These are the occasional blog posts of Henry J. de Jong on this Middledom website, which also features Dutch Canadian memoirs and the stories of Henry’s father, Herman de Jong.
Haudenosaunee Heritage (4/30/2026) But it is only a little exaggeration to claim that everywhere that liberty is cherished—Britain to Bangladesh, Sweden to Soweto—people are children of the Haudenosaunee and their neighbors. …
In Search of the New Amsterdam (4/24/2026) Most everybody knows vaguely that the Big Apple was once a New Amsterdam within a New Netherland. But that Dutch claim, officially, lasted only forty years (1624 – 1664) before the fledgling city lost its name, morphed into New York and exploded with growth. …
Glorifinity (3/25/2026) When the eyes of our heart open to this reality, we easily see a thousand gifts for which to be grateful. The world takes on a quality that’s hard to describe and easily lost. We feel that what we experience transcends that moment and that place — that the whole is much greater than the… …
Walk to the Light (3/20/2026) In 1945, Truus was sixteen years old – the only real help in a household of boys. When infant sister Hennie got sick, she needed round the clock monitoring and Truus stayed up during the nights. …
Give it a Rest (3/13/2026) It 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 (1/2/2026) The 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 (12/19/2025) To 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. …
Patriarchy (11/14/2025) Patriarchy has been a problem, not because it’s some grand conspiracy, but because of a lack of good will. …
Wilderness Windows (10/24/2025) I 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 (10/14/2025) Nicholai 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 …