John Sumwalt, Agri-View Journalist Profile

Articles

Barn Boards and Baling Wire

5 days ago | ravallirepublic.com | John Sumwalt

When my father died in 1998, something happened that surprised me. I went into a kind of shock though I thought I was prepared. After all I was a pastor who had sat with people who were dying and I had officiated at numerous funerals. I had taught classes on death and dying. Love Funny Wow Sad Angry
Barn Boards and Baling Wire

5 days ago | agupdate.com | John Sumwalt

John SumwaltFor Agri-View When my father died in 1998, something happened that surprised me. I went into a kind of shock though I thought I was prepared. After all I was a pastor who had sat with people who were dying and I had officiated at numerous funerals. I had taught classes on death and dying. Dad had been in declining health for a number of years; we knew death was coming. Our family had been with him for seven days as he was dying, praying with him and singing his favorite gospel hymns.
Barn Boards and Baling Wire

1 week ago | ravallirepublic.com | John Sumwalt

It happened the night they were all together for the last time. It was Passover and somebody had rented a room and hired a caterer – Seders to Go or Matzas R Us, one of those. Jesus and the boys were celebrating their arrival in the big city with the traditional meal. And it was probably nothing like that team picture Leonardo posted in the art world years later. Love Funny Wow Sad Angry
Barn Boards and Baling Wire

1 week ago | agupdate.com | John Sumwalt

John SumwaltFor Agri-View It happened the night they were all together for the last time. It was Passover and somebody had rented a room and hired a caterer – Seders to Go or Matzas R Us, one of those. Jesus and the boys were celebrating their arrival in the big city with the traditional meal. And it was probably nothing like that team picture Leonardo posted in the art world years later.
Barn Boards and Baling Wire

2 weeks ago | ravallirepublic.com | John Sumwalt

I’ve been waking up with Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story tunes playing in my head. My wife, Jo, and I went with friends to see the classic musical at the Fireside Dinner Theatre in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. Love Funny Wow Sad Angry
Barn Boards and Baling Wire

2 weeks ago | agupdate.com | John Sumwalt

John SumwaltFor Agri-View I’ve been waking up with Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story tunes playing in my head. My wife, Jo, and I went with friends to see the classic musical at the Fireside Dinner Theatre in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. Stephen Sondheim’s wonderful lyrics to “Somewhere there’s a place for us” rumble through my mind as I dance around a pile of laundry on the way to the bathroom.
Barn Boards and Baling Wire

1 month ago | ravallirepublic.com | John Sumwalt

I’m preparing to tell stories at Rosedale Presbyterian Church near Cambria, Wisconsin. It’s a special storytelling event to which they are inviting the whole community, to be held at 11 a.m. March 30. Love Funny Wow Sad Angry
Barn Boards and Baling Wire

1 month ago | agupdate.com | John Sumwalt

John SumwaltFor Agri-View I’m preparing to tell stories at Rosedale Presbyterian Church near Cambria, Wisconsin. It’s a special storytelling event to which they are inviting the whole community, to be held at 11 a.m. March 30. On its website it states Rosedale is known as “the church in the middle of nowhere.” I hope I can find it. My trusty GPS assures me there are paved roads all the way.
Barn Boards and Baling Wire

1 month ago | ravallirepublic.com | John Sumwalt

Daniel Smith’s “Ancestral” book of farm-to-table poems blew me away. I can’t remember when I have been more deeply affected by a book. I read it in one sitting, at times weeping and then laughing uproariously. I don’t know if one needs to be rural-raised like me to fully appreciate the joys and pathos of the farm life Smith describes so exquisitely, but it certainly helps. Love Funny Wow Sad Angry
Barn Boards and Baling Wire

1 month ago | agupdate.com | John Sumwalt

John SumwaltFor Agri-View Daniel Smith’s “Ancestral” book of farm-to-table poems blew me away. I can’t remember when I have been more deeply affected by a book. I read it in one sitting, at times weeping and then laughing uproariously. I don’t know if one needs to be rural-raised like me to fully appreciate the joys and pathos of the farm life Smith describes so exquisitely, but it certainly helps.