Chapel in the Sky

I met the author of the book Chapel in the Sky last evening. This book looks very interesting, here is an abridged description from the book cover,

"Knox College's Old Main - a national landmark and the only extant building that was a site of the Lincoln-Douglas debates - is a campus treasure with a secret. Built in 1857, Old Main was designed by Charles Ulricson, a Swedish-born immigrant who was trained by the Freemasons. In Chapel in the Sky, Knox faculty member Lance Factor decodes the symbols of this beloved building and explores how an ardently Anti-Mason administration came to hire Ulricson. The mysterious Masonic architect left his legacy on both Knox's Old Main and the Augustana Lutheran Church in Andover, Illinois."

In my conversation with Mr. Factor, he told of how he just started noticing little details in the building and making mental notes about their oddities, then one day he started measuring windows and angles, counting tiles and steps and everything started coming into place as he began his research. He also shared stories about how even though there was a temperance movement in the college community, they would brew homemade wines on campus.

My conversation only reinforced in my mind that we all need to keep our eyes open. Mr. Factor worked in the Old Main building 40 years and through his observations of "ordinary settings" he discovered an amazing secret. We need to stop droning our way through life and we need to start looking at the wonders out there, even if they are the wonders we see everyday. When I finish reading this book, I will post my thoughts. Thank you Mr. Factor for seeing the world and stopping to tell the story of this very interesting building.