Today is my 71st birthday. As is traditional, I celebrate my Natal Anniversary by wishing for a pony ride. And sadly, also part of that same tradition, the wish is never granted and I spend the day wearing chaps, astride a saddle.
This is the 31st birthday I've celebrated as a thorn in The Rose of New England. I mention that because a well-meaning acquaintance gifted me with a word-a-day calendar, which, considering the year is nearly four full months old already, I would hope they got at a substantial discount, which not so coincidentally would be ideal for them as they are both very parsimonious and frugal (each of which is a separate entry on my calendar).
In what seems to be more coincidental than calculated, today's word is actually a compound word, cognitive dissonance, meaning 'the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.' Perhaps, only on my calendar page, there's an illustration accompanying the definition and it seems to be a photo of Norwich, Connecticut.
I shouldn't be surprised really; I've lived here for three-plus decades.
How often have you known someone, a Norwich neighbor or family member perhaps, who complained about the absence of businesses in our downtown and then, after a business (Mattern Corporation in this case) bought the decrepit and long-abandoned former YMCA building to renovate and convert into their corporate headquarters, complained about the purchase? While also asking simultaneously loudly and plaintively, 'Why can't Norwich be more like Mystic?" Even though at one time, (or so I’ve been told) even Mystic wasn't like Mystic. Cognitive Dissonance.
How many of us who live nowhere near Occum still cannot understand why the people who do live there are so unhappy with the efforts to create and develop a second business park despite the mixed record of success for the first and so far only one? When I want to preserve my neighborhood, I'm a traditionalist but when someone else does the same thing, they're selfish. Yeah. What's mine is mine but what's yours is negotiable. Cognitive Dissonance.
Is it okay to utter the R-word aloud again? In this case, the R-word is Rotary; specifically, the wildly unpopular now-off-the-table proposal by the Connecticut State Highway Department to place six rotaries on Route 82 a thoroughfare that many of us insist 'traffic is so awful we have to do something!' Well, up until the moment someone attempted to, and then not so much. Meanwhile, we continue to call it Crash Alley and to complain. Cognitive Dissonance.
Not that the 'other rotary,' the Franklin Square Rotary (that visual image is quite challenging or is it just me?) hasn't been without its detractors. So many who insist there's nothing to do or see in our downtown are still very annoyed about all the parking spaces the Franklin Square Rotary took away, even though it didn't do that, and besides, the same folks complaining weren't going into downtown in the first place. Cognitive Dissonance.
Just for today: try to imagine what Norwich could become if half of us didn't spend our talent, time, and energy trying to convince the other half our efforts to improve our city are in vain. Cognitive Dissonance.
Now who wants a slice of birthday cake? And where did that horse come from?
-bill kenny
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