A Community Story

There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.

- Margaret Wheatley

A friend asked me just the other day what I thought about (my) The Village of Five Parks as a community. My answer came with swiftness that startled me. I said, "I see the Village as a Norman Rockwell painting against a "2023 canvas." It was a statement easier to make than explain, but let me take a shot at doing just that, explain.

The good people of this community are as progressive as any, I imagine. And in terms of the things that they are about, well, those things run the gamut; teachers, homemakers, lawyers, doctors, consultants, engineers, retirees ... you name it, we have it/them. Our "collective braintrust" is complete and even on the order of being something very special.

Yes, ours is a place of thinkers and doers to be sure, that is the "2023 canvas" upon which our story is drawn. But we are more than that. We are heart and soul, we are caring and compassionate. We are yesterday reborn in that while you might consult your neighbor on the latest teaching modalities or the best way to battle the common cold, you could just as easily borrow from them a cup of sugar or two eggs; that is the "Norman Rockwell in us.

In this community all that you need to gain a permanent membership is an easy smile. As the owner and CEO of Howard's Pet Treats and General Care Emporium (large !)  I experience daily, in one of the five parks that we are blessed with, the Haskin, the magic of what a smile and an extended hand can do and mean.

I guess my short answer to my friend's question could just as well have been, "well, I consider my neighbors special and my neighborhood beautiful," and pretty much covered everything. But my child's heart and my predilection for "going on and and on" wouldn't have it.
So yeah, no, my neighbors are special and my neighborhood is beautiful to boot.

So little time so much "wonderful to say."   H. Louis Mason