Tower, Ray Erickson photo used by permission

Of course a tower is built by starting from

the bottom. Strong arms and shovels make

a joint to earth with wet, gray gravel, and form

with time, a foundation almost like rock.

Orange steel is welded, riveted and made

to stand naked pointing skyward.  Then blocks

and bricks are hoisted slowly up the side

providing covering flesh the tower lacks.

Small children make towers in trees, and these,

though only made of rotting boards, still stand

as proudly strong (in the children’s eyes)

as those from which much older ones descend.

But both kinds of towers seem built to say

with their builders–we look down on the sky.

Steve kneeling behind Sheldon Jackson’s pulpit

– 6’8″ Steve Shoemaker

Anglican Theological Review, April, 1973

Steve wants you to know that we’re both important. He has his tower. I have mine. Steve is host of “Keepin’ the Faith,” a Sunday evening program on on WILL – archive programs, “including two with Gordon Stewar” (Steve ordered me to put this in here – he’s taller, so I do everything he says), can be heard anytime, anywhere @ www.will.illinois.edu/keepinthefaith