Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle … a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl.  And the anticipation nurtures our dream.

— Barbara Winkler

But there is a second story in this book. It is the story of a rural community, a community dedicated to growing something more important than wheat or cattle. What the community of Smith Center produces each year is a group of students who have been instilled with the basic values of hard work, love, patience and humility. When you read this book, you may ask yourself questions about our own community:

How does our community build the character of its young people?

What values are our teachers, coaches, parents and other community leaders instilling in our children?

Do our children internalize these values and carry them with them into adult life?

Some issues that many communities face are not addressed in “Our Boys.” The problems of gangs and bullying, the challenges of coping with mental or physical handicaps, the limitations of severe poverty, homelessness and domestic violence; these topics are outside the scope of the book. Yet many communities struggle to find solutions for these problems in ways that unite people in an effort to improve the quality of life for all. How does our community address these problems? Are the solutions beneficial to all concerned?  Are they the best that we can envision and afford?

What makes a good community? For that matter, what is a community, anyway? Is it defined by geography?

Certainly we would all agree that the town where you live, or even your neighborhood, is your community. But community can refer to something both bigger and smaller. It can be a group sharing a common culture, a group of people in a workplace, a group united by faith (such as a church’s congregation), or united by purpose (such as a service organization). In most cases, the idea of community is based on shared values, resources and sense of identity.

How do we identify our community? What resources, needs and solutions do we share? Is it important to agree on everything, on most things, on anything? How does our community react to diversity of opinion? Do we welcome outsiders into our community or do we shun them? Do we believe that even big city reporters like Joe Drape, author of “Our Boys,” have something to contribute to our community?

These are all questions worth thinking about, and worth talking about as a community. If you have ideas about how we can do that — as a community — please let me, or a member of the Concordia Year of Peace Committee, know.

I hope that we allow all who are part of our community an opportunity to make a difference.  We will all benefit.

— Denise de Rochefort-Reynolds is the director of the Frank Carlson Library.  She and her husband Karl have lived in Concordia for more than 25 years.

WELCOME HOME, SISTERS! (As the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia arrive home for our 2012 Senate)

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. 

~From the television show The Wonder Years

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. 

~Maori Proverb

Of winter’s lifeless world each tree

Now seems a perfect part;

Yet each one holds summer’s secret

Deep down within its heart.

~ Charles G. Stater

There are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite of any winter. One is the January thaw.  The other is the seed catalogues.

—  Hal Borland

Celebrate Kansas Day, commemorating the admission of the state as the 34th in the Union on Jan. 29, 1861.

January is the quietest month in the garden.  …  But just because it looks quiet doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.  The soil, open to the sky, absorbs the pure rainfall while microorganisms convert tilled-under fodder into usable nutrients for the next crop of plants.  The feasting earthworms tunnel along, aerating the soil and preparing it to welcome the seeds and bare roots to come.

—  Rosalie Muller Wright

To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June.

— Jean-Paul Sartre