Sliver of Patience
Weekly Update 4/30/2023 to 5/6/2023 #171
In a world of instant gratification, remembering a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote from 1883 might be wise. Before I finish that thought, let me share some of my week serving as mayor of the best smalltown in America.
This week, we had our opening meeting with the State Board of Accounts as they began our annual audit. Each of the last three years, we have learned a little and found ways to improve our processes going forward. I would suspect when we attend our exit meeting for this audit we will have picked up more new ways to improve as well. While I am sure many places don’t appreciate audits, I do appreciate that we receive enough federal funds to require ours annually.
This week, I attended a roundtable meeting with Accelerate Indiana Municipalities. The conversations ranged from possible funding sources to an update on all the upcoming changes following the recently completed legislative session in Indianapolis. One of my favorite parts, however, is towards the end when other communities get to share what they have going on because it seems to be where the follow-up conversations start. Conversations that lead to new programs like the therapy dogs visiting our first responders recently shared in The Tribune. Thank you, AIM, for the chance to grow and learn from around the state.
This week, I had a chance to join leaders from across the county to learn about the Stride Center in Columbus. The center offers help for those in crisis and another option for our law enforcement and Schneck. I look forward to seeing how their services can help us going forward and we can see if this alternative path is useful for those who have not committed a crime but may not be in a situation where they need to be held for medical services. I shared that we will all need to have some trial and error to see what works and what doesn’t to serve our communities best.
We live in a world of instant gratification where we have access to information at our fingertips and don’t remember how to be patient. I had a day this week where I received almost 200 text messages. It seems to be simple enough to send a simple response but throw on top of those texts the tags on social media, messenger messages, and phone calls, and it gets tough to keep track of. Just yesterday I was still finding things that I hadn’t seen from four days before. Now don’t think I am complaining because that is not the case at all. I appreciate everyone that reached out, but I always fear something may fall through the cracks by accident. Something important that doesn’t get answered because it was during a moment like this where I was swarmed with correspondence and someone may not exercise patience while they wait for a response. In 1883 Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.” At that time you didn’t have all the technology to keep in touch with one another. Writing a letter would have been the main option for those miles apart and the telephone was just starting to become more popular. I have no desire to revert back to those days, but I think it may be better for us all to have even a sliver of the patience that people had back then. Not having instant access to anything and everything could help us remember to appreciate what we do have and not take so much for granted. I hope you can take some time today to be still and enjoy the world around you and spend some time with your family and friends.