Prom Magic

A few months after prom, I still remember the exasperating inefficiency and amazing effectiveness of a familiar group on an unfamiliar project.

You gather 20-30 people together whose only common bond is having a kid in the high school junior class. They see each other at ball games and school plays. A few see each other at church, or the local diner. A few are friends, some are acquaintances, several are strangers. Then you assign them the task of transforming a portion of the high school for senior prom.

On the big night, people dribble in over the course of a couple hours, as their schedule permits. Three or four of the people see the big picture, knowing how everything should look when it’s done, but most just want to help.

And so the magic begins. Two people adapt their skills to join on a task, until they’re stuck, and get help from a third, who replaces the first, who moves on to answer a question, and ends up taking over another task. Three people start on a phase, two more see opportunity, and replicate the actions on another phase. One little task is a serial effort. Guy and girl try, receive advice from a hubby, who steps in and helps, get assistance from a friend, who asks his wife for suggestions, who takes over the task, inviting more help from two others.

There’s lots of standing around, deciding how. Lots of looking for stuff – duct tape, stapler, hammer, cords. Lots of asking those who know. And lots of trying to help where help might not be needed.

But it’s organic. It grows out of the people and the skills that are there. It blossoms into personalities brightening the room. Those who can, offer ideas, suggestions, and know-how. Others simply take a task and complete it to their own satisfaction.

By the end of the night, we had created magic. An ordinary high school hallway became a setting from Arabian Nights. All for our kids to maybe, or maybe not, notice and enjoy on their big night.

Only looking back do I realize; I remember no tense moments, no arguments, no egos getting in the way of the work. Just friends, new and old, working together. Laughter and exhaustion, yes. Frustration or anger, no.

It was community, at its best.