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Searching – A Serial Novelle Chapter 31: Towards the Unkown
By Patrick Cabello Hansel
We use the phrase “love birds” to describe a couple in love who seem to have grown wings of joy. They can be 18 or 19, 80 or 90. It is the quality of their embrace that lifts them off the ordinary ground. When Luz and Angel kissed in the deep snow at the cemetery, they were the love birds we love. When they got up and walked, hand in hand, toward their evil and their freedom, they were birds of a deeper, stranger love.
There are no paths in a cemetery after a heavy snow. There are only the stones and the white wilderness. They followed the flight of the hawk they had seen, and walked through knee deep snow towards the center of the holy ground. Without a word, they both stopped at the place they felt they had to.
“I don’t see the hawk—el halcón,” Angel said.
“Nor do I.”
Then both of them looked up and to the east, and there on a bare branch rested the whitest bird they had ever seen.
Manz Tage: The Journey Was Chosen
Friday–Saturday, October 28–29, 2011
A two-day conference on the life and ministry of Paul O Manz, Cantor at Mount Olive from 1946-1983, then at Christ Seminary/Seminex and St. Luke Evangelical Lutheran Church, Chicago. Simultaneous to serving these specific communities, he served the Church at large around the world mostly with his memorable hymn festivals. What can we learn from these vast and profound experiences? How do we carry this ministry on?
Hymn Festival
Friday, 10/28: 7:30 pm.
“The Journey Was Chosen When Water was Poured” Mount Olive Cantorei, David Cherwien organist and director
Presentations
Saturday, 10/29
Victor Gebauer: “Twin Cities: Called to an Expanding World”
Mark Bangert: “Chicago: Fulfilling God’s Calling”
Paul Westermeyer: “Cantor: the Lutheran Calling”
David Cherwien: Workshop on Liturgical Improvisation
Samuel Backman: Organ recital, music by Praetorius, Bruhns, Bach, Manz
Ingebretsen’s Saga: A Family, A Story, A Legacy in Food An East Lake Street Saga as told through a family history and a lot of food.
By Carsten Smith
“The project took nine months. I could have had a baby in that period, but a book is much easier to care for after gestation. I’m glad I opted for the book,” says Anne Gillespie Lewis, author of Ingebretsen’s Saga, which is now available at Ingebretsen’s Scandinavian Gifts. The idea for the book had been percolating for years, but a chance conversation at the store with Julie Ingebretsen, the store manager, spurred Anne and Julie into making the book a reality.
Julie Ingebretsen had often wished for the time and opportunity to put some of the many recipes shared at the store into a book. There is rarely a staff meeting or a birthday or even an obscure holiday that passes at Ingebretsen’s that staff members don’t pull out the stops and bring food to share with their co-workers. Julie really wanted to have some of those recipes in writing.
Taste Of Phillips Dedicates Mural At Hans Christian Andersen School October 29!
Taste Of Phillips: October 28-29. Mural Dedication. October 29 at 11:00am at Andersen School between 26th and 27th Streets on Andersen Lane, and will be part of St. Paul’s Annual “A Taste of Phillips” Art Festival. Local artists will display their work at St. Paul’s, beginning with a reception and poetry/spoken word/music night, Friday, October 30 at 7:00 pm. Saturday’s activities include an art scavenger hunt and hands-on activities, in addition to the dedication.
For the past 16 months, St. Paul’s Lutheran on 28th Street and 15th Avenue has been teaching mosaic and mural arts, through its Semilla project. You may have seen the beautiful mosaic planters popping up at various locations in the community. St. Paul’s Artist-in-Residence, Greta McLain, is an accomplished muralist and mosaic artist, having taught at South High, Windom, Ramsey and El Colegio, and worked on murals in Philadelphia, Memphis, Buenos Aires and Paris. She worked on the mosaic pillars at Seward Coop, the inside mural of Plaza Verde and with St. Paul’s youth at the mural on Kaplan brothers.
“The Semilla project is growing –its sprouting up all over Phillips, and beyond, activating artists all over town! Semilla means seed, and we have seen the seeds of growth both in artistic skills and in building a stronger community. The Andersen mural was a collaboration between art classes spring & summer classes, engaging students throughout the process. They were able to see the mural grow seed by seed.
They saw their school transformed into a destination—where people will come to be uplifted!”
Semilla workshops take place every Wednesday night at St. Paul’s, and also have been given at the 15th Ave Block Club, Waite House, Banyan Foundation, and St. Paul’s Home, a 53-unit low-income senior housing project. Semilla was present at the Midtown Phillips and Bridging Festivals, and has taught mosaics to college students and professors from Minnesota to Texas.
Warrior & Point Blank
Warrior
Warrior (2011)
Lionsgate
PG-13 rated
Running time: 139 minutes
Director: Gavin O’ Connor
Drama/Sports
****1/2
Cast: Joel Edgerton (Bredan Conlon),Tom Hardy (Tommy Conlon), Nick Nolte (Paddy Conlon), Jennifer Morrison (Tess Conlon), Kevin Dunn (Principal Zito), Denzil Whitaker (Stephon).
Three men–two brothers and their father–battle amongst themselves over past wrongs, misgivings and dysphoria over present and future encounters, individually and collectively. Paddy Conlon (played by Nick Nolte in what’s worthy of a best supporting actor nomination), the father of two sons: the older, Brendan Colon (Joel Edgerton), married to Tess (Jennifer Morrison), with twoa children; and the younger, Tommy Conlon (Tom Hardy), both were mixed martial artists. Brendan is a high school physics teacher in debt up to his ears and about to lose the house. Without telling his wife, he’s secretly training at a shady, underground club called Tender Club for cash under the table. He’s suspended by the superintendent of schools when it’s discovered he’s training there. His wife isn’t a happy camper about him returning to the cage and also being temporarily suspended from teaching due to his return to the mixed martial arts world. His brother Tommy returns to his dad’s house loaded with resentment. Tommy’s a hero for bravery in Afghanistan and what’s strange–he goes AWOL. Tommy throws a blow figuratively at Paddy by saying:”I think I liked you better when you were a drunk.” Reluctantly Tommy agrees to let his dad begin training again for mixed martial arts.
Fishing Trip
Peter Molenaar
It is good for an inland worker to visit big water from time to time. My father and I are just now returned from fishing Lake of the Woods in northernmost Minnesota. The curvature of the horizon is discernable to the eye there. So, thank you Smith Foundry for letting me go.
As I was not pressed to engage the machine, the promising sunrise then lingered. The inlet bay of our camp offered a calm cold mist among the green cattails. But the big water answered with wind and waves.
Several flotillas of cabin cruisers located the walleye far from shore. But we with our smallish boat opted to troll the shoreline for northern pike or maybe a musky. We had paid a high price for a day’s worth of frustration when, wop, “FISH ON!” I shouted. It made one glorious straight up leap– “YEOW! It’s a bass!”
Such an extraordinarily handsome specimen of a smallmouth bass it was. I gently removed the hooks all the while apologizing and wondering if the notion of Karma were true. But, ego prevailed. Our bass was brought to shore to be weighed (4.3 lbs!), photographed, displayed among the humanoids, and consumed.
Yet my unsettled conscience was to receive another blow. During the return trip, Minnesota Fishing Regulations 20l1 revealed that smallmouth bass taken after September 12 are to be catch and release only. Had I known…
So, the question remains: Was the chauvinism manifested towards that beautiful fish of the same magnitude as that displayed by images of “great white fathers” carved upon sacred rocks in South Dakota?
Update on the Backyard Initiative An Integral Community Care System
By Janice Barbee, Cultural Wellness Center and Lovel Trahan, AmeriCorps VISTA, Allina Health Systems
On September 23, the Circle of Healing CHAT of the Backyard Initiative hosted a community forum entitled “An Integral Community Care System: Responding to the Health and Wellness Needs of Community” to present a framework for developing a community care system that will combine community resources and knowledge with conventional, professional resources.
The Backyard Initiative (BYI) is a partnership between Allina and community residents to improve the health of the community. Residents of Central, Corcoran, East Phillips, Midtown Phillips, Phillips West, Powderhorn Park, and Ventura Village have formed Citizen Health Action Teams (CHATs) to work together on health-improvement projects they have designed.
The Circle of Healing CHAT is working to blend traditional community knowledge of health and healing with institutional Western medicine. At the September forum, Elder Atum of the Cultural Wellness Center led the group through a facilitated discussion that explored how a community model of providing health care could achieve the lasting results necessary to improve quality of life. Some of the themes included connecting with a patient’s story, identifying community partners for implementing a holistic model of patient care, and sharing knowledge across disciplines.
The Alley’s Roving Reporter at the August 13 Bridging Event: What are examples of “Bridging” you have experienced in Phillips?
Muriel Simmons:
“We worked on building bridges in the neighborhood; between the community and the police; between corporations and neighborhood organizations; and between young people and older people.”
Back then, drug dealers called police on me, that’s when I knew I had their attention. Respectful relationships were formed with the police. Our home just about became a community center.”
Back then, we started knocking on doors – asked people, are you aware of the crime around here, do you want to join the block club? We invited people into our home, we didn’t have much but made it clean and comfortable. People began to trust me. I gave myself a birthday party and invited everyone, including the police.” We created a “Seniors walk” on Friday nights. They were scared but we wanted to take our sidewalks back. We practiced looking people in the eyes. It was like a bridge, people coming out of their homes into the neighborhood. We knew we were successful when we started seeing wheelchairs and walkers out in the neighborhood.”
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Letter to the editor
Dear Editor,
Has the electoral process withered while our legislators balked at compromise?
The resignation of Senator Linda Berglin opens a seat to be filled by a special election. The first campaign candidates’ forum at the Mercado Central August 26 brought up some traditional and newfound issues. The citizens of Senate District 61
will decide by their votes which way to turn as we come to this fork in the road.
Are the Minnesota legislators to remain in their traditional role of part-time service to the common good? Or are we headed on the path toward professional career politicians using the legislative process as a staging platform by which to create their next higher opportunity? Infotainment has become a business.”
Take a look and ask the questions. Are media staff persons really jackals, as Governor Jesse Ventura liked to say? “Is politics as usual ”really dead and buried? Has governor Pawlenty’s “no new taxes” pledge been saved by the Republican mantra of “no new compromise?’”
These antics brought us to a government shut-down. With this in mind, we must ask what are the needs of SD 61, and where is the political talent to match our issues and concerns? We begin the first post shut-down election with one major party candidate, DFL Representative Jeff Hayden. Where are the others?”
But this is not to be a one candidate contest. [There are] ordinary Minnesota citizens ready and able to step up. They and their supporters raised important questions, and they did so with honest and integrity. They have the shellacking our politicians rightfully deserve.”
Alas, just one candidate had the technical knowledge of the electoral process to jump the DFL gate and be nominated to oppose Jeff Hayden at the DFL endorsement contest. Does this mean the Party rules are serving us, or are they too much of a barrier?”
These and other questions, issues, and concerns brought forward by the citizens of SD61 comprise the substance of our electoral process. Let the contest proceed!
Sincerely,
Georganne Krause