Wednesday, March 8, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
19
Commentary...
It all comes back to culture and community
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
A remarkable thing
happened last month in a
sport so obscure that many
Americans likely do not
even know it exists. Thirty-
five-year-old Lowell Bailey
became the first American
ever to take a gold medal in
the World Championships in
the sport of biathlon.
Biathlon combines cross-
country skiing and shooting
in perhaps the most physi-
cally grueling and mentally
challenging of the winter
sports. Imagine it: Ski-racing
till your heart is pumping
like a mighty bellows, then
calming your breathing to
the point where you can hit
a series of five targets at 50
meters. Misses force penalty
laps on the ski course. Do it
four times of the course of
20 kilometers.
3WireSports.com ran a
fine article about Bailey’s
achievement.
“What Lowell Bailey did
… is arguably the hardest
thing to do in sports: to win
when there is no evidence
you can,” Alan Abrahamson
wrote. “When all you have is
belief. And you, your fam-
ily, your community, your
team have had to sustain that
belief — in this instance, on
behalf of your country — for
more than 20 years.”
What struck me was how
much emphasis the story
put on community. Bailey
grew up in Lake Placid, New
York, among a host of avid
and capable winter athletes,
who knew that if they were
to compete on a world stage,
they’d be going up against
the giants from Scandinavia
and Eastern Europe.
“They were by no means
the Bad News Bears,” their
coach Kris Cheney-Seymour
said, “but they also weren’t
the prodigies. The dream
was born. Probably they and
their internal sport mecha-
nisms bought into it first.
Their parents were uncondi-
tional. And the community
believed as well. Every step
along the way was, in some
ways celebrated, but also
there was an inner belief that
they could always do it.”
Nordic combined skier
Billy Demong said, “I
have always been a bigger
believer in groups and cul-
ture. We had that when we
were kids growing up. We
showed up. We pushed each
other.”
Belief and action — both
are necessary to “do it,”
whatever “it” may be. Sisters
is extraordinarily fortunate
to be the kind of community
that believes — and acts.
Last weekend, the Sisters
Folk Festival hosted young
musicians from across the
region and out-of-state to
celebrate and support their
efforts as songwriters.
But the Americana Song
Academy for Youth was
about more than simply
handing out “atta-boys” and
“atta-girls.” It was work. The
young artists, like Demong’s
young athletes, showed up
and pushed each other — to
dig deeper, to be braver, to
reach higher.
The Sisters Science Club
believes — and they put
belief into action with edu-
cation programs for youth
and adults in the community
Dr. Thomas R. Rheuben
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alike. It’s serious work. And
it’s serious fun. They’ve
got a whole series of events
lined up to celebrate sci-
ence in the month of April
— events we can all attend
and help out with.
Faced with a deadly win-
ter, Sisters volunteers and
churches created a shelter
for those in real need. Last
week, Rio Restaurant and
Three Sisters and Cook
Contracting provided food
for 15 people at the shel-
ter, and Rio and Sisters
Athletic Club partnered
up to feed 100 people at
Bethlehem Inn. Any time
you want to help with that,
Roberto Cardenas will take
50 percent off your meal
at Rio.
All through this heavy
and apparently endless win-
ter neighbors have shoveled
neighbors’ roofs and drive-
ways, towed their friends
out of snow bogs and gener-
ally helped each other pull
through.
The examples abound…
This is what a healthy
culture and community does.
And despite our divisions,
it’s still who we are.
There’s a lot of loud and
ugly noise emanating from
our national political culture
right now, and we’ve heard it
here in our own community.
It’s easy to get distracted by
it, discouraged by it, even
enraged by it. Maybe we
should take some time to
shut it off, or at least turn
down the volume.
There’s plenty to do right
here at home that has noth-
ing to do with whom you
voted for last November and
what you think of who’s in
charge in Washington. Set
it aside, at least for a while.
Let’s show up and push each
other to do great things. Who
knows? Maybe we’ll have a
hand in something extraordi-
nary, even incredible. Maybe
someone we celebrate and
push today will win when
there’s no evidence they
can.
Classic Sisters...
PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK
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