Wow, has it already been five years since the beginning of the COVID pandemic and lockdowns? Time flies when you’re trying to survive a plague, a divided society, relentless online misinformation, electronics-fueled alienation and political turmoil.
But like an inflatable kids’ punching bag always pops back up, we’ve seen a resurgence of many of life’s sweetest essentials, especially when we turn away from our omnipresent screens.
I think we’re seeing a zest and hunger for the things we really value in our communities and personal lives. They will taste even better as we dig out the old recipes and get to cooking.
I saw that last weekend during the regional musical Solo and Ensemble Concert, hosted again this year at W.F. West High School by the hardworking educators and volunteers of the Chehalis School District.
My eighth-grader was one of the kids playing. He and his buddy were assigned an 8 a.m. start time, which is pretty early on a Saturday. Their band director had encouraged his students to attend each other’s 10-minute adjudicated performances, but we didn’t expect anyone to show up that early beyond dedicated parents and grandparents.
But as our performers set up, one of their friends walked through the door. For the first time that morning, I saw the tired eyes of these young men light up and their faces erupt into smiles.
Friendship will do that.
This young man wasn’t scheduled to perform until that afternoon, but he got up early and talked his parents into taking him to the school so he could support his buddies.
That kind of companionable friendship will cure what ails ya.
And it turns out our young men and women spent all day doing just that, scurrying down the hallways to turn out and support their classmates.
“It was just like the old days,” their director, John Veltkamp, said.
Being there for your people, mixing and mingling, showing up and sharing a smile, are so powerful. They can’t solve everything, but they’re part of how we start to recover from all that we lost during the last five years.
After what feels like a five-year winter, there are signs of springtime rebirth all over the place.
You saw it in Onalaska last week when 35 people got together to plant trees along streams feeding into Carlisle Lake. We experienced the same thing in Centralia at the Seminary Hill Natural Area during two recent muddy Saturdays of tree-planting. Getting your hands dirty and creating something enduring is such a tonic for the soul.
More opportunities like this are coming up, like the “Great Scotch Broom Pull” in Packwood on May 3. That kind of thing is a great way to help the community and meet people with similar interests.
If you’re feeling lonely, frustrated, scared or powerless, let me advise you to find local work and pour yourself into it. You’ll change your community for the better and I think you’ll feel better, too.
Seed swappers
Speaking of connections, it’s been a hoot and a holler to connect with people about potatoes. After last week’s column ran with the offer of free Makah Ozette seed potatoes (hey, you can still pick them up at The Chronicle’s front desk) I had a few people reach out to me directly.
A gentleman named Roberts Greenaway from Eatonville is a regular online reader of The Chronicle. We connected in Olympia. I gave him some spuds and he gave me a jar of homemade strawberry jam.
My friend Danielle from Centralia gave me a variety of heirloom seeds, including Glass Gem Corn that makes great popcorn.
I reached out to Tracy Ridout, the Montesano gardener who had given me the potatoes, and admitted that I felt a little guilty getting all these freebies for something that he grew.
He mentioned that he himself had just been paying forward gifts he had received when he gave his potatoes to me and other local growers.
“It’s creating a community,” he said. “Bartering at its finest.”
Brian Mittge is a community enthusiast who has written for The Chronicle since 2000 as a reporter, editor and columnist. He can be reached at brianmittge@hotmail.com.
