One foot, so many dances

ONE FOOTPRINT, SO MANY DANCES

Walking on the beach at Morro Bay I noticed a foot print in the sand. The foot print was similar to prints I had seen on the trails in Big Bend, Texas, on the sands of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and many places we have traveled over the last three months. That footprint, while it is basically the same, plays out so differently depending on the conditions and places where it was made. The diversity of the outcomes is wide ranging from the toil of every day work and responsibilities to the joy of local festivals.

Whether the prints are made by David Brezina as he builds his life and his future on his Iowa farm, or Nat Geraths as he manages the health care options for veterans in the Chicago VA hospital, or Minnie Smith as she bakes her pies in her Asheville, NC restaurant - the prints reflect a purposeful and positive stride from which we all benefit. Their work, like so many of our neighbors, make it possible for our people to move ahead. The foot prints of those at work create the backbone of our culture.

Those same foot prints could be seen in the entrails of the pumpkins that the people from the village of Cooperstown NY made as they came together to celebrate Fall with the annual Pumpkin Regatta. The kids in the mariachi band performing in Tucson to celebrate children's literature made smaller versions of the prints. The surfers we've seen all along the California Coast create more of the foot prints in the sand. These prints of joy add cultural fiber to the backbone to make a more complete culture.

We are able to celebrate because we can dance so differently.

ONE FOOTPRINT, SO MANY DANCES.