Lebanon
It can be an isolating time of the year. Last year I recognized I needed to do something about that isolation.
All the more reason to get out and become involved, which I did last mud season by starting as a volunteer with the Five Colleges Book Sale.
I don’t need to state the virtues of volunteering and serving your community, how it feels good to have another sense of purpose beyond your work and personal obligations. Anyone who has ever volunteered understands this.
But what’s often overlooked among the virtues of volunteering is the benefit of interacting with fellow volunteers and the bonds that can form while working on behalf of a common cause. In the case of the Five Colleges Book Sale, many of the volunteers are women who are decades older than me. And it got me thinking that, if not for the circumstance of the book sale, I would not have had a chance to meet them and I would have missed out on their companionship.
How often do we interact with people who are not in our age range, just for the sake of having a conversation? How often do we take the time to understand each other, to build relationships with someone from a different generation?
The conclusion I have come to is that, for the vast majority of us, it’s not often enough.
I am fortunate that, in my job, I meet people of all ages and walks of life. But if left to my own devices, I don’t know if I would make the effort on my own. My volunteerism these last two years was driven by the desire to help as much as it was to feel connected and stave off the mud season doldrums.
In an age when — if popular opinion is to be believed — we are more divided than ever, these interactions are increasingly important, even if they are more scarce. We are broken up by age groups so often (millennials, boomers, generation X) and almost seem to be stuck there.
I think of the intergenerational interactions I do know of: my mother’s frequent cups of tea with her long-widowed neighbor, the Upper Valley teenagers who teach older adults to use technology and the area mentorship programs that pair adults with children.
And I also think of the loneliness and isolation that is becoming increasingly common among older adults who are living alone.
During early spring Saturday afternoons spent sorting books, we discussed the titles themselves but also the memories they brought up. A shared appreciation for a certain title opened the door to more conversations.
It’s easy to make assumptions about the things we don’t have in common. But present a shared mission and those commonalities come out. We just need a place to start.
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
