'You can't buy a membership'
Joshua Tree community clean-up event returns on Dec. 4, Joshua Tree NP is hiring, and County toy drive applications are now open
Hello from California’s high desert where our unusually warm fall continues. It looks like we’re in for some cooler weather just in time for the holiday next week, but we will see if that holds. No rain on the horizon, unfortunately.
I tend to reflect more during the last few months of the year. I like to look through my goals set back in January and see what worked and what went sideways. I like to scroll through photos and get nostalgic for all the get-togethers and road trips I was able to take, and compare the baby puppy to the 50-pound creature that now roams the house. It’s a feeling similar to nesting, but instead of preparing for the imminent arrival of a new human being, I am just replenishing my reserves with happiness and joy before embarking on another year.
Then, as she tends to do, author Anne Helen Peterson wrote a piece that articulated that feeling better than I ever could. She is the kind of writer whose talent makes me want to throw my computer across the room because it’s just so brilliant. She has written several books and brilliantly breaks down how individuals fit into bigger societal structures, whether that focuses on celebrities in pop culture or employees at huge companies. She is, to put it glibly, who I want to be when I grow up.
In her newsletter Culture Study, Peterson this week embarked on a monumental journey that has been turning over in my mind for months and was probably going to be the topic of the next set of my own newsletters. She set out to define community: who it includes, who it doesn’t include, and how we as individuals can maintain it. Here’s just one excerpt that was frustratingly on point:
What rescued me at the end of my long day of self-sufficiency wasn’t my best laid plans or my organized planner or my to-do lists. It was actual community and ethos of care. And after so many years of refining self-reliance amidst uncertainty —after my parents’ divorce, at college, in those first confusing years post-grad, in those prolonged confusing years in the academy and then digital journalism — it feels wild, wild!, to gradually and willingly rely on others.
I won’t spoil the entire piece because I believe it is best enjoyed in its entirety, but Peterson hits on this notion that we are so engrossed in our individual to-do lists that other tasks that can actually help build a community are set aside for someone else, someone not as busy as we are, someone without young kids juggling school and activities, someone that has a steady job or someone that is freelancing. Someone that isn’t us.
But as I’m sure you can tell, that’s not what actually builds a community that can rely on others. It’s setting aside an hour every Saturday to pick up trash on the Mesa even when you’d rather sleep in. It’s volunteering once a month with the National Park Service to check entry passes even though you feel like you’d rather have that time for yourself or your yard or your individual hobbies. If we all do the work, we all get to enjoy its benefits. As this community, in particular, continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, I’m concerned that different factions are breaking apart to form their own, smaller, insular communities that punish outsiders. But that’s not really how community works, and it would be a shame if it took a minor catastrophe like a blown tire to realize that we can’t rely solely on ourselves at all times.
So my reflection this year will focus on how I can help build community here with those around me regardless of where they came from or how long they’ve had a post office box in town. A closing thought, courtesy of Peterson:
Actual community isn’t like Triple-A — you can’t buy a membership. But it’s more likely to happen if you cultivate circumstances for it to flourish.
And now, onto this week’s news:
San Bernardino County is hosting a neighborhood clean-up event for residents of unincorporated San Bernardino County on December 4
San Bernardino County Code Enforcement and Solid Waste Management Divisions are hosting a free waste disposal in Joshua Tree on December 4.
Residents of unincorporated County areas can drop off tires, bulky household items, and green waste. Hazardous waste like paint or other chemicals, concrete, and pool supplies will not be accepted at this event.
The Urban Conservation Core will help with the disposal of electronics such as televisions, computer monitors, VCRs, stereos, cell phones, and microwaves.
For more information, residents can call County Code Enforcement officer Erin Aguero at (909) 520-2689.
The event will be held at the Joshua Tree Community Center at 6171 Sunburst Stree in Joshua Tree from 8 a.m. until 12 p.m. on Saturday, December 4.
In partnership with the Great Basin Insitute, Joshua Tree National Park is hiring a digital media technician for a contractor role.
The role begins in December or January and will remain a contractor position for six months. There is an opportunity for an extension pending performance, according to the Institute’s job posting.
It is a full-time role with starting pay of $21 per hour. It includes medical, dental, and vision benefits as well as paid holidays.
The research associate will be responsible for writing and editing online content including social media, analyzing online data to better reach people on social media or email, creating visual media such as photos and videos for use online and on social media, and supporting the full-time team’s online and in-person communications like flyers or website announcements.
Here is the job posting in full. Good luck to all potential candidates!
Residents of Division 4 in San Bernardino County, which includes the entire Morongo Basin and up to Lucerne and Johnson Valleys, can now submit toy request forms for upcoming holiday toy drives.
Residents are asked to complete the Spark of Love Toy Request Form, including a Non-Profit 501(c)(3) number, and submit it to kristin@childrensfund.org.
Individuals living in Division 4 can contact local nonprofit organizations or call 2-1-1 for additional resources.
Toy Request Forms can be submitted at sbcfire.org. For more information, you can call the Children's Fund Spark of Love Hotline at (909) 379-6040.
Pupdate of the week: Alice and Oliver mostly cooperated with a small photo session last week in preparation for our end-of-year cards, albeit with lots of treat bribes. Thank you again to Andrew Barber, who was a champion at working with these bozos and getting some incredible shots. He is still accepting sessions before the holidays, and I cannot recommend working with him enough!
Trail tip of the week: There was a viral post going around a few weeks ago that has been thoroughly debunked, so I wanted to bring it up again here. If you are lost and do not have cell service, do not attempt to change your voicemail outgoing message. You will use more battery than sending a text message or iMessage, and you likely need a signal anyway to complete the update. Your best bet is still to attempt to send a text message that will go through once you have service and uses significantly less battery than trying to call out. Always tell someone before you leave where you plan to go and when they should expect you to return so they can alert search and rescue should they need to.
Book of the week: I have a backlog of books that I am dying to read over the holidays, so here’s a quick summary of my to-read list: Sellout by Dan Ozzi, which follows a dozen pop-punk bands in the early 2000s and their diverging paths to, you guessed it, selling out and going mainstream or disappearing entirely; Win Me Something by Kyle Lucia Wu is a novel following a Chinese-American woman in New York City that recently came out and is on every “must-read” novel list for this year; and At the Edge of the Haight by Katherine Seligman is a novel that follows a young woman experiencing homelessness in San Francisco as she grapples with what it means to have a chosen family instead of a biological one.
Show of the week: I am cheating a bit and starting my holiday watch list early this year. My favorite holiday film of all time is The Family Stone, which is a criminally underrated film starring Luke Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Diane Keaton. It is the best of the “dysfunctional but lovable” family holiday genre that I will never get tired of, and I will repeat that the casting is utter perfection. It is streaming to rent on Prime Video and Apple TV.
That’s it for this week! I will be off next week to prepare for a home full of guests and some extremely delicious food. Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I hope you have some time this weekend to relax outside.
- Megan
You make an excellent point, Megan, about building community. Bur even we freelancers have a hard time "making the time." I know when I'm "done" with work for the day, it's often the last thing I want to do to spend the "emotional" effort of "getting out there." But it won't happen without the effort. Thank you or the reminder! (It's just like daily exercise, I figure: once you get in the habit of pushing through the "I don't want to," it gets easier and easier!