LAST WORD

Well, respect to you for following this work to the end. Most of what we’ve shared in this book wasn’t invented by us. We’re only the messengers and translators for insights gathered by elders over generations. Please do them all proud by taking their wisdom into the world.

The only communities all of us want to commit to and invest in include some generosity. In any worthwhile community, we believe that others will be generous with us when we need it and, even better, when we don’t need it. In turn, most of us want to generously contribute to others in some way.

This is to say that if you’re reading this book to bring people together, your community will only work because there is some generosity built into all the structure, vision, planning, and rules. Further, none of your planning works unless you invite others into generosity. Invitations are so critical, yet so many people skip them and then miss their importance.

We’re pessimistic about loneliness and disconnection diminishing in our era. We’re optimistic about the people who learn to bring others together and take action in their own way.

If you’re stuck or afraid, remember that community always starts with an invitation. Community and belonging are created one invitation at a time. Humbly invite someone you want to know into an intimate conversation where you have the space, conditions, and permission to talk about things important to you.

It may go poorly or well. No matter—every minute you’ll be building your muscles to connect people. And for that, we’ll be very proud of you.

Bringing new people together never goes as well as we want it to. It usually takes (much) longer than we expect. Sometimes people don’t seem to care. So we’re sharing some wisdom from our heroes that reminds us that failure is OK and that the work remains important.

All of us are in the same boat,
all living in a world we never dreamt of,
all sometimes losing our way,
as we try to keep the world going
until we have reared a generation
who know better how to live in it.

—Margaret Mead¹

You may have to face the fact that your work
will be apparently worthless
and achieve no result at all,
if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect . . .
Gradually you struggle less and less for an idea,
and more and more for specific people.
The range tends to narrow down,
but it gets much more real.
In the end, it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything.

—Fr. Thomas Merton²

We work with our teams to create materials, workshops, and experiences that embolden leaders to connect people important to them. We only know it’s working when you tell us. You can contact us and get free worksheets at our websites: CarrieMelissa.com and CharlesVogl.com.