It was my make it or break-it moment long before the days of wake boards and wake boats. I’d yell “hit it” as soon as the rope was taut. He’d push the throttle forward to engage what we thought was a very impressive 125 horsepower outboard, allowing my Uncle Joe to drag me through the water until I either popped-up or submarined with a mouth full of water.

An average skier has to handle 200 to 400 lbs of pressure as they ski, with the top performers hitting 500 to 600 pounds of force as they cut across the wake. As I felt the strain on the rope I knew was more than just a test of adolescent manhood, it was the price of admission for a great ride, and bragging rights later.

Those amazing moments of riding and cutting the wake balance the tension between the strength and balance of the skier and the power of the tow boat. If either one falters that tension falls apart into a face plant or a digger.

Every community exists with a tension of a different kind. This is the push and pull of forces that work to downgrade a community and work against the families, businesses, churches, schools and other institutions that make it a great place to live.

In healthy communities, instead of a one-person contest between a skier and a boat, everyone pulls on the rope.

Some forces pull a community toward being a great place to live while others drag it down. The source of these pressures is both inside the community and from without. In great places to live, the communities where people thrive and the quality of life is strong, people pull harder on rope than the forces that seek to drag them down.

Almost everyone looks for a place to live that feels like that ski experience of running fast on glassy water, but its actually the people in a place that determine the quality of life.

Together communities have to resist the pressures working against community health. Like the friction of water pushing back on the skier, and the wind that whips up chop, communities face the impacts of the economy, hardships due to health, crime that creeps in, and the needs of families that isolate them from opportunities and healthy lives.

Pulling on the rope together means taking action to help a neighbor in distress, stepping up for the needs of school children and their classrooms, encouraging tired parents, practicing hospitality, and supporting the efforts of local business to create environments everyone enjoys.

Healthy communities are collections of good Samaritans and ordinary heros; they are places full of every day kindness where being a good neighbor is more than an idea.

In healthy communities, it’s not big inboards that pull on the rope, it’s people who are pulling together. Where are you seeing opportunities to make this community better?

You and your organization are invited to join the team from Co-Creation Labs hosted by the Lake Anna Breeze in October to explore practical ways that you can make this community better. Those who’d like to learn more can reach out to [email protected].