What Is It You Want to Build Here in Dunwoody?

Here's looking at us, kids (and colleagues and neighbors and friends).

Now, I'm not saying we'll have emus and a sweat lodge and a drumming circle in Dunwoody, but ya' gotta' admire what the Lake Claire neighborhood in Atlanta has accomplished. About twenty years ago, when MARTA was blasting through, the Lake Claire community purchased a land trust and has since developed it into a real treasure.

I didn't intend to visit it Saturday--I was simply donating books to Dr. Bombay's Underwater Tea Party. But the owner asked me, "Do you have time to see the land trust? I'll walk you there," and she left her shop just like that (it was in good hands, of course, with her staff, but this reminded me of when I backpacked through Europe after college and when I'd ask folks in Italy, in particular, how to get somewhere, they would take me by my elbow and walk me there, even if it were a mile away.)

We walked for several blocks and she gave me the grand tour of the long strip of wooded land, punctuated by clearings with things like a little cafe, an amphitheatre with a central fire pit, bathrooms, an outdoor shower, a barnyard with chickens and goats, a sort-of-scary emu, a playground, a little pond with a canoe, a sweat lodge, and a few different spots with community garden plots. I asked if this was all part of a "master plan," and she replied, "Not really. If someone really wants to build something, they can."

And so I thought of this the rest of the weekend.

If someone really wants to build something, they can. If someone really wants to build something . . .

I ask you this, this gloriously rainy Monday morning (the tatsoi seedlings Roy Baron so generously allowed me to plant at the wonderful Garden Isaiah at Temple Emanuel need it desperately!), what is it that you want to build?

* A community that cares about its future?
* A farm/life museum?
* A land trust?
* A garden?
* Bike lanes?
* Better air quality?
* A city center?
* An even more vibrant business community?
* A city where our children can keep learning and growing?
* A local government that is always fair and transparent?
* A place to call home about which we are continually proud?

What is the passion that touches your soul? And then, of course, are you willing to help build it? Because, as I've learned this past week, both here in Dunwoody due to the always-supportive response of our City Council to sustainability initiatives I propose, and from the impressive community of Lake Claire and others around Atlanta, if you really want to build something, you can.

Here's looking at us, kids. In one week, it's in our hands. What do we want to do with it? And are we, all of us, willing to work for it?