Kansas Year

Kansas is no mere geographical expression, but a "state of mind," a religion, and a philosophy in one. 

-Carl Becker, 1910

As of January 29, we have entered the 150th year in the life of the great state of Kansas.  The more sophisticated among us call this the "Sesquicentennial Year."  There are all kinds of celebrations going on in the Sunflower State and facebook pages and blogs.  My favorite is this one: 150 poems for 150 years.  Every few days the Kansas poet laureate posts a new poem, something that captures Kansas somehow. 

I haven't found any celebrations here in Seattle, but I did celebrate Kansas Day the other month with a fellow Kansan, and I have a picture to prove it.  This is my celebratory baked good, a "sunflower swirl."   

You see the resemblance to our state flower also captured in more than one of the quilted wall hangings that I own.  

I'd also like to take this opportunity to celebrate our state mammal (buffalo), our state song (Home on the Range), our state bird (the Western Meadowlark), our state reptile (the Box Turtle), and our state motto (Ad Aspera per Aspera: "to the stars through difficulties").  These are the good things they teach us in the Kansas public schools, good things that stay with us and carry us through a lifetime even here in the wild west. 

So much of my reading and thinking is about place, and really it always has been.  I think that's why I love Wendell Berry so much and why deep down I have never been at home in my transient urban life.  It's because I grew up on a generations old farm and in a state where we connect to who we are by where we are: cardinal directions, weather, fields, big sky.  It's because I will always associate work ethic, community, and faith with the homeland.

I'm not in Kansas any more as many a northwesterner has quipped when I claim my place, but Kansas isn't just about geography.  So here from Seattle, Washington let it be proclaimed that I am a proud Kansan.  Happy Kansas year to all.