It’s about community

Reading transports us. It allows us to peek into another world. It stretches our imagination and asks us to consider another point of view.

For one person, reading can open a mind or grow a heart. For a whole community? Reading can change lives.

When The Big Read came to the Holland Area in 2014 I admired the commitment of the planning team and felt humbled by the dedication of the many volunteers. When I heard we’d get to do it all again in 2015, I knew that our community had begun to nurture something special.

As I started reading The Things They Carried this summer I knew I couldn’t wait until November to start posing questions and having conversations. I asked my husband what he would do if he were drafted. I listened to friends share about their lives during the Vietnam War. And I learned what they carried.

Some people carried strong memories of a very challenging time for their own families and friends. Some carried a general sense that the nation would no longer be the same. Others carried the burden of the future, of never having lived through the Vietnam War and yet knowing a little something about what it felt like to question the idea of patriotism or bravery.

As we gather in groups and discuss the book, I think we know we’re not really talking about the Vietnam War. When we question what’s “real” and what’s “fiction,” I think we know there’s no right answer.

And to be honest, these things are not what’s important. What’s important is the gathering. The questioning. The conversation.

Because, as Tim O’Brien teaches us, “. . . a true war story is never about war.” And The Big Read Holland Area—our story—isn’t about a book. It’s about a community.

-Sarah Baar

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