Pass It On…
“Several years ago I came up with the idea to collect and distribute all our families recipes – many people could cook really well - so young people had an opportunity to be able to cook the same things that their parents and grandparents cooked.
But what we quickly learned was a lot of people did not want to give up their recipes. They wanted to take them to their grave because that was their recipe, they did it better than anyone else.
I think we find the same thing within our communities…a lot of people don’t want to give up those same recipes of what worked in the past to carry it on for the future…and now we see what we see today, that young people don’t have the same history of the things that worked in the past, the things that worked for you and me. Forget innovating, now we are not even using those same technologies and recipes of what has worked, today…
And thus we have so many of the problems we have today…
I would like to see people not take recipes to the grave, so we can learn and share those recipes …I would like to see us implement some of those recipes today, as we have in the past, and at the same time, give it our twist, and move forward.”
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This story is one of my favourites! It is a story I collected from the person telling me during an appreciative inquiry interview I had in Canton, Ohio earlier in 2006 (with thanks to PCC for the experience and opportunity to hear and meet such wonderful people!).
To me it hightlights one of the best things about stories - they grow and get better the more you share and pass them on, not diminish…and then more you share them, them more people are able to benefit from what you have experienced and learned - rather than having to necessarily make the same mistakes!
Stories also offer us a way/space to experience the lesson without necessarily having to go through it, and are an easy and human way to share knowledge!
If you have a story of something that works to share, I do hope you pass it on! Think of how many people can benefit!
Sending you a happy holidays!
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