Last summer, on my way to run in a 10K in New York, I stayed at the West Gate Inn in Nyack, N.Y. The little restaurant inside surprised me — its walls covered with framed photos of “Blue Ribbon Cheesecakes by Lisa,” featuring Lisa smiling beside celebrities, radiating the pride of someone whose craft had become part of the community.

When I passed through again last month, I returned hoping for another slice of Lisa’s cheesecake. But this time the photos were gone, the room suddenly muted — like stepping into a house where a familiar framed family picture has quietly disappeared.

The staff explained they were covered for a Christmas movie being filmed on site. And Lisa, I learned, had paused her cheesecake-making because of illness. The walls felt different without the visual history of her 40-plus flavors hanging over the room.

Nyack is also the birthplace of Edward Hopper, the painter known for capturing the subtleties of American life — framed windows lit from within, with figures caught in contemplation — scenes where isolation and belonging sat side-by-side. Hopper understood how someone can be present, yet feel outside the scene. That sensibility made what I noticed next even more striking.

There, amid the movie decor, one “present” was wrapped in traditional Christmas colors and, beside it, another was tied with a ribbon patterned with tiny dreidels. A quiet nod to Hanukkah — unannounced, unforced, just present.

That small gesture made me think of home — of Shepherdstown.

We pride ourselves on our diversity, creativity and inclusion. Yet when December arrives, our focus narrows. Our parade is a Christmas Parade. Our decorations tell one story. Not intentionally — just out of habit. But habits can create the same subtle isolation Hopper painted, of people standing at the edge of a celebration that doesn’t reflect them. And sometimes those clinging to one tradition feel unsure how to widen the view.

And habits can change.

What if next year Shepherdstown led the region with a true Holiday Parade — one that embraces Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice and the many ways people celebrate light in December? Inclusion doesn’t diminish Christmas; it widens the frame so more people can see themselves in it. Sometimes it starts with something as small as a ribbon with dreidels — a reminder that visibility, even in a tiny detail, carries meaning.

If a little restaurant in Nyack — transformed for a movie and temporarily stripped of its identity — can make room for more than one tradition with a simple detail, surely we can, too.

Newspapers change. Communities change. Traditions change. And endings and beginnings often sit quietly beside each other, just like that Christmas-wrapped gift with the dreidel ribbon hanging by its side on the wall.

Blind Spots has been about noticing the things we tend to, far too often, pass by. So it feels right that my final column begins with focusing on a detail that many may have missed. Thank you for reading and for caring about the small things that reveal who we are.

May we keep widening the frame, here in Shepherdstown and beyond, because that’s where blind spots end.

Donna Joy, of Shepherdstown, is in her second term on the Jefferson County Board of Education. Her comments are personal, and do not represent the Jefferson County Board of Education as a whole. She can be reached at aumpeace@msn.com.