Another book review

Wonder what poverty in the Depression might be like? A little hint is given by "Passing on the Comfort," by An Keuning-Tichelaar and Lynn Kaplanian-Buller. It's about how Mennonites provided enough quilts to the Netherlands to convince the Dutch (tongue in cheek) that most Americans were in fact Mennonites.

Of course, there is a bit of humor in an officially pacifist denomination being seen as "All Americans" by a nation that had just been liberated by a legion of decidedly non-pacifist Americans, but there is another delighful reality; these wonderful people had just come through the Depression and wartime rationing, and still managed to produce shiploads of quilts for the victims of war. We can complain about how bad things are, but let's be serious here; the nation's worst depression resulted in wonderful deeds of kindness like these. We ought to praise God that our version of poverty involves things like a closet full of leftover fabric and the struggle with obesity, no?