May 30, 2025
The last graduating class of Northland College walked the stage this past weekend.
I have written about how my time at Northland taught me to take an active role in my community and to leave it better than I found it. There is a direct line leading from my professors’ exhortations of “show up” to the texture and color of my current life in Spring Green.
Spring Green boasts a large number of nonprofits for its size (an attribute it shares with the city of Ashland, home to Northland). Small groups gather in public meeting spaces, lit by fluorescent bulbs as they engage in passionate debates about how best to carry out their mission. The agendas, the reports, the search through old emails for a certain correspondence, the moments of tension and (sometimes) resolution: these are the stitches that hold this community together through the years.
I feel at home in such an environment. My fellow-citizens are sometimes surprised to learn that I’ve only lived here for four years, based on my involvement in local groups and the connections I’ve forged with many of my neighbors. But I couldn’t exist in a place like Spring Green without being involved; the two concepts are the same to me. It’s how I navigate a new place while fighting loneliness.
Outsiders may say there’s no obvious “reason” to get involved in a citizen group. It doesn’t add to our personal wealth or even grow our town’s population by a measurable amount. However, there are needs in this community that would never have been filled if individuals hadn’t shown up in some capacity.
What’s more, we are filling our own needs by choosing to be with others. Instead of shutting ourselves away in our homes, we can find common ground with those who also choose to make a home here and work for the good of all. Involvement both holds back darkness and increases light – even if it is the fluorescent kind.
Driftless Grace 