It was a bit rainy this morning at the Minnesota State Fair, so Minneapolis poet Leslie Ball headed inside, where she got a demonstration of a trade from the past; that of woodworking.
Ball is spending each day at the Fair watching, listening, and writing.
SPEAKER: Roger, the wood turner camps overnight up beyond machinery hill, up under the water tower, under the stars. Before sunrise, he hikes across the fairgrounds to his workplace in Heritage Square.
Roger looks like a 6 foot gnome, wire rimmed spectacles, thick strawberry beard. He seems as elemental as the wood he shapes into bowls. This morning, he works on a chunk of birch wedged into an old lathe.
Above our heads, two slender branches span the ceiling, tips wrapped with rope like a giant fishing line that drops down to wrap around the spindle of the lathe, then continues down to the tip of the treadle pedal on the floor where Roger stands left foot pumping the treadle up and down, up and down, up and down, pulling the rope and spinning the wood.
He is warm, welcoming, moving with steady calm. The rhythm of the lathe hypnotizes the crowd, the branches overhead creak softly, birch shavings curl up and float to the floor. I ask Roger if he is this calm away from the lathe.
Are you this patient out in the world? He answers, I love my work. I couldn't do this without patience. And doing this gives me patience. He says, if you work from your heart, you can't help but find peace. Wood turner, computer programmer, budget planner, doesn't matter. If you work from your heart, you can't help but find peace.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Digitization made possible by the National Historical Publications & Records Commission.
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