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A TASTY FAREWELL TO REBECCA

by Jan

From the mountains of Idaho, bearing in her unique person the ingredients of her legal, creative heritage stewed into her own recipe, REBECCA blew into Minnesota these many years ago. And so, as England had their Rose, we have been blessed with our Potato.

And what an import, what a Potato she has been. She has distinguished herself by becoming the first person in the world to be awarded frequent mover miles by her moving company--folks with whom, in the true egalitarian style of a champion Potato, she is on a first name basis. With her upcoming move move to Washington, D.C., she will qualify for the first such redemption, and reports she is unsure if she''ll use her miles to move to Kalamazoo or Katmandu.

As a living example of the principles of Love and Democracy, Rebecca became an "equal opportunity lover," and, with crazy wisdom, poured out her joys and disappointments in a great raging, humorous, passionate series of writings, that we might all be awed and enlightened at the forces of life becoming wider.

Who among the privileged ranks of her writing pals can ever forget the moments of spontaneous, hilarious stand-up comic routines, or the stories of egg-passing at raucous parties. Who can forget the angry poetry, or the later sublime love poems, or the moving and insightful letters and papers on events and circumstances of the world, large and small? Who can ever forget the many quiet, unheralded things she did as a matter of daily course for her friends and for her people--the "letter of introduction" for a friend traveling for her first time to Russia and the exquisite doll to present to a Russian child, or the countless other examples that each person who knows her has experienced.

As food for thought and food for the world, Rebecca became the Minnesota force behind the supreme court, wielding her pen and her wisdom in ways that influenced and educated the entire state. In her unheralded position, she lighted the way for Minnesota and the world through one of the most landmark trials of the century, against the dark and powerful forces of the tobacco companies. And the world, recognizing her gifts, called her to struggling, newly democratic Eastern Europe, to offer guidance on the formation of a western court system. And now, American lays claim to our Potato, and calls her to serve the federal courts of the land in Washington, D.C.

We have not yet heard the farewell song, rumored to be Elton John's latest. However beautiful it may be, it will not assuage our great loss. But we accept that we cannot keep this force, this Potato under wraps in our little fly-over state any longer, and we release her to her greater work in the world. But the ripples and waves she has set in motion in Minnesota, among her friends and lovers and the entire populace will not fade away. She has made a difference-- we are enriched, and we shall grieve her moving on.

May our Minnesota Potato be ever tasty, dispensing generous sour-cream-and-chives nourishment to a hungry world. We are blessed that she exists, and we will ever be caused to smile when we remember her. Look out Washington--a new whirlwind, devious, clever, gifted, wise--is about to enter your scene. Before you know what has happened, you will be thinking Potato.


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