Busy. (July 2022 Chair's Column)

Busy.

It seems that everyone I know likes Summer the best. It’s their favorite season – the long warm days, trips to the beach or lake, no school (when we were that age) or vacation time (when we are our age). My favorite season is Fall, but I’ll give a little more background to the reasons in my October column…

The one thing that I have always enjoyed about summer is the feeling that things seem to slow down a bit. Maybe it’s the heat, or the rhythm I enjoyed when I was younger of being on “summer vacation.” I’ve watched my teenaged kids live with the easy pace of this summer with quite a bit of envy, but I hope that they can enjoy it while they can. The fact of the matter is that summer is not any less busy than any other time of the year, really. It all depends on the circumstances. 

For example, this summer my family decided to get a new puppy. Her name is Josie – that’s her photo at the top of the column – and she’s awesome. We’ve always had dogs, and Josie joins Penny and Cleo, our senior dogs. “It’s a great time to get a puppy – the kids are home for the summer, and we’ll have more time to take care of her,” my wife said. “Daddy – it’ll be great for Penny, and I’ll watch her all of the time” were the famous last words of my daughter. I lost the vote 3 to 1 – my son sided with the girls – because Penny and Cleo didn’t have a vote, which I thought was unfair. So, we got Josie – and she’s awesome – but I’m exhausted. Summer didn’t slow anything down, not with Josie around.

It's kind of like all of my economic development colleagues. Any time I talk to any of you and ask how you’re doing, it seems as though you’re always busy. I feel the same way – there’s always more to do. And it doesn’t matter if the busyness is due to industrial projects, or workforce development, or community planning, or networking and politicking – there’s always more for us to do. The funny thing is, we all know about the busyness, but we do the job anyway. We see the value in the busyness, and we have faith that in the long term, things are going to be better because of the busyness. It’s the same with Josie – all of this work, the lack of sleep, the cleaning and the biting and the howling – it’ll all be worth it, because dogs are the best. (Sorry, cat people – I like cats, too, but dogs are just better, if you can get past the smelliness and such.)

So, I know that when I finish this column and go to sleep, my alarm will go off at 4 AM to take Josie outside for her early morning relief. And I know that when I get to my office, I’ll have phone calls and meetings and fires to put out before I have a chance to get to anything that I’d hoped to complete, and that more will be coming. Because I have the same belief that you all do – that one day, when the busyness subsides, we’ll look around and see the good that’s come of it. When that day comes, I’ll rub Josie on the head, tell her “good girl,” and get ready for the busyness to come.

I hope you all enjoy your summertime, wherever it takes you. See you soon.