Before Christmas, my husband and I read a book titled One Foot in Heaven. It was a biography of a Methodist minister whose last appointment happened to be at Mason City First United Methodist Church. In the book, he described the hectic pace of Mason City, IA. At that time, the parsonage was downtown next to the old church, and traffic, theatre-goers and trains were a constant racket at the home.
I think some of that is still true today. Cars, foot traffic and people on bicycles and skateboards are pretty constant. What is different are the engines of industry that seem to run the town. We could see that shift on our walk today-passing boarded up buildings, and the crumbling facade of Union Pacific. Huge churches sit back to back with closed businesses and homes with "For Sale" signs. The energy that drives Mason City, appears to have left its heart. It seems to reside more in the outer circles of the town: East and West on Hwy. 18; South on Hwy. 65. Rather than the people coming to the center to share and mingle, the feeling seems much more like an exodus as people commute out of Mason City to the places where "stuff is going on."
Mason City, IA is losing population; people are leaving faster than people are coming. This is not a new space for me to inhabit. I grew up in a "boom/bust" town characterized by seasons of high employment and bustling local businesses, followed by howling winters when the only shops that could keep their doors open were the bars. I have seen this kind of shift in population in classical concert attendance. I remember a time when a concert hall would be full of people excited to hear a Mozart symphony. Now, more often than not, the concert halls are only a 3rd full, and of that 3rd, not even a fraction is under 55. I have been witnessing the loss of a generation of people who played piano and organ faithfully for their churches, civic organizations and retirement center, and I have seen the lack of people lining up to fill their shoes. I have been standing in places where, of a hundred persons gathered, only 6 were under 50 years old, and despite the robustness of a local school's music programs, I have only seen dwindling numbers of people involved in community choirs, community theatres, and large scale concert performances. I have never worshipped in a church where I was part of a large group of people my own age or younger.
I am reminded, as I walk past the evidence of a shifting economic focus, of Mesa Verde, in Colorado. Once, there was a huge population center there. People came from all around to trade and marry and grow in the high ruins of Cliff Palace, Spruce Tree Lodge and Balcony House. Now, they are empty of all save the tourists. I wonder what it was like for the people who stayed. But, I am also reminded of my home town, which somehow shifted its pattern and has swelled in population from 5,000 people to 12, 344, and whose economy diversified so that the lives and livelihoods of people are not so dependent on one kind of work. It is now a town with "stuff going on," in every direction and its downtown is no longer a ghost town.
I wonder what the future holds for Mason City, IA. Change, I am sure. Transformation; and there is loss here, as old lives move on and new lives move in. I find myself reciting Psalm 103 (NIV), David's response to the realization that all human lives and achievements are as short-lived and fragile as blades of grass:
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