The Potentiality

John Horn's Website for Community Builders

1000 Community Stories

Talk to Strangers and Embrace Overheards

julipan / flickr

My bathtub drain used to be clogged. It’s not anymore. And I can thank the following community-minded things for water no longer building up into some sort of “foot bath” during shower time:

  1. Talking to strangers.
  2. Overhearing community.
  3. Being un-plugged in the world.

So, like I said, my bathtub drain was clogged (this is perhaps the only downside to my wife’s thick and luxurious hair). As I spent some time running errands before meeting up with this blog’s Managing Editor, Kurt Heinrich, my travels took me to the East End Food Co-op (it’s one of the only places that you can get fair trade bananas in Vancouver).

Though bananas were the only thing on my list, I asked the very helpful clerk if there were any “environmentally friendly drain cleaning products” on the shelves. She said “sorry, but I don’t think there are.” The woman in line next to me, however, overheard my question and provided me with an answer: “depending on how severe the clog is, you can probably fix it with baking soda and vinegar,” she said. “Just put ’em together and create a little cleaning volcano in your drain!”

Google later confirmed the success of this concoction.

And now our water flows freely. More than that, we have a sustainable solution for solving this problem from today until all of Michelle’s hair falls out!

Unplugging my drain came from being unplugged in the world, which allowed me to talk to strangers (who, let’s face it, are just friends we haven’t met yet) and be overheard by another future friend.

If this wasn’t community in action then I don’t know what is.

 

John Horn is the Founder and Principal of Potentiality Consulting. Over the past 25 years, John has helped leaders reach their community-building potential, bringing a unique professional, intelligent and edutaining style to his seminars, presentations and essays. John applies his talents as a senior people and culture leader, coach (from youth athletes to executives), DIGITAL Canada Advisor, and as an advocate for career development, rare diseases (EPP), and building healthy communities. John lives in Victoria with his wife (who is her own person) and two kids - he loves exploring neighbourhoods via bicycle and making friends through basketball, boardgames, and conversations over coffee.