August 21, 2010
I have always thought that
the powerful stories come from those who instigate the experience or were part
of the experience. I hear these stories
all the time while I am on the road talking about community, but I can’t get
people to share them. And I feel like my report is such a watered down version
of what it would be if it came from those who were involved. I may think
differently now.
I had a great conversation
with someone from www.actsofkindness.org
yesterday (a website you may see referenced a lot on here going forward). Check
it out. They have been around since 1995 and they are all about encouraging…
well… random acts of kindness, and they realize that when people become aware
of such acts they are inclined to do them.
Here is a direct example
(with permission) from their website:
4. Drive-by Flowering
Submitted by Shannon, Wisconsin
I lived in a very small town
growing up, and my friends and I had to be very
creative to alleviate boredom. One
night, we decided to do a “drive-by flowering.”
We went to a few different fields
and gathered bunches of wildflowers
until they filled my family’s van
(not just with flowers... also with dirt... so be
careful!).
Then we drove to our friends’ and
teachers’ houses and left flowers tucked
under the wiper blades of their
cars and hanging from their front doorknobs.
It was an
unforgettable night.
I
showed this to my wife Vicki and we both had the same response – we want to do
it!
Anyway,
in as we continued our conversation yesterday, we started talking about the
source of stories – they get a lot – and at first I was asking how to get
people who are champions for community to talk about it. The more we talked the more we became aware
of an important dynamic about stories of community champions or those who do
random acts of kindness.
Those
“Doers” more often than not are making sacrifices as part of their act. Perhaps
the vast majority of those sacrifices are very small, but a part of the nature
of the act is the giving heart that would not want – and certainly wouldn’t
seek – attention for what they do. It would defeat the purpose for them. I
think that goes a long way to explain why we have so few stories of community
champions even though I am certain there are millions of stories out there.
As
our conversation continued, we saw two other great sources for those stories.
All
of these things that community champions do involve other people. So there is a
“Receiver” of the act of kindness or community experience. So maybe we should
be motivating people who have been on the receiving end to tell us. The problem
with that is that the experiences are mostly RANDOM. You might agree to share
such a story, should you experience one, but could wait forever to be a
“receiver.”
There’s
one other option that just might do it. We want to find a way to motivate those
who care about community and kindness to become “Reporters.” That is, we all can invest a little energy to
try and find champions and learn their stories then pass them along. I realize
I have come full circle here. I started by saying my sharing of other people’s
stories are watered down compared to the telling of it by those involved. But
if we all became conscious reporters – if we started intentionally looking for
and talking about vibrant community when we see it – imagine how many more
flowers would show up on people’s doorsteps.
Can
you be a reporter?