by Becky Lambert
John Heid has left Winona. I know some people are still having a hard time believing this, so I thought I’d make that little announcement. It’s still setting in for us, too. He made such an indelible impression on this community (not just the Catholic Worker, but Winona) in his year and a half here that it’s going to take a while for people to work through this transition. John was an experience for Winona and someone we will not be able to forget for quite some time.
John came to Winona in September of 2007 having lived in Catholic Worker and resistance communities on the East Coast, Duluth and, most recently, a community farm in Luck, WI. While I’d never had the pleasure of meeting John in my time around the Catholic Worker before I moved in, I was assured that this was going to be great experience, that he was intense, engaging, sincere, funny, emphatic and emotive, gentle and patient. Although I found that nothing prepares you for living with John Heid (these adjectives barely scrape the surface), I am utterly grateful and blessed to have had that privilege. John left in January to continue the work of hospitality on the Arizona/Mexico border: welcoming the stranger, giving drink to the thirsty and providing shelter for the homeless. This work on the border has been calling him for a couple of years, so we knew that his time at the WCW had an end. However, John lived in the moment and was here until the day he left, even staying later than he planned so he could attend our Jan. 18th meeting. So when I started freaking out periodically in the months before he moved out, he would calmly look at me over the top of his glasses, cock his head and say, “Yeah, but I’m still here.”
It is nearly impossible not to be drawn into his persona, to play off of his gregariousness, and be calmed by his serenity. Goodness knows that John is garrulous, but I have never heard a hurtful word come out of his mouth. He speaks truth, and has the courage to stand behind it. He is a daily example of the world as it should be, accepting but uncompromising. It was a challenge to live with John only in that I was faced with a person who lived everyday in unabashed joy and love; who regarded each person met as distinct and beautiful.
Personalism is treating each person you encounter with dignity, taking personal responsibility for changing conditions. Whatever those conditions: a person’s need for shelter, a parent’s struggle to keep her children, or a young person looking to the military as the only option for his future, John approaches them as if it were his mother or sister, his father or brother. It is one of the first things you observe about John, the way he embodies Personalism with the utmost sincerity. Everything is personal to him, especially when it has to do with the basic dignity of an individual. This Personalism is not taught or happened upon. It comes from the belief that change starts with yourself and how you interact with the person in front of you. With John there is no difference between word and action, truth is a given where he is concerned.
John has a way of disengaging your defenses until you end-up pouring your heart out to him, struggling with life’s deep questions, over a game of cribbage. He can relate to everyone in a way that assures you that there is no one else that is quite able to understand you the way he can. This is how he is able to connect with children the way he does, through sincerity and openness…and of course, by being just plain silly. Kids are drawn to John like John is drawn to desserts, attracted by the complete lack of inhibitions that are all too often overly abundant in adults.
Of course, a newsletter article can only give a glimpse of who John is and the impact he has had on our community. I have loved and appreciated the time I have spent with him and can only hope that life will bring us together again. He has taught me so much by just being who he is. Thank you so much, John, for everything.
