It’s been said before, but I’ll say it again: Thanks to everyone who helped make our Spring Clean-Up Day a success. A lot got done, we had a lot of fun, and the place looks nicer. We had volunteers as young as four, and as old as me. Everybody did their share, plus a little extra for the folks who couldn’t be there. It’s all you can ask for. Great job, guys.

I got a lot of comments. I got “Thanks”. I got “Lookin’ good”. I didn’t get “You missed a spot” (good thing). I got “I can’t believe you all are doing this”, and that one puzzled me a bit. I mean, it’s Main Street. Trying things is what we do. They won’t always work, and they won’t ever be perfect, but we never stop trying. The litter’ll come back. It always does. Some of the plants may die. It happens (Keep up the watering, people!). See? No biggie. Don’t ever let fear of failure keep you from hitting the long ball.

I’ve had a bunch of jobs. That happens when you get fired a lot. Try it, if you like. One of my cruddier jobs was in a boiler room. The kind with guys on phones, daily sales meetings, Monday hires, Friday fires, that kind of thing. Everything was charted: number of calls, percentage of turndowns, volume of sales, number of bathroom breaks. The sales manager, a wretched hump if there ever was one, would camp out at my desk if I wasn’t selling. Make me a special project. But here’s the kicker: he’d also make me a project if I wasn’t getting enough rejections. He said it was a numbers game. You have to fail a lot to succeed a little. Too much success means that you just aren’t trying hard enough. Work harder, learn better. Like I said, he was a hump. But, a good teacher.

So, this is our Main Street. It’s big; it’s strong; it can do a lot of things. Don’t be afraid to take it out for a spin. There will be times when we fall and skin our knees. We’ll do things, and they won’t always work, or maybe we won’t succeed as much as we’d like. That’s fine. We’ll do better next time, or we’ll try something different. Life is an experiment; try it!

Stop stopping things. Start starting things. Try trying things.

John Hume
Design Chair