What 2011 Might Teach 2012

They say time exists so everything does not happen at once. But as we look over that segment of time we call 2011, it seems like there were periods when everything was happening at once. The normal churn of community life was chopped, whipped, and pureed by a year of extraordinary weather extremes that administered doses of snow in feet not inches, that washed us too close to the drain with serial rainstorms, that blew our power lines down with tropical winds, and, after we put them back up, dragged them down again a few weeks later with distinctly untropical snow. At one point, the whole crazy cocktail of 2011 was shaken (not stirred) by an earthquake.

Against this mega-tableau, the people of Newtown went about their business of earning a living, raising families, educating children, electing a government, and volunteering, volunteering, volunteering — in schools, in places of worship, in clubs and organizations, and in the community’s emergency services. It may have been the wettest year on record, but when it comes to moving forward in spite of everything, Newtown demonstrated that it is by no means wet behind the ears.

While we wish that the wild weather takes a sabbatical in 2012, we hope there is no let-up in the determination, cooperation, and coordination that got the town through the worst of 2011. When things go wrong, we learned, people working together can go a long way toward setting things right. And with so much gone wrong with the economy and the job and housing markets and money is so tight, simply going about our business as a town is made so much more difficult.

With our newly elected government in place, we are hopeful that the lessons of 2011 will inform our community life in 2012 so that when it comes time to spend money, we can do it in a way that it reflects the all the varied interests of those trying to earn a living, raise a family, and educate their children. We may need some “code red” communicating between all the principals involved, but with a little determination, cooperation, and coordination it can be done — if not all at once, in time.