**Pattern Name:**
One Idea -- See your neighborhood as the system it is.
**Introduction:** Neighborhoods are where most life is lived. Each neighborhood is unique in its people, institutions, places, resources and their interactions. Each neighborhood is a unique and dynamic system.
**Illustration:**
**NOT THIS!!! Too simple**.
Don't be tempted. This is the opposite of the "One Idea."
**THIS--Trelliswork** Just complex enough.
**CONTEXT:**
Life and social systems all have their roots in the soil, in homes, and in neighborhoods.
The complexity of the globalizing human world is overwhelming us.
There are threats beyond the neighborhood but that does not alter the fact that the soil, the home, and the neighborhood are the roots of civilization.
**PROBLEM:**
**Action that fails to support neighborhoods (society's metaphorical roots) cannot save the social and ecological systems (the whole plant/planet) which are rapidly degrading.**
**Constructs that overwhelm the participants are counterproductive, even destructive.**
**Forces:**
Temptation of top down approaches. Temptation of efficiency. Focusing primarily on money. Strong man solutions.
Care and community spirit. Curiosity. Learning through doing. Multigenerational problem solving.
**THEREFORE (SOLUTION):**
**Focus on your neighborhood.**
**Each neighborhood must to do everything possible locally and be as independent of unreliable sources as is possible.**
**Actions:**
Learn how to See the Systems
With neighbors, create a simple Causal Loop Model of your neighbor's local concerns and hopes.
Pick something to create together.
Use this ReLocalize frame to hold your thinking, your knowledge, your action, and your results together for your neighbors.
Create and develop your own "Highlander"--places to learn together and make changes you wish for.
**Consequences:**
To do otherwise is foolhardy and even fatal--if not for you and your neighbors, then for your children and your neighbors' children.
To do so creates maximum engagement, meaning, and solidarity through participation.
Increasing capability to ReLocalize your neighborhood and also assist the other One Million Neighborhoods to ReLocalize Creativity in their neighborhoods.
**Known Uses:**
**RELATED PATTERNS:**