{"id":10571,"date":"2014-11-10T23:44:15","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T05:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holyrover\/?p=10571"},"modified":"2014-11-10T23:44:15","modified_gmt":"2014-11-11T05:44:15","slug":"thanking-veterans-one-rock-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/holyrover\/2014\/11\/10\/thanking-veterans-one-rock-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanking Veterans, One Rock at a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
Bubba Sorensen stands next to the original Freedom Rock near Menlo, Iowa. (Bob Sessions photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Today is Veteran\u2019s Day in the U.S. In honor of the holiday I want to tell you of a veteran-themed pilgrimage spot in Iowa\u2014well, to be more precise, make that 26\u00a0pilgrimage spots, with the number\u00a0rising each year.<\/p>\n
The story begins in a movie theater in 1999, when Bubba Sorensen, an art and design major at Iowa State University, was watching\u00a0the movie Saving Private Ryan<\/em>. Viewing\u00a0the World War II tale of heroism and tragedy made him want to do\u00a0something to honor veterans himself. He remembered that near his home in southwest Iowa there was a larger\u00a0boulder that was typically covered with graffiti. Sorensen decided he would paint the rock with a patriotic mural honoring veterans (though its rough and\u00a0uneven surface was hardly the best canvas for a work of art).<\/p>\n
The local response was immediate and enthusiastic. People loved the decorated boulder, which was\u00a0dubbed The Freedom Rock. As its popularity grew, Sorensen was asked to do\u00a0similar projects in other places.<\/p>\n
Today Sorensen mural work has become a full-time job. While he does a variety of projects, his patriotic murals on rocks have become his signature genre. His goal is to paint a Freedom Rock in each of Iowa\u2019s 99 counties. So far he\u2019s completed 23, with another 60 counties in line.\u00a0\u201cI figure it will take me till about 2023 to get all 99 counties done,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
As word has spread of his efforts, veterans have flocked to support him, sometimes in unusual ways. \u201cI remember I was working on repainting the original Freedom Rock in 2006, and a group of guys happened to drive by on their way to Washington, D.C.,\u201d he says. \u201cThey were going to scatter the ashes of a friend\u00a0at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. When they saw what I was doing, they asked if I would mix some of the ashes in with my paint. Since then, I\u2019ve gotten this request pretty frequently. Quite a few of the rocks include ashes from\u00a0veterans.\u201d<\/p>\nSorenson\u2019s first Freedom Rock is about 12 feet tall and is repainted every year with a new set of images. (Bob Sessions photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
While Sorensen repaints the original Freedom Rock\u00a0each year for free, he creates other patriotic murals\u00a0on commission. Many of the Freedom Rocks are\u00a0located in out-of-the-way corners of the state, making it a bit of a treasure hunt to find them. \u201cI go with whoever asks me first in a county,\u201d he says. \u201cSometimes it\u2019s in the center of a town, and sometimes it\u2019s out in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
As I talked to Sorensen, it was clear that his mural work has become both a career and a calling for him. \u201cThis has taken off in ways I\u2019d never dreamed of when I started,\u201d he says. \u201cI have\u00a0three goals: to honor veterans, to promote Iowa tourism, and feed my family. So far I\u2019ve been able to do all three.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sorensen\u2019s murals around the state depict images from all of the nation\u2019s wars, from the Revolutionary War to Afghanistan and Iraq. The people who are featured are typically\u00a0veterans from the surrounding area who have been killed in conflict.<\/p>\nA makeshift shrine has been created by visitors to the Freedom Rock. (Bob Sessions photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
It was a foggy, cool morning when I visited the original Freedom Rock. I was moved\u00a0to see the tokens that have been left on a nearby telephone pole (for holy sites appear wherever there is need of them). Pinned to the pole\u00a0were flags, medals, pictures, and patches representing various military units. And in the guest book kept in\u00a0a nearby kiosk were signatures of\u00a0people from around the country who had visited the rock. \u201cThe original Freedom Rock is getting more visitors every year,\u201d says Sorensen. \u201cWe\u2019ve even had people from\u00a0France, China and Kenya. I enjoy visiting with people while I paint. You never know who\u2019s going to show up.\u201d<\/p>\n
I love this story.\u00a0Bubba Sorensen didn\u2019t set out to make a career for himself. He certainly isn\u2019t getting rich painting rocks in rural parts of Iowa. But he is making a living honoring\u00a0those who often get forgotten except for Veterans Day. And once he\u2019s finished each rock, it becomes a new shrine for those who\u00a0were killed in close-to-home battlefields such as Yorktown, Shiloh and Gettysburg, or in\u00a0far away places like Verdun,\u00a0Dunkirk, Midway, \u00a0Inchon,\u00a0Xuan Loc, Kandahar, and Fallujah. They stand as sentinels, silently reminding us of those who gave their lives in service to their country.<\/p>\n
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