ON Beliefs
The 2010 Wisconsin Book Festival explores the theme of Beliefs. In the Festival's honor, we asked several authors, poets and other thinkers from across Wisconsin to reflect on the role beliefs have played in their lives. The multiplicity of perspectives you'll see here reflects one of the Wisconsin Humanities Council's deeply held beliefs: That when our beliefs get aired, shared and woven together, community life grows more vibrant and our individual lives are enriched.
Together a Family
by Amber Dehnke, Programs Coordinator, The Heartbeat Center for Writing, Literacy and the Arts, Osseo
On the Fourth of July, our family of eight stood on the curb in the rain with two umbrellas. We giggled at passersby who were equally unprepared - soggy queens and their courts, frizzy-haired Girl Scouts, and dripping candy-tossers. We took turns holding a plastic bag open so Brady, my five-year-old brother, could rescue candy from the wet asphalt before someone else grabbed it.
It didn't matter that the rest of us had lost interest in parades long ago, or that there was work to do at home on the farm. We all went because parades were family events. Because all of us, whether we knew it or not, were teaching my young brother to share our belief in family.
It's how we came to enjoy movie nights at home when we couldn't afford vacations. It's why we're in the audience together at choir concerts, basketball games and awards ceremonies. At church we could split up and sit in two pews, but it wouldn't feel right. Our belief in family is why we eat meals together, squeezing so close that our knees and elbows touch. The table is barely big enough for eight people, but it seats nine when my fiancé Randy joins us.
Randy couldn't make it to the parade, but I met him afterwards to work on our house in Osseo. There are holes in the walls, fixtures and doors missing, incomplete bathrooms. Right now, the house seems too empty and still to feel like home. But we have to begin somewhere.
We'll start with the beliefs and traditions we learned from our families to make our own family promises. We don't know the house's story; but when we're married, we'll start our own story there.
We'll bring our belongings, hang pictures, and find places for furniture. We know where the kitchen table will go. We'll get one with extra leaves so when our families come over, we can all sit at the same table.
The Path
by Brad Steinmetz, Chairman, Town of Stark, and Kickapoo Valley local historian, La Farge
Life is a journey; trod along a path.
Being a thinker of linear means, I have often viewed the path as a straight line. I thought: If you stay on the straight and narrow path and its true way, you will be successful and you will get from A to B.
But along the journey, you may stray or lose your way; you may have to double back, restart or resume the journey at another time. Yet, you may still get to where you seek to go.
The path isn't so straight or true as I once thought. How straight can any path be that lays on the curved surface of the earth? How straight can the path be that must climb the hills and plunge into the valleys and cross the river?
The first people who trod the path that ran along the river believed in the connections between all things. The sky was connected to the winds, which was connected to the waters, which was connected to the land, which was connected to the people and creatures of the land, the sky and the water. The path was a great circle and not rigid or straight.
The path is still there for all of us to use.
So, follow the path, wherever it may take you. Walk along the path, but on the way, tread easily on the earth. While on the trail, try to be true to yourself. Leave a trail, for others may want to follow.
To read more ON Beliefs essays from the across the state, please visit the Wisconsin Book Festival website.