August 20, 2010
Show me.
It seems a bit ironic to me
that in this day of overwhelming information access we need to see before we
believe. With laser precision we can search the Internet for all the evidence
required to validate – or refute – a concept. We can find thousands of websites
with varying spins explaining how things work or how to fix them when they
don’t.
So I am always just a bit
dumbfounded when someone says to me they can’t “see” how it’s possible to
extend, revive, invigorate community conceptually. They say “I don’t get it.
Our people won’t get it.” And yet, tell them or show them a story of how one
person has actually championed an approach to enriching community and the
lights come on.
Maybe that’s just the way it
should be. Life should be the proof of life.
Any time you have had a
rewarding social experience and try to relate it to another person you will
most certainly do it by telling a story of the event, not by explaining
conceptually why it worked and how it was rewarding.
A couple years ago a college
women’s softball game out West became headline news when a batter hit a ball
over the fence for a homerun but injured her knee rounding first base. The only
way the homerun would count is if she touched all the bases. It was the only
homerun she had ever hit. Two members of
the opposing team, realizing all this, chose to pick her up and carry her
around so she could touch all the bases – though it meant they would lose the
game.
Need I say more?
There is no specific concept
embedded in that story. We all just get it in the telling of the story and are
motivated to do likewise.
Community champions are like
that. From the heart, and probably with some cost to themselves, they decide to
make something happen that benefits others.
The way simple community
will really be nourished and grow is through the continual telling of the
stories of the champions who have done little things to enable community for
others.
Now… if I can only find the
way to gather those stories…