Designed Learning is excited to announce Peter Block’s and co-author John McKnight’s new book, The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods. Join them as they remind us to ignore the voices that generate dependency and look to the abundant possibilities that lie within your very own neighborhood.
Co-creation is key to a satisfying life, which becomes possible when we join our neighbors to create a community that nurtures our family and makes us useful citizens. So the question is – are you ready to live the good life?
Take advantage of our special discounted price and pre-order your copy with a guaranteed delivery of June 14. Please click the following link and order your copy today.
http://www.designedlearning.com/shop/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=12
Monday, May 24, 2010
Our small group - our unit of transformation - met again this morning, joined by a few new members. One of our participants shared a couple paragraphs from a longer essay (see below) about the way a front porch can transform a neighborhood. This led to more conversation about neighborhoods as essential to creating community, along with the importance of developing walkable neighborhood centers, such as stores, coffee shops, and restaurants. We also talked about how a front porch is a metaphor for hospitality and discussed how we can practice hospitality in our workplaces, faith communities, and other gathering places.
Please join us for the next conversation on Thursday, July 1, 7:30 a.m. at deBoer’s Bakery, 360 Douglas Avenue.
By Kent A. Ellett
My neighbor, five houses down on the other side of the street, died a couple weeks ago. I didn’t know his name. The next neighbor down, a guy married to a lady named, Betty, now mows his yard. Another neighbor, whose name now escapes me, told me the news.
Don’t make excuses for me for not knowing my neighbors. I know the man’s anonymity was in some ways his own choice. I know I can’t know all 6,000 households in Speedway, and that I’m one of the more outgoing people on my block. The problem is that that ain’t saying much.
Yet, I want to share with you a flash of insight that gives me hope in the midst of my failures as a neighbor. The reason I even got the news of the neighbor’s passing was that my other nameless neighbor stopped by while I was building a front porch. This is no secluded back deck where you have private or family parties; it’s a front porch that faces the world as it goes by. It’s a place where you don’t do anything in particular and everyone, without thinking about it, knows that it’s no interruption to say, “Hello.” And so when I’m on the porch they do.
My wife and I have complained for six years that my neighborhood is not friendly, but now I’ve decided that this is because we had not built a front porch. Michael, a veteran, walks his dog and cares for his sister-in-law. He took some wood that was in my now disastrous yard. Tony decided that I needed his big ladder. Mr. Zetsil, an ex-clergyman -- I think probably an Episcopalian, or perhaps a Navy chaplain, because he cusses with the practiced eloquence of a High Church sailor. Actually, his swearing is an attempt to connect with me…He wants to see if we are mad about the same things. Yolanda comes by daily with her dogs. I dislike them about as much as she cherishes them because they don’t yip at my dogs at her house, pee on her bushes, or poop in her yard. But I don’t mind that much because she gets my house design and likes it. And her husband, Herman, has had cancer for a couple years. Looks like he’s going to make it.
More than a half dozen others have commented on my porch. Brother Ron and Bill stopped by this week and sipped cold drinks with me under its shade. I noticed the drivers by noticing us. Frankly I’m amazed at the power of the porch. It’s insignificant compared to the rest of my building project, but it is what gets most of the interest.
Please join us for the next conversation on Thursday, July 1, 7:30 a.m. at deBoer’s Bakery, 360 Douglas Avenue.
By Kent A. Ellett
My neighbor, five houses down on the other side of the street, died a couple weeks ago. I didn’t know his name. The next neighbor down, a guy married to a lady named, Betty, now mows his yard. Another neighbor, whose name now escapes me, told me the news.
Don’t make excuses for me for not knowing my neighbors. I know the man’s anonymity was in some ways his own choice. I know I can’t know all 6,000 households in Speedway, and that I’m one of the more outgoing people on my block. The problem is that that ain’t saying much.
Yet, I want to share with you a flash of insight that gives me hope in the midst of my failures as a neighbor. The reason I even got the news of the neighbor’s passing was that my other nameless neighbor stopped by while I was building a front porch. This is no secluded back deck where you have private or family parties; it’s a front porch that faces the world as it goes by. It’s a place where you don’t do anything in particular and everyone, without thinking about it, knows that it’s no interruption to say, “Hello.” And so when I’m on the porch they do.
My wife and I have complained for six years that my neighborhood is not friendly, but now I’ve decided that this is because we had not built a front porch. Michael, a veteran, walks his dog and cares for his sister-in-law. He took some wood that was in my now disastrous yard. Tony decided that I needed his big ladder. Mr. Zetsil, an ex-clergyman -- I think probably an Episcopalian, or perhaps a Navy chaplain, because he cusses with the practiced eloquence of a High Church sailor. Actually, his swearing is an attempt to connect with me…He wants to see if we are mad about the same things. Yolanda comes by daily with her dogs. I dislike them about as much as she cherishes them because they don’t yip at my dogs at her house, pee on her bushes, or poop in her yard. But I don’t mind that much because she gets my house design and likes it. And her husband, Herman, has had cancer for a couple years. Looks like he’s going to make it.
More than a half dozen others have commented on my porch. Brother Ron and Bill stopped by this week and sipped cold drinks with me under its shade. I noticed the drivers by noticing us. Frankly I’m amazed at the power of the porch. It’s insignificant compared to the rest of my building project, but it is what gets most of the interest.
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