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After her husband died, my father’s elderly neighbor would call him almost every day. My father was an introvert and didn’t look forward to the calls, but, he said, he understood them. “I think it’s great that she’s reaching out for what she needs,” he said. What was that? “Some social contact.” Preferring less chatty social contact, my father, who lived alone, often took himself out for breakfast at the local diner. I’m sure he sat alone, and that his conversation was limited to ordering and the weather, but it seemed like enough. Until then, I don’t think I realized how little social contact it takes to make a positive difference in someone’s life. I am fascinated by community in all its various forms – circles of friends, clubs, churches, neighborhoods, schools, you name it. One of my most elemental interests in community is how it can serve as a safety net for our mental health. How we can serve each other’s mental health. I’m interested in the ways that we can find solitude in our rural lives, but avoid the pitfalls of isolation. I’m interested in the ways that we can teach our children to balance online connection with in-person connection for which, in my opinion, there is no digital substitute. And I’m especially interested in the ways that a caring, friendly community can stand between a child in despair, and desperate outcomes. Washington County is a beautiful place. It’s also the poorest place in Maine, with the lowest median household income. Tough human experiences tend to follow poverty around. So we have hunger, we have addiction, we have disease, and we have abuse. The good news is that caring people tend to follow poverty around, too. So Washington County is home to a host of innovative groups working to lessen hunger, address addiction, support healing, and break cycles from the grassroots up. I couldn’t list all of them here, but I’m deeply interested in the efforts of Arise Addiction Recovery, Family Futures Downeast, the Beth C. Wright Cancer Center, and the Washington County Food Council, which plays a role in hosting free community suppers every Thursday at 5 p.m., in Machias. If you go, you’ll enjoy delicious – and often local – food prepared by caring hands, cooked in dishes you won’t have to wash, eat at tables you didn’t have to set, and you won’t have to clear, unless you want to. You’ll belong because you’re there. Even if you only want to talk about the weather.
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