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Minister writes and teaches to preserve the edges of history“The most common profession for ex-ministers is insurance,” Fran Buss said with a laugh.Buss, a United Church of Christ minister, is not exactly “ex.” She is, instead, on a two year leave of, absence from her ministerial duties. During this time she has been teaching women’s studies courses for UW-Whitewater Extension and writing.Her second book, Dignity: Lives and Struggles of Lower Income Women in the United States,” is currently being published by the publisher of her first, the University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.That first, “La Partera: Story of a Midwife,” 1980, is a moving account of the life of Jesusita Aragon, the last traditional Hispanic midwife in the area of Las Vegas, (northeastern) New Mexico.Buss, who lives and writes in Whitewater, is also the author of “Interwoven Heritage: Oral Histories of Working Class Women in Wisconsin, another of the five final entries in the Gard Literary Award Competition. This book may yet be published by Stanton Lee of Madison.If the titles of two of her books sound somewhat academic or bring to mind dry, boring sociological treatises, a reading of any part of them will quickly dispell that notion.There has been a lot of talk about the strength of women and the basic fact that women as an historical group have been ignored. I would argue with neither statement while pointing out that Buss’ works reinforce those ideas.La Partera and Josephine of “Josephine’s Story,” a chapter of both “Interwoven Heritage” and “Dignity,” are the two characters whose stories I’ve read. They are monumental, epic, symphonic, not because they are special, but precisely because they are not.There is a story in every human being, particularly in those who have lived a long and eventful life. What Buss has done is to make it possible for two of the world’s people to tell theirs. The results are no less, and probably a lot more, fascinating and revealing than the latest fill-in-the-blank-with-the-famous-person-of-your-choice-tells-all book.There are, after all, two schools of history. One holds that history is made by those in power, particularly fhen. The rest of us are incidental. Another holds that history happens in the lives of the everyday people, the unsung, many of whom are women holding up half the world.One views history as a river de tached from everyday lives and events, flowing onward because Henry Kissinger or Napoleon wills it to. Another views what happens along the shores of that river as what really matters, what makes the river change its course.I don’t mind watching the river flow but I’ll take the shore, firm, solid and longer-lasting anyday. The river, try though it may, has yet to wash it all away.“With the Wisconsin book (“Interwoven Heritage”), I’m dealing with women of various ethnic groups,” Buss explained. “I’m trying to get some of the ethnic groups we don’t normally get, newer immigrants, Asians, Hispanic Americans, in there. I’m trying to bring in some of theGary PetersonCapital Times Stall WriterIntermediaryFran Bussmore recent arrivals to Wisconsin history.”Buss takes the materials from her books and research into her extension class on “Women Combining Careers and Family.” She’ll be teaching, possibly two, sections of that course in Janesville and Fort Atkinson this fail.“I think this material (from over 80 lives researched) helps give people a wider perspective, not just small town life,” Buss said. “How does a migrant worker combine career and family?”As both interviewer and writer, Buss has taken an unusual course. She maintains contact — to varying degrees — with each of the 80 people she has interviewed for her stories. She knows that “her stories” are really their stories. They are, therefore, all the more difficult to write in light of the sacred trust due those who literally bare their souls to her each time they retell their lives.She is particularly close to La Partera, who is still serving as a midwife in her mid-80s.“When you do this kind of work you get so involved with the people you work with it almost ceases to be a professional relationship,” Buss said. “It becomes an intimate relationship and I don’t feel it is right to just cut it off,There is much of the ministerial in Buss’ writing and research. Neither leads, however, down a one-way street.“These relationships are in no way a burden,” Buss ended. These people have given me experiences I wouldn’t trade for anything.”FALLJOIN AXXfeBOWLING WfmEACUEMen’s, Women’s CouplesCall Laurie or Joe for scheduling of your team or league. 274-6662 We Offer You MorelThirty lanes with automatic scoring, expanded food menu live entertainment Tues.-Sat. nights.274-6662 Comer at Badger Rimrock Roads Centrally iacaiad 'A ml. so. of the Coliseum
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