COLUMN: Love where you live

“It’s the place where we keep our hopes and dreams. The place where I lost my heart it seems. All people lookin’ for danger and romance. Drop by there while you still have the chance.”

Marshall Crenshaw “Our Town,” 1983

Earlier this month, I was in the northeast Iowa city of Dubuque.

Like Creston, there are some murals on building walls. One got my attention and made me think even more.

“Love where you live” is painted on a wall in a neighborhood, not far from downtown.

According to the Sisters of Charity, a Catholic organization dedicated to education, charity and justice the painting has a deeper meaning.

“People taking pride in their neighborhoods is critical to caring for our common earth home. This decorated fencing illustrates how ordinary folks can live out the Laudato Si’ Action Platform goal of ‘community involvement and participatory action’ in their everyday lives. Encouraging rootedness, a sense of pride, and belonging in a community and neighborhood, are important aspects of caring for our planet.”

I don’t think that phrase “love where you live” needs any additional explanation.

Maybe most of us while growing up had dreams of leaving the town. It’s not inherently bad to think that way. We read and see of other places on TV and in magazines, newspapers. We go see other places. People we know visited a certain spot or vacationed there and told us how great it was. I am one of those people. I didn’t want to stay in the town where I graduated high school. I made the punchlines about the Colorado town where I grew up but I eventually left. I don’t have any hard feelings toward the town. I owe it much as it has helped me become who I am today. I just didn’t know it would be 35 years ago.

During my adult years, I have learned to appreciate the natives of towns where I lived who have stayed. It is a number of those people who help it continue, change or grow, hopefully all for the better. The people who stay, and have a genuine good attitude, know who the decision makers will be. In the places I’ve lived, I’ve been fortunate to know some of those native people who stay and what they have done to contribute. Those people have made me feel more secure and optimistic living there.

I’ve also experienced how some natives are critical of others even though their efforts have had community wide benefits. Oh, our human nature.

I have read those social media sites about a town’s “rumors” or a place for people to vent about something related to the town. I’ve been told the “McDonald’s is coming to Winterset gossip” was on a Winterset page for a couple of years before it opened late last year. Then there are the people who complain that “(Place X) did this to me....” including a detailed description of what happened. Oh, the humanity of having too much lettuce in your hamburger container.

It’s not all doom-and-gloom or condiments. You see the occasional post of a missing pet finding its home or how a traveler needed some help and was taken care. Or maybe it’s someone who is looking for a lawn mower to borrow or an apartment to live. I don’t see Creston significantly different than my first time working here 20 years ago. That’s not a bad thing either.

It would be fascinating to see what people from another part of the country think about while reading another town’s gripe page. Do those comments determine the opinions they have on the people posting or the places identified? Or does it make them look deeper into where they live and maybe how they can help? If a checkbook exposes what is important to us, should these community social media pages show what we think about where we, or others, live, work and play?