There’s a wonderful film Shadowlands (’93) about a portion of the life of British author C.S. Lewis, in which he falls in love and loses his love to terminal cancer. Drawn to Lewis’s depth of imagination, Joy Gresham teaches him about the beauty of reality. I thought of this film the other day as I drove the Union Hill road into Belle Plaine. The green valley below was half lit by the afternoon sun as long clouds cast grazing shadows over the low hills. It reminded me of a scene in the film where Joy admires a painting on Lewis’s study wall of the D’Or valley in Herefordshire. She asks, “Is it a real place?” “Yes,” he answers, and then adds, “I thought it was a bit of heaven . . . the promised land. I thought one day I would find it ’round the bend in the road, over the crest of hill.” Later in the film, as she is dying, she insists they go find the golden valley, and they do. He realizes how important it is to be able to imagine that place, the Shadowland, where the sun is shining just beyond our reach, over the next hill, but also to find it and live there. She helps him to see that this beauty is enhanced, not diminished, by loss and strife. Her death is part of their life, and losing her is part of his loving her. In her own way, helping him go beyond the world of his imagination and face the real world.
Seeing the bright valley below me on County Rd. 7 made me realize that this is what we all long for, that little bit of heaven. But the reality is that close up there is a struggle to make it real. We need that imagination Lewis had to see it in that distant view, to hold that belief to keep us moving forward, but we need each other, challenging and inspiring, sharing and shoving, to make it a reality. Down on the ground, mired in reality, is where we struggle together, love and lose each other, pool our resources and our energy to make the world around us work, so that it may be for our children and grandchildren that place of which we dream.
It will never be a golden valley if only a few can find it and fewer can enter, while the rest toil and suffer in the shadows. This is at the core of what I believe — that the challenge before us is a broader vision beyond ourselves – “Can we create a world where all have the opportunity to make it?” We must foster that opportunity – not guarantees, but possibilities — the sun shining just over the hill.
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Friday, I attended the annual Chamber of Commerce Cookout in Belle Plaine, a community celebration one month before Belle Plaine celebrates ‘Barbecue Days’. My campaign set up a booth on Main Street and shared pie and campaign literature. 
Here I am with two of my helpers Corazon Noyes and her son. They live in Cedar Lake township. 
Several merchants served up barbecued sandwiches or deserts. The historical society announced that Belle Plaine had reached the 150 year mark. The streets were closed off and filled with people sampling the treats, looking at the fancy cars, or jumping on the various giant inflatables set up on Main and Meridian. Community pride and spirit was evident in the numbers of visitors and hosts, from the senior citizen polka dancers to clowns, and to moms and kids. 