“Every town is just what the citizens make it.”
The Meeker Herald, 1923
I stumbled across this comment on the bottom of a page in the archives a few weeks back. Just a couple lines of text filling a blank spot on a page has stayed with me through meetings, graduations and Memorial Day ceremonies. It echoes behind comments from newcomers about all the new things they think the town needs and what they’d like to change alongside comments from oldtimers about how nothing should ever change and new things that don’t look like old things are to be rejected outright.
Those who believe things are generally bad and scary and going to hell in a handbasket are right — for themselves. Their perception is their reality, and their experience of a place mirrors their belief. Conversely, those who believe things are generally positive and safe and good are right, too — for themselves. Their experience mirrors their beliefs, as well.
Think back to your time in school. The kids who “hated” school and everything about it generally didn’t perform very well. The only class I really despised was P.E. (this was the era of violent, bloodshed-inducing dodgeball matches, among other torturous activities). For decades I thought I hated physical activity and exercise. In truth, I hated being bullied and intimidated by bigger kids (I was one of the smallest and youngest in my class) who were used to engaging in physical battles with their siblings, an advantage I didn’t have.
If I as a student “citizen” had been able to change the school curricula based on my skewed perception, P.E. would have been abolished, to the detriment of many other student citizens who benefited from that activity, thereby making me into the intimidating, narrow-minded bully I was trying to evade.
As citizens of the adult world, it would behoove us to remember that our individual perceptions of reality are not definitive truth. They are perceptions that are slanted by our history, our education, our background and our experience. Being a citizen requires us to take the perceptions of our fellow citizens into consideration and give them the same weight and value we give our own… even when those perceptions differ. Maybe especially when our perceptions differ.
By NIKI TURNER | e[email protected]
