Author: Henry J. de Jong
-
Give it a Rest
Read More: Give it a RestIt was a good winter for hunkering down. The steady state of snow and cold gave me permission to hibernate in my computer den. Even the Winter Olympics and the puzzle table failed to lure me away.
-
The Age of Aquarius
Read More: The Age of AquariusThe Middledom Manifesto: This is where I stand, neither to the left or to the right, but feet feeling their way through the middle, between the past and the future, between the good and the bad, between certainty and doubt.
-
Our Story
Read More: Our StoryTo all family and friends and communities of Herman and Stiny de Jong, and of son Henry, Wendy and Jovita we wish you a blessed Christmas in 2025, and offer to you some Christmas stories that were gifted to us by Herman and Stiny.
-
Christmas, 2025
Read More: Christmas, 2025With these Christmas stories and music, we offer greetings and well wishes from Henry, Wendy and Jovita to our family and friends and church community, especially in Niagara.
-
Patriarchy
Read More: PatriarchyPatriarchy has been a problem, not because it’s some grand conspiracy, but because of a lack of good will.
-
Wilderness Windows
Read More: Wilderness WindowsI like to imagine what it was like then — my neighbourhood, or ravine-riven Toronto, or the Sarnia savannah. It would be nice, just once, to hike through old woods from the lake shore to the escarpment or High Park to Forest Hill, or along the beach from Centennial to Bright’s Grove, and see nothing…
-
Nikolaikirche
Read More: NikolaikircheNicholai Church in Leipzig was the beating heart of East Germany’s Monday demonstrations that led to the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 some 36 years ago
-
The Hanseatic League
Read More: The Hanseatic LeagueIt’s a stretch to think of my grandfathers as being in league with Europe’s Hanseatic cities. They were both people of the land — one a farmer to the core and the other a land reclaimer. But they stem from people who lived close to the Hanseatic sea routes or their connecting waterways, in an…
-
Keep in the Castle
Read More: Keep in the CastleBuild walls to keep out the bad and you have a small garden of Eden — ‘paradeisos’, literally, an enclosed park. Castles and their compounds, cities with walls and even humble homes are meant to be places of peace and well being, protecting us from threatening forces. They are not aggressive by nature (though they…
-
Father Feito
Read More: Father FeitoIt is indisputable that I have north Netherlands Catholic roots. I can trace many family lines back to the sixteenth century (almost all in the same neck of the woods), and thus, by extrapolation, to undocumented ancestors in the fifteenth century. It’s safe to say then that my people, and their culture, were largely Reformed…