There is a pair of stories by Ernest Hemingway titled, “Big Two Hearted River” about a young man who returns from war and seeks healing by a river. The river in the story is the east branch of the Fox River in what is now called Michigan. That river is part of the ancestral homeland of the Meskwaki people, an Algonquin speaking group related to the Wabanaki nations of the Dawnland.
In the days leading up to and the days after Jan’s passing, the title of that story echoed in my mind again and again. I barely remembered what the story was about, nor is Hemingway the author I would have expected to reference in a tribute to Jan Paul, but he is not what matters, neither is the story. It is the name. Big Two Hearted River. The name describes Jan, it describes the two hearts, East and West, of the river she loved, of two full hearts she held for the river and the people of that river, the two professional roles she held as scientist and educator, and the two worldviews she worked to reconcile using the power of her heart. To the Big Two Hearted River herself, Jan Paul, your impact is lasting and may your voice sing as part of the river-song long into the future.
