I started a book club at KaBOOM! a couple weeks ago.  I wanted there to be an informal way to discuss topics about play, health, community development, and social issues.  A group of us discussed our first book last week – The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.  For those of you who don’t know (don’t worry, you’re not alone), the tipping point is “that magic moment when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”  I love this concept.  I love the idea that it just takes something small, a single idea or moment, to make something HUGE. 

To me, the word KaBOOM! signifies a tipping point.  It’s not a noun or a verb or an adjective.  It’s a really a large sound.  It’s the sound of something barren turning into something beautiful.  With KaBOOM!, a patch of land filled with debris, trash, and dirt can turn into a colorful playground.  With KaBOOM!, a slightly unorganized, doubtful, and disconnected group of people can turn into a well-run, motivated planning committee.  It’s incredible to see really.  Picture it… 

You teach at a school that doesn’t have a playground.  Then one day, you get this idea – maybe from a magazine, a conversation, or a website – to organize a playground build.  Not just any playground build.  You get the idea that it should be a community-built playground where parents and community members come together one day and build it.  One day.  How incredible would that be?  You think to yourself.  But you have no time.  You teach, you have kids, you have other priorities.  Yet, days go by and the idea doesn’t go away.  Maybe your students keeps asking you if would take them outside.  Maybe you’re tired of telling them that there’s nothing for them to do outside.  You’re tired of telling them that the small lot outside is filled with trash and needles and things that children shouldn’t play with. 

Then, during one of the PTA meetings or maybe teacher staff days, you stand up and announce your idea.  You’re tired of keeping it to yourself.  You need to tell someone.  And you do.  And that’s when it starts.  KaBOOM!  The point when you decide to make something happen.  As Malcolm Gladwell might say, once you reach the tipping point, there’s nothing that can stop it.  It catches on and spreads.  So during that PTA meeting, you get the attention of a few other people who are also tired.  They’re tired of telling their kids and students that they can’t go outside because it’s not safe or not fun or not in the schedule.  They join you and ask others and they ask others.  The “Build-Our-Playground” movement begins!

Fast forward eight months.  You think back on the successful (and unsuccessful) fundraising events, the multiple meetings with equipment vendors, your students’ increased excitement, the discussions (or debates) about liability and insurance, and you can’t wait.  The playground build will take place the following day.  KaBOOM!  You did it.  After the playground build, another tipping point will take place.  The school will be transformed.  Students will come early and stay late just to play outside.  They will be active.  Their parents will bring their other children.  The community will become a community.  And just think, it started with your idea.

That picture was the first one I envisioned after reading The Tipping Point.  After listening to my fellow boomers discuss the book, I know there are many other tipping points that are just waiting to happen.  Which one will you be a part of?  Or better yet, which one will you start?