Edition 2. Issue 2.
Of Cheers,
Mayberry, and Pickleball
Making your way in the world today
Takes everything you've got
Taking a break from all your worries
Sure would help a lot
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Most of us came here to do just that…get away…from our
former life. The Stephens Valley development team promised us a community where
people can live more easily in harmony with nature, while preserving that
natural beauty which surrounds us along the Natchez Trace Parkway, and we liked
that idea. Their bold intentions are slowly unfolding as the development team
minds their stated mission, and, at the same time, their fiscal bottom line.
Meanwhile, the mission of the residents is a little different. We are looking
to live in harmony with the environment, but we also seek to live in harmony
with each other.
We long for the Mayberry qualities we fell in love with as
we watched The Andy Griffith Show and
Cheers all those years ago. For many of us, we seek out new friends and
relationships to replace those we left behind when we left a former life. The
builders of our homes have graced us with some of the architectural elements
necessary to build relationships and community. We have big front porches that
are close to wide sidewalks, and those elements encourage conversation and
engagement with neighbors, but those engagements are not automatic. We
residents must put in a little work to turn proximity into family
relationships. We can use those sidewalks and become pedestrians more than we
do. Giving ourselves the opportunity to
encounter each other and become friends is central to our goals for living in
Stephens Valley. While we know we cannot achieve that closeness fully until the
town square is a reality, which will give us better walking destinations, it is
quite amazing how we can generate some of those qualities on our own – without
the help of the development team.
Without a town square destination, the residents are still
finding reasons to walk – sometimes just to enjoy nature and architecture, but
other times with a destination in mind. Residents walk to the homes of
neighbors for social events and to play games, like Mahjong. Many residents
also walk to the pool and the racket sports courts. And it is suspected that
the residents involved in those activities are learning how to play the games,
but mostly they are learning about their neighbors, and those neighbors are
becoming great friends.
The Mahjong group consists of a dozen, or so, mostly women,
who find the game interesting and fun, on the surface. However, just under the
surface, they all realize that the most fun is in turning neighbors into
friends who enjoy each other’s company. They like to hang out. The pickleball
group likes to walk to a destination too – the Stephens Valley pickleball
court. It is fair to say that less than a year ago, few of them (there are
about a dozen regulars) had ever been on a pickleball court. Now, most of them
play about ten hours per week! Their average age is a bit north of what one
would consider the sweet spot for athleticism. Although they keep score, they
do not dwell on it, nor do they long remember who won. I’m quite certain the
Mahjong group is the same way. There have been injuries and certain healthcare
providers have been involved in their pickleball addiction. But they too are
learning that the gang that populated the bar in Cheers wasn’t there simply to get hydrated. Rather, they loved the
community and the people in it. So it is with the Stephens Valley pickleball
crew. They show up to play pickleball, but that is just on the surface. They
really show up because of the others who show up. They regularly welcome new
attendees that have never played pickleball before, and they suspend games to
render impromptu clinics to transfer their “vast” knowledge of the game to
those neighbors. They spend more time laughing, joking, trash-talking, and
becoming friends, than they ever spend hitting pickleballs. They come at the
regular times, even when injured and unable to play. They have just as much fun
on the sidelines cracking wise with the players, as they do actually playing.
They accomplish the goal of building community either way.
It just might be that we make more progress by seeking out
these new connections to each other, that we will ever accomplish by lobbying,
cajoling, or begging the development team to make progress for us. But, while
we are awaiting more progress from the SV development team, we are learning to
develop community on our own, and if you are not yet involved in these
community building activities, then you should be, because…
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name
And they're always glad you came
You want to be where you can see
Our troubles are all the same
You want to be where everybody knows your name
From
the Cheers theme song by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart-Angelo
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