There was a joyful noise in our town yesterday and this morning, as the New Round House Cafe began to open. The kitchen is not quite finished, so the cafe has opened up again serving coffee and pastries and muffins and scones.

There were lots of raves over the beautiful renovation of the new cafe space, once the town’s General Store. The gorgeous shelves and cabinets remain. It was as if the heart of the town was beating once again. The first tables and chairs were set up, people were sitting inside with their laptops, working from the cafe, and there was a steady stream of happy people coming in for coffee or just to look at the striking renovations.

I told Scott Carrino that the space was a destination all of its own, along with the food. This is a great moment for community, and for connection. In our town, we know one another, and that shapes and defines our lives together.

It was almost surreal to see people flowing back into the new Round House, as if the old one had never shut down. This place just fits here, and it looks it. The design and restoration, tasteful and evocative, is just wonderful.

When that is lost – just look at the political system in our country – there is disconnection and conflict. Our town is filled with disparate people – artists, carpenters, excavators, writers, professors and lots and lots of farmers.

At our care, you can see all of them, and we can see each other as humans, not as disembodied texts or “friends” on Facebook. Here community is real, and many of you helped to keep it alive for us. Hopefully, we can do the same for you one day.

Scott and Lisa Carrino have braved overwhelming odds to keep their cafe alive and on Main Street. I remember begging both of them to let go and give it up and have some peace and time in their lives. They chose to fight on and prove me wrong. I am grateful that they did.

Your support of their gofundme project to buy their building was the turning point, the beginning of the long hard campaign to keep the cafe going. And it worked. A mighty victory for the Army of Good.

Community is endangered by greed and development and corporate arrogance all over America. In our town, the Round House Cafe has fought and struggled to stay alive, and even grow. A joyful noise unto the world.