Monday, June 28, 2010

The Well Oiled Machine


"Organized chaos." The constant refrain of the Grassroots office. These seem to be the only words that can be used by the staff to describe the mad dash towards, and through the Fun Fourth Festival. And these words are seemingly true. I mean, if you spend a mere five minutes with these women you may only be able to see chaos. Peggy, who will go into a bloodthirsty rage if someone sits in her chair (probably stemming from childhood issues when a neighbor girl shamefully dethroned her at a tea party), Brenda, a woman whose fascination with the paper cutter and it's "friends" is something you would expect from a schizophrenic, and Robin, who forces the delivery of chocolate macaroons to her desk with veiled threats of beatings and starvation. Truly the "chaos" seems to be the highlight of the inner workings of the festival. But I completely disagree with that.

I wholeheartedly, and with no cash incentive...
(Oh wait...I am getting paid)

....

I wholeheartedly, and with no emotional connection to the festival...
(Oh wait...Peggy is my mother)

....

I wholeheartedly, and scientifically...
(You're not a scientist)
(Shut up parenthesizes)
(I just want the public to know the facts)
(Well you're not helping)
(Not trying to help)

I believe that the Fun Fourth Festival (at least on the technical side) is anything but "chaos."
Today, I sat down for lunch with these three women and asked what else needed to be done before the festival began.
"What big things can I do?"
"Let's get ahead of schedule."
Little did I know, there was actually very little for me to do. This was due to the fact that so many different organizations were contributing to the set up and execution of his festival. One group was bringing tables, one was bringing tents, one was delivering the food, and on and on. The big picture was being built by many separate factions coming together to share the load. Everyone could do a little bit less because there were others there to help. Purely "organized."

And that's when I realized, this festival is truly a community experience, enjoyed and created by the people that live here. Organizations, businesses, volunteers, we all come together not only to share, but to create an experience together. The Well Oiled Machine, working in sync, perfectly.

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