March 24, 2010
I apologize for not making
any entries since March 1st, but there has been a flurry of activity
& travel, most of it related to building community. I am learning so much
every week about the incredible variety of approaches to community and the
seeming limitlessness of desire to find more ways to be with and bond with each
other. It just really surprises me that America isn’t talking about it
more.
Where to begin…
I was in St. Louis over the weekend working on a live kid’s
show – Yo Gabba Gabba! (YGG). If you
have a child between 2-5 years old, you are smiling now. If you don’t, think
about the Kia car commercials with the big red cartoon guy in them – that’s
YGG.
I am working to spread the
happiness – find out what makes YGG work and get the word out to others. So I
was in St. Louis
to attend two live YGG shows on Sunday. Both were virtually sold out with about
2,500 people.
Lots of surprises, I’ll
share two.
Surprise one: There were far
more adults than children at this show. I am guessing more than 3-to-1 maybe
even 4-1. I asked the ushers if that was typical for kids shows and they said
no, it’s usually 1-1 or 2-1 adults. It
was a whole-family kind of thing, and beyond. Some brought friends. And, of course, they say they are there for
the kid, but after talking a bit, they all say they have been hit by the Yo
Gabba Gabba bug. Know what the bug is?
Very basic, supportive happiness. It fosters an environment of enjoyment with
others. Without embarrassment, the
adults were loving the simple pleasure.
The bigger surprise number
two: I had a team observing and talking to people. I told them in advance to
focus on the moms. I have done this a
time or two over the years and generally, if dads are there, they are paying
the dues for something they wanted at another time. So to understand a show for
very young kids, you need to understand the mom. I was very wrong here. Very.
Easily 40% or more of the
adults were men – and not just dads. More
than that, they were wearing YGG clothes, singing the songs, and dancing along –
again, without the least bit of embarrassment.
But here is the stunner… we
videotaped interviews with these guys. They WANTED to be there – for their
kids, for all the kids, for their family and friends. They were in no way
dragged there – well… certainly some were, but very few. And the stunner? This was in St. Louis,
during March Madness – the NCAA college basketball tournament - and the University of Missouri was playing their game at the
very same time!
I’m telling you… there is a
power, even a pride, in being committed to social engagement these days. I mean
really… grown, manly men choosing a kid’s show over THEIR team in March
Madness?
And another stunner for me…
A story about “Simple
Community” was published this month in the Northeast Journal in my neighborhood
in St. Pete, FL. This is a PAPER, I can’t send you a link
to the online version, there isn’t one. It’s a paper. It sits on coffee tables
for 6-10 weeks until the new one comes out. Your guests read it. Sometimes you
read it again. It is so wonderful because it reminds us of how fortunate we are
to have a neighborhood where we walk into each other’s houses without ringing
the bell.
Anyway, the issue with “Simple
Community” came out about ten days ago. The Journal has a distribution of about
7,000. Yeah, big neighborhood, but it
feels very intimate. My goal in this
article was to encourage neighborhood book clubs to go through “Simple
Community.”
Here’s my stunner. I just got back from being on the road and
was catching up with everything and checked in on this website and blog today. If
I am reading the use statistics correctly, and I think I am, it has exploded!
More than a thousand people from St. Pete have come here in the last ten days. I’m stunned. I would have been thrilled with
ten people.
So I also must apologize for
not having more information on the idea for book clubs and I will do that in
the next day or so – (hope it’s not too late and my neighbors won’t come back).
The community thing is
taking off. I just wish I could figure out the way to get more people to see it
and, as a result of seeing it, embrace it and engage in it more fully. I think
it’s sort of like seeing the air – we don’t. Yet it’s everywhere and it sustains
our lives. We don’t see it, so we don’t
focus on it.
Anyway… thanks to all my
neighbors and to those of you who have been coming back even though I haven’t
been making entries.
Please make comments. I
really want the content here to be very little of me and a whole lot of you.