This time next week it will be next year. I’m looking at my calendar wondering where all the pages went. 2017 was the year I was going to lose twenty pounds and I still have thirty to go. If history holds true, soon this, too, will be part of the 'Good Old Days.' What follows is part of mine and I think worth repeating.
Mom used to say when you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. Instead of arguing over who’s holding the map, who’s steering and who called shotgun, perhaps we should keep our eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel.
Let's promise one another to work to assure our elected officials maintain their focus on the "Big Picture" while devoting attention to the finer details as well. In recent weeks, we’ve chosen the women and men who are our City Council and Mayor and they're working hard to define their vision of Norwich and refine the ways to achieve it.
It's not easy being an elected official anywhere in these United States and I've often thought sometimes, it's a little more challenging than it needs to be around here. As I’ve noted incessantly, I’m not from here, but I live here now, and I don't understand why sometimes it seems, we expect the worst.
Perhaps we’ve adopted a pessimistic mindset because that way we can only be surprised and never disappointed. We strike me as somehow being related to Eeyore, Winnie the Pooh's homefry, of sorts, who elevates pessimism to Olympian heights. But waiting for the other shoe to drop means it's much harder to dance in celebration, and perhaps 2018 is the year we dust off our dancing shoes.
Our City Council has some big shoes to fill not just of their immediate predecessors, but of all those who’ve sat at those desks in Council chambers and made decisions, large and small through the years that have in sum created the city counting the days to 2018.
Just as no single drop of rain is responsible by itself for the flood which follows, change is always incremental. And we should look back at where we were as our city leaders keep looking ahead.
Defining and making progress is never easy but despite the dogs' barking, the caravan has started moving. Small steps are how we start on long journeys and great adventures.
Some of us will argue into the new year, and beyond, on the merits and impact of every City Council action, but we it’s (past) time we learn to own the consequences of our decisions. Maybe, just maybe, we'll realize the only way we can get to where we want to go is by going there together. We have a new year to learn.
This much I know: it's never eaten as hot as it's served and that’s as true for where you live as it is for where I live. Grab a napkin and tuck in.
-bill kenny
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