Let’s Start With Us

We’ve been known by many names, we the idyllic hamlet just north of the city: Pond Feilde and Malden North and the hottest zip code in the country. We’re the chosen stomping ground of Mel and Rose and the city of three commuter rail stops. We’ve had our share of less-than-flattering local and national news, but we’ve had amazing stuff, too. Steph and I like to think that both Melrose Random Acts of Kindness Day and MelroseKind rank pretty high on the list of things thought when thinking is done about our sweet city.

We two founders of MelroseKind spend a great deal of time working on our mission of connection and civility in Melrose. With each new day, we attempt to be a bit kinder and more compassionate than we were the day before. We are united in our goal of growing kindness in Melrose, yet my partner-in-kind and I don’t agree on every little thing. Although those times of disconnect are few and far between, they do happen. So we sit down with a cup of tea (that’s me) and one perfectly hard boiled egg (yep, her) and have a conversation. Sometimes we realize our beliefs are closer than we had previously thought. Other times, we learn something new, about our city, about our friendship, about our mission of kindness. Always, always, I leave a better version of myself. I think Steph feels the same.

Our friends Sam and Jess, and the many good people at MelroseTogether, are staunch believers in the power of civil conversation. We’ve watched them reach out to Melrosians from different backgrounds, with different beliefs, and with different passions. They’ve sat down — with complete strangers, with friends they’ve met only through Facebook, and with those with whom they’ll probably never agree — with a simple goal: to get to know each other, to find common ground, to connect.

Recently, MelroseTogether, in partnership with MMTV, created a podcast with the intent of bringing Melrosians closer together during these socially challenging times. Their One Small Step initiative is inspired by StoryCorps, a national effort to preserve and share stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world.

MelroseTogether hopes that these conversations make connections and those connection make us better able to disagree civilly, with respect and kindness. Let’s start with this one small step. Who knows where it will take us?

The second of many conversations just went live. It pairs Melrose Patch’s Mike with Melrose Weekly’s Jen. Together, Mike and Jen talk about their hopes and dreams for Melrose and their love of the city. They share vulnerabilities, being the only girl on a boys baseball team, scrambling between work and a college degree, and the great responsibility of bringing children into our world. I love hearing the voices that live behind the written words that I’ve come to know. I will think of this conversation when I see these two reporters around town, or on social media, at the ballfields and in line for a Sunday coffee. I am grateful to MelroseTogether and hope that you’ll tune in. If you are feel especially brave, you can sign up to be paired in conversation with someone you might not know at all, or perhaps not as well as think you do.

Rather than feeling overwhelmed in a world riddled with division and discord, maybe it is time to ask: What if the world started looking at us instead?