2a. We can do just about anything, though sometimes we shouldn't

Brian Bansenauer
"I wonder if we could move these?" It seemed a simple question, and perfectly reasonable in light of the challenge to "totally redesign" the entrance to our common house. But after the designs were drawn up, the workday scheduled, and the group of us gathered with wheelbarrows, shovels, pry-bars, and several lengths of metal pipe alongside the 6-foot square, 1500 pound slab of concrete, I wanted to say, "impossible."

By this point though, others in the group had found inspiration, had taken up the challenge. As we dug and lifted, levered and pried, I felt my sense of wonder begin to grow again. Perhaps we really could do this. And as the first of the 15 slabs of concrete began to move, I knew collectively we could do it.

"I wonder" becomes a much larger question in community, magnified by many hands, hearts, and minds working together. When a common vision inspires us, it seems together we can do just about anything. Though sometimes, we shouldn't.

The large pine tree next to the common house was one of those times. It had grown too big and was now out of place in our peace garden. Yet is was so large and so close to the house, I wondered if we could safely bring it down. But once the inspiration took hold and someone grabbed a shovel to dig loose the roots, a common vision formed.

We encouraged and inspired each other: use the community truck to pull it away from the house and garden, keep the kids back, keep digging, chop the roots. As the rope strained and the tree began to give way, it seemed we had done it again. The tree didn't believe it. As a large root on one side gave way, the single rope from the truck couldn't control the fall. The tree shifted suddenly sideways, dropped across the garden and narrowly missed the house snapping several large branches from a nearby Sweet Gum on its way down.

No one was hurt, the house was fine, and the peace garden has grown beautifully, as a central gathering place for our community. A large, broken branch still hangs, high up in that tree. When the leaves are gone and I see that branch, I think about the power of community - the power of cultivating a common vision and a shared purpose with which a community can do wonders. I also recall why we should have professionals do some of it.

—Brian