The Dedication of the Wind Turbine

On Founder's Day November 6, 2006, students, faculty and staff gathered at the base of the wind turbine for a special chapel service to dedicate the campus' new structure and source of energy. President David R. Anderson '74, Assistant Vice President for Facilities Pete Sandberg, student Day Burtness and Professor Jim Farrell shared words of inspiration and insight in a service led by Pastor Bruce Benson. Below are their remarks.

David R. Anderson | Pete Sandberg | Day Burtness | Jim Farrell

Dedication prayer and blessing

David R. Anderson

A hymn, familiar to many of you, begins, "Breathe on me breath of God, /Fill me with life anew." As we gather beneath the wind turbine on this misty November morning to celebrate the founding of our college, this hymn verse takes on a particular resonance. Founder's day sounds like an occasion for retrospection, and indeed it is. A great strength of St. Olaf is the unobstructed view we have of our past and, indeed, our origins. Our clear understanding and appreciation of who we are as a college, of where we came from, of who brought us thus far along the way, empowers us as we seek to live our identity today.

But at the same time, we don't want our vision on Founder's Day directed only at the past. We want both to be reminded where we came from and to reflect on where we are headed. We want to be thinking about how, in light of our past, we should craft our future: in short, we want to be thinking about "life anew."

This beautiful, sculptural machine looms above us as a tangible marker on the road ahead. Generating one-third of the electricity we need to run the college, it reduces our dependency on other sources for energy, reduces our energy costs, and--most importantly-- lightens the footprint of St. Olaf College on the land that we steward for future generations. It represents a new model for energy production. It exemplifies our College living out its ideals. It is the future. It is Life Anew.

This turbine is powered by the breath of God, just as our college and we who live and work, who teach and learn, here are sustained in our daily lives and in our service to the college by our good and powerful Creator. Christian vocabulary, the history of Christian theology, the symbols of the church, and indeed the Old and New Testament all return over and over again to the metaphor of the wind to describe the human experience of the Divine, and the figurative language that we use to depict the wind leads us directly back to God. When we think of God speaking to Job out of the whirlwind or of the apostles receiving divine inspiration on Pentecost we associate wind with the presence of our Creator.

So it is in Northfield today. As we look heavenward and see the wind turbine, as we hear the whooshing sound created by the sweep of its blades, we are mindful of the presence of God among us, sustaining our work, inspiring our lives, and creating in us the sense of common purpose that gives meaning to our vocations and propels our college forward. It is fitting that on Founder's Day we dedicate this wind turbine, that we feel the Breath of God, and that we celebrate not only our past, but our Life Anew.

Assistant Vice President for Facilities Pete Sandberg

There are too many people to thank today, and we're planning a bigger program around all this on Earth Day, but I need to specifically acknowledge the efforts of two people: Jim Fisher, our grounds manager, and Perry Kruse, our assistant director of facilities for engineering. We'd never have completed this without their efforts. I frequently dream up stuff I can't deliver, and if the facilities department staff didn't have good humor and good will, we'd be in trouble. On Earth Day we will celebrate with Xcel Energy, whose Renewable Development Fund provided substantial funding.

In the ELCA's social statement, "Caring for Creation," we hear: "Humans, in service to God, have special roles on behalf of the whole of creation. Made in the image of God, we are called to care for the earth as God cares for the earth. God's command to have dominion and subdue the earth is not a license to dominate and exploit. Human dominion, a special responsibility, should reflect God's way of ruling as a shepherd king who takes the form of a servant, wearing a crown of thorns."

This is reassuring, as I spent a lot of time with Genesis recently and came away thinking that no one involved with that could have imagined man's dominion screwing up something as vast as creation. Yet we routinely excuse our excesses with Genesis 1:26 and beyond.

In America we've already seen that, among other inputs into a huge set of problems, the ancient people of our Southwest had such a big impact on their local and regional biosphere that they essentially disappeared. We need to mindful of that as we move on.

Giving up on Genesis, I turned to Ecclesiastes, which, through the Byrds' song, "Turn, Turn, Turn," got more people my age reading the Bible during the '60s than maybe any other thing. Ecclesiastes does deal with wind, but not in such a fun way as this. The preacher says that pretty much everything we do in our lives is vanity and is like chasing the wind. The only things that aren't vanities are fearing the Lord and following God's commandments. I'm not sure you can argue that the statement "subdue the Earth" in Genesis is a commandment, but if it is then we also have to say that we should only be eating "every plant yielding seed and every tree with seed in its fruit," because, as God goes on to say, "I have given you every green plant for food." Cherry picking the Bible is tough stuff, especially if you like the occasional rib eye.

"Dominion" probably doesn't mean we should keep on digging huge holes in the earth and freeing the carbon that was so painstakingly sequestered over millennia, if there are other options. Maybe that's the biggest vanity!

So, this big device looks like it could be exercising dominion, but it seems right that, in reality, it's just reacting to larger forces that we'll never subdue. The work of putting it together, bringing it here, erecting it and dedicating it probably is the vanity of Ecclesiastes. We need to work to become, or stay, humble, and simply incorporate this into the fabric of our college -- letting it be the means to an end, rather an end in itself. Then we'll be a better place and lay more lightly on our land.

We've had a wild year on the physical campus, completing this and getting many other things into play so we can start our new Science Complex. To me at least, at times it seemed like nothing would go right again.

Anne Lamott writes about a friend who had terrible travel problems on a trip to Russia, and finally, exasperated, she whined a bit to a seatmate on a train. The man worked with the Dalai Lama, and he told her that they believed when a lot of things go wrong at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to be born, and that this something needs us to be distracted so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.

Imagining this as that big and beautiful thing would be the height of vanity and arrogance. But imagining it as just a part of a St. Olaf that is trying to be reborn as more beautiful, more resourceful and a better steward of its own and others' resources would not be.

Day Burtness

Well, I was just going to get up here and sing "Blowin' in the Wind," the Bob Dylan song, but then I realized just how bad an idea that was. Instead, I'd like to read one of my favorite poems, "To be of Use," by Marge Piercy.

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who stand in the line and haul in their places,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

I can't help but think that Ms. Piercy was writing about the people I know here at St. Olaf, especially the ones who had everything to do with this magnificent structure behind me. Without fanfare or applause, they made this investment in our future a reality. I guess that should be no surprise at a college with mottos such as "Ideals to Action" and "Living lives of worth and service." Those two phrases and Ms. Piercy's poem sum up what I think President Anderson and Pastor Benson and the professors and staff wish for students: to go out and find ways to make ourselves useful, to use our experiences here to do something good with our energy. The turbine will make itself useful by powering the campus with clean and renewable energy, but it also will inspire us on a daily basis by reminding us just how good we can be to the environment and each other. I'm grateful for the foresight, the hard work and the values of the folks who make this turbine possible, especially Pete Sandberg, Jim Fisher and Perry Mason. Now, I know this is chapel, but let's raise our mini-windmills up and give them a huge round of applause. Amen!

Professor Jim Farrell

When the blades of this windmill go around once, it’s called a revolution, and that’s also a good description of what is happening here today. We’re seeing the winds of change blow through our cornfield and our country. And each revolution of this wind turbine is a small sign of the larger ecological revolution of the 21st century.

For the past 200 years, Americans have been treating the earth as if it were large and infinite and indestructible. But it’s not. The earth is small and finite and fragile. The 20th century was the age of the ecological exception, when human beings lived as if human nature wasn’t natural, as if people didn’t need to live within the limits of nature. The 21st century, therefore, must be the age of the ecological revolution, when human beings return to the wisdom of people who live within the harmonies of nature. This revolution will entail changes in science and technology, agriculture and manufacturing, energy and conservation. But it also will entail significant changes in culture, as human beings invent a new culture of permanence. And the primary catalyst for these cultural changes will be the American college and university. Institutions of higher education have always prepared students to live well in the wider world. But here at St. Olaf, we believe that higher education can have higher aspirations. We believe that colleges can teach students how to live creatively and responsibly on the planet as well.

Wind turbines don’t just grow in cornfields -- they need to be carefully cultivated. This turbine came from the careful cultivation of people like Pete Sandberg, but also from President Chris Thomforde and the St. Olaf Board of Regents. This turbine also is an example of enlightened public policy. We were able to buy it with a grant from the state of Minnesota’s Renewable Development Fund, which provides money for projects like this all across the state. And if we all elect representatives -- from both political parties -- to sponsor similar initiatives, Minnesota could quickly become, as some people say, the Saudi Arabia of wind.

A month ago, I was in Phoenix for the first conference of a new organization called the American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education. More than 750 people attended from all over the United States and Canada, making it clear that institutions of higher education are ready to prepare students not just to succeed in the world as it is, but also to succeed in making the world what it needs to be.

Our challenge is not just changing the academy. Our challenge is to change the nature of common sense by changing the common sense of nature. In America, for example, we commonly talk about “getting back to nature” as if we weren’t always there. This is even true on college campuses, where we ought to know better. A campus is always nature -- not pristine nature, but nature converted to cultural purposes. It’s not nature untouched by human hands, but touched continuously by our active and applied intelligence (or by our active and applied ignorance). Environmentally speaking, when you really think about it, a college campus is a machine for converting natural energy to human thoughtfulness. A wind turbine, therefore, is not just a way of generating electricity, but also a way of generating ideas and inspiration -- and hope. More and more, sustainability initiatives like this are becoming the standard operating procedures for St. Olaf College. Consequently, our students and our neighbors can see that sustainability is common sense.

Along with our friends at Carleton across the river, St. Olaf College has begun changing the world, one windmill at a time. As a result, Northfield can now be known as the town of cows, colleges and common sense.

Dedication prayer and blessing

God of earth and sky,
You have filled this world with wonder,
You have blessed our lives with beauty,
You have stirred our hearts to praise.
We give you thanks for the marvel of creation,
That gives us food from the soil, light from the sun,
And power from the wind.
Let our lives here and in all the world
Show our gratitude for your goodness
In Jesus Christ, our Lord. AMEN.

Creator God,
The earth turns, and we have day and night.
The seasons turn, and we have springtime and harvest.
Our hearts turn from guilt to grace, and we are glad.
By the intricate marvel of your creation,
Let the turning of this wind turbine bring
Light, warmth and peace to this community.
And turn us, O God, to the good work of caring:
For each other, for the earth, and for all that you love. AMEN.

Trusting God's spirit,
And the seasonal winds,
To blow across this campus with faithfulness and grace,
We now dedicate this wind turbine:
To the health and well being of God's good earth,
To the just and peaceful purposes of St. Olaf College,
And to stand as a witness of God's Spirit
Which blows where is wishes,
Bringing life where it goes.
May the power generated here be used to bless. AMEN.