LETTERS: OLD SEMINARY AT SUNRISE

To the editor:

I moved to Cape Girardeau a little over four years ago. It seemed the appropriate place to raise a family, attend church on Sunday and find one's niche in the community.

Since then it seems we have been overwhelmed with the need of a new school, the school board's changeover, increases in our sewer and trash rates, the new bypass and eventual bridge over the Mississippi River and, most recently, the decision on where to place the new federal courthouse. All of these items can polarize a community to the point where nothing gets done and the residents feel frustrated.

This is very much how I have felt of late. This morning at an unbelievable hour I found myself at a convenience store getting a cup of hot tea to go (I truly am trying to give up caffeine) and driving around town. I love to watch the sunrise and found a very different spot this time. I parked at the old seminary (present-day Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation) and started to walk the grounds. I sat at the top of the concrete steps leading down to the bridge. It was surprisingly warm out, considering last week's snow and sleet.

As I sipped my tea, my attention was pulled to the horizon. The sky was dark orange, and fog engrossed the far bank of the river so that you could make out little. The trees appeared as gray charcoaled images attempting to break through. The bridge was intriguingly busy. I had no idea how many of our residents worked in Illinois and how many Illinois people came to Cape Girardeau. The bridge did not moan with its heavy responsibilities. In fact, it seemed to hum. There was an elderly man walking his dog near the tracks which rested in quiet below, awaiting the next scheduled train.

Slowly, the dark orange was lighter. The birds were in sudden chatter with the impending birth of a new day. The laughter of school children a few blocks over brought a silent smile to my face. The fog was lifting, and you could now make out trees with actual branches. The breeze brought a chill to my face and spine, but it was delightful. Gradually, as God plans it every day in its wonder, the first white blast of a sunbeam crested the horizon. I was floored at its intensity. Within seconds several others followed, and there it was: the sun had risen.

The sun's rays captured bits of the trees, and they glistened as if they had a gentle frost or were simply evaporating the moisture from the earlier fog. The river danced in its delight, and as I closed my eyes I could hear the gentle laps of the waves washing upon the rocks below.

So many of us become wrapped up in getting the children to school, our getting to work on time and meeting demands placed on us by others that we lose the total picture. We are a community, and as such need each other. I turned my attention tothe old seminary and thought of the brighter days it had brought to the community. The annual bockwurst dinner and fall bazaar are no longer graced with the presence of Father Al Hoernig, superior, now at Perryville. The freshman mud slide initiation is also no longer. I seemed sad that such a wonderful old building and grounds were abandoned and there was no one to delight in this view of the river. No one except me, my tea and the birds.

The Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation is like this sunrise I watched this morning. It is a group with new visions and new energy. The foundation does not want your tax dollars. It simply wants you. You to volunteer to help paint or purchase paint. You to help rake up the leaves and bind the twigs. You to bring your family down here for a picnic on the grounds and to see the river from a totally new perspective. You may take a tour of the facilities too. Grants are being processed for children's theater groups and a local history and family library room. There are even reception rooms to rent and pottys for the kids.

I invite you to come down some morning and watch the sun rise with me. It would be a shame to lose this property to a commercial developer. For years the laughter of young seminarians filled the grounds. Nothing would delight me more than to see this and all our future generations filling the grounds with laughter, puppies on leashes, Frisbees being tossed in the air and a new summer coffee crowd who would meet simply to watch the sunrise and remember what Cape Girardeau offers. That we are a wonderful town, despite the politics which are necessary with life, with a wonderful vision: our children, our heritage and our future. There's an open invitation any day.

DIANA STEEL, Vice Chairman

Colonial Cape Girardeau Foundation Board

Cape Girardeau