Roots & Renewal: Neighbors on the Page

Every week, Dave Staab and Brad Rapp do something kind of miraculous. Column inch by column inch, they build a whole community out of paper. For someone rather obsessed with community, connection and “doing stuff,” I’m a bit ashamed it took me this long to acknowledge it.

There are council meetings and obituaries, ball games and benefit dinners, church announcements, grocery specials and photographs of children holding enormous fish. Businesses open. Couples celebrate anniversaries. Somebody wins a raffle. Somewhere among it all, a few of us are given a little space to talk about whatever has been occupying our minds.

For a long time, one of the first names I looked for was Dorothy Butz Knight. I would settle in with “On Sunny Lane” for a few minutes to see what had been on Dorothy’s mind that week. When she retired the column in July, her place on the page felt quiet. I enjoyed sharing this neighborhood with you, Dorothy. I hope the next book is coming along.

Daniel Karns holds down another, newer corner with “The Hardware Man.” Week after week, he opens the doors at Clintonville Hardware, puts in the hours, pays attention to what people need and then shares a little of what he has noticed. That kind of hands-on service and reflection means something to me.

Edward Master wanders through “Random Thoughts from a Random Memory,” past old swimming holes, firemen’s carnivals, class reunions and gathering places that now live mostly in memory. I’m rarely sure where Edward is headed when we set out, but I always enjoy going along for the ride.

The Christophers visit from farther away, bringing reflections on faith and service from New York City. They aren’t local in quite the same way, but their voice has become part of the familiar mix.

And now Ryan Pugh has pulled up a chair on the porch with “Confessions of a Former News Editor.” We’ve only just met, but so far Ryan seems like someone who doesn’t mind laughing at himself while he tells a story. Welcome, Ryan. I look forward to hearing more of your tales. Your years on the sidelines might even help me understand what it is about sports that lights people up, something Rachel and I just pondered in our most recent podcast!

Of course, Dave and Brad aren’t creating this community from nothing. We’re already here, going to meetings, running businesses, remembering old friends, fixing houses, raising children and occasionally holding up enormous fish for photographs. Dave’s particular gift is knowing where to shine the light. He has kept The Progress News going year after year, carrying the responsibility and risk that come with it. Brad does an enormous share of the week-to-week work that brings each issue into being. Together, they do the stubborn, mostly invisible work of gathering the victories, losses, announcements and ordinary details of our lives into one place where we can see a little more of one another.

Then we carry small pieces of one another’s lives into the week. We recognize a name on a sign, understand a little more about the person behind the counter and feel a little closer to people we might not see every day.

Maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll look up from my grocery cart at the Emlenton IGA and find one of my newspaper neighbors standing there. And just like magic, a conversation that began on paper will carry on somewhere between the produce aisle and the checkout line.

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Roots & Renewal is where the Pellere Foundation shares the people, projects and occasional mud behind our work. Read along here, check out the podcast on YouTube or Spotify, or find us at pellere.org.