Hello from Garfield,
It’s interesting what resonates with you when you’re a kid; you read, see or hear
something, and it fundamentally shapes who you become and how you think about the
world (it’s the beginning of a new year, I’m feeling a bit philosophical, bear with me). But
you often don’t realize it until much later, if at all. It took me almost 40 years.
My husband will periodically comment to our daughter that reading comic books as a kid
shaped his moral code (often when he is feeling like he needs to defend having a few
thousand comic books taking up space in the basement). During one of these times,
while thinking that was pretty amazing and cool (and that it explained a few things about
my spouse), I started mentally flipping through the pages of my own childhood story,
wondering if I had had such an influence (parents don’t really count as a catalyst for a
moral epiphany). And a bright light came on in my head. I heard a choir sing (you know
the note, I bet you are hearing it now).
I had.
It was Louis L’Amour.
My dad loves westerns. He had every Louis L’Amour book ever written stored in the
basement. The summer I turned 12 I found them and devoured them. A single phrase,
from a single book, resonated with me so completely that it burrowed into my young
brain and became the subconscious core of my moral code: someone to ride the river
with. I so admired the idea of a person who would stand with others when help was
needed, or defended what they believed was right, even in the face of their own
discomfort or peril (and yes, Lord of the Rings is my favorite book/movie). Interestingly, I
had forgotten that the person who embodied this in Louis’s book was a 16-year-old girl.
We recently had a PRWA staff retreat, and several things became very obvious very
quickly. One, we enjoy our work. Two, we have assembled a very talented, kind and
humorous group of women – yes, every staff member currently at PRWA is female.
Three, we all genuinely want to help rural communities overcome the challenges they
face. And four, each and every one of these women is someone to ride the river with.
This principle is also at PRWA’s core – we want to be there for our smallest
communities, especially when the ride gets difficult. Rural community leaders and staff
often work at impossible jobs under impossible circumstances. We want to help them
anyway we can, until the work is complete or they tell us they’ve got it. It’s why we work
with ZEN on The Giving Grid, formed the PRISTINE Water Initiative and ROAR, and
started our Clerking 101 program.
We want to help, in whatever way is useful. I think of it as a permanent New Year’s
resolution.
By the way, that book was Ride the River, part of the Sackett saga. Find it somewhere.
Echo Sackett may inspire you as well in the new year.
Take care, and may 2026 be kind to us all.
Jody
