UMN-Morris gets another splash in Star Tribune

(B.W. photo)

Another day with "adventures in anti-lock brakes." A very familiar phenomenon in Minnesota. I am writing this on Thursday morning. Oh, the little challenges of living in Minnesota like with anti-lock brakes and discovering that your mailbox is frozen shut. I took a little hot water to remedy the mailbox situation, then fixed the little door so it's not quite shut. 

Snow this time of winter can have a wet quality. It can disappear fast once the temperature goes above 32 degrees. Add in the sun and we'll get "slush city." 

How can we keep our lives interesting? Well it looks like a nice slate of UMN-Morris activities is beginning. I attended one on Tuesday: the "Mardi Gras singalong" at the dance studio in the "old Assembly of God building" a block north of the old Budig's store. Heh heh, my description is just what you'd expect from a "lifer" in Morris. 

I'm a lifer with an asterisk - my family didn't come here until I was five years old. Before that I was a "city mouse." I was baptized in the Lutheran faith at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. Minneapolis! The big city of Minnesota was once thriving with all the traits of metropolitan advantages. Small town life was at the other end of the scale. It was charming in the Mayberry fashion. 

Academic people rather looked down their noses at the small towns. Morris got an influx of academic people due to UMM. UMM is why Morris is getting attention from the big city newspaper again. A friend emailed me the current article that tries to lay out what is going on with our "jewel in the crown." 

Has the jewel lost some luster? Well it would appear so, based on the previous spread on UMM in the state's flagship newspaper. Some of us refer to it as the "Strib." It's the Star Tribune of course. I have lost more interest in that paper since their re-design brought a smaller type size. My eyesight at age 71 struggles. l turned age 71 in late January. Thanks to the U of M Foundation I get birthday cards. A morale-builder. 

I have no family. Do I have friends? I may have lost the few church friends (or at least acquaintances) I had because I chose to leave First Lutheran. It is astonishing how that church fell into decline and went through one stage of decline after another. But I really did not think it would get this bad. Now thanks to credible You Tube-based research, I learn that small town Protestant churches are fading fast everywhere. 

 

Catalyst for fading 

We have dug our grave by allowing the Upper Midwest Christian church to become so closely aligned with Republican politics. With MAGA. Not sure if a reversal will ever happen. People will find substitutes for the spiritual enrichment they once sought in their denominational church buildings. 

Never thought I'd say this but the Cathlolic Church might be a bastion against what has been happening. 

Lutheranism at its inception was a departure from the strictures of Catholicism. Today I am warmed as I consider the Catholic church. The Pope is a true leader of what is good, moral and reverential. The Protestant church? The Trump-supporting ones are doing fine for now, I guess. But the ones that have tried to be progressive? Look what has happened to First Lutheran in Morris of the ELCA. The notorious ELCA that thought it was being courageous with its moves to be generous with the gay folks, to be accepting. 

First Lutheran might be headed for dissolution. Dissolution might have been better than what the church has opted for: the partnership with the Methodist folks. Methodist folks are quite fine, make no mistake. That church nationally has been riven by the gay rights wedge. Can't we all find common ground with a generous and compromising attitude? 

 

Closures quickening?

The obstinance against compromise is literally driving pastors out of their profession. They find their congregations are unwilling to accept middle ground. And so, are we willing to accept more waves of church buildings closing their doors? 

First Lutheran in Morris has issues beyond progressivism or gay rights - the building design is frankly a disaster. Split-level! Steps and stairs everywhere as if to reflect how its designers were ignorant of special needs? I guess that's how society was at an earlier time. 

Before 1970 the Lutheran church did not even allow women ministers! And I'm sure there was pushback from the conservative forces when the new policy started. Today it's like pulling teeth to even get a new pastor in the ELCA. Where would we be without women? 

 

No wiggle room, I'm afraid 

But now First Lutheran has to contemplate a future where society will insist on buildings that are handicapped and elderly accessible, totally. Not good enough to have a "handicapped entry" on the far side of the building. There's a low spot just outside the east entrance where ice forms like a "skating rink" in late winter and early spring. Well that's the time of year we are experiencing right now. Schizofrenic weather. You'll swear that  signs of spring are taking over and then. . .wham! 

Be aware of your car's anti-lock brakes. You'll skid past your intended stopping point at an intersection. Get glares from other motorists at the place. Be thankful we're in a small town with less traffic congestion. 

 

B.W. photo of UMM's humanities building

Eyes (ears) on music!

And so UMM music is set for enriching events. Jazz concert tonight (Thursday). Was supposed to be 7 p.m. but I got an email advising of change to 6:30! Man, it was a blessing I received the clarification because for me to get misled on this might arouse my temper some. I need to cool it. 

I must say with emphasis that the Mardi Gras singalong at the dance studio was 100 percent wonderful. The UMM choir director in charge. The UMM choir program is different from what it has historically been. Less formal, I guess. Less regimented. I had mixed thoughts at first about this, now I think the new program is wonderful. 

Yulene Velásquez.

The director is ideally suited for this. It is very populist in its presentation. Is that a good way to describe? This isn't Brad Miller's choir program, it isn't Ken Hodgson's, it isn't even Ralph Williams'! Guess I have some special familiarity with the latter. But I think Yulene's program is quite the inspiration. 

 

Love these students!

I have seen some common threads in my interactions with UMM students over the last few months. I witnessed a student government meeting on the night when I first met Mike Rodriguez. I have attended basketball games where fans are firmly advised on acceptable behavior. And on Tuesday I felt the Mardi Gras spirit. 

And in all of these instances, I have been struck by the new and more gentle attitude and behavior of UMM students. And I could not be more happy. Praise the Lord! My church may already be dead but I'll still say "praise the Lord." I praise the Lord of all, not the false prophet propped up by the MAGA churches of which we have some here. 

I remember past eras of UMM history in which students could be so vain and arrogant. You would expect them to be civilized, but "student government" devolved into terrible personal conflict at times. I remember grabbing issues of the campus newspaper and seeing letters to the editor by students locked in vitriol over "student government." And I'd wonder "why?" I'd ask "is student government even worth all this? Why can't the students just be made to respect the legitimate authority over the campus: the administration." 

The worst part about the past generations of UMM students was their raw arrogance over how they thought they were so intelligent - this judgment being made by the metric of "GPA." Well, that's just one indice for judging intelligence. My late friend Donnie Eich said "all a degree from UMM proves is that you can read some books and then answer some questions about it." 

Not worthless intelligence, mind you, but just one barometer. And I have always considered book publishing to be rather a scam. A book is a product that must be packaged and marketed. I'll take "Wikipedia" any day. I learned more from the Wikipedia entry for Jesus Christ than from all my Sunday school classes. Books are "padded." 

The young generation does not want to deal with dense text in what they read. And what has more dense text than the Holy Bible? Maybe this contributes to young people's alienation from religion. But really I think it's the political problem: this flawed mortal person named Donald Trump who is propped up by the so-called "evangelicals," and it doesn't matter what he does. 

 

Refreshing new outlook

My message with today's post is fundamentally positive. And I think for the first time ever, I'm able to think of UMM in an effusively positive way. 

What do I think of the new "Strib" article? Well I'm not sure this Buchanan person comes off real well. She comes off as bitter. Well like it or not, pilgrims, the local campus answers to the Twin Cities and the Twin Cities people answer to the legislature. Well, when in Rome do as the Romans do. Or, when in Morris do as the Morrisons do!

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com