A Mid-Summer's Simmer

We are at a strange place in this our Summer of Way Too Much Heat and Humidity.

I’m not talking about the impact the actions we, the Crown of Creation here on the Big Blue Marble, are having on climate change and the environment because we’re still a couple of years decades away from getting more than a grudging acknowledgment from many that it’s anything other than ‘all politics.’

Besides, if we can’t ’own the libs,’ we can always parboil them, right? As a meme I saw last week on social media noted, “People moaning about the weather; at least it’s not snowing. Imagine shoveling snow in this heat?!?”

No. What I’m talking about is this time a month ago we were all readying three- and four-day holidays (fingers crossed!) for Independence Day and in just about a month we’ll be doing the back-to-school shuffle with thousands of children as we prepare to mark or mourn the end of summer with Labor Day.

Things move so fast; we spend more time looking forward to moments big or small than we do enjoying them while we have them. Show of hands:  At Memorial Day, who had plans for what “we’ll be doing this summer.”? Keep ‘em up, I want to do a quick count. As I thought, just about all of us.

And now as we round the clubhouse turn into the first week of August, how many of those plans (personal, professional, vegetable, or mineral) have come to fruition? Where are those hands now? Is that the sound of crickets I’m hearing?

George Santayana once observed, "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." I’m not sure what he’d make of our headlong rush to embrace whatever is new and next without ever wondering if it’s a good fit for our families, our neighborhoods, or our city.

Maybe it’s the high temperatures or the times in which we live, but we’re very quick to judge others’ perceived mistakes while always justifying our own. We want the world, and we want it now, but we never take or make the time to thoughtfully consider all the efforts being made by various agencies and departments across the city to make where we live a better place for all of us to come home to.

Instead of applauding those efforts and initiatives and offering to roll up a sleeve and lend a hand, we point out missteps and shortcomings as if someone was giving prizes to whoever finds the most (Present company very much included).

We can only aspire to get better, by whatever unit of measurement you choose to define it, when we all succeed. The critical skills I believe needed to succeed, communication, cooperation, and collaboration are sometimes hard to find because we’re not good at practicing them. Instead, I see a lot of ‘for me to look good, someone else needs to look bad.’ How about you?        

Those skills aren’t just for use with big projects, like economic development-well, yes, they are but also for smaller steps. Maybe not one of us can persuade Dunder-Mifflin to relocate to the Business Park, but each of us can patronize the businesses we already have across the city and maybe, start making the street where we live a better, nicer, cleaner, and saner place than it was before the summer started.

It’s worth a try.
-bill kenny