A Community Thread

Because Erin is pumped about this project and wants to get some other people pumped out it, too, she introduced me to Mindy. And she did so with very high praise. I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with Mindy and I found it very difficult to not smile as she spoke because everything about her was smiling. If you have the space to do it, I highly recommending listening to this interview because so much of Mindy’s positivity comes through in how she speaks. Keep an eye out for Mindy and say hi when you do see her. I guarantee you’ll be better for it. And if you are in the market for a life coach, she might be the one for you.

I met Albert at a recent Community Conversations meeting. I greatly appreciated what he brought to the table so I asked him if he’d be willing to participate in this project. He not only obliged but also offered to begin actively seeking out other folks to send my way. I look forward to seeing how that develops. Albert keeps it real. I love it when people keep it real. He shared a few stories of his life with me - and now with you - but I imagine there are so many more. I look forward to gleaning more wisdom from him. He says this about halfway through the interview, “But I know that if we were all the same color, we would pick out some difference and find a way.” And that simultaneously made me sad and gave me hope. We seem to be hard-wired to treat each other poorly. But there are folks all around us that don’t subscribe to that and Albert is a really good example for us to look to.

A woman named Cheryl Parton reached out to me to discuss a potential collaboration. And then, after we met and chatted, she referred Donna to me. Donna saw herself more in the connecting role than in directly participating, but I twisted her arm and she graciously accepted. She’s a hard worker and full of dedication. And she’s so thoughtful. She reached out to me later in the day of our interview to ask me to include that she considers herself a friend. Here’s what she said, “My friendships are so important to me. I owe much of my recent state of calm and positiveness to a few very sweet, well-timed friendships.” It says quite a lot about a person when they want to give credit where it’s due. Imagine the community we could have if we all did that.

I met Amanda about a year ago at Good Dog, an off-leash dog area just outside of town. Our dogs were playing well together and that got us talking and then we found out we had photography in common and that turned us into casual friends. Then, sometime later, I interviewed and photographed her daughter Arden for this project. We’ve gotten to know each other in fits and spurts and eventually I asked her if she’d be willing to participate here. I haven’t interviewed too many folks that I’ve known beforehand, so it was interesting to feel a bit more relaxed in the processes. And interesting to do two interviews at the same kitchen table separated by many months.

I took some pictures at an Opportunity Knocks event several weeks ago and met Eric’s partner there. We exchanged information and made some plans to meet for this project, but it turned out that the timing was better to meet with Eric first, so here we are. Eric invited me to his tipi outside of Sisters, making this a first for the project. We sat sheltered in there, kept warm by a fire, while birds chirped a winter song and light rain drizzled down outside. His thoughtful and deliberate answers combined with our being in his element made for a truly powerful conversation. It is a lovely and rare occasion to meet a man who is capable and smart and powerful while simultaneously being humbly aware of his struggles and determined to do better.

Tor is the neighbor of a previous participant and she recommended we get together to chat. It took us several weeks to connect, but it was well worth the wait. Tor is a lovely human. He has a very gentle demeanor and such kind eyes and seems to share that with everyone he comes in contact with. Tor is a writer and a journalist and attributes much of his optimistic worldview to his curiosity. We sat in a research room that occasionally doubles as his office at the Deschutes Historical Museum, where Tor serves on the board. The catalogues that make up the background of his photo are archives of the Bend Bulletin, which he uses as reference material for his books.

A few weeks ago, I asked Charlie for a recommendation and he passed along his wife's information to me. That's high praise, right? I've only spent time individually with Charlie and Kelly, but the way they speak about one other leads me to believe that they have a very loving relationship. I met with Kelly at her co-working space on a quiet Sunday morning and something about being in a very productive space on a non-workday was simultaneously energizing and relaxing. And Kelly was an absolute pleasure to speak with. She's very thoughtful and so obviously full of kindness.

The same person that introduced me to Ian introduced me to Preston. We exchanged a few emails before officially meeting, through which I learned that Preston is a very busy man with irons in many different fires. We sat on a couch behind his desk at Five Talent and chatted with the hum of a room full of people at work as our background noise. I left our interview with a lot to think about. I suppose I could summarize it by saying that I find it really interesting what stands out to each of us during the course of this life. Things, mostly of a social nature, being broken and the sadness I feel about that motivates me to try the best way I can to fix them or, at least, shine some light on them. I got the impression that for Preston the motivation is in the progress. He put it best by saying, "What pops me up out of bed is kicking the ball forward somewhere."

Ian came to me as a referral from a referral, which makes for a great example of the thread of community. I tell everybody that this process takes about an hour, give or take, but chatting with Ian was to become the exception, as we talked for two hours in his studio before I even started recording. He mentioned Boston in his first few sentences and that led to our talking about Portland, Maine - where I come from - and that led to stories and stories and stories and many different layers of connecting. And that connection is what I'm advocating. It's what I think most of us are capable of experiencing on a regular basis. In it is the joy of being alive here and now with all these other folks. If you normally read these stories, I'd encourage you to listen to the audio of this interview as Ian and I talk about much more than I've transcribed below.

I reached my goal of making 50 stories this first year, so this interview with Erin marks the first of the next batch. I'm going to dig a bit deeper by asking more challenging questions in hopes of gaining more understanding about each of us.

We sat in a quiet and very lovely classroom in a couple of rocking chairs while piano music from a practicing student in another room faintly serenaded us. Erin is a force of good and kindness. Speaking with her was calming and somehow even reassuring. She has a wonderful passion for bringing people together through art and it was a delight to talk with her about it.