As my friend and I packed up our things from our short “cozy farmhouse” Air BnB stay near the Dells, we tried to think of things we didn’t get around to doing before we zip-locked our last bag of trail mix and left the area.

We didn’t feel like expending the energy required for a proper day of hiking around Devil’s Lake. We visited the International Crane Foundation and Circus Museum in Baraboo the previous day.

In between raindrops, we also managed a short trek around Pewit’s Nest, a natural gorge cut by Skillet Creek.

We fished out a Travel Wisconsin Magazine from a pile of brochures the Air BnB host left for guests and read about a Norman Rockwell exhibition in nearby Reedsburg, probably only five minutes away,

We decided to check it out before programming the GPS for a scenic route to Sauk City, where we hoped to catch lunch, enroute to the Wollersheim Winery on the way home.

The magazine described the exhibit as a permanent collection at the Voyager Inn and Conference Center.

Not exactly scary kitsch like the Bates Motel from the movie Psycho, upon turning into the parking lot, it was easy to see that the best days of the Voyageur Inn were behind her.

Marty’s Steak House, a modest supper club, and the Black Squirrel Lounge were part of the complex. We weren’t sure what kinds of businesses hosted conferences there or even whether some of their rooms had to have linens changed this decade, but we considered it all part of the adventure.

When we walked into the lobby, the woman at the desk seemed surprised to see anyone. It was a Monday, around lunchtime. We announced that we had come to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit.

The woman at the front desk wanted to seem welcoming, though It was obvious she didn’t get asked about this very often.

“Wait,” she said before motioning us towards the hallway which connected the motel lobby to Marty’s Steakhouse and the Black Squirrel Lounge. “I’ll turn on the lights for you.”

I was kind of amazed by the sight; a corridor of Americana in the form of framed covers from forty years of The Saturday Evening Post along with prints and illustrations of political icons and sports heroes filled the wall.

I can hardly think about Thanksgiving without thinking about one of Rockwell’s most famous paintings, “Freedom From Want” which shows several generations of a family around a Thanksgiving table.

I always considered Rockwell’s stuff hokey. He famously said, “I paint life as I would like it to be.”

I couldn’t imagine a more dangerous guiding principle. Our civic life is full of people trying to return to an idealized view of life, often dismissing progress and universal freedoms.

But, I took my time studying the framed pieces, the holiday scenes and courtship caricatures and images of family life.

His illustrations were funny, sometimes bitingly on point. Quintessentially human. Perfect.

Fairly early in his career, he described himself as a storyteller. Everyone’s life is a story, a tale of transformation. After being a moderate Republican for most of his life, he supported JFK in 1960 and went on to become a champion of civil rights.

His painting, “The Problem We All Live With,” showing the brave and lonely path of  black six-year-old, Ruby Bridges as she embarked on her first day at an all-white elementary school in New Orleans has become an emblem of the Civil Rights movement.

Rockwell once said, “Common places never become tiresome. It is we who become tired when we cease to be curious and appreciative.”

His empathy and humor are timeless. Opportunities for personal transformation are folded into our everyday lives.

Being funny without being mean or presenting oneself as truthful without judging others as bereft of understanding, is no small thing.

Re-printed with permission.

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