Nelson Otto
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
My first memory of the goddess Ceres was a grade-school tour of the Capitol. As the bus rolled down West High Street the teacher pointed her out and explained who she was and that she was the origins of the word cereal. So for years I remembered her name as Cereal. At that time, I had poor vision and longed for a closer look at her. Other students said that one could go to the top of the Capitol and see her and that she was as big as a bus. That became my goal that I put in the back of my head, to get up close and see her in person. When we went in for our tour they told us of the whispering gallery and that someone could whisper on one side and you could hear them as if they were standing right next to you. I thought that was the coolest thing and couldn’t wait to experience it but then was told it is now closed to the public and that we also would not be going to the top. I was heartbroken.
About 30 years later I bought a camera with a telephoto lens to get a better look at her, it worked but it still didn’t give me the up close and personal view I longed for. It took another five years before I found my way up to the whispering gallery, and it is just as amazing as they said it was and finally up to the observation deck. I was so close and yet so far because you can’t see her from the observation deck. After 40 years of me hoping and trying to get up to her and failing to reach her heights she finally came down from the heavens to me and I got to see her in person. Even though she was not as big as school bus, it in no way diminished her majesty and beauty. I didn’t realized how often I looked for her at the top of Capitol and how I would miss her. I am looking forward to the day she returns from her vacation and “spa” treatment, where I intend to take time off from work and take as many photos as I can before she ascends back into the heavens, out of reach, to once again watch over us on high.