COMMUNITY IN 2020
There are many things I could write about in this year of shutdowns and sickness, separation and lack of travel. It has been a lonely time for many, and also a time where households could spend more time together, welcomed or not. There is no doubt that COVID-19 and the changes made in society to prevent its rapid spread have changed "community"--how it looks, acts, and feels--and communities. I’ve been too overwhelmed by it to feel enabled to write clearly about it, and yet there has been much to say about how the Internet has kept not only companies and schools (Who had heard of Zoom before late March?!?) going but also brought groups together in new and unexpected ways (my local PTA saw a dramatic increase in attendance from home), and how the lack of community (job loss, being or feeling alone) has led many down roads of despair and suicide or to innovative ways to succeed or change course. COVID-19 has wreaked its havoc on our world in many ways including community. As have unjust deaths of men and women at the hands of law enforcement, the riots and neighborhood takeovers!
Has this episode in our world’s history taught us anything about the importance of safe, strong community ties and a place to call home. YES, or at least I hope so! There are many personal and public examples of how community has changed for the worse or better this year, and it really depends on what demographic you are in, your resources, previous community ties, your experiences this year, and your ability to access technology.
BOOK REVIEW
All this to introduce a review and personal thoughts on the book Sixty Degrees North (softbound, Pegasus edition reprint, 2017) by Malachy Tallack. It was an enjoyable read as far as reading for pleasure, but as I was reading I formed some thoughts about how the book relates to my own views about place, community, and home, and found the writer’s journey mirrored what I believe is a human instinct to find “home,” that place where the heart and memories reside as well as the body and soul, even when those things can’t be present all at once in that place one calls home.
Part travelogue and memoir, this book travels with Tallack as he circles the globe westward along the 60 degree parallel. For the geographically challenged, this is north, about as far north as is inhabitable for humans. He is spurred to travel out of personal loss and upended life plans, including an unexpected move. Feeling restless, he makes his way from his physical home of Shetland Island to Greenland and land hops all the way around the globe stopping in Canada, Alaska, Siberia, Russia, Finland, Aland, Sweden, and Norway, following the 60th parallel, before discovering that Shetland was home.
With vivid geographical descriptions of the lands and towns he visits while trying to get as close as possible to that imaginary 60th "line," Tallack brings readers on his westward and inward journey, as he explores anthropology, history, and culture with honesty and an open mind to experiencing these places for what they are. The personal, thought-provoking, and quiet memoir explores how mankind interacts with and lives off the land in a symbiotic relationship in the harsh terrains and unforgiving climes. He explores how land at the 60th is both life-giving, beautiful, and dangerous, and not for everyone!
Near the end of this book, Tallack writes about finally finding home for a while in Fair Isle, part of Shetland, Scotland, but its own island 25 miles from Shetland itself. He writes of the community he grew to love while visiting his brother who was working in a bird observatory: “It was Fair Isle’s community that drew me in. It was the connections that people had with each other and with their place-connections that were obvious to even the briefest of visitors. To live in Fair Isle was unlike living anywhere that I had known before. It was to become a member of something bigger and more important than any individual. It was to belong to a community that was greater than the sum of its parts, independent from and yet dependent upon each member. On that island, among those people, I came to understand and to experience a sense of attachment that was stronger, more intricate, and yet somehow simpler than any I had felt before. Fair Isle was the first place in which my desire to be at home felt welcomed and reciprocated” (pps. 186-187).
Home may be where
you hang your hat,
but it is something more?
As I read Tallack’s lovely clear writing, I couldn’t stop thinking about the story of Adam and Eve, and how they were kicked out of their home that had all the accoutrements of life they needed. Within the human heart lies this very loss, want, and need of home. There are many stories in literature that speak to this longing. We also know how social, mental, emotional, and physical health depends on our relationship with others and the world around us. We are made for relationships. Without them, from the smallest baby to the eldest world citizen, we will literally die for lack of connection and meaning. This book also caused me to think about Christian’s journey in Pilgrim’s Progress, the metaphor for the journey of life with God to an eternal home.
Within us all there is a longing for our home, our people, our place, our community.
Tallack’s book, while informative about the cultures and traditions of the lands he visited, is more about finding home, community, and belonging. His description of the attraction of living in Fair Isle sums up what community is and should be.
This would make a great library, church, or community center book club read for a group discussion about what home and community means. Armchair travelers and students of anthropology and northern climes may find this a lighter read to offset their studies. It is also just a good read if you are so inclined.
Where is home, not just the physical building you reside in, but where is your home community? Where do you really feel you belong?
For the book, see: Malachy Tallack's Website
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