© 2019 Mary T. O'connor All Rights Reserved
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
© 2019 Mary T. O’Connor All Rights Reserved AKRON APRON A Thesis Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Fine Arts Mary T. O’Connor August, 2019 AKRON APRON Mary T. O’Connor Thesis Approved: Accepted: __________________________ __________________________ David Patrick Giffels Dr. Maria Zanetta Advisor Department Chair __________________________ __________________________ Mary Biddinger Dr. Linda Subich Faculty Reader Interim Dean of the College __________________________ __________________________ Catherine Wing Dr. Chand Midha Faculty Reader Dean of the Graduate School __________________________ Date ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The generosity of Duane and Lisa Crabbs, for making the decision. The encouragement, support and bravery of David Patrick Giffels, who once pulled a staple straight out of my thumbnail. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS I. THE HOLY SEE: LETTER ONE ……………………….....................................……1 FREE ROSE LIGHT…………………………………….....................................…….8 THE CROSSING …………………………………………....................................….48 ENCOUNTERS WITH JOAN …………………………..................................……...57 IT’S MY MISFORTUNE, MR. STOPPARD ………….................................……….62 JOURNEY TO AUTHENTIKOS ………………………................................………72 GRASSY KNOLL: “DIS KROON OH MET TREE AHH” ...............................……78 II. THE HOLY SEE: LETTER TWO ……..............................……………………….…88 CREATION GROANS ……………………..............................……………………..95 A BED IN SHEOL ………………………………..............................………….…..108 THE ARC OF COOL …………………………..............................………...………124 AKRON BLUES: WHITE PICKET FENCE ……..............................………..……140 AKRON BLUES: PATRICK ARMOUR ……………..............................…………160 COAST OF TYRE ………………………………….............................……………183 ERIC HARMON: LIGHT GLASS BLOCK ………….............................…….……193 RADIANT ……………………………………………............................…………..217 iv III. THE HOLY SEE: LETTER THREE …………………….....................................…230 NO SMALL PARTS …………………………………......................................……245 PLAYING WITH MATCHES ………………….….........................................……263 MARGINS ………………………………………….....................................………288 v THE HOLY SEE ONE Archbishop Christophe Pierre Apostolic Nuncio Apostolic Nunciature to the United States Diplomatic Mission of the Holy See 3339 Massachusetts Avenue, Northwest Washington, DC June 8, 2016 “The Cuyahoga River sculpts a curving gracious break in the hills enclosing Akron, Ohio. Green ridges crown the edges. The city is an airy citadel, a shallow dish in open hands. One can enter the city by the arched ferocity of expressways, seeing nothing. Or one can cross into downtown on the Y Bridge, floating in space over the river valley into Akron, exalted place.” Your Excellency, What follows this less formal letter is the formal opening appeal for consideration of sainthood. I hope you will excuse my initial personal note, but given the unusual nature of the candidate, I thought an introduction would be welcome. Though I am incapable of rendering a scholarly or theological argument for the case to follow, I also believe that such an approach would not be appropriate. The subject candidate is common and accessible to all at all times. It is the ultimate inclusive designation of sacredness, the very ground of our being. It is not my intention or position to judge or grade the spiritual condition of the Roman Catholic Church. But as one who left the church as a teenager, I have since been transformed by mystic tradition of our faith. I undertake this campaign in gratitude for that saving grace. What follows is a document of hope and possibility for the holy, catholic and apostolic church; that the incontrovertible decline in the church as we experience it now might be reversed. It is that sincerity that guides my actions in writing to you, Excellency. Thank you for reading this letter. Mary Therese O’Connor Akron, Ohio 1 FIRST LETTER OF APPEAL: In the cause for public good; Petition on behalf of the City of Akron for consideration of sainthood. Petitioner presents as a given the inherent sanctity of the entirety of creation. To that understanding, Petitioner further states that if the sanctity of the universe is an accepted act of faith, such faith implies that future discoveries describing said universe as expanding must also include such increase as sanctified material. As The Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognizes persons who manifest extraordinary virtues and who have, by their faith and actions, been endowed with a capacity of inexplicable grace, manifesting in tangible form, as miracle(s), Petitioner respectfully submits that this same consideration be extended to “place”. The Vatican has recognized the apparition of The Blessed Virgin Mary in situ, in place, thus effectively deeming such select places as holy. In respectfully requesting consideration of the Petition, it is recognized that Akron is, in fact, no more sacred or worthy of designation of sainthood as any other humanly known or as-yet-unknown physical realm; however, as Petitioner shall describe, candidate Akron has manifested in abundance the qualities here to date recognized only in persons. The fundamental Catholic belief in the sacredness of life by virtue of its God-created existence extends therefor to all life. As such, Akron, as representative of all life can be interpreted as “Servant of God”, the first esteemed title granted by the church in the canonization process. 2 A description of the Ordinary Inexplicable Divinity within the Geographic Designation of the City of Akron, State of Ohio, United States: The Swell of the Laurentian Watershed The River: The Cuyahoga River is 80 miles long, but the source and the mouth are only 30 miles apart. How can it be that the Cuyahoga River is eighty miles long but from the spring source to where it flows into Lake Erie is only 30 miles apart? The riddle of the river’s course is gentle, subtle and geographically meek. The river is shaped like a child’s drawing of a smile. From its headwaters, it flows south, but meeting the gradual rise of the Laurentian Watershed, diverts in a steady westward curve until the path of least resistance takes it north, to Lake Erie. The Laurentian Watershed is a deceptively subtle land mass running east-west across Ohio. It is too gradual to perceive when looking at a contemporary map, and indictable if traveling by car along one of the roads traversing the crest. Time spent with a topographic map of the Western Reserve will bring the contour of the Laurentian Watershed forward. There is the curious gentle turn of the Cuyahoga River, probably the strongest clue. Gradually the eyes take other information from the flat surface and translates the early roads, points of human habitation and rivers into a third dimension, rising up. There is the phenomenon of Summit Lake for another clue. The lake and the city of Akron lay atop the modest plain of the watershed. Water flowing out of Summit Lake at its northern end flows to the Cuyahoga, through the Great Lakes to the Gulf of the St. Lawrence and the North Atlantic Ocean. Water flowing out from its southern end joins 3 the Tuscarawas, bound for the Ohio River, the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. What that means is that Summit Lake is the wellspring of a long, serpentine, leisurely continental divide. Summit Lake is an alluvial glacier-formed body in the middle of Akron. It gives no indication that it lays at an elevation of any stature. Across the long eastern flank, between the old houses and the Akron Municipal Housing Authority (henceforth referred to as “AMHA”) Summit Lake Apartments, marshes still proliferate. Boggy stretches of impenetrable thicket blow the cool air of decay and buggy gloom onto the flanking recreational towpath trail. The other deceptive aspect of Summit Lake’s relative height is the long wooded ridge running the length of the western side of the lake in the Kenmore neighborhood. The crest of the ridge is part of the shortest path between the southern end of the navigable Cuyahoga River and the northernmost navigable Tuscarawas. The eight mile portage was well-defined by indigenous travelers by the time it was incorporated into United States history as a treaty border between the advancing young republic and the people it needed to push west. Though it only lasted for fifteen years, the 1985 Treaty of Fort Macintosh made the ridge along Summit Lake the western border of the United States. *** The Stone: Sandstone is one of the most common types of sedimentary rock. It is still found in abundant consistency, thanks to the vanished sea that existed for millions of years, growing and shrinking and layering sand in a ribbon across the middle of the North 4 American continent. Berea sandstone is the name for the local manifestation. It has a ubiquitous presence as rectangular dressed blocks in the older buildings of Akron, Ohio. The voluptuous terrain throughout Akron made the consistent, fine-grained bedrock stone relatively easy to extract, and active quarries dotted the region in the formative years of Akron, including a quarry at the heart of the growing city, on Main Street. The legacy of the tire industry and coal burning domestic furnaces rendered the Berea sandstone buildings black. The recovery in Postindustrial Akron has included restoring the stone. Though