The story matters more than the words
Howdy,
Did that "howdy" make you double take? Hi, hello, hey, yoo-hoo, yo, howdy - so many possible one-word greetings. Don't they each make you feel a little bit different?
I love words. As an avid reader, a writer, and just a human in this world, I love words.
Movements need weavers and warriors
What a week.
In the last issue of Community Threads, I spoke about how voting isn’t enough - that we need to organize movements. That remains true regardless of who wins an election or which political party is in power.
We need to come together - in a highly organized, long-term, consistent way - to make collective demands for concrete changes. We need movements.
And movements need both weavers and warriors.
Why voting isn’t enough
With election day fast approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about voting.
At an event I was at a few weeks ago, someone brought up the distinction between technocratic strategies and democratic strategies - that technocratic strategies focus on policy (which is necessary, but not sufficient, to transform health in our communities) while democratic strategies focus on politics (which is all about POWER).
We can’t transform health in our communities without democratic strategies that center power.
The difference between cynicism and skepticism
Are you a pessimist or an optimist?
I’m optimistic (almost to a fault, my husband would tell you).
But…I’m also pretty skeptical.
The most important question to ask yourself when action planning
🍁Happy Fall🍁
It’s the season of sweaters and apple picking and pumpkin spice.
And my personal favorite - the changing colors of the leaves. There is this incredible tree in our neighborhood, visible from our front door, that turns brilliant shades of yellow and orange and red over the course of the transition from summer to fall. The very top of the tree has just started to change color.
"The art of gathering" and the importance of grounding people in their purpose
Have you facilitated a meeting before? Or hosted a party?
What runs through your mind when you’re planning a gathering?
HOW to tell a powerful story + tips to transport and activate your audience
I’ve been leaning on beach reads this summer (to be honest, I lean on them year-round) and have always loved being transported to new places through stories.
But let’s be real, it’s easy to transport a reader to a beautiful beach on vacation. It’s a lot harder to transport them into, say, the lives of families in rural America.
Why people forget facts but remember stories - an intro to Effective Storytelling
Is your summer off to as hot and joyful a start as mine, Reader?
Our family spent the last week at an all-family violin camp in the Blue Ridge mountains, and it was a joy on so many levels (our girls did not want to come home!).
Being surrounded by music all week had me forgetting the heat (despite the lack of AC at camp) and remembering just how powerful art is and how every piece of art tells a story.
Have you heard the quote about how people forget facts but remember stories? That's definitely true but misses a key piece of the puzzle. People remember stories because they make them FEEL.
A Participatory Evaluation HOW TO: tips and tools for sensemaking, storytelling, and more
It was college reunion weekend at my alma mater (wahoowa!), and in addition to taking a few (literal) walks down memory lane, I thought a lot about feeling a sense of community and what magic combination of ingredients is needed to create that.
Shared experiences - especially those where you gain something of value and even more so those where you create something of value - are part of that secret sauce.
And participatory evaluation, when done well, checks all those boxes.
The 'P' in our CAPE: Participatory Evaluation - by the community + for the community
A recent book club discussion about the challenge of adult friendships in the present day has had me thinking a lot about the importance of a sense of community.
On that note, a portion of a recent conversation between two of my favorite thinkers, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and writer Anand Giridharadas, really struck me. Surgeon General Murthy shared that statistics show that people now are working more - “and parents are parenting more, even though they’re also working more.” He asks, “Where is that time coming from, that extra time? You put all this together and that time that is eroding is a time that we spend in person with family and friends, the time we spend for ourselves, and the time we spend for our communities.”