Anonymity

                Steamboat Springs is not the first small town in which I’ve lived, nor is it the most remote. However, it is the warmest (at least figuratively). I found myself ruminating about why that is as I listened to C. J. Box, Western mystery writer, last night at the first ever Spring Author’s Series at the Bud Werner Memorial Library. He shared details with a packed house about how he builds his books around the lack of anonymity that exists in small towns in the West. His writing tends to focus on the impact on social interactions that comes from knowing that the fellow citizen with whom you may disagree vehemently at the City Council meeting is the same neighbor who you will run into at the next social function you attend. Box’s books are, of course, based on how that small town closeness affects a murder investigation, while I’m much more interested in how our small town makes our community more civil. He discussed the lack of anonymity that small size engenders, while I think about the sense of belonging it promotes.

                A small school like Whiteman Primary can be seen as a microcosm of a small community like Steamboat Springs. In the same way that meeting other community members in a variety of contexts helps us to know them better, respect their opinions, and honor their differences, the increased opportunities to meet and interact with the other students in a variety of contexts allow our children to learn to appreciate one another. Of course, children are not going to be friends with every other child, just as not all members of the broader community will find pleasure in each other’s company, but the lesson that is learned in a small town or school environment is that being civil and respectful is key. The social habits that our town and our school develop in our children will stay with them and serve them well as they move out into the world as adults, regardless of the size of the setting in which they end up.

                My first experience in a small town in rural New Hampshire many, many years ago was jarring to my suburban world view. As I opened a bank account in my well-practiced business-honed Boston-bred aggressive manner, I noticed the shock and concern that the bank clerk seemed to be experiencing. Looking back at what was for me a life-changing interaction, I realize that it was exactly the anonymity Box referred to that had me viewing the bank clerk as a “function” rather than a “person.”  While some may bemoan the fact that they can’t escape the eyes of their neighbors in a small town like Steamboat Springs, or of their teachers and other students in a small school like Whiteman Primary, the net result of the smallness is a personal sense of warmth, comfort, and belonging. This is a tremendous gift that we all share here, and it’s one that we are fortunate to be able to give to our children and to the wider world they will someday lead.