American Wanderlust

I've spent the majority of my life shacking up on the roads and cities of southern Minnesota, and it is ever a splendid sea of miniature forests covering highways, bad drivers, and open fields full of wheat and cow manure. Minnesota isn't anything special, and that's precisely why it's one of the most beautiful states in the country. Sure, it's cold ninety percent of the time and the snow is enough to make you hate anything that crosses your path in the winter, but the innocence within, the people who inhabit it, makes the living there worth it.

Minnesota is by all accounts one of the worst and best states there is, though. Minneapolis and St. Paul are the zenith of Midwestern culture and beauty, with architecture matched only by Chicago and its rate of world famous cartoonists is second to none. If only because Charles Schulz is ten men in one. The landscape is calm, serene, and allows for quiet reflection. The lake shores of Paul Bunyan's home are immensely and exceedingly beautiful, and the way the way slowly turns from sun-soaked to melted ice beneath the surface is unlike anything I've ever experienced. Sure, California has its sun and New York has Broadway, but Minnesota has the makings of a great beginning to any story. It's just a shame more authors don't talk about it. All we have is that one short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis, when we should be getting the literary royal treatment.

Yes, the weather is absurd and moody. It can go from stormy to unsettlingly calm in point five seconds, but I have to give credit where credit is due: it's never boring. The winters are harsh and unforgiving, and the summers are full of pent up rage from good old Mother Nature, but driving down the highways into the Twin Cities while rain drops quietly from the sky isn't anything I would ever trade in.

There's a magic quality to this unimpressive little state of mine. The scent of possibility wafts through its snow covered trees and muggy summers. The sun sets magnificently on the Stone Arch Bridge as people walk to and from the area around Guthrie Center to this neat little park by St. Anthony Main Theatre. The world doesn't seem to be doing all too well nowadays, but as long as Minnesota stands, the world will forever be beautiful. And if you ever travel to Minnesota, just be forewarned it won't seem very appealing to leave. It's the magic at work.