Creating a new reality together with friends. Sue and I lived in this big St Cloud home near SCSU from 1978 - 1999 together. When our paths separated and I moved to the Twin Cities in 1999 to create a life with more integrity for me, we continued to share our visions of being parents and staying connected with our sons, and friends in a good way. We agreed that this large walnut bookcase, purchased by my father, Paul H Weaver MD, from the supervisor at St Lucus Hospital in Faribault, and once part of the library at Seabury Seminary's Johnston Hall, built in 1888 from local limestone, would best be returned to Faribault to support the historical essence of Episcopal spiritual history in this prairie lakes town, that attracted my parents to settle here in 1939. Here are friends, Mike Ames and Gary Engler sizing up the project with Nate Weaver Saturday morning of the 25th at Sue and Nate's home.
Together we faced our fears of moving it for the third time (first Faribault to Duluth 1976, next Duluth to St Cloud 1978) and I rented a truck in Waite Park and we got plenty of steady friends to support us in this project. Here we are moving it out the front door. Sue, on her cell summoning back up support, Nate, Gary, Mike and this author.
After an uneventful drive down the freeway from St Cloud, noting no roads were closed from the rains in Faribault, three Faribault men, Jim Zotalis, Dean of the Cathedral, Patrick Justin, CFO of District One Hospital and Russell, the sexton of the Cathedral and Guild House are seen here to move the bookcase into the Cloister Walk then into the Guild House.
Here, with Patrick checking out the doors, the bookcase finds its place in the Great Hall of the Guild House, blending in with other historic aspects that Jim Zotalis shared with me about the history of the Episcopal Church in Faribault during the 1800's when "Athens of the West" was a description of a town that was the seat of the Minnesota Diocese. For more history see: www.thecathedralfaribault.com/History.dsp
After we unloaded the bookcase, I waited to meet David Currer and his partner Brian from the UK. It was David's first time backs to a Faribault High School Class Reunion. We had visited in the UK last fall when I attended the Mankind Project WEG and drove around the country side together in his sporty BMW. Sweet to finally meet Brian here in the town where David and I both
began some of our writing. Both of us wrote for the Yearbook, the Voyageur, another reflection of the French Heritage of Alexander Faribault, who was French and Dakota.
Here I am with the iconic sweep of the Viaduct in downtown Faribault, noticing the sandbagging during the floods. David and Brian are by the bridge to Teepee Tonka Park, the place I understand was a "big encampment" of the Dakota people after the 1862 Dakota Conflict when Alexander Faribault and Bishop Whipple provided shelter during a time of cultural persecution of the
indigeneous peoples of Minnesota. (Thanks Howard Heath of Hoyt Lakes for the Editing Suggestions - Glad you are awake:-))
Here is the extent of the flooding in Heritage Park, where I am standing near the Depot restaurant where they were pumping water from the basement.
Completing our tour, David, Brian and I drove to the Health Care Campus that includes District One Hospital and the iconic Johnston Hall with its limestone tower as a focal point of Faribault's East side, since its construction in 1888. The following Tuesday, I met with Patrick Justin and Dean Jim Zotalis to tour the building and then share my hope for its preservation and integration into this Campus at the District One Hospital Board Meeting. Hopefully, with financial support from a variety of sources the Ad Hoc Committee now forming through the Hospital Board, will draw on the expertise of holistic creative folks in the area, to create an integrative health care resource center that will serve the people for the next 7 generations. Peace, love, joy and beauty. Mitakuye Oyasin. D/Lakota "We are all related".
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