Building a bridge to the future
IN THE CITY
By Ken Arndt
Is the glass half empty or is the glass half full? It’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it? Do we want our community to grow and change or do we want our community to stay the same?
In reality, we don’t have that choice … go look in the family photo album or in the mirror. Things in life change, whether we want them to or not.
In my opinion, the best we can do, as a community, is to understand changes that are coming and then work diligently to guide and direct growth in a manner and to places that we find acceptable. How are things going in Presque Isle or in Aroostook County? The city and the region took a big hit in 2008-09. Things have not recovered to the former times … will they? I doubt it.
I have a wonderful saying hanging in my office at City Hall, it reads in part: “An old man going a lone highway, came at the evening cold and gray to a chasm, vast and deep and wide through which was flowing a sullen tide. The old man crossed in the twilight dim; the sullen stream had no fears for him. But he turned, when safe of the other side and built a bridge to span the tide. Old Man (me) said a fellow pilgrim near, you are wasting your strength with building here. Your journey will end with the ending day, you never again will pass this way, you have crossed the chasm deep and wide … why build you a bridge at eventide?
The builder lifted his old gray head; “Good Friend, in the path I have come, he said, there followeth after me today a youth, whose feet must pass this way. This chasm that has been naught to me, to that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be. He, too, must cross in the twilight dim … Good friend, I am building this bridge for him”
Absolutely, no question … the glass is half full!
Ken Arndt is Presque Isle’s director of planning and development. He can be reached at 760-2727 or via email at karndt@presqueisleme.us.
