Maybe it takes reaching one’s proverbial 3 score and 10 to understand commitment. I am older than that now and my thoughts are active. I keep looking for understanding, the why, the explanation, and the just because.
I grew up with strong commitments. My parents were committed to raising me and my siblings. My extended family of relatives also were equally committed. Extended family was very much the Scots clan my roots bespoke of. Vermont soil expected and nurtured good roots. I have never disappointed the soil I call home. It has lived up to the shared commitment.
Our teachers, schools, and communities also shared in a commitment to the children growing up in the places we called home. I always found it very comforting that my parents seemed to know everyone in our communities and vice versa. No matter where I went in our community people knew my family and my family knew them. I am sharing a relationship of friendships and caring that characterized our Vermont communities. What I speak about here was not unique to me. It was common to all of us growing up in Vermont in my lifetime.
I am only an amateur when it comes to psychology, but what I write about, a Vermont commitment, made for emotionally healthy people. Life was simpler during the time I write about, but that was a good thing, a compliment to our shared humanity. Our relationships were with each other, not devices that connect us to God knows what and where. We talked to each other, shared beliefs and ideas, worked to make our communities good places to live, and we tried to keep our commitment and bargain with a place we call “Vermont” and home.
Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz” wanted to “go home.” She had enough of the “Yellow Brick Road, witches, flying monkeys, and munchkins.” She wanted to go home.
Maybe we need to think about home, what it means, and the commitment and contract with life we can build in a place called home. Maybe we need to be committed to each other and our place. I think, if we can do this, the commitment will not let us down. It is worth the effort and then some.
Take care,
Ed Pirie
West Topsham, Vermont
A Vermonter Writes - A Pathfinder 
Reading this reminded me of my uncle, who grew up on a farm in a small town, in Ontario. My aunt and he would tell us stories about how close-knit the community was. They would often share the meat from one of their animals with neighbors and vice versa, for instance. While I remember some sense of community in the suburbs of a large city, this seems under threat now, with everyone so connected to their devices. I don’t think I like the direction things are taking and I wonder if we can get some of this “Vermont” way of life back.
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