We must change- quickly- everything about our lifestyles in order to stop the damage that’s been done, and salvage what we can.
Changing lifestyle habits takes some adaptation. We learn to put the bottles and cans into the recycling box instead of the trash can, we wake up half an hour earlier to go for a walk, we change the way we eat to adapt to a new medical condition… these things are simple and direct adaptations.
Changing habits of thought takes quite a bit more.
We’ve figured out that the government is not our Mommy, that big business is not our Daddy. We know that the planet, the economy, and people in general are in a state of emergency. Suddenly we’re in a scary world that’s about to go down for the count, all alone … or are we?
There are our friends, the like-minded buddies we’ve been talking to all along. There are some in our community who are teetering on the brink of similar realizations, they just need a small push, along with some confirmation and support. There are others “out there” in the world who’ve already come to the same realizations and are soloing it, “hermits”. There are myriad groups who are seeking to make changes and create new systems for sustaining life on a grassroots level. There are other social and community groups that have been around for time immemorial. There are the bureaucratic constructs that we never really pay attention to because they’re wrapped in red tape and marginally functional.
But when we look at all of these together, now we have too many avenues to explore and not enough time- too many options.
All of these community connections can be worked out, they’re simply tangled up and disconnected from one another right now- usually because too much regulation and too little humanity is involved- or too much ego. But if we can ditch the red tape, we’ll see that we already have all the “nodes” we need in order to create a new way of operating, if we find creative new ways to hook up the humans within them. The important part is to bring people together to get things done.
In a way, we just need to get the teams organized- we don’t have to be in the game ourselves, we just need to get the people who can do each thing to play their positions- facilitate their game and cheer them on.
When I was the office manager of an eentsy weentsy semi-paralytic Chamber of Commerce a couple of years ago, I created out of whole cloth the “State of the County” dinner. Once a year, county legislators, business people, high school kids from the “Future Business Leaders of America”, and community organizers get together over dinner for an informal Q&A. I purposely kept the tone light, relaxed, and friendly, with as much laughter included in the proceedings as possible.
This simple mixer has led to myriad connections between people who formerly never had anything to do with one another. There are new scholarships available in the local high school, a farm-activist group has a greater connection with local businesses and townships, and the county legislators get to talk about the budget and get feedback from the regular people it affects. Oh, and the Chamber has a new Board, which hopefully is a mite less paralyzed.
Anybody can come up with ways to get people together, it doesn’t have to be a major catered event, and it doesn’t have to cost money. I also organized a potluck barbecue, and people didn’t have to pay a dime to schmooze and connect. I managed to get the world’s greatest cole slaw recipe from one of the region’s leading real estate mavens- who knew?
There are tons of other ways to knit these connections.
Remember that you and your ideas are valuable, and might just be the key to helping your community get itself together. Don’t be afraid to get out there and hook up with your neighbors, and simultaneously don’t think you have to fix everything yourself.
If you join an organization, take a little time to feel things out. It takes a bit of time for the people who’ve been in the trenches to get used to opinionated and persistent active new participants. Give them time to digest. Respect the work they’ve been trying to do while gently adding your own ideas. Your opinions and contributions may be ignored or jettisoned while you’re waiting for the organization to catch up- don’t take it personally, and re-present your ideas later on. Don’t allow issues of personality [especially control freaks] to reduce the level of discourse. Don’t underestimate the other contributors in the making of this stone soup you’ve decided to be part of.
If somebody “steals” your idea, good- the idea will be used and developed, and that’s the reason you’re there in the first place. That “State of the County” dinner I mentioned- which I came up with and which nobody did a lick of work for except me- suddenly became the Chamber’s yearly rite, and continued after I’d left the position. Well, hooray for that! A job well done- my concerns about community connectivity were addressed. I would have liked a medal, or a pat on the back, but that wasn’t why I did it.
Let them steal your ideas! You can always come up with more. On the other hand, if you get an idea from someone else, give credit where it’s due- gaining that person’s respect and solidarity is much more important than a one-off smalltime “intellectual property” theft. Being able to look people in the eye is priceless.
