Maybe it was the weather, or maybe it was all the new bad news from around the world, but my email box recently has been full of a whole lot of scratchy, grouchy e-mail messages. Many of those e-mail messages were long, too. Very long.

In fact, though bad weather and worse news may account for a certain testiness in the mail, e-mail messages generally are getting longer. Political messages are so long and dense I’ve quit reading them. Achingly poignant requests from far-flung countries for cash contributions that would enable a righteous widow and her children to inherit the fortune due them – and a lot of money for me too! – are long indeed.

But I digress.

Many of my recent messages came in series: Mailings to committee member address lists and attempts to settle on dates and times for meetings. Several of the proposed meetings haven’t and won’t be held because no two people could gather at the same time.

One meeting was set for time but a place was never agreed upon. Some of us not answering the others’ questions. The whole effect was of a virtual Theatre of the Absurd play (but lacking the spare style of the new Nobel Laureate for Literature, Harold Pinter): utterly ridiculous, totally meaningless.

At the end of one e-mail series on meeting dates and who should come and so on – never resolved – I hit reply all and declared, “Whatever.”

Who’s being scratchy then!?

One group exchange was not so much scratchy as touchy. And although I could have done with many fewer explanations, clarifications and even admonishments, I am grateful for the outcomes.

A few years ago, the River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition received a grant from the Maine Arts Commission (its “Discovery Research” program) to conduct a survey of culture and arts. Those of us who worked to bring the project into the River Valley were delighted that Becky Welsh agreed to take on its coordination. She did a fine piece of work. (If you haven’t seen “A Guide to Arts and Culture in The River Valley,” contact the Coalition at 364-7408.)

Earlier, Toni Seger, based in Norway/South Paris, had completed a cultural survey of the Oxford Hills. Toni has gone on to develop a stand-alone non-profit organization, Western Oxford Hills Cultural Council. Its mission reads in part, “…to support, encourage, stimulate cultural activity….”

One of her first projects, after the directory, was a cultural map: historic sites, downtown walking trails, and more. The great new news is that Toni has been planning for some time to develop another map that would include Bridgton and Rumford. Moreover, Toni (whose film “Laurels” airs at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 18, at the Pennacook Art Gallery) will seek input from Arts Initiative members here, and their counterparts in Bridgton. Kudos to Toni!

Linda Farr Macgregor lives in Rumford with her husband, Jim. She is a longtime community volunteer and author of Rumford Stories, a project of the town’s bicentennial oral history project, which involved interviewing 120 Rumford residents. She can be reached by email at [email protected]