By Deborah H. Anderson
I had an opportunity recently to get some closure about my years as a pastor on Vashon. I was one of the first full-time female pastors, and for sure the first soccer Mom pastor.
It was sweet and gentle, and I was able to forgive many. Forgiveness is easier when the next happy chapter has finally begun. This past week, a traumatic funeral was followed by three days of a church conference that was deep and rich and full of singing and joy and connection; my whole life finally makes sense.
This column is about observations and encouragements I have wanted to make for several years. As my little fake sports car – a Nissan Versa that I absolutely love – whizzed up and down I5 this past week, getting its fabulous 50 miles to the gallon, I had a lot of time for some before and now musing.
Ultimately, the mismatch between me and Vashon was in the context of “cutting edge” and “pioneering.” I love the next hill, the stretch, the reach, the “what if?” That is not Vashon. Vashon is comfortably 15 years behind most everything, everywhere. Quiet and cultivated familiarity. Heading up the Vashon 500, as a friend deems it, the hill up from either ferry dock, do you not breath a sigh of relief and grip the steering wheel a little less?
That would normally be okay, but not in this day and age and season. Today, the world needs more from Vashon than a hideaway where “over-market price” is celebrated like a new kind of lightbulb and homogeneity is the rule of thumb. The place where Island time and organic linen fit loose and suspenders run deep and comfy.
What kind of more is needed from Vashon?
Well, it needs every real estate agency to invest at least ten percent of their profits into real, genuine, affordable housing, tiny houses, land with hook-ups, and better landlord maintenance of property used as passive income, so people can live in healthy, thriving abodes.
More is the School District breaking free from single-focus aspirations and using hundreds of children and teens walking on and off the ferry each day like a white flight scheme to garner extra money for the district.
More is supporting Island parents as the backbone and circulatory system of a healthy educational experience, instead of as consumers who must be managed or approached with caution. More is supporting teachers who work tirelessly to bring creative educational techniques to students who have a bandwidth of challenges and expectations about learning that need to be satisfied.
More is no shaved corners in commerce, whether it’s permits or protocols. May I be the first to say, more is recognizing that if Strawberry Festival returned to a celebration of this community, with marching bands and local strawberries and drill teams and all that celebrates this community, residents might follow the lead and invest more in local businesses, despite the costs.
More is doing the shadow work as a community that contributes to cliques and tragedies and greed.
Once upon a time, I was going off and advisory board, having been told that, though imminently qualified, I would not be allowed or asked onto the permanent board. When the new executive was hired, a member of the advisory board came to me and said, “Deborah, don’t go after her. She’s a good choice.”
Two things about that statement. Somehow, my vision for deep and wide in regard to Vashon culture and daily life was seen as “going after” people. Whether speaking out about adolescent substance abuse and too many suicides of all ages, Ritalin thefts at a daycare, a treasurer at a church embezzling funds, or whatever death-inducing practice was sucking “the “more” out of Vashon, bringing attention to or calling out, was somehow “going after.”
On Vashon, we know our homeless people by name. That is such a precious gift. They are not nameless statues with cardboard at the edge of town begging for money. If the deficits of Vashon were remediated, it would be a shining example of dominant culture creating vibrant, life-giving equity, inclusion, diversity, met needs, high bars for health and safety, and economic stability.
The arts are great and that is where Vashon excels as a small rural community. But Vashon needs to be more. The world needs Vashon do be an example, not an isolated getaway. The country, the world, is in dire straits. Get after it, Vashon! Work together, all 10,000 of you. If IGA is paving its parking lot, it is definitely time. Get after it! You’ve got this!
