Like a dog on a sock

Selectman Kevin Greeley has observed “Michèle is like a dog on a sock.” He’s right. I won’t let go. Before I tell you about the two new socks I’m on like a dog, let me take you back in time. To the first time I was a dog on a sock

July 1979. The Gila Wilderness in Arizona. To a 21-day Southwest Outward Bound course. To someone her fellow teachers bet wouldn't finish. Would she survive wearing a 50-lb.+ backpack filled with clothes, gear, food and water, hiking many miles daily, sleeping in the open, rock climbing, a 3-day fasting solo, a 10-mile run, no bathtubs, no bathrooms?

Even I wondered as I landed flat on my back soon after hoisting on the backpack and before discovering my new locus of gravity. We hadn’t even started the course.

Half way through our trip, we stopped for two days of rock climbing. I did fine until I met up with the climb they called Devil’s Dingle. I saw my team members clamber up with ease or minor setbacks. Then it was my turn. I made it up halfway to the giant outcropping. Then I fell. Not once, but time and time again. For hours I stood there, hooking and unhooking myself up to the line so I wouldn’t hold up others. The instructor shouted encouragement from above. Others did the same on the ground. Sometimes I almost made it up and over. Dusk arrived. Almost everyone had gone back to camp, except for me, my belayer (is that the right term?) and an instructor. That’s when the dog met the sock.

I hooked up, I called out and step by step, handhold by handhold I found my way. I reached the outcrop. I figured out what I needed to do and hauled myself up and over it. From there, I clambered to the top in triumph.

After that, 3 days in solitude and without food? A piece of cake. And the 10-mile run to the bus? Another piece of cake.

So what’s my point? I am going to be the same way with the socks of 2008.

This year, I have heard many business owners, Chamber members and non-members alike, complain about: the kids in the Center, the trash everywhere, the cumbersome and unreasonable sign process, that no one tells them what is going on, that they are isolated.

The ARB and the planning dept. has reached out and invited comment on sign regulations; the Chamber regularly offers opportunities to affect change, or to get involved, orto get connected. Some folks do: look at what will be happening on May 17 at Broadway Plaza. Many folks do not. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. If you do nothing with your complaints except to voice them, then you increase negative energy. The first sock: how to turn dissatisfaction into action.

Many of you business owners generously give to school groups, sports groups, non-profits and churches. Many times the same people who did the asking drive by your stores on their way out of town to buy merchandise and the services you offer, so they can save money. When this happens the social contract is broken.

The second sock: Businesses that support their community deserve the support of their community. the Chamber will make an all out effort to promote: Be Local. Think Local Fist. Buy Local First.

As Kevin Greeley would tell the socks, "Look out!"