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The Lake Deserves Its Day
What does one give to a 10,001-year-old?
That’s about how old I figure that Lake Superior
is because last year the experts told me that the lake was about 10,000
years old.
Of course, that was the same age they said year
before last, so we may be looking at 10,002. After 8,000, specifics
probably really don’t matter.
 Anyway, I’m trying to come up with an appropriate “gift” for this year’s Lake Superior Day - July 15.
Did you know Lake Superior Day is always the third Sunday in July?
I like to think of it as the lake’s birthday.
When the glaciers were receding and leaving the water that fed Lake
Superior, mid-July may have been the best time to melt and recede.
Lake Superior Day presents some etiquette dilemmas: What to do? What to give? What exactly does the day mean?
I’m old enough (barely, really) to remember a television program called, “Queen for a Day.”
On the show, a 1950s housewife with a hard-luck
story won kitchen prizes, like a souped-up refrigerator (which didn’t
bode well for her royal treatment after the program ended).
Should I ever be voted Queen Editor for a Day,
I’d hope for something better than a fully loaded dictionary or
personalized reporters notebooks. Actually, a souped-up refrigerator
might be nice.
The premise of Queen for a Day, more or less, was that everyone deserves to be treated as special.
Lake Superior has a day because it is not like every lake; it deserves royal treatment because it’s not ordinary.
Our lake doesn’t need a refrigerator, though a
break from global warming might be nice (see the story about rising
water temperatures in the Kitchi-Gami Almanac).
Thoughtful use of resources such as electricity
- turn off lights when you’re not in the room, like Mom said - can be a
gift to the lake. So open the refrigerator fewer times on Lake Superior
Day. That would be a gift to my waistline, too.
Some good folks do think about the right ways to
celebrate Lake Superior Day. Churches especially have taken the lead in
many places.
In Superior, Wisconsin, Bob Browne is known for
working hard to get folks out for Lake Superior Day. His and others’
plans for the day will soon be posted by the Lake Superior Binational
Forum at its Website, www.superiorforum.info. The site also gives
examples about what you can do to protect the lake.
There are other gifts that I’ve been considering.
With diminished water levels, I’ve thought about
contributing a pail or two of water, but if I get it from my tap, it’s
already Lake Superior water. (The lake gives to me every day.) I could
drive out of the watershed, bring water home … or could avoid
sprinkling the lawn too often.
Admiring - honoring - the lake is a two-way
gift. A good way to be awed and inspired by the lake is through the
photography of Craig Blacklock (it’s in this issue, too.)
You (yes, you) might be the best part of my gift
ideas for the lake. Let me encourage you to do something special for
the day, even just a couple of minutes to “think lake.” Or pick up
trash on a beach and then just sit and listen to what the waves tell
you.
Or maybe by next year, you, I and a few hundred
others can pull off an idea I’ve heard that tickled my fancy: Hug the
lake with folks joining hands all along the shores.
Do you have other great ideas for our Great
Lake? Tell me (or show me) what you or your community does for the day.
Or send a good idea to use next year. Send an e-mail or drop a postcard
to P.O. Box 16417, Duluth, MN 55816-0417. We’ll post your ideas and
make it a birthday card to our favorite lake.
P.S. For those who may wonder, my “Queen Editor for a Day”
chair in the photo is one of the many, let’s say, “hands-on” items at
the Founder’s Museum and Pioneer Village near Thunder Bay. You can -
and I hope you will - read about the museum in this issue.
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