Thinking About Thinking About Community

She participated in the community conversation we held at the library on Wednesday evening and stopped outside the coffee shop this morning to tell me how much she enjoyed the experience. Her visit interrupted some thoughts that were along the track of 'is the effort for these conversations really worth the time invested?" Her comments and observations from her participation don't just affirm, they shout 'keep the conversation going."

Even today, after a lot of time observing, I continue to be amazed at the way we receive or attune to messages about how we maintain or ignite motivation. My decision to spend more time than normal at the coffee shop and enjoy the outdoor chairs seemed pretty random. Her crossing the street at that point from her morning Y workout, while not so random, was still unplanned. My thought about the value of the conversations at that point of the morning might not have been all that unpredictable, since these conversations are a focal point since the students have left for the summer. But the thought coinciding with her stopping by and the genuine enthusiasm she showed for the process of questioning how we continue to improve the quality of living in this community was fuel I needed to get me ready for next week's public innovator lab at the Harwood Institute.

Serendipity can take a lot of shapes but when it is a woman in her eighties, who has just left her Y workout, who is excited about building the future of the community she has called home her entire life -- you have to know there have to be ways of igniting that enthusiasm in the age groups who have so much more riding on the outcomes of these engagements. (May 19, '06)