Our moms went to school together-where else would we have learned except from them, "you have two ears and two eyes but only one mouth, so use them accordingly" (I always thought my mom was saying 'accordion' and took lessons for years; glad it worked out better for Weird Al).
Now when I get wound up, and I've been told by many I have a tendency to so do), I hit the bricks and go for a walk. All the snow for all these months really cramped my education so the changing of the seasons (finally) gave me a chance to get smart and get in some steps.
One of the nice thing about Norwich is I have no fear of getting lost because everyone tells me where to go (I'm rarely dressed for it, though). That was the case mid-morning on Easter Sunday. I set off while the sky was a beautiful blue canopy before the "breezes" started stacking up the clouds atop one another and turned the day darker and cooler than many of us might have liked.
I always choose to walk down Broadway, because, let's face it at my age that's as close as I'm gonna get and smiled as the sidewalk somewhere on Broad Street had been modified to accommodate a large tree root growing under it so that all parties, bi-pedal and arboreal, got what they needed.
I'm thinking we could do with a little more of that philosophy around here, be it Norwich, or across the country. Happiness, success or whatever you want to use as your measurement (I'm partial to pony rides, but that could just be me), is not a rationed commodity with only a certain amount available and only for a specified and limited time.
When (not if) you succeed, your success in no way diminishes me, or my opportunity to do just as well or better. And when two of us succeed, we create and expand an environment of excellence for everyone else who chooses to invest their time and talent into making where we already live even better.
Sometimes, most especially in the Rose of New England, I'm afraid we forget that-at least it seems like it. For every person, be it a resident or a business, who's willing to take a flier on Norwich, there are five (or more) who make sure they keep their hands in their pockets so they can have an excuse masquerading as a reason for why they can't help, when what they really want is a rationalization for why they won't help.
Like the crocuses springing up, often unplanned but always welcomed, on lawns I passed along the way, entrepreneurs maybe with more eagerness than expertise are finding and making their way, adding commerce and convenience to their new neighborhoods, which are ours as well which means when they succeed, so, too, do we. For a town that's so proud of its harbor, why is it so hard so often to see we're all in the same boat?
-bill kenny
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