“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
It’s a fan favorite for inspiration and challenging norms, but I think its simple power often gets diluted by platitudes.
It’s an important one to live by though so here’s what being the change you want to see in the world means to ME specifically in Little Rock, Arkansas: a community with a pronounced sometimes overwhelming spirit of change resistance. 
You don’t have to lie to kick it and we all know that Arkansas has some… deficits. Poverty, illiteracy (both literally and in media), misinformation, and disenfranchisement are like the hydrogen in our water supply and there’s a certain degree of acknowledgment you HAVE to have about how much these things drive people to misunderstand, act against their interests, impede progress, and to hold earnest beliefs that nothing will ever get better and there’s no point of trying. Suppressed people are depressed people. Hope, light, and aspiration are often in short supply and sometimes in Little Rock you gotta DIY a community’s spirit.
A commitment to being the change means getting comfortable going first and sometimes going alone. It means being willing to take and clear a road less traveled and then double back to let people know that the way is clear and the path is good.
If you support XXXX in Little Rock, you have to support it yourself. If you want more people downtown, you have to start with you being a person who goes downtown. If you wish more people supported local art, YOU have to be that change and support a local artist. If you want people to support public schools, where are you enrolling? If you want “them” to fully utilize War Memorial tomorrow, you have to utilize it in its current form today. The “they” of most problems is actually us and if we want change, we have to be that change ourselves with the same energy we demand change from other people. That’s much harder work.
There are a million places to live where change has already taken hold and the path is already clear and I never fault anyone for deciding to pursue that.
But if you ARE here and you ARE committed to Little Rock being better, some of that starts with you finding one small thing that lights your spark and being willing to BE the change you hope for consistently and unapologetically to help encourage other people see that change and to be that change too.
A few years ago I had a small nagging wish online that there was a digital space beyond the dominating sludge of local news comment sections where people who really cared about Little Rock could gather to find like minds, share stories, share resources, and share in their personal journey of being the change they want to see in the city they love. When that space didn’t exist, I made it. When the change I wanted wasn’t there, I became it.
Now when I want to share positivity, raise awareness, give a little hope online about Little Rock to counteract the negativity, I open my heart about my faith, love, and hope for my hometown to tens of thousands of people a week. And even though there are a lot more of us now, when I must I’m still willing to go first, go alone, clear the path, double back, and let you know the way is good.
Right now, my main and favorite path is to tell and demonstrate to you that if you desire to be a homeowner in a more walkable, bikeable neighborhood where you can do novel wholesome village activities like know your neighbors, get to the library, go the zoo, find entertainment, have great proximate schools, support neighborhood businesses etc that the life you want is already possible in Little Rock and that the change you want to see is happening in a lot of small groups of people choosing to live differently South of 630 and in the neighborhoods surrounding downtown. Before the 630 project and community division cut us off, these neighborhoods were supported vibrant areas of our city that have already existed with full life so the prospect of this area thriving really isn’t hypothesis. It’s just a path overgrown and neglected that will require more people to change and return to it. That’s a change I’ve personally committed to being and over the years several of you have come along for the ride. We’re growing and I hope more like minded people with the will to build something better (in real estate AND in real community connections) come with!
What is YOUR untread path? What is something in Little Rock that YOU know we need? You can’t wave a wand and change the masses but what you can do is plant and nurture the seed of the tree you want yourself or someone who comes after to sit under later.
What can you walk the walk about in Little Rock without worrying that you might be the only one taking the first step?
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
