Michael Gartner, a Pulitzer Prize winning writer, wrote this beautiful column for USA Today about the secret to a long and rich life.

It’s about simple rituals, deep love, and yes left hand turns. Although if you live in Australia or the UK, substitute for right hand turns.

Here’s the beginning:

My father never drove a car.

Well, that’s not quite right.

I should say I never saw him drive a car. He quit driving in 1927, when he was 25 years old, and the last car he drove was a 1926 Whippet.

“In those days,” he told me when he was in his 90s, “to drive a car you had to do things with your hands, and do things with your feet, and look every which way, and I decided you could walk through life and enjoy it or drive through life and miss it.”

At which point my mother, a sometimes salty Irishwoman, chimed in:

“Oh, bull–!” she said. “He hit a horse.”

“Well,” my father said, “there was that, too.”

And you can read the rest here: A life without left turns by Michael Gartner.

This first appeared on Tom Munnecke’s blog Eclectica. And is relevant in these challenging economic times.  Thanks Tom for allowing us to publish it here.

Here are some ideas for building resiliency within a community as outlined by Heather Ion with some contributions from David Brin and Harold Koenig.

Create a neighborhood bulletin board where folks can list reminders, and needs and offers (one retiree offers homemade cookies for lunches in exchange for dog walking; uni students might swap auto-detailing for home cooked meals).

Host a potluck meal for local fun, but also gather information for a neighborhood directory. Find someone willing to maintain a database. Possibly include names with footnotes to indicate “trained babysitter”, “we know a good handyman”.

Build momentum toward a neighborhood round robin potluck once a month. Perhaps themed toward a positive question such as “What adventure have you had recently?” or “Tell us about a meal that meant a lot to you.”

Map the resources of skills and offers (science tutoring by a neighborhood retiree, revolving cooking classes, transportation pooling) and keep it circulating in the neighborhood using flyers, emails and bulletin boards. Amateur Photographers in one neighborhood might supply family sittings & portraits; in return they gain both recognition and remarkably creative portfolios and scrapbooks.

Hold a community talent show, including an art gallery, and share bragging rights and laughter.

Organize Barter Bazaars (no money allowed) where you can exchange your offerings for those of others (Especially useful before the Holidays.)

Put up a bookcase in a shared community space (Laundromat, Church hall, Doctor’s office) for a Bring One/Take One of books, magazines and videos.

Closet Shopping Sprees require that everyone bring five or more clean garments, and then take away the equivalent, or simply enjoy passing them on.

Polishing Parties are gatherings of a few neighbors or friends to clean a house or garage and then celebrate together. One family had the exterior of their house painted by such a group, another completely redid their garden.

Share “No Money Fun” lists of activities (Dog walking, community picnics and cleanups, popcorn nights of watching home videos). For instance “Story time” has become a weekly neighborhood celebration: adults and kids read and tell stories, sometimes with a puppet show or music, anyone can take part.

See that several people in the neighborhood take Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training so that a local team is ready in case of crisis. Ask them to teach others how to stockpile, do safety checks and prepare.

“What I know” gatherings are enjoyable ways to learn new skills and acquire new knowledge from your neighbors. One retired safety specialist does a very popular “What I know” evening on safety procedures; a gardener does an equally popular presentation on pruning and pesticides; a nurse explains medications; a computer specialist answers questions, a medical billing professional explains insurance.

Community gardens get folks active together, improve diets, help support food banks, and generate a sense of self-reliance.

If every family begins to list what truly nourishes their family and nurtures their sense of identity, of belonging, of hope and of contribution, we can then share our lists and weave together a web of support based on these things.

Courtesty of Tom Munnecke’s Eclectica blog.