The Arc of Failure Bends Towards Success
Do not imagine that you “wasted your time” because something didn’t turn out right. There is no such thing as “waste” in the Universe. Everything — everything — yields benefit. ~ Neale Donald Walsch
I’ve been envisioning and developing community engagement spaces for years. These are the spaces that serve as cornerstones of community, in which we are able to bring forward ‘who else’ we are beyond our title, house or other material embodiments of value.
This is where the seeds of future community wealth were planted, although at the time I had no idea how deep those roots would go, how far the limbs would extend and how plentiful the fruit would become.
My ‘Arc of Failure’ is captured below:
These were failures in monetary measures, but, huge successes in every other form of capital captured by the term ‘community wealth’, including relationships, respect, trust, environmental, energy, knowledge that create the basis of shared experiences leading to awareness, wisdom, empathy and, eventually, a thriving community
It is these capital elements which transform a neighborhood from a collection of individual families sharing a ZIP code to a real community in which every member understands the purpose of Community is to produce the individual and mutual wellbeing of all the participants, in an ongoing way.
Ultimately, communities are reflections of the humans who inhabit them. It is these cornerstone elements that serve as the platforms upon which communities can be built (or rebuilt), lasting for many generations to come. And, by leveraging technology, the community can develop new pathways and platforms to share history, experience the present and co-create the future.
My investments in those concepts going back over 20 years are maturing into very valuable properties well beyond the initial financial investment. The time has finally come for the full value of those seeds of ideas planted so long ago to bear fruit and 2018 is turning into quite a harvest.
