a cousin bought me a subscription years back. It was a gift that reintroduced me to the lives and thinking of folks who remained as the environmental and hereditary roots of my tribal Anabaptist ancestry, which by now has been modified by “worldly” influences we were admonished as children to avoid.

After years of being incarcerated within ivy-covered academic walls, I managed to escape back toward the dirt of my childhood. This occurred while living in an experimental community the neighbors referred to as a commune, as I attempted to become a “born-again” hunter-gatherer.

Although today there is some movement within academic institutions to acknowledge the sacredness of Earth that exists above and beyond our religious institutions, much more movement is needed.

I am not all that tied up with the biblical concerns of my high school-avoiding Amish cousins, but I admire the light footprint they leave on Mother Earth.
I do not wish to affirm or dismiss anyone’s beliefs but to interject some diversity of thought toward a worldview that puts greater emphasis on raising healthy food and perhaps espouses different ways to interpret the Bible. I recommend Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael and The Story of B. Both books lend themselves to Schrag’s goal to bring unrepresented ideas into the conversation among all of God’s children, even perhaps a fresh look at just what we mean by God.

Roger Ulrich
Kalamazoo, Mich.