Today, we’re sharing an excerpt from a post by Peter Block of Abundant Community. He tells how one community keeps growing the list of things to be thankful for: each other. To read the original excerpt in its entirety, click here.

Seeing the Abundance in the Neighborhood

Source: pointloma.edu

The [following] story has the elements of what we can call a competent neighborhood. Creating competence starts with making visible the gifts of everyone in the neighborhood—the families, the young people, the old people, the vulnerable people, the troublesome people. Everyone. We do this not out of altruism, but to create the elements of a satisfying life. Here is a perfect example of how it works:

Last summer, when Theron looked through the open door of the metalworking shop Mr. Thompson had set up in his garage, the old man invited him in. Something clicked. Theron began to stop by every day, and he started bringing home metal pieces he’d learned to make.

Naomi could see Theron change. He was proud of what he made—Mr. Thompson even paid him to make a few things. Naomi said she’d finally stopped worrying about what Theron was doing after school. Jackie admitted that her son Alvin was in trouble, and she asked Naomi if there might be someone in the neighborhood whose skills would interest Alvin.

They knew that Gerald Lilly was into fishing, and that Sam Wheatley was a saxophonist, but that was about it. They decided to ask all the men in the neighborhood about their interests and skills. Mr. Thompson agreed to go with them. It took three weeks to visit all the men on the block. When they were done, they were amazed at what they had found: men who knew juggling, barbecuing, bookkeeping, hunting, haircutting, bowling, investigating crimes, writing poems, fixing cars, weightlifting, choral singing, teaching dogs tricks, mathematics, praying, and how to play trumpet, drums, and sax.

Source: tlc.howstuffworks.com

They found enough talent for all the kids in the neighborhood to tap into. Three of the men they met—Charles Wilt, Mark Sutter, and Sonny Reed—joined Naomi, Jackie, and Mr. Thompson in finding out what the kids on the block were interested in learning.

When they got together after interviewing the kids, Mark talked about a boy he met who knew about computers. Why not ask all the kids what they knew about? Then they could match adults to the kids, just as they planned to match up the kids with the grown-ups. When they were done, they found they had 22 things the young people knew that might interest some adults on the block.

The six neighbors named themselves the Matchmakers and, as they got more experience, they began to connect neighbors who shared the same interests.

The members of this community share this sentiment, “All the lines are broken; we’re all connected.  We’re a real community now.”

[These stories are what] thicken the social fabric. It makes the community’s gifts more widely available in support of the family. If we do it, even in small way, we find that much of what we once purchased is at hand: carpentry, Internet knowledge, listening, driving a truck, math, auto repair, organizing ability, gardening, haircutting, wallpapering, making videos, babysitting, house painting, accounting, soccer coaching, artistic abilities, cooking, fitness knowledge, sitting with the old or the ill, health remedies, sewing. And some of those things will come from the elderly, the young, the isolated, and the unemployed.

These local connections can give the modern family what the extended family once provided: A place with a strong culture of kin, friends, and neighbors. Together we raise our children, manage health, support local enterprise, and care for those on the margin.

SOTRU gives a tip of the hat to neighbors who create a self-reliant community, and more importantly, become a family through caring and sharing. This is an essential element of true community. This is what makes a great Thanksgiving story. Do you have a special tone running through your community that rings out songs of thankfulness? We would love for you to share them with us. It would give SOTRU one more thing to be thankful for.

Peter Block co-authored the book “The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods.” He is a partner in Designed Learning, a training company that offers workshops to build the skills outlined in his books. He is the author of Flawless Consulting, Stewardship, The Answer to How Is Yes, and Community. He is the recipient of numerous awards, most recently the Organization Development Network’s 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award.

The premise of State of the Re:Union’s program is to find ways that communities throughout our country are coming together. Well, today is Halloween, as I am willing to bet that 99.9 percent of our audience is privy to. So, in the spirit of community, I would just like to point out how Halloween is the first holiday in this holiday season that truly encourages community interaction.

Source: Ingo Rickmann

For years, Halloween has been my favorite holiday. All of the pageantry and donning of costumes bedecked in glittery or gruesome glory just really helps to lighten spirits. For this one day we can all stop being the expectation of ourselves and let it all go.

Over the years, I have also noticed that this holiday is growing in popularity among adults wanting to display their imaginative prowess in all ways Halloween. It use to be that neighborhoods were peppered with houses decorated with spiderwebs and a ghost or pumpkin hanging about on the lawn here or there. Now it seems that there are Halloween-scapes all over neighborhoods, as if declaring a revelry of decorative competition.

Being that I have lived through my fair share of Halloweens over some decades, I have also noticed something in my adulthood that I had not noticed until just recently. A holiday that is highly regarded as a day to scare and surprise has  actually become a catalyst in helping to bring neighbors and communities together. This is the only day of the year in which we take our children from house to house and are encouraged to freely interact with people we barely know. There are no other holidays in which all people from any religion, creed or background are invited to group together in a festive manner where they are greeted with treats and gifts of goodness at every door!

Source: http://blog.builddirect.com/craziest-halloween-decorations/

Halloween promotes fun and diversity, reveres quirkiness and openly welcomes anyone (and anything, for that matter) under the moon to participate in. This brilliant day is dedicated to bringing people together, creates camaraderie among complete strangers, and allows people to drop pretentious ways and get funky. In my book, Halloween is the epitome of awesomeness in a holiday!

We know that many people from all walks of life will be participating in the Halloween fun. For some it will be the first time, and for others, well, Halloween has become a longstanding ritual, a day to scare, shock, surprise, and get some tasty sweet treats. (Hopefully, you don’t have a house handing out boiled eggs, pennies or raisins. Never did understand the logic in boiled eggs. Really? You’re going to supply vandals with ammunition?) We would love to know what Halloween means to you, and how you spend your time revving up the start of the holiday season.

State of the Re:Union’s contributor Peter Block of Abundant Community explains the fiscal soundness behind being neighborly. (To read Peter’s original post, click here.)

We cannot build strong neighborhoods and communities while laboring under the principles of traditional economics. The dominant economic thinking begins with a religious belief in scarcity and self-interest. This rules most modern economies and continues to dominate what we measure and value. We measure our well-being as a nation by the growth of Gross Domestic Product or Gross National Product. We measure our lives and “standard of living” by family income. We have created a “show me the money” culture; if it has no dollar sign on it, it has no value.

1940: Neighbors join in to help dig a well for family who still live in their trailer.

This approach got formalized in 1934 when Simon Kuznets introduced the idea of the Gross Domestic Product to Congress. The GDP is the measure of all the goods and services that change hands in the country in a year. It is the number we use to measure our standard of living. When GDP goes up, we are theoretically doing well. When it goes down, we are doing poorly. That is the theory.

There is a movement to dislodge this measure because it masks the reality of people’s lives.  A growing number of economists are successfully arguing that the scarcity-based, money-centric model is not serving us, but destroying us. It puts no value on generosity, relationship, kindness, cooking, gardening, watching kids and all the non-money exchanges that comprise neighborliness and build community.

One of the voices for an economics of neighborliness is Canadian Mark Anielski. In his book The Economics of Happiness, he gives form to a measure of well-being he calls Genuine Wealth. Early on he quotes Victorian philosopher and artist John Ruskin:
“There is no wealth but life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings; that man is richest who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence…over the lives of others” (p 19).

Anielski goes on to say that “Ruskin was one of the few writers in modern times to understand that the true meaning of the word wealth has more to do with quality of life than the accumulation of worldly possessions.”

Toward Abundance and Community

What is interesting is that Anielski provides us with alternative measures of well-being. He begins by making the distinction between an Economy of Scarcity and an Economy of Well-Being.

The Economy of Well-Being holds that:
•    All wealth, including money, is abundant since it is a gift from God for all to receive and share.
•    Progress is driven by the pursuit of happiness and genuine well-being.
•    Such progress means that we move from consumer to citizen.
•    We become statesmen instead of politicians.
•    We replace accumulation with sharing, gifting and reciprocity.
•    Sustainability replaces growth (p. 66).

1942: Mrs. Fujita and her neighbor inspecting the tiny vegetable garden she has planted in front of their barracks.

Starting with this set of principles, Anielski has developed an alternative measure to the GDP: what he calls a Genuine Progress Index, GPI. Included in this measure are the very human functions of parenting and eldercare, free time, volunteerism, household infrastructure, savings rate, ecological footprint, air and water quality, fish and wildlife, voter participation — many of the things that John and I say grow out of abundant communities.

Anielski also assesses the usual measures of economic exchanges, employment and income, but they are not the point; they are just some of the factors that constitute the wealth of a family and community.

There is one more turn in his work that is worth noting here: Anielski thinks that each community needs to define for itself what it values and therefore measures. Leduc has its own statement of values and measures. Santa Monica has its own. Alberta its own. In this way an economy is owned locally, defined locally, assessed locally. This supports local identity and ownership.

This book is only one example of the larger movement to put economics back in service of our humanity, which is what Adam Smith held in the first place. A few others in this flow are Bernard Lietaer, Olivia Saunders, the New Economics Institute, Herman Daly and John Kay. They are questioning not only how we measure well-being; they question the purpose of a business, the ways communities are created and they also are interested in caring for the land and the earth and its most vulnerable people. All economists. Who would have thought a concern for abundance would find its way into the world of the dismal science?

There are hordes of people and communities shedding the shroud of “keeping up with the Jones’” because it is becoming too cumbersome. Decades ago, being neighborly determined the communities survival. Being a good neighborly citizen might not appeal to the masses right now, but how can that be changed? and, how do we begin to mobilize this movement forward? A wise man once said, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” Granted, it was Mr. Rogers who dreamed big and believed even bigger that everyone should live in a neighborly world. Could his idea be the answer?  We know that you have some suggestions and comments on this, so send them our way – we would love to see them.

Peter Block co-authored the book “The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods.” He is a partner in Designed Learning, a training company that offers workshops to build the skills outlined in his books. He is the author of Flawless Consulting, Stewardship, The Answer to How Is Yes, and Community. He is the recipient of numerous awards, most recently the Organization Development Network’s 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award.