Today’s immigrants wear different faces than the pioneers who populated the sod houses and the prairie towns across southern Minnesota. But they struggle for the same opportunity, a chance to live better lives than in their homelands.
More than a century ago, an immigrant shopkeeper in the bustling railroad settlement of St. James might have been asked this question: “Wie sind Sie nach St. James hergekommen?” (How did you come to St. James?)
Read MoreIn the movie title The Passion of the Christ, the word “passion” refers to acute suffering, as in the spiritually opaque hours between Jesus’ last supper and his crucifixion. The Latin root for passion means “suffering.”
In business, “passion” has a different meaning, usually referring to a continual burning excitement a person feels toward a product, company or task, as in “I have a passion for my work.”
Read MoreImagine Lucy Van Pelt of Peanuts marrying Charlie Brown and the two becoming U.S. Navy captains, then constructing and remodeling homes. In a Sunday cartoon strip this never would happen. But in this story, in Connect Business Magazine, “Lucy” is Pauline Marlinski, 53, and “Charlie” is Chuck Klimmek, 56, married co-owners of KMA Design & Construction in Gaylord, Minn.
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