Your Dec. 25 editorial, “The year of deo volente,” reminded me of the mentality I observed in Lancaster County, Pa., where I lived my married life. I never could comprehend how they could plan years or even decades ahead with such aplomb. The Idaho Mennonite communities where I was raised were of recent hardscrabble pioneer histories. They had a different mode of thought about the future, inconceivable to the settled and comfortable. Deo volente (“God willing”) is not fatalistic, just realistic. That is why the poor are rich in faith.

Miriam Hess, Union, Ore.