Kingsport Spirit

We all remember the Dr. Seuss book, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”.

The grouchy grinch lives on a neighboring mountain and each year when the citizens of Whoville come out to hold hands, sing songs, and celebrate Christmas, their joy plucked his last nerve.

So, he decided to steal all the presents–to take away the material things–that he thought Christmas was built around.

He was thinking with his head, not his heart.

When Christmas day arrived and the Whos woke up to no presents, he watched from afar expecting a meltdown. But instead, one by one they came out of their homes singing and rejoicing anyway.

It wasn’t about presents; it was about presence.

“Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas means a little bit more.”

Have you ever tried to describe Fun Fest to an outsider?

“Um, well, over a 10-day period we all gather and paint trash cans, then we line up in a parade made up of the most random cross-section of our town, we dance in the streets, then we race in the streets, we pet farm animals, we trapse all over town hunting for a medallion, we crown Miss Kingsport and Miss Sullivan County, we squirt the kids with a firehose, we decorate sidewalks with chalk, we put on a community talent showcase, we watch a movie in the street, eat from food trucks, and it’s all capped off with hot air ballons and three nights of concerts and fireworks.”

When I pause to take a breath, they’re staring at me with a perplexed look on their face, feeling a little overwhelmed.

Fun Fest isn’t “an event”, it’s a series of events that are all about building community.

Other communities could take any one of these events and make it a standalone festival, but Kingsport jams them all together into one big display of community unity.

Emotion is what makes humans, well, human.

A wise person once told me you can convince someone by logic, but when you touch a human heart it’s magical. It triggers lifelong memories of how it made them feel. It’s the stuff that memories, photos, scrapbooks, and family stories are built around. It’s experiential. It’s not something that can be bought in a store.

When I think about my friends, family, and neighbors during the 45-year history of Fun Fest, I think of children’s giggles–those same children who now have children of their own. I think of seniors who were once young parents, now revisiting those memories with their grandchildren. I think of neighbors gathering for a great annual reunion, catching up, asking how we all turned out, and celebrating our successes, many of which have taken us far from Kingsport. And I think of the many new faces along the way who’ve joined our community and joined in on the fun.

And the new faces tell us how rare this is–this Kingsport Spirit.

It’s something they’ve yearned for, something they wanted for their kids. And it’s something that, sadly, we take for granted because it’s always been so familiar to us.

So, as we gather this year, let’s not take it for granted. Sit for a spell with your neighbors. Strike up a conversation with a stranger. Hug necks.

In a world where people have never been more connected by social media and technology, yet have never felt more isolated and depressed, we need Fun Fest now more than ever.