June 26, 2025 Tim Johnson 3 min read Building Community, Columns

At Home on Raspberry Island

It is a fair bet that Albert Einstein would have loved the colorful, fanciful, imaginative Mexican folk art exhibit presently installed on Raspberry Island. Hike down the Wabasha bridge steps or exit off of Wabasha onto Fillmore St. and you will find yourself in the presence of “Alebrijes: Keepers of the Island”. Surrounded by the Mississippi River on both sides, overlooking downtown St. Paul, Raspberry Island is the perfect venue for these four to sixteen foot vividly colorful creatures, whose heads and bodies are a fusion of a diverse and imaginative world.

May 30, 2025 Tim Johnson 3 min read Building Community, Columns

Paying Attention

The moral of the story was pay attention. At least, that was what my dad suggested as the take away lesson. It was hard to argue with that conclusion. I was at a home town basketball game. I had a front row seat, a great spot to watch the game. The ball slamming me in the face caught me totally off guard. My broken glasses lay on the ground. All eyes turned toward me to see if I was OK. I was caught between shock, embarrassment and the sharp stinging on my face. As my dad later that night rightly observed, when you are sitting in the front row, it might be a good idea to pay attention to the game rather than chatting it up with your friends. You never know when an errant pass might be coming your way.

May 8, 2025 Tim Johnson 3 min read Building Community, Columns

The Necessity of Empathy

My grandson’s shoe was missing. He is just 13 months in age and has been enjoying the value of upright mobility for the past month or so, making footwear important. On a warm sunny afternoon, the playground we visited was full of other children with either their parents or grandparents. The adults, like the children, engaged in the type of friendly conversation of people meeting for the first time.

March 26, 2025 Tim Johnson 3 min read Building Community, Columns, Mr. Positive

Influencers for a Kinder World

It is fair to say that Carl Benston, AKA, Mr. Positive, never thought of himself as an influencer, at least not by the standards of those who are able to use their influence as a source of income through social media. How could you possibly expect a person living with savant syndrome disability to be an influencer? Like others who live in or frequent the West 7th Community, I often saw Carl on his creatively outfitted bike. I never had the opportunity to meet Mr. Positive in person, but thanks to the wonderful memorial in the January Community Reporter and the writings of Tim Rumsey, I almost feel like I did. I certainly have known folks like Carl, people who somehow manage the art of being, without pretense or gilded effort to showcase themselves for profit or otherwise.

February 26, 2025 Tim Johnson 3 min read Building Community, Columns

Grace, Beauty and Courage

On a sub-zero day, something more than anger is needed to get one to leave the warm comfort of home and join hundreds of protesters standing together by the steps of the State Capitol. Billed as a National Protest, with gatherings in all 50 states, this President’s Day event was both a rejection of the perceived authoritarianism of recent Presidential executive orders and an embrace of constitutional democracy. In his book, “Dare We Speak of Hope?,” Allan Boesak, South African theologian and a leader of the anti-apartheid movement, offers a quote from St. Augustine who said, “Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the same.”

January 29, 2025 Tim Johnson 4 min read Building Community, Columns

Make Snow Where You Can

Building Community The winter landscape for the beginning of 2025, much like the winter landscape for virtually all of 2024,

August 30, 2024 Tim Johnson 2 min read Building Community, Columns

Wrapped in the Flag

Wrapped in the American flag, the picture tells the story. Having just won a gold medal for team gymnastics, five American women proudly wrap themselves in the stars and stripes. Jade Carey holds one end of the flag. Hezly Rivera holds the other. In the center is the GOAT for gymnastics, Simone Biles. Next to Simone is Suni Lee on one side and Jordan Chiles on the other. It is a striking image that stands in sharp and hopeful contrast to ways in which the American flag has too often been used, not as an image of inclusion, but rather as a symbol of exclusion and hate.

February 27, 2024 Tim Johnson 3 min read Building Community, Columns

Great Playgrounds and Great Communities

“What makes a great playground?” is not unlike the question, “what makes a great community?” Among the joys of being a grandparent is spending time at playgrounds that we once enjoyed with our own children. On this particular outing, the first place our almost two year old grandson headed was one of several slide options. He chose to go down head first, protected by winter gear that slowed him down substantially and a grandparent waiting with open arms at the bottom. After time on the slide it was onto the swings with choices for toddlers that provide the freedom of swinging without the risk of an injury for a child who hasn’t quite developed the skills of holding on tight. Next, it was over to a horse planted in the ground with a spring as its feet. Like with the swings and slides, the horse was surrounded by sand to cushion any fall.

February 27, 2024 Letter to the Editor 3 min read Building Community, Columns

Letter to the Editor: Thank you for the great work you are doing

I am writing to this fine community newspaper of ours to thank you for the great work you are doing to inform our corner of the city of the many and varied points of interest: places to go and enjoy activities, businesses offering services to aid people of all ages in a variety of needs, articles and columns for children and adolescents written by them, stories of people’s lives and especially writings that speak to the importance of creating a community of equality, of inclusion, of equal rights for everybody. I especially want to point out and thank Tim Johnson whose column on creating a non-racist society has been and continues to be so thoughtfully written, and done so without judging, without finger-pointing, usually starting with a personal story with which we could all identify and then elucidating on the theme to assist us in seeing the underlying message, the bigger picture, the lesson to be learned.