Community often starts with something small.
Last Sunday, it started with a text.
“Hey, who wants to meet at Bubba’s Sunday at 11:30? Who’s in?” Mark Griffin wrote.
By late morning, five couples were sliding into vinyl booths at Bubba’s Eggs Steaks & Shakes, curious to see what the new ownership had done with a place that holds decades of Happy Valley memories. Griffin and his wife Karen have a quiet gift for organizing these moments. A text here, a suggestion there, and suddenly people are gathered again, reconnecting in one of the community’s cherished third places.

We have been sold a lie about the good life.
Somewhere between our grandparents’ era and now, we traded necessity for convenience, obligations for options, and showing up for staying in. We told ourselves this was progress. In many ways, it was. But we forgot something crucial along the way. Humans are not just built for comfort. We are built for connection with a purpose.
The data tells a stark story.