*
- There was a time, more than ten years ago,
when Wisconsin meant nothing to me.
I knew it as name on a map, but otherwise, the state,
and the upper Midwest, were an empty room in my mind.
I remember when I first actively thought about it as a place.
At the time, I was working at Glacier National Park
with my then girlfriend, now wife.
The sun was setting, haloing the jagged mountains,
and we were sprawled out on a blanket,
drinking wine and talking about our future.
She wanted to travel, but eventually move back home.
She said this in a questioning way,
as if testing my openness to the idea.
There began her campaign.
She did her very best.
Timing my first visit in the fall
when the trees were ablaze and the cornfields golden.
Slipping me an editorial in defense of Wisconsin
clipped from the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram.
Tuning into Packers games and cheering wildly.
[excited screaming]
Teaching me how to play euchre.
Introducing me to Scandinavian delicacies
like lefsa and rômmegrt.
I resisted at first.
I refused to call casseroles hot dishes.
I cringed every time someone called lunch dinner
or dinner supper .
But then I moved to Milwaukee, and later to Stevens Point.
I was never so aware of Wisconsin's awesomeness
until I moved to Iowa,
where I lived for four years before escaping,
starved for trees and desperate for a vista.
In Iowa, I needed only to look at the gear people wore.
In Wisconsin, people wear green and gold, but in Iowa,
I saw Vikings, Chiefs, Bears;
The jerseys as diverse
as the window display at a mall sports shop.
Iowans look elsewhere for something to root for.
Whereas Wisconsinites are proud.
So proud that a stranger once high-fived me
in the frozen pizza aisle for wearing a Packers sweatshirt.
For me, this captures the spirit of the state.
Wisconsin is proud.
There is so much to high-five about.
Beer! Bratwurst!
Polka! Snowmobiling!
Cabins! Fishing!
In Iowa, there is nothing to high-five about.
I married into Wisconsin.
I cheer on the Packers.
I drink Spotted Cow.
I make lefsa and krumkake every Christmas.
I dream of a cabin on Madeline Island.
This is my state-in-law,
and I have come to love it as dearly as my birthplace.
I straddle two territories, one foot on the West Coast,
the other, the Northwoods,
a capital 'M', capital 'W',
Mid-Westerner.
*