Shifting Focus to a new Peninsula Narrative
Now is the time to be proactively a different kind of a place
The morning is my favorite time to write, when the mind is fresh and in the mediative hours before having breakfast but yesterday, I was interrupted in process by other things that had to be done and that threw me off into a rare state of hopelessness and despair. Those were the words of nurse technicians’ question when I went to see the doctor the other day. I had noticed that the left side of my left foot was swollen, and so the question they ask is have you been feeling “depression, hopelessness, and despair?”
After tests to rule every possibility out, all was well and I must resolve the swollen foot on my own. In the last year I have been dealing with roaming issues of stiffness in my legs and at one point my feet became swollen but that went away on its own. Lately I have been taking Turmeric and Citrical to great effect so while the stiffness is not totally gone it does not interfere with walking most of the time, and it is getting better all the time.
A few days before my sister died we were dealing with a difficult financial situation. The day started out rainy and ended up sunny. Elise went out in the morning and returned to say that about eight really good things had happened heralding the return of the light. When Elise made such an introduction, I expected to hear about specific applied solutions but instead she told of people opening the door for her and smiling. We joked about it as we were driving downtown and as we were speaking the literal light was returning. When we left the house, it was a rainy day and when we got downtown it was a sunny day. Thank You everyone that smiled at my sister that day. It’s true that a smile and other seemingly small acts of kindness make a difference. It tells the other that they have a value in the way that only the inhabitants of the community can do. By the end of the day real solutions had emerged and the return of the light felt real.
Today I wake up to a new baby penguin order, and that makes for a bright start. Yesterday I looked at the job opening ad for Penguin Publishing and realized that those small letters in red said that they are no longer taking applications but the Penguin is still the messenger. Martin Buber, one of my favorite philosophers, said that God speaks to us through the events that are presented to us in life. It’s a handy concept. The message from the world is to approach Penguin Publishing through its Partnership program. The Penguin Publishing Companys’ partnership page says
“We’re always looking for creative and innovative ways to collaborate with new partners. Read on for a few of the ways we can help your brand tell its story. And to learn more about our commitment to being a cultural institution that serves society, read about our social responsibility efforts.
The other networks that I have developed through this newsletter work well within the message on Penguins site.
I must create a new partnership doorway- It will take some thought and preparation but If I get it right, I can use it as a model for approaching other companies.
Today I am offering 20% discount on the Baby Penguin using coupon code 5QNNIEKY6AKL
In today’s world corporations have become forms of government and government functions as a corporation so it makes sense to seek out corporate partnerships. Andersen Design is an S corporation. Its charter says it can have up to fifteen shareholders but my Dad was always the only one, which meant no reason to prioritize profits over everything else and yet throughout our history we were often portrayed by non-profits as being “only in it for the money” simply because we were a free enterprise and not a non-profit, as if a non-profit is exempt from being in it “only for the money” Today with non-profits having for-profit subsidiaries, it’s just a way of doing business for many, but at the same time each corporation is unique. I should know that since Andersen Design has been pigeonholed so many times for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with us, just someone else’s generalized idea about such and such and so and so. Companies should be measured individualistically. One cannot know if what is presented to the world as “branding” is the real thing until one digs a little deeper. In order to approach Penguin Publishing I need to take some time to study their website and other resources. In the meantime, I still need to raise immediate funds to deal with immediate recurring expenses.
Purchase a Sleeping Sandpiper HERE
This newsletter is called the Individual vs the Empire and the Andersen Design brand has always been about individualism. I watched customers come into our show room and line up all the baby seals to select which baby seal’s eyes spoke to them!
There a cultural war taking place on the Boothbay Peninsula. That much is clear by now. It’s out in the open, no longer hidden. When I first encountered it when I approached the Joint Economic Development Council of Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor and tried to engage the chairman Wendy Wolf in my Museum Concept and was told “to get help from my own peer group”, as she spent my tax payer dollars to pay for advertising for downtown Boothbay Harbor, I did not realize the extent of it. I got the message that Andersen Design was on the ”Do nor retain list” in the eyes of the Wolf, but I did not place that in its full context, that it is the entire historical community that is targeted for “repealing and replacing”. The long-drawn-out war between the Doyles and the Eastside Waterfront Park, in which Ms. Wolf also played a key role in stopping the Park in its tracks has brought the intentions into full focus.
Up until now the narrative vision has been dominated by the Cabal’s plan, as if that is the only possible way that this peninsula can be developed. I have been calling that vision the one in which the Boothbay Peninsula becomes a corporate subsidiary of the State-the very opposite of a home rule town. The way in which the school charter has been handled is consistent with that view.
To use a rural peninsula for such a purpose is typical of the way self-styled urban-designer Paul Coulombe thinks. His approach to infrastructure design is fundamentally dysfunctional. The absurdity of arguing that a four-way stop off to the side of the main thruway is so dangerous that it needs to be moved into the middle of the main thruway and made into a yield is mind boggling- and Wendy Wolf defended it all the way. How did it come to be that a community was sold on this irrational idea?
Equally wrongheaded is that a beautiful peninsula, once a middle-lass vacationland should be transformed into a totalitarian corporation. We need to start narrating an alternate more natural and sensible vision for the peninsula to be upheld as an alternative. That’s where I am going with this! Join me and I will join you.
