A wee proposal from a Scottish “wanna-be”

Recently, my husband and I visited our daughter Heather who is an exchange student at the University of Edinburgh. Immediately, the impact of Scotland hit us: the kilts, the tartans, the clans. Our tour guide wore a green kilt from the clan of the MacLeods, and every other shop on the Royal Mile between the castle and Holyrood Palace displayed tartans in the window: scarves, car blankets, tea towels, ties, and kilts of every size.

I enjoyed purchasing kilts for my grandchildren (three of them have some Scottish ancestry). I bought tartan scarves for my daughters, checkered tea towels for my friends, but I was envious. I did not have a tartan to call my own.

Imagine if all the Mennonite clans had their own tartans, and we would wear our kilts to weddings, funerals, our many banquets, graduations and the MCC festival. We would no longer need to ask our favorite aunts if we were related to so-and–so, for we could identify our kindred by their clothes. Imagine seeing all of the Reimers in gold and red plaid; the Friesens in blue and burgundy; the Rempels in green and black. Family gatherings would take on new meaning as tablecloths and T-shirts displayed the various checkered patterns.

Illustration: Richard Rempel

When I shared this with my pastor’s wife, she suggested we Mennos could adopt family quilt patterns for our motifs. Perhaps “Log Cabin” for the Johnsons, the “Four Star” for the Pauls clan, “Dresden Plate” for the Bartels. Surely there are enough to go around, though – given our triumphal view of our history – perhaps no one would choose “Drunkard’s Path” or “Crazy Ann.”

We could have these quilt patterns not only on our blankets, but made into ties and sewn onto our pockets. We could embellish our homes in the form of curtains or pillow tops, and hand these items down through the generations. Perhaps the Chinese members of our Mennonite community would make theirs out of colourful silks, and the Indonesians with batik embellishments.

The concept of quilt patterns even fits quite nicely into our theology of peacemaking. I suggest we sort this out soon and assign each clan their quilt, before our youth forget their past and while it all still has meaning. Quilters of the Menno world, unite!

Helen Rose Pauls attends Sardis Community Church, Chilliwack, B.C.