Which Reminds Me

It is interesting, but merely coincidental, to note that the name of Zimmerman, a pastor at the Carlsbad church, appears frequently in great-grandmother's diaries in the 1960s. It does not logically follow, however, that my missionary parents would approve of Mr. Zimmerman's plan to name himself dictator of the universe. Actually my parents were among the missionaries who were against Mr. Zimmerman's plan to appoint himself dictator of the universe. I don't remember the details of that, if that were even the same Zimmerman, not that I would need to explain that in so many words, just that it was very controversial at the time and the Viking of Minnesota might still be angry and vengeful about that, even though the plan did not seem to be compatible with the missionary ideal of teaching the local churches to govern themselves. We really don't want to have to do that. We want them to grow up and stop acting like babies, ideally, although sometimes the reality is not so idyllic.