Happy
birthday, RJ Kroc and company. Or should I say, “Happy anniversary?” Can it
really be five years since Ashland’s Sunday afternoon naptime was disturbed by
a Salvation Army band triumphantly marching from 40 East Third Street to 527
East Liberty Street? It seems like just yesterday that we had the privilege of
opening the doors of the Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community
Center to the people of Ashland. Then again, I can barely remember the grassy
field that had been tucked away behind Luray Lanes for so many years, as the Kroc
Center seems like an old neighborhood friend that’s been around a long time.
The passage
of time is tricky to measure. Of course, we measure it in minutes and hours,
days and weeks, but we also recognize that our perception of time changes, as
time can either fly or drag on. As J.K. Rowling tells us in Harry Potter and
the Goblet of Fire, “It's a strange thing, but when you are dreading something,
and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of
speeding up.” Dr. Seuss asks us, “How did it get so late so soon?” Yet when
you’re five years old and waiting for Christmas morning, time creeps along at
an agonizingly slow pace.
There were
days during the Kroc Center development that I wasn’t sure we’d even make it to
the ground-breaking, but now we’re marking the five year anniversary with a
weekend of celebration. There will be a civic dinner honoring Ashland’s Ev
DeVaul, an arts festival offering instructional sessions, an arts display, and
a sidewalk chalk art contest, and a worship service with Commissioner Todd
Bassett, a former National Commander of the Salvation Army as the guest
speaker. But here’s the best part - our own KC Big Band will be on stage on
Saturday night (April 5) at the Kroc. Music coordinator Neil Ebert has chosen some
of my favorites – He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands, Show Me Your Ways, and
a glorious rendition of I’ll Fly Away. (Disclaimer: my husband and sons did not
pay me to write these words – I really do love the Big Band sound). Get more
details on the Kroc website or at the welcome center.
If I’ve done
my math correctly, it’s been 1807 days since opening day, April 17, 2009. Those
days have been filled with many measurable outcomes, computations expected by
funders in today’s world of philanthropy. We as a community can be glad for
those outcomes, because they symbolize skills achieved, employment maintained,
and families fed.
But as I reflect on the impact the Kroc Center has
had upon the Ashland community and on me, it’s the intangible influences that speak
most deeply. The strains of live Dixieland music swinging through the corridors
of area nursing homes. A beaming young boy displaying his first place prize in an
ugly tie contest. A circle of knitters, learning the wisdom of “if in doubt,
rip it out.” Water cascading from the tumble buckets at the spraypark on a
blistering summer afternoon, hard as that feeling is to imagine with snow still
in the air. A holy hush at the labyrinth. A homeless woman accompanied by
caring companions as she walked through the valley of the shadow of death.
During my years of high school French, I was
introduced to Antoine de
Saint-Exupéry’s story, “The Little Prince.” Back in the day, I was able to read
it in French, but those skills are long gone. However, one phrase has remained
with me: On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les
yeux. Translated, the Little Prince taught me, “One sees clearly only with
the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
As we gather for next weekend’s festivities, we’ll embrace friends both
new and old, recount the funny stories, and reflect on the impact the Center
has made on Ashland. But if I seem a bit distracted from time to time, don’t
worry – I’m planning to do some heart-seeing and heart-remembering too. Hope to
see you there.
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