Double Down on Community for Home-Grown Hope

November 11, 2024

Before last week’s fraught election, our nation experienced the annual “fall back” into standard time. Many of us are hurting from this one-two punch (especially the second one). No fan of November myself, I am sensitive to the outward darkness and have developed techniques over the years to keep it from translating to my inner weather.

These are not adaptations so much as instruments of denial: books, shows, crafts, and home projects that keep me too busy to notice what’s happening outside. This year, I’m also playing a role in my local theater group’s winter show. I welcome the excuse to escape to another world for a few hours each week.

It’s also good mental exercise to work with people whom I may not know very well, even if we see each other every day. Having a common goal encourages us to share more of ourselves. I watched this pattern unfold again and again during my childhood of church dinners, condo association meetings, and coffee shop events. And as an adult, I have now spent a decade working in the nonprofit sector with its traditions of community and volunteerism.

Community groups care for their neighbors in need, support the arts and other forms of enrichment, study and protect their natural environment, and ensure that local businesses have a chance to thrive. All of these are absolutely essential to the health of local residents. Even when our largest institutions fail to provide for us, we can choose to strengthen our bonds with the people we see face-to-face. We can help one another on a human scale.

One of the common refrains I’ve heard in the last week is that no one in power seems to care about the consequences their actions will have on others. Entire political platforms are built on not feeling the need to take care of one’s fellow human beings. What should we do when this is reflected in policy? Should we cut our losses and store up our empathy for better days? Or do we double down, knowing that community members are best equipped to help one another because they know one another?

Let’s feed each other good food. Let’s provide opportunities for creative expression. Let’s speak up for our land and water. Let’s build communities that are ruled by a community mindset, instead of collections of individuals who live in the same place and are individually struggling. None of us can do it all, but we can each put some of our time into the community effort.

I can’t think of a better place to spend the coming years than the community where I now live. This is why I have not succumbed to the darkness.