Are you getting much use from your backyard ?
This piece went out September 20, 2022 in the RealStevo.com daily newsletter.
Today is the anniversary on which I met some of the most passionate freedom fighters in my midst.
In a backyard in Marin County, California, 200 unmasked people squeezed in that September night.
This was not a big backyard, but the fact that the owner cared enough to offer it to squeeze in 200 unmasked people had such an impact on how the following 2 years of my life would look.
And that was just me.
Imagine the impact it had on some of the other 200 attendees.
When you stick your neck out there and show care for another, you really do send ripples through the world. Whether it is 200 people or 2 people, you are sending out the ripples.
Big crowds are, in fact, illusory. They more often get in the way of that which truly impacts those who attend, for it is not the mass movement that changes our hearts. As virtuous as a given behavior may be, mass movements are often just the blind following of a crowd. It is in the one on one encounters that hearts are changed, that community is built, that ripples are sent out into the world.
While 2 million person mass movements filling the streets are exciting, the closer you get to 2,000 people or 200 people or even 2 people, the closer you are likely getting to making real impact.
The popular figures can help be thought leaders. The talking heads play an important role. But it is the individual interactions that so much changes.
One of the most crippling words to important action is the word “popular.” The use of the word “popular,” often accompanies this style of thinking: “That which is popular is worth doing. That which is not popular is not worth doing.”
If you ever find yourself thinking that way (and we all do from time to time), I would like to offer an alternate approach. Replace the word “popular” with the word “right.”
That which is right is worth doing. That which is not right is not worth doing.
It doesn’t matter how many people show up. It matters if you are doing what’s right.
Last night, I did a training for a very small group of people. The subject I trained in is a subject I am an expert in, but truthfully, you do not need to be an expert to do a training. You just need some success with the subject matter and you need to care enough to want to offer your experience to others.
1.) A little success and 2.) a little care will beat expertise almost any day of the week in getting a person motivated and activated in an area he has been wanting to know more about.
Which brings me to an important question: How have you been using your backyard?
Have you been putting people in it? Have you been inviting people over? Have you been having the most sincere, most meaningful gatherings of people you can?
Have you been inviting candidates you truly believe in to do potluck fundraisers for 10 or 20 people at $25 a head? Have you been welcoming 5 or 10 folks over for Bible study on let’s say a chapter of Proverbs every other week? Just pick one, read it, and talk about it together. No expertise needed. Have you invited 3 or 4 purebloods over to celebrate your pureblood status together and to talk about what you see in the world?
It doesn’t have to be big to be meaningful. In fact, I often find the exact opposite to be the case. The smaller, the better — as long as the people attending leave motivated, activated, and a little more eager to do what is right.
What a very powerful impact you can have when you are focused not on popularity, but on doing what is right.
Popular can help that effort. Popular is not bad. Popular, however, can be a distraction from the effort to do what is right, and popular often is a distraction. Popular, consequently, must never be the goal. Doing what is right must be the goal.
And I’m not just talking about your backyard either. But the backyard is a perfect example of a space underutilized — government says to stop gathering in buildings, then invite those people to your backyard.
It really is that simple.
I’m talking about the many proverbial backyards of life — the many blessings that your life is filled with that you are not maximizing or are perhaps leaving totally unused. I bet you have a resource in your life that solves someone else’s problem very well. The only thing is that you have been convinced, I presume, that it doesn’t matter what you do if it isn’t big and impactful.
The Bible talks about the importance of just 2 or 3 gathered. Yes, the mega church has benefit. And that’s probably not where the most meaningful work of life happens. The most meaningful work of life happens with someone like you doing right as much as you can and being generous enough, loving enough to stick your neck out there and share your experience with another.
You don’t need to be an expert at this thing called life. You just need a success or two and the will to show care for another.
Any other way of approaching life is just plain stingy. Keeping your backyard to yourself because there is something imperfect about it is just plain stingy. Keeping your successes to yourself because you aren’t an expert is just plain stingy. Keeping your backyard unutilized because it won’t amount to anything “popular” is just plain stingy.
How effectively those lies are whispered to us by the world to keep us behaving selfishly, when bringing together the 2 or 3 in our backyard may be exactly what that moment needs.
How do we do more of what’s right? How do we use more of our successes to the benefit of others? How do we use more of our backyard, more of our blessings — no matter how small they are — for the benefit of others?
Money can be one example of the underutilized backyard. But it is often the least creative example. There is often so much more you can give in life.
If I had but one reader, I would write still. But I don’t have one. I have many. And it began with me writing for the one. And often today, I still write for the one, knowing that if I just care and share my successes, and my failures too, that willingness to share may mean something to the person reading it. That is one of my backyards that I try to share as generously as I can.
You can find Face Masks Hurt Kids here, a book written for the one, celebrated by the many. If you care about the topic of face masks — Buy it. Skim it. Read it. Take it with you as a resource. Use this backyard of mine, this resource of mine to the best of its ability.
What are your backyards, dear reader? What can you be giving generously to others this very day?
Allan Stevo