The Power We Have

The Valleyist Papers 

 

A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS WRITTEN IN FAVOUR OF THE IMPROVEMENT OF LIFE IN STEPHENS VALLEY 

Author – William Ray 

 

Edition 5. Issue 2.

We SV residents often wish for more power and influence over the decisions made by Rochford Realty and Construction. We wish for a seat at the table where budgets and priorities for improvements to SV are made. We crave more information about proposed timelines for our infrastructure additions and changes. With so many desires, and so little progress toward satisfying our interests, it is very common for us to feel completely powerless, but nothing could be farther from the truth.  

While the SV residents do not have the power of the purse in many infrastructure decisions, the SV community is much more than an assortment of neighborhood amenities to be financed. Perhaps our infrastructure wishlist is a bit shallow when we compare it to challenges which cannot be satisfied with dollars. All too often, one of our neighbors is facing that kind of issue.

We have the power to help with these bigger problems. Our power is derived from the uniqueness of our population and the ways we gather to support our friends. Using SWAG estimation methods (Scientific Wild Ass Guess), we are 50% aged 55 years and up, 30% 40-55 years, and 20% below 40 years of age. Our demographics include households holding conventional nuclear families, single parent households, one-person households, senior couple households, and young couple households. Looking at these demographics, we ought to have an experienced solution for every problem!   

Within this diverse population we also have neighbors with a wide range of support and family resources available to them, and several with no apparent local safety net of support. These matters are notable because all of us find themselves in a wide variety of health and happiness situations, and those conditions are always in some state of change. Therein lies our needs which are beyond infrastructure matters. Also therein lies our real power which cannot be limited by a developer. 

The infrastructure we find ourselves powerless to influence is being built by craftsmen using flashy, noisy, and cumbersome equipment. Meanwhile, we build our usable power in book clubs, bunco gatherings, Mahjong games, pickleball matches, tennis matches, pool activities, front porch interactions, and meetings over drinks and appetizers. At the center of these activities is the construction of bonds of friendship and caring that make us more human and more valuable than anything made of concrete. Our human infrastructure is not built from a set of plans, rather, it is built upon the realization that our present situation relative to health and happiness was given to us, for a time, and it is always subject to change, so we are building defenses using the resouces we have homegrown in our relationships. 

It is said that, for those of us in the 50% group, acquiring new friends late in life is quite rare, but it can, and is, happening here in SV. The architecture of our homes and the neighborhood bring us into more casual conversations, which often become friendships, and the many SV activities mentioned above also enhance our chances of making new friends. This is our power, and we are using it to ease hardships upon our neighbors when they experience a shocking change to health and/or family relationships. We show up for them, and often, just when a neighbor needs more strength than they possess, a SV friend appears to transfer some strength of their own.  

We probably all know someone right here in SV that is suddenly challenged by a foreboding diagnosis. Often those experiencing that sudden change in status were sailing along with the wind in their sails just a few days before the storm hit them. These are the times when our power is best used. When a neighbor is facing outrageous fortune, the rest of us who continue to be blessed with the unbelievable gift of health and time, become the most important thing in a friend's life. While the stricken are lined up to defend themselves with the latest healthcare treatments available, many of which will certainly make them suffer even more before the tide is turned on their ailments, it is our lot to step in with the medicine we have – human kindness, the most powerful drug we know. This potion is being delivered right now here in SV. It is a divine mixture of human touch, presence, laughter, commitment, reassurance, and love. It is our power.  

While we are all hopeful that the developer is using their power to make SV better...eventually, our power is making life better for some of our neighbors today. It is in the wake of the journey of neighbors impacted by unwanted health issues that new hope is being born as they witness our willingness to help. We are so lucky to possess the resources needed--heaping amounts of work, play, friendship, and family...the things that really matter. So, powerless? No, not even close.