Book I - Minnesota on the Map
“Stephanus! Wake up!”
“Wh-what?,” stammered Stephanus coming out of a dream.
“Awaken!”
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I am a spirit. And I am here to show you your future,” came the answer.
“But why? And how can you show me my future?
“It is my will,” answered the Spirit.
“Alright. What do you want to show me?”
“I want to show you a distant land on a distant shore.”
“Shore? You mean our Mare Nostrum or some inland lake?”
Stephanus knew that the Mediterranean (which was what the Mare Nostrum was called in Latin) was very big, and had heard talk of ancient stories of places far from his city.”
“I don't mean Mare Nostrum.”
“But then what?” Stephanus was confused.
“Don't you remember your dream when I woke you?”
The dream was still in his memory and Stephanus ventured to recall.
“I remember a far, far place as if in another world, with many lakes. The name was in a strange tongue. And it sounded like an echo, or a poem. I think the name was Minnesotum…”Minnesotum, Mare Clarum.”
“Does that make sense? It's, it's not clear to me right now.”
“That's right!” said the Spirit. “Your Mare Nostrum is not clear, but the distant bodies of water will be clear. They will be fresh water.”
“Fresh water? You mean from springs and rivers?”
“No, this fresh water will come from gigantic pieces of ice from the top of the world.”
Now Stephanus’s head was spinning like a giant planet. “Gigantic pieces of ice? I-I can't imagine!
“That’s alright,” came the answer. “You don't need to. I will make it so.”
Life in Athens
Stephanus lived in Athens in the early years of our Lord in 5 A.D. The Greek youth Stephanus was speaking Latin because Athens had now been part of the Roman Republic—and Empire--for 150 years.
And now even the Spirit was speaking Latin! The world was indeed changing rapidly. Stephanus lives in an Athenian oikos built by his father, whose name Nikias in Greek means “Victory.”
The Fall and Rise of a Republic
But sadly the Athenians had lost their government to the Romans and were now governed by another republic—the Roman Republic which had in turn been overthrown by powerful generals who proclaimed the Roman Empire. Dreams of freedom had been lost.
The Romans defeated an exhausted Athens at the Battle of Corinth in 150 B.C. (Before Christ, who had just been born five short years before and was now walking the earth, attracting a lot of attention). Yet in this time the family has a slave, named Theron, sold to them as a slave by the ruler Romans.
The Nikias family lives near the Aegean Sea, and mother Theano manages the small family’s household, including securing all the water they need.
Nikias isn’t a soldier, he’s a teacher. He’s teaching the new math in a Greek private school.
His city-state Athens, the leader of all Greece, decided to make war to drive off the Romans. Although it turned out badly for them, the idea of a republic was taken by the Romans themselves so there’s that.
Actually, Theron, the family’s slave had been teaching Stephanus since he was a child. Theron taught Stephanus the basics of reading and writing—in both Latin and Greek—and arithmetic (the three R’s) and discussed with him moral and ethical questions. Theron’s a trusted member of the family.
And so it was that Stephanus told Theron his dream about Minnesotum, Mare Clarum to Theron and they both sat for a moment, wondering….
The Other Side
Novus Orbis
Far away and unknown to Stephanus or his father—or seemingly to anybody—there were distant shores, and a special place. A magical place in the center of what would become North America. A placed called Minnesotum, Mare Clarum--full of clear, fresh water, as American Indians would describe it.
And what a story it was.
Minnesotum
The beginning was the end.
Not only the world of men, but ALL LIFE, was mercilessly wiped out, ground down and pushed along, and into bodies of water.
Over the course of many centuries huge mile-high masses of ice and snow visited major population centers of what is today Minnesota and eradicated everything—scouring out rivers and streams, and giving the region Hennepin/Anoka Counties, home of Minneapolis; Ramsey/Dakota Counties, home of St. Paul (the famous Mississippi river boat city); Washington County, home of what would be Stillwater on the St. Croix, birthplace of Minnesota Territory. Stearns County of St. Cloud and St. Louis County, home of an inland seafaring city of Duluth.
Duluth would be set upon the Great Lake Superior (a body of water so monstrously huge and endless it exudes a foreboding, silent presence if you happen upon it at night if you happen to be a landlubber.) Somehow, magically, all the major cities in Minnesotum Mare Clarum had been shaped by glaciers. But first, all people and all life had to be ended--by a giant polar reach from the top of the world.
While far away from the terrific intruders life carried on, all that was left behind by the abominable snow and ice was defaced land—and the great Great Lakes (Lake Superior, and to the east, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie—stretching all the way to New York and Lake Ontario.)
These great waters were not lakes so much as a collection of new oceans joining the Pacific with this new gigantic waterway. And ending way down in Minnesotum Mare Clarum. New plains had been graded by a fantastically huge grader never seen in North America before, a plane which created vast new lands for new forests and new farms. But not before more richness was dropped by the abominable ice.
For Minnesota Mare Clarum, the snowy visitors left lakes and rivers.
Life of a Dream and a New Fellowship
Stephanus’s ancient dream, born long before he was conceived, lasts forever. The cauldron into which Rome fell was followed by a contest for the West and dreams of what lay beyond as men would come to venture across the endless sea.
The spirit had spoken of a land of the mighty Mississippi River, left behind by the Minnesota glaciers. And, through a long and winding road after those cataclysmic snows and glaciers, men at last did return to the land envisioned, Minnesotum Mare Clarum. The heart of this storied land was a river, called the Mississippi, known to generations as the four-eyed river.
And so it was that a glorious expedition in 1832 A.D., a fellowship of seekers of the source, made an arduous voyage to the very origin of that vast glacial flow that would gather water and power, and fill the Gulf of Mexico. To that vast gulf from which future voyages from the Old World of Stephanus would come, to Minnesota Mare Clarum, and actually discover the New World Stephanus had once dreamed of.
The Indian School
Schoolcraft was the teacher’s name. Today we might call him Indiana Jones. A leader, and a teacher like Stephanus’s father Nikia, and a true explorer. Accompanying him were the native American Indians, for after many centuries, they came to possess a deep knowledge of the landscape, life systems, and natural resources of the Mississippi Region. They were key to the Minnesota Fellowship including the American explorers like Schoolcraft and Joseph Nicollet.
This included the guide for the Schoolcraft’s quest, Ozawindib, the Ojibway (Chippewa) guide, who spoke Ojibway. Along the way Schoolcraft and his explorers interacted with all the other American Indian tribes they met, including Dakota in Minnesota and Ho-Chunk in Wisconsin (Winnebago).
In 1832 A.D. Schoolcraft’s Itasca Fellowship located and discovered the sources of this storied work of nature, the Four-Eyed River. He identified Minnesota’s Lake Itasca as the River's true source. Schoolcraft had a background in classical studies—including the very Latin and Greek the slave Theron had taught to Stephanus and his family. The clever scholar even invented a brand-new name for the Great River Source, ‘Itasca.’ The source of the Mississippi is named after "veritas" (truth) and "caput" (head)--meaning "true head" of the Great River. It announced Minnesota to the world before we were even a territory or could vote in Congress.
This invention of Schoolcraft’s School preserved the knowledge of the ancient lost dream of Mediterranean hope—the freedom Stephanus and Theron sought.
Through it all Latin--considered a universal language, was still being used in the 19th century! In fact when an Italian man called Columbus, from another center of trade on the Mediterrean like Stephanus, was still speaking Latin while chasing down a way to get to India. In 1477, before he set sail for Central America in 1492, he visited the farm Ingjaldshvöll in the land of Iceland. Still in Stephanus’s new language of Latin. 1500 hundred year’s after Stephanus, Columbus stayed the winter at that farm before he made his famous voyage to meet the Indians of North America.
Book II – The Voice of God
Και άκουσα φωνή από τον ουρανό, σαν τον ήχο πολλών υδάτων
"And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters
και σαν τον ήχο μιας δυνατής βροντής». Αποκάλυψη 14:2
and like the sound of loud thunder." Revelation 14:2.
Stephanus and Theron began their class one sunny Greek day under Roman rule. The sun glinted off the surface of the Aegean Sea out the window. The sea air seemed free if a little salty.
Theron the family slave asked his student Stephanus if there were any moral topics the student wanted to discuss today.
“I keep remembering that dream I had where the spirit showed me Minnesotum, Mare Clarum,” Stephanus answered thoughtfully.
“Is that a moral topic?” asked Theron.
“Well, the spirit talked about the clear waters, not the salt water, but a rush of clear waters left behind by huge sheets of ice, sky high. And I’m wondering if he could have meant a world free of slavery, and of these Romans everywhere,” he answered Theron, looking about and out the windows.
Theron was silent for a moment. Slavery was something he rarely talked about, or thought about. Romans prided themselves in seeking an enlightened, civilized and free world for humankind. And he knew they engaged in a more enlightened slavery, because it was needed.
But he did not know about this dream of Minnesotum, Mare Clarum. “I don’t know,” he answered. “I don’t know if such a world can exist. Can the new world be truly free? Without slavery?”
“I cannot see into the future of the dream,” said Stephanus after considering the question. “I have heard some interesting things coming out of Judah, in Capernaum, though. A terrible attack on children by the rulers. Unbelievable barbarism by the Romans in crushing rebellions by the Jews, who no longer govern themselves either.” “Right, just like Greeks no longer govern in our home” thought Theron to himself.
“The Roman system of laws is one thing for Roman citizens, and another thing for us, the Greeks,” offered Theron. “And the same thing applies to the Jews. Ever since they were conquered by Alexander they have not been able to live under their own laws. And now they’re ruled by the Romans, the Jewish Herod Antipas, as the tetrarch of Galilee installed by Rome.”
“But now there is a challenge to that arrangement and that led to the slaughter of all babies under two years old. Because he feared a Jewish prophecy that a peacemaker and savior would be born there in Bethlehem.”
“Your dream, Stephanus, appears to be our best hope. But how can it be”?
The spirit said “Because it is my will.”
That night at supper, Stephanus asked his father Nikea about it. “Why do we have slaves, father? I mean why do so many Greeks have slaves? And now, why are so many Greeks slaves? If slaves could vote would things be different?”
Normally Nikea and Theano didn’t like such subjects at the dinner table. But Stephanus had appeared troubled for the last few days and Theano had overheard some of Theron’s lessons. So finally Stephanus’s father Nikea spoke up.
“Well, son, just like you are not yet able to vote in the Ecclesiastic elections, slaves cannot vote because voting is based on a certain degree of knowledge and education, and qualifications. I myself am only allowed to vote for the Ecclesia, our principal assembly for Athens and that’s because I’m a free male and completed Athenian military training. But I can’t vote beyond that.
“Theron being a slave, he cannot vote, because the right to vote is for the well-being and good governance of our city state, big issues for the good of the whole.”
“Has Theron been talking with you about slavery?” He pressed Stephanus.
There was an uncomfortable silence. Stephanus saw his father differently somehow. Then Theano said “Theron’s father was free when he was living in Judea.”
Stephanus answered, “Well, I had this dream the other night where a spirit showed me a different way of living. It was in a far-off land called Minnesotum Mare Clarum carved out by great sheets of ice and rushes of water. And I wondered what it would be like, and talked about moral and ethical issues in my class with Theron.
Turning to Theano, Nikea asked her “What did you say about Theron’s father?”
“He was captured as a slave in the [maccab uprisng?]
Thank you for inviting me, and I’m glad I could make it, glad to be discussing this critical issue of Minnesota agriculture, a source of immense pride, actually, our farming, I’ve worked in several private and public companies helping to market your great work—Cargill, Pillsbury and General Mills, and you are a treasure of the entire state. And we need the farmer back on the flag, and the Indian too, and regarding that I am calling for clemency for Leonard Peltier based on the record that has come out.
I met Amy Klobuchar who has represented Minnesota on the Senate Agriculture Committee since soon after she was first elected in 2006, and in fact I was there when she walked through the precinct caucus where my friend who headed Migrants in Action sent me as a proxy for health reasons, and I had just been told I should get him off the voting delegation because he was a man, and DFL rules limit men. But I first met her as she attended a government meeting I had at the University of Minnesota with those active migrants, the Chicano activists, and talked with her about her dad, the very talented writer Jim Klobuchar (I had delivered his papers). And Amy confirmed this at the FarmFest debate where she sad right next to me.
Now Amy is very serious about her politics, and she is passionate about some things, especially abortion, which from the farmer’s point of view is bad, it hurts the families which are very important to a farm family, and it literally kills your market with 65 million souls lost since Roe. But Amy doesn’t come from a farming family, but rather an iron ore family. Very different.
