It’s been a long year, Harrisburg.
For those of us who live in the city, it’s been a trying one. In fact, as Thomas Paine wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Women’s, too.
To live in the city at this time requires a thick skin and a strong resolve. It means enduring a barrage of unabashed criticisms, insults and disappointments. There are battles galore, big ones and little ones from inside and out, fights to make Harrisburg better. Every which way are meetings, headlines, announcements, calls to action, warnings, proclamations, declarations, accusations and aspirations.
Not only is there so much to pay attention to, there’s also the need to discern what’s true and what isn’t. That in itself can be a wearisome feat.
When it comes down to it, it’s plumb tiring to be a part of a broken city in the midst of reconstruction.
Of course, it’s the end of the year, and much of the bah-humbug blues are just part of the season. In Harrisburg, though, the circumstances tend to exacerbate the normal trials and tribulations of life.
Yes, it takes strong resolve to persevere in these times.
It also takes cookies and punch.
The theory of cookies and punch is something that struck me a few years ago after a neighborhood holiday party.
Like this year, that year had been a long, exhausting one. The city’s crisis was just cresting and apprehension filled the air. However, that community gathering on a frigid night helped cut the unease we were all feeling.
Everyone brought something. There were homemade cookies, cakes, breads and dips, along with punches and wines shared amongst all of us. The room was filled with engaged residents happy that something festive was organized for them. It wasn’t a meeting obsessed with “Robert’s Rules of Order” or an open mic forum of too much venting about personal frustrations, concerns and desires. It was intended to be a purely social evening, yet there were more productive conversations about our neighborhood and our city than I had witnessed in a long time. Over and over throughout the night, I had fruitful discussions about the state of things.
What I realized is that neighborhood-wide, citywide, we are all sharing the same experience of Harrisburg, and it is only a matter of time until more and more of the gaps that seemingly separate us are bridged.
Where will those bridges come from? I dare say that social gatherings may be the wave of Harrisburg’s change. In the past eight years, I have been to more city and community meetings than I can count. All too often, I walk away from these meetings thinking, “What was that?! I can’t believe I just gave two-and-a-half hours of my time for that. What will even come of it?” And I’m a pretty patient and committed volunteer.
When it comes down to it, though, the most productive exchanges I’ve had have been in front of my house with passersby, with people I bump into at the Broad Street Market, and in spontaneous conversations over cups of coffee or pints of beer.
In these instances, I have learned more about the structure of cities, operations of the city’s administration, the power of the school board, crime in my neighborhood, codes legislation, projects, history and points of view than at any formal meeting I have attended. I have learned who to contact about this and that and how to really get a response from so and so. That night so many years ago, I walked away from the party with new contacts, new ideas and future meetings scheduled to actually get something done. Tangible next steps. Something to count on.
I was a renewed ball of energy and hope.
Fortunately, I have experienced that same sensation many times since then. Away from the formalities and to the essence of communal gathering—that’s when there is an encouragement of the spirit and a rejuvenation of the soul.
As this tiring year ends, let us rethink how we get things done. We should ponder what really encourages people to participate and why so many don’t, leaving the grueling tasks of reconstructing a broken city to too few. We should think about how we communicate and what certain approaches imply about power and order. Ultimately, we must consider how to organize processes that represent the dynamics of our city more fairly and bring more people together.
I say let there be more cookies-and-punch gatherings and see what happens.
May this season be filled with many such endeavors in the city and, with them, a renewed sense of vigor to take us into the new year.
Tara Leo Auchey is creator and editor of today’s the day Harrisburg. www.todaysthedayhbg.com.
