Correction

Minnesota Senior News very much appreciates input from readers. Our Light Touch section is one of our most-read pages. We trust that materials sent in as original are original and that reasonable efforts are made to ascertain original penmanship where needed. Last month's "author unknown" poetry inclusion, incorrectly titled "Threads," elicited responses from attentive readers and the author himself, Thomas M. Daly, who copyrighted the piece in 2005. It is with gratitude and apologies to Mr. Daly that we are reprinting the poem, correctly titled "Tapestry," by Thomas M. Daly.

What Senior News readers are reading

The Compassionate Rebel; Energized by Anger, Motivated by Love
Interviews and stories by Burt F. Berlowe, Rebecca A. Janke and Julie D. Penshorn

Reviewed by Betty Beier, Minneapolis

• On her 70th birthday, Rita Steinhagen went to jail for six months. This sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, who spent much of her life working for the poor and for peace, was arrested when picketing the School of the Americas in Georgia. While in federal prison, she reached out to other women prisoners and shed light on some of the harsh sentencing laws and the prison system.
• In his 50s, Tom La Blanc works against racism and for a culture of peace through his poetry and his native Chippewa spirituality, after coming close to suicide and having lived in nearly 100 foster homes as a child. Today he runs improvisation workshops for kids and is raising his own family.
• "I teach people to stand up for themselves, wherever I go," says Dorothy Woolfork, who grew up picking cotton in an Arkansas sharecropper's family. Moving to Minneapolis to avoid oppression, she attended an all-white cosmetology school but ran into racism trying to find a job. With persistence, she became the first black beautician in the Twin Cities and later owned her own shop. Now in her 80s, she volunteers in civil and human rights organizations and has been honored by the NAACP.

These are just three of the 50 personal stories of Minnesota change-makers of varied ages featured in this gem of an anthology, which accompanies each portrait with discussion questions and resources for reflection and action. Those sharing their stories include the McDonald sisters, Jim Gambone, Michael True, Marianne Hamilton, Mary Shepard, Jim Goodnow and Carol Banister, to name just a few.

The book juxtaposes two virtues: compassion with rebellion, and shows how just one person can make a big difference in our world. It's an inspiration for those feeling discouraged along the way. It is available at www.amazon.com, www.humanrightsandpeacestore.org or by calling Bert Berlowe at 612/722-1504.

Tapestry

Examine life's tapestry,
Find yourself there.
See how the threads of your life
Are woven together
With those of others.

Threads of love and work
And tears and laughter
Stretch back across the years
To ancestors unknown.
Friends unmet.

Threads newly woven.
Tie your cares and hopes
To familiar faces
And those yet forming
Whose threads must still be spun.

Joy and sorrow.
Delight and sadness
Are entwined in the fabric
Of our lives

If we could remove
A thread of sorrow.
Would we not risk unraveling
Our joy also?

Could we pull out a thread
Of pain, without removing
The love and compassion
That are knotted to it?

So....
Let the wheel spin,
The shuttle fly:
The cloth is whole
And we are one.

Thomas M. Daly, Bloomington
copyright©2005