When I walked into Ron’s hodgepodge of a shop in downtown Waterville, I found him working on a puzzle. I asked to take his photo and he agreed. He loves puzzling and that shows. I really like this everyday slice-of-life-in-a-small-town portrait. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, I take thousands of photos, many of them at public events. At these gatherings, whether celebratory or somber, I am drawn to document moments of humanity. Perhaps it’s a look, a reaction, an interaction. I’ve been doing photography long enough to understand when something will make a good photo. And when I say “good,” I mean a well-composed image that tells a story and, hopefully, garners a reaction from anyone who sees it.
I come from a journalism background, earning a degree in mass communications, news-editorial emphasis, in 1978. I was required to take a few photography classes as part of that long ago degree. Those taught me the basics, which I carried with me to every newspaper reporting and freelance job I’ve ever held. I didn’t always have the luxury of a staff photographer. I was the reporter and the photographer.
In the decades since, from film to digital, I’ve gained confidence and skills in photography. And I continue to the love the craft. For me, photography centers on storytelling.
As I’ve been out and about in southern Minnesota during 2025, I’ve used my Canon EOS 60D, an older DSLR camera, to document what I’ve seen. Among the thousands of people photos I took this past year, I chose my top 12 to highlight in this end-of-year post. Only one image, the photo at the top of this post, was not photographed at a public gathering.
Enjoy! And feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
I caught the moment a firefighter rang a bell outside the Faribault fire hall during a 9/11 commemoration. The morning light was perfect and everything fell into place to make this an especially moving photo. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo 2025)
A tender moment when a mom retied a ribbon on her daughter’s Czech costume during a dance at Montgomery’s Czech May Day celebration. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
Oktoberfest in Dundas provided plenty of photo ops, including this one where a young boy wanted to join the dancing adults.Or maybe he was just watching, happy to be on the sideline. Whatever, I like the photo a lot. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2025)
In this inter-generational scene, a grandfather teaches marbles to his grandsons at the Valley Grove Country Social, rural Nerstrand. They were so intent on the game that they paid me no attention, just as I like it. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
I found this scene humorous and likely relatable for every guy who has ever waited for their partner to finish shopping. I took the image outside RR Revival in Lonsdale during a craft show in that small town. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)
If ever there was a photo that exudes love of country in rural Minnesota, it is this image of a wagonload of people heading to the Memorial Day program at the Cannon City Cemetery. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
In the context of everything happening in America, especially in Minnesota, this photo sends a strong message of American pride. These Somali-American children, U.S. flags in hand, watched the Memorial Day parade in downtown Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
As a cannon shot off during the Riverside Rendezvous & History Festival in Faribault, attendees were told to cover their ears for protection. I framed this scene to tell that story. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo May 2025)
There were no second chances to get this photo of two women greeting each other at a downtown Faribault Car Cruise Night. I love the joy I was able to photograph in one single shot. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo June 2025)
The Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Show tractor parade offers plenty of photo ops. I see total admiration on this young boy’s face and was delighted to photograph that sweet moment. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
I loved watching and documenting the younger and older generations shelling corn together at the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Show in a living rural history scene. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo August 2025)
Here’s the early 1970s edition of “1984” which I read. The print was small, difficult to read.(Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo November 2025)
MULTIPLE TIMES I NEARLY STOPPED reading the book. But I was determined to finish, although the process took weeks. Sometimes I could read many pages. Other times I had to stop, set the book aside and not pick it up for several days. Yet, I continued slogging through the pages.
What book caused me to struggle so? The answer: 1984 by George Orwell.
If you’ve never read this dystopian novel and, no, I hadn’t, you should. Written in 1949, it is so relevant to today that the book could easily be titled 2025. And that’s not a good thing.
I jotted four full-sized pages of notes while reading. And what emerged was downright scary, because the fiction Orwell penned 76 years ago strongly resembles the United States of America under our current administration.
PLOT SUMMARY
But first, a summary of 1984. Main character Winston Smith lives in Oceania, a country ruled by The Party and the unseen Big Brother, who is watching, always watching. Smith is a writer, working for The Ministry of Truth, which is anything but. Workers there are tasked with rewriting history, basically erasing the past. Censorship. Smith, however, secretly disagrees with The Party’s work and ideology. But he, like others of the same mind, must be careful, oh, so careful. No one can be trusted, as Smith eventually learns firsthand.
People are disappeared from the streets, snatched. Vaporized, as if they never existed.
Troubling words like hatred, Thought Police, thought crime and control emerge in this novel. All are connected to The Party, a party focused on absolute power, world domination, acquiring more territory, on shaping narrative, on eliminating art, literature and science.
If The Party told you that 2+2=5, you better believe that. Smith didn’t.
The Party aims for absolute dominance—authoritarian rule under a dictatorship that opposes individual freedom and seeks to control every facet of life and the mind. Children are indoctrinated, blindly following and adoring The Party, becoming little spies who will turn on anyone suspected of defying Big Brother’s ideology. A woman calls Big Brother “My Savior.” Big Brother’s image is imprinted upon a coin. The eyes are watching, always watching.
HOW WILL IT END?
As I turned page after page, I tried to hold hope that 1984 would end well, although I knew it wouldn’t. I can only hope that the fiction George Orwell wrote does not fully become our reality in America. Whether it does or doesn’t is on all of us.
We can choose love over hatred. We can choose to exercise our personal liberties by speaking up, voting, contacting our elected officials, protesting, standing strong in and for freedom. We can advocate for others, calling out wrongs, working for the marginalized, the “snatched,” those struggling emotionally, financially and otherwise. We can help, encourage, uplift. We can listen. We can remember and learn from the past, not some rewritten version of the past. We can stand up for art, science, literature, truth. We can support freedom of the press, turn to trusted and reliable media sources. We can declare that we, the people, hold the power. Not Big Brother. Not a single man or his followers. Not The Party. But, we, the people.
WE THE PEOPLE
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. —Preamble to the United States Constitution
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TELL ME: Have you read 1984? If yes, what are your thoughts in the context of today, specifically in America?Do you see similarities, relevancy? What concerns you, if anything?
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
1984 Oceania & 2025 America
Tags: 1984, America, book review, books, commentary, dystopian novel, fiction, freedom, George Orwell, novel, Oceania, reading, We the People
MULTIPLE TIMES I NEARLY STOPPED reading the book. But I was determined to finish, although the process took weeks. Sometimes I could read many pages. Other times I had to stop, set the book aside and not pick it up for several days. Yet, I continued slogging through the pages.
What book caused me to struggle so? The answer: 1984 by George Orwell.
If you’ve never read this dystopian novel and, no, I hadn’t, you should. Written in 1949, it is so relevant to today that the book could easily be titled 2025. And that’s not a good thing.
I jotted four full-sized pages of notes while reading. And what emerged was downright scary, because the fiction Orwell penned 76 years ago strongly resembles the United States of America under our current administration.
PLOT SUMMARY
But first, a summary of 1984. Main character Winston Smith lives in Oceania, a country ruled by The Party and the unseen Big Brother, who is watching, always watching. Smith is a writer, working for The Ministry of Truth, which is anything but. Workers there are tasked with rewriting history, basically erasing the past. Censorship. Smith, however, secretly disagrees with The Party’s work and ideology. But he, like others of the same mind, must be careful, oh, so careful. No one can be trusted, as Smith eventually learns firsthand.
People are disappeared from the streets, snatched. Vaporized, as if they never existed.
Troubling words like hatred, Thought Police, thought crime and control emerge in this novel. All are connected to The Party, a party focused on absolute power, world domination, acquiring more territory, on shaping narrative, on eliminating art, literature and science.
If The Party told you that 2+2=5, you better believe that. Smith didn’t.
The Party aims for absolute dominance—authoritarian rule under a dictatorship that opposes individual freedom and seeks to control every facet of life and the mind. Children are indoctrinated, blindly following and adoring The Party, becoming little spies who will turn on anyone suspected of defying Big Brother’s ideology. A woman calls Big Brother “My Savior.” Big Brother’s image is imprinted upon a coin. The eyes are watching, always watching.
HOW WILL IT END?
As I turned page after page, I tried to hold hope that 1984 would end well, although I knew it wouldn’t. I can only hope that the fiction George Orwell wrote does not fully become our reality in America. Whether it does or doesn’t is on all of us.
We can choose love over hatred. We can choose to exercise our personal liberties by speaking up, voting, contacting our elected officials, protesting, standing strong in and for freedom. We can advocate for others, calling out wrongs, working for the marginalized, the “snatched,” those struggling emotionally, financially and otherwise. We can help, encourage, uplift. We can listen. We can remember and learn from the past, not some rewritten version of the past. We can stand up for art, science, literature, truth. We can support freedom of the press, turn to trusted and reliable media sources. We can declare that we, the people, hold the power. Not Big Brother. Not a single man or his followers. Not The Party. But, we, the people.
WE THE PEOPLE
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. —Preamble to the United States Constitution
#
TELL ME: Have you read 1984? If yes, what are your thoughts in the context of today, specifically in America? Do you see similarities, relevancy? What concerns you, if anything?
© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling