How to Build Community - Sing Together

It's been awhile since I took something from the "How to build community" poster.

This picture is actually pretty old. This fall, our kitchen was infested with moths. After the exterminator came Holly and I had the "honor" of putting cleaning all of the kitchen cupboards and putting things back away. I had just started dating Richard, and was in a romantic giddy mood, and Holly is a good sport. We both love musicals and pretending that we are rock-stars. When Theresa showed up at the house she joined us for the fun. Holly, Theresa and I each took turns choosing a "love song" and playing its video off of youtube and then the three of us would belt it. This particular picture shows T and Holly singing along with Whitney Houston, "I will Always Love You!"

I've been re-reading Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the age of the quick fix this week. One thing that I didn't notice the first time through was Friedman's argument that one way to prevent and diffuse anxiety in a system (a family, a congregation, a business) is to maintain playfulness. There's something healthy that happens when you grab a wooden spoon and get in touch with your inner Diva and sing . . . "I-eeeee-i will always loooooooove yooouuuuuuuuuu."

What could have been a frustrating or boring night, turned into a chance for Holly and Theresa and I to bond and laugh. If we didn't have the job, I probably would have spent the night reading textbooks, and wasting time on facebook. If we hadn't started the love-song-sing-a-long, I would have likely gotten crabby and resentful. But I have really great memories of singing and laughing.

This Friday night, Richard, Holly, Noel and I had our cars flooded by rain water that was running down the street. The basement got a little wet, and garbage cans were floating down the road. It could have been super stressful. But we were together, and we were able to laugh together about how absurd it was. Noel's friend Paul was over and suggested that we go outside. One of my roommates pretended that s/he (I promised I wouldn't tell who) was being eaten by a crocodile in a river, we laughed at the waves created as cars drove down the street, we made up songs, we shop vac-ed our cars and laughed some more at the absurdity of 30 gallons of water in one car.

It's been a terrible week at our house, tons of professional, personal and family drama for all of us. But laughing and singing and playing together on Friday night has been good for us. I feel closer to my housemates than I have in a long time.

So let's keep on singing, let's keep on laughing, let's keep on playing. Happy Sunday!