I refused to have a car for the nearly fifty years I lived in Indianapolis, initially for environmental reasons. That was possible by walking, running, and using the city bus system. Moving to Indianola, Iowa, which doesn’t have public transportation, has made it necessary to use my parent’s car for long distance travel. I still walk in town. But I always feel bad when I drive.
We usually drove the forty miles in each direction to attend Bear Creek Meeting on Sundays. But that ended with the pandemic, for now.
It’s a testament to how important Mutual Aid is to me that I drive to Des Moines every Saturday morning.
I try to make the most of each trip by taking photographs on the way in, or out of Des Moines, sometimes both. I leave a little early to have time for that. Yesterday I left later than usual and wondered if I had time to stop somewhere. I drove past the usual places, like Ewing Park and Easter Lake, but as I neared the church where our food project was done, I saw I did have about ten minutes to spare. The sculpture, “Path of Peace” was nearby. My dad, Burt Kisling, and Chuck Day were involved in having the sculpture installed on the Des Moines Area Community College campus.
I’m grateful for this video by my friend Rodger Routh.
Dedicated to peace and peacemakers, a ten-ton limestone sculpture, named “Path of Peace,” by Ron Dinsdale, portrays of three doves. It was installed on May 10, 2012 near Interstate 235 just south of Des Moines Area Community College’s Urban Campus. The sculpture was created out of a solid 14-ton block of Indiana Bedford limestone, one of the materials used to construct the Iowa State Capital in the late 1880s (between 1871 and 1886). This sculpture was supported by the Urban DMACC Campus, the Des Moines City Council, and the Iowa State Department of Transportation, as the first “I-235 Corridor Gateway Sculpture.”
Path of Peace. Ron Dinsdale
It was a life-long dream that flourished in my soul.
Ron Dinsdale
Quakers and Mutual Aid 