Minnesota, Norway and Me

I am  not capable of writing what I want to say about this.   Some would tell me, “Then don’t try. Leave your thoughts and feelings to yourself..”  But I’m not “many”. I am me. And I’m always willing to try to express in words what matters most to me.

This morning I happened into a documentary called 100 Years: The St. Olaf Choir in Norway. The production touched me deeply.   I maintained either a lump in my throat or tears in my eyes for the entire documentary.  I can’t say in a literal way that it’s “the story of my life” because there was my birth and the first nineteen years in Enterprise, Alabama.  But the presentation is for sure the story of my vocational life and my emotional life.  And that’s what touched me.

St. Olaf College was founded in Northfield, Minnesota by Norwegian-American immigrants in 1874.  Then in 1912, F. Melius Christiansen, another Norwegian immigrant,  formed the now world-renowned St. Olaf Choir.  The next year, in 1913, he took his choir back to Norway to visit and to perform. Five years ago the choir returned  to Norway to celebrate the 100^th  anniversary of that tour. From that experience the school also created  the documentary film I watched this morning.

In 1973, upon graduation from the Enterprise State Junior College, I intended to transfer to Auburn University.  But because of a choir, I instead found myself at Samford University in Birmingham. The A Cappella Choir would become my musical and emotional home for the next three years. There was that other home in  Jasper, Alabama, but that’s another story.  One of the highlights of my three years in this choir was a trip to Norway in the summer of 1975. The fjord cruise was without a doubt my most significant experience in beauty. The surrounding snow-capped peaks reflected into the blue-green waters creating the illusion that the river was a deep as the mountains were high. I take myself there in meditation quite often.  Another highlight was, when in the spring of 1976, the St. Olaf Choir visited Samford and performed in the Leslie Wright Fine Arts Center. As good as the Samford Choir was, I knew that I was in the presence of greatness. The music was extraordinary. I knew that we only approached the sounds coming out of this choir.

In 1976 after graduation I  married a girl in the Samford Choir and the next year we moved to Louisville, Kentucky for me to continue my education. Upon graduation in 1979, I accepted a position on a church staff in Rossville, Georgia. Four years later during a time of deep depression and discouragement, I resigned. I spent three frustrating years as a real estate agent.  Then I passed the Series 7 exam and affiliated with IDS Financial Services whose home was in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On the plane to Minnesota, I carried a thought that became a prayer. “I want to meet someone in this organization who will tell me that his affiliation with this company is an important part of his personal faith”. I met that man.  He  even invited me to choir rehearsal at his church, the Colonial Church in Edina, Minnesota. Of all things, I met  a woman in that choir who grew up in the church where I was on staff in Signal Mountain, Tennessee. The next Sunday at church in Edina, Minnesota, I met her parents who were founding members of the Signal Mountain Baptist Church. I also enjoyed a peak spiritual experience during the communion that followed the service.

Four years later I returned to Minneapolis as a trainer at IDS’s new multi-million dollar facility in Chaska. Besides being a workshop leader, in true Minneapolis fashion, I attended a professional hockey game at the Target Center and shopped at the Mall of America. I don’t remember anything about the training that I provided, but I remember a lot about the Mall of America. It’s like the retail equivalent to Disney World. There’s a roller coaster inside the three story mall!

So what about that documentary touched me so deeply? It was how the Minnesota-Norway connections of that college intersected  my own Minnesota-Norway experience. And how the music of the St. Olaf Choir intersected the music of my own Samford University A Cappella Choir. There I I sang much of the music I heard this morning.  I knew it by heart.

While I was on staff of that church in Rossville, Georgia, the church provided a house for us just a few  blocks from the church.  For the last thirty five years, we have lived within five miles of that house. We've lived thirty two of those years in the same house. So now you can understand how this documentary is a significant part of “the story of my life”. Now you can understand how Minnesota and  Norway have become such  important parts of me. The song I was looking for when I found this documentary was O Day Full of Grace by F. Melius Christiansen.. It was my favorite piece during my three years at Samford.  As I listened to the St. Olaf Choir singing a song composed by its founder, I was flooded with remembrance.

It has been raining a slow, gentle rain since yesterday and it's still raining now. And I have nowhere to be till Tuesday morning. It's a day full of grace, indeed.