This comes at a really serendipitous moment for me, I've been thinking about this exact topic for weeks! I'm an archivist in Los Alamos, NM and recently did an oral history interview with a 95 year old resident here in our isolated mountain community. She arrived in 1951 as a young unmarried teacher, just a handful of years after the end of the Manhattan Project and has lived through so much change. I was struck by how *busy* she was, all through her life. A member of probably more than twenty clubs, active in so many volunteer organizations...her entire interview was a wealth of information about community life in early Los Alamos for us. At the end of the interview she made a comment about how she never understood how people could move here and be bored (a common complaint these days) and I asked her why she thought she had never been bored. "Because there was always so much to do! So many clubs! I learned so much from so many people, it was never boring. If people would just get together and learn from each other, they wouldn't have a chance to be bored." That has stuck with me for weeks. I will definitely be watching this documentary, thanks so much for sharing it!
Thank you for recommending this Katherine . I watched it immediately that day and absolutely loved it and I will incorporate this really important message into my upcoming presentation with grade 8 parents on screen time.
I joined a local chapter of a statewide naturalists club (I know what some of you are thinking and the correct word for participants in that activity is naturists) a few years ago. So glad I did. Made friendships. Started leading interpretive hikes- an activity I always assumed I would be too shy to do. Community is important. I left the church decades ago and completely understand why others do as well. But the leaving left a community gap in my life. Good topic Katherine.
This comes at a really serendipitous moment for me, I've been thinking about this exact topic for weeks! I'm an archivist in Los Alamos, NM and recently did an oral history interview with a 95 year old resident here in our isolated mountain community. She arrived in 1951 as a young unmarried teacher, just a handful of years after the end of the Manhattan Project and has lived through so much change. I was struck by how *busy* she was, all through her life. A member of probably more than twenty clubs, active in so many volunteer organizations...her entire interview was a wealth of information about community life in early Los Alamos for us. At the end of the interview she made a comment about how she never understood how people could move here and be bored (a common complaint these days) and I asked her why she thought she had never been bored. "Because there was always so much to do! So many clubs! I learned so much from so many people, it was never boring. If people would just get together and learn from each other, they wouldn't have a chance to be bored." That has stuck with me for weeks. I will definitely be watching this documentary, thanks so much for sharing it!
Thank you for recommending this Katherine . I watched it immediately that day and absolutely loved it and I will incorporate this really important message into my upcoming presentation with grade 8 parents on screen time.
I joined a local chapter of a statewide naturalists club (I know what some of you are thinking and the correct word for participants in that activity is naturists) a few years ago. So glad I did. Made friendships. Started leading interpretive hikes- an activity I always assumed I would be too shy to do. Community is important. I left the church decades ago and completely understand why others do as well. But the leaving left a community gap in my life. Good topic Katherine.
Thanks! Shared this with an organization in my city that works on bringing people together for social and political changes.