Get busy...the thoughts been thunk

“There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don’t know.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

Imagine everything.

I imagine you broke a sweat. It’s a big job.

So big the easier softer way is to just gather a few peers and reinvent the wheel. The arduous process of asking questions and seeing what’s already been done is at the same time humbling and tedious.

Yet the reality is we live in a time of accumulated knowledge. Experience compounds and insight is the effect of all the investigations, wonder and “aha!” moments along the way to…now.

The practical effect of looking to elders or already thunk thoughts is similar to asking the person who knows the neighborhood for directions. They’ve been there awhile, are familiar with the neighborhood and most likely have insights that we may miss or take lots of time discovering, if discovering at all.

This may be a reason why so many meetings are deemed so wasteful by so many. Rather than building on generational insight, experience and knowledge – we begin anew every time. Part ego puff coupled with a lack of collective homage to those who blazed the path to our comfort we tend to pass by the shelves littered with reports and studies that hold the answers to present challenges.

Why?

Who wants to “do” when it’s easier to “tell”. Coming up with the idea is infinitely easier than actually doing the idea. Yet there is always one who bucks the trend and embarks down that lonely path of action. In this case his name is Jim Pfiffer. He listened and reported on the ideas for years as a journalist. When he retired his commitment to the greater Elmira area moved him to find a vehicle for his energies.

Then, as if by magic, he took a report off the shelf (as opposed to convening another meeting) and made it so. Yup, that’s it up above.

That was in 2008. Eight years later Friends of the Chemung River Watershed is the best example of what can be done by citizens when they…don’t have another meeting, but begin doing.

Wherever you find yourself, take comfort in the likely possibility that many have shared the same quandary before. Look for what they thought and maybe what they almost did. Then pick up from there. Often the next step was laid out and all that’s needed to be done is the doing.

We might not even need a meeting to for that!

---