7/29/2023

Hello Blog Readers,

Oh, Sault Ste. Marie (pronounced Soo Saint Marie…or the Soo for short). It’s fitting that I find myself back in this town shortly after the Japan trip – because it’s a sign of having come full circle from a little over a year ago. You see, I was here last year in I believe mid-July on a work-related trip. While I didn’t blog about the visit, the visit was an impactful one in terms of life trajectory – because while I was here last year I caught Covid! I mean…catching Covid really shouldn’t have been a big deal (I had already had it two or three times prior at that point), but that time it was a big deal. I got sick…really sick…and I was bedridden and out of the office for about three weeks. Even after recovering, I didn’t really get better, but rather struggled with long Covid symptoms that lasted for a good six months or so.

How does this relate in any way to a trip to Japan? Well, while bed-ridden with little else to do, I started watching YouTube travel videos to pass the time. I stumbled upon a channel called Abroad in Japan by a British guy named Chris Broad, and another channel called CDawgVA by a Welsh guy named Connor, and another channel called Premier Two by an American guy named Pete, and even more channels beyond those ones. All of their channels showcased their lives living abroad in Japan, and I became hooked! Enthralled! Enchanted! It was awesome watching their adventures and seeing just how great Japan was as a country. Feeling motivated, I started studying Japanese and daydreaming of a day where I too would travel to Japan. None of this would have transpired in my life but for me traveling to the Soo and getting sick.

So fast forward to now…I recovered from Covid, I have a year’s worth of Japanese studying under my belt, I just got back from my first ever trip to Japan, and now here I am, back in the Soo on yet another work-related adventure (I’m praying that I don’t get sick this time around).

So, what is Sault Ste. Marie exactly? Where is Sault Ste. Marie? Why is Sault Ste. Marie? Let’s find out!

The Soo has a long history going back to like…the 1600s. Originally established by Jesuit missionaries who included Fr. Jacques Marquette (the priest whose name was gifted to my town of Marquette, Michigan), the Soo is the oldest city in Michigan and one of the oldest European settlements west of the Appalachians. It exists where Lake Superior greatly narrows and flows into Lake Huron, making it an important trading and navigation hub. The original city spanned both sides of the narrows, existing in what is today Ontario and Michigan. The Ontario side is in fact the far larger portion of the city, around 2-3 times the size of the Michigan side.

The city exists in the far northeastern corner of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and today a series of locks directs the constant flow of ship traffic between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. The city’s borders have been set and protected going all the way back to the War of 1812. Yet it actually became a peak military strategic point in the late 19th and early 20th century, as America realized it needed to protect the shipping route to maintain a constant flow of copper and iron from Duluth, Calumet, and Marquette to support its industry and war efforts. As a result, there’s a pretty strong military presence here and the waterways are well-guarded. It’s sad because the Ontario side looks SO much nicer than the Michigan side in terms of city amenities, and it would be awesome to have a pedestrian bridge/border town feel between the two sides of the Soo. But, given the military interests, everything instead is locked down and heavily monitored. For this reason, I decided to stay here in Michigan and not head over to the Ontario-side today. But boy, it looks so much nicer and so much more fun on that side!

As for the Michigan side…there’s really not much to do here. It’s a clean, small college town, and it has a shocking number of tourists (especially New Yorkers) for how little there is going on… But unless you’re really into endless ice cream and fudge shops, or you really like watching big ships travel slowly through narrow waterways, you’re probably going to get bored quickly like me. I took a few photos of the place, grabbed a margarita and quick dinner, and retreated back to my hotel room.

Oh! See that ugly tower thing next to that church? And see how it towers over the entire downtown? That’s called the Tower of History, and believe it or not it was originally commissioned by our Catholic Church. Even knowing the history…I still don’t fully understand it. Basically…some local priests back in the 1960’s teamed up with some post-modern architect types to design a shrine…or a temple…or a beacon for the new, upcoming modern world? Who knows what they were thinking. Yet as work commenced on the monstrosity, costs ballooned and it quickly became apparent that the post-modern architect types really didn’t have the same eye for beauty or same vision as the Catholic Church (I think that you can see that just looking at the thing). 😄

Anyways…it became such an issue that it nearly bankrupted our Diocese, and the end product didn’t even slightly resemble something celebrating or showcasing our faith. Luckily, the town, investors, historians, etc. stepped in and took it off the church’s hands, turning it into “the tower of history” – essentially a history museum of the local area together with a viewing platform from the top of the tower.

It’s an important symbol that reminds me of one of the facets of my job here in the Diocese of Marquette. I’m the executive director of stewardship and development for our Diocese. The development side of the coin is my most obvious job function: it’s my job to raise money for our Diocese, its missions, schools, and churches. That part of the job has been quite redeeming after watching a Catholic school where I once taught shut down due to budgetary woes. But the other aspect of my job – stewardship – has me acting as counsel within the Diocese to ensure that the resources that we take in are properly handled, and to always be a voice of caution and reason against the metaphoric Towers of History that people may dream up from time-to-time.

Anyways, maybe it’s a good thing that this town is boring. I have whiskey and a few of the best American authors to keep me company this evening, and hopefully that helps me get to bed early because tomorrow I have to be at an 8:30 a.m. mass to present a posthumous Catholic Service Award to a local Catholic school teacher/professor/community leader’s family. Her life of service and teaching here in the Soo seemed so inspiring to me, and reminded me so much of the days when I carried on such work back in my old town of Red Bluff. Sometimes I really miss those days.

Cheers,

-Rob