I hope you had a great New Year's.
It still seems a little weird without Dick Clark, right?
Regardless, a new year means new chances and new challenges.
Let's leave the debate of The Commander in Tweet to another time. Rather, let's work backward, then forward.
Let's embrace what we can control and what that control can lead to.
Jay GreesonFor starters, let me say I loved what columnist David Cook had to say about our collective mission as a city in Sunday's Times Free Press.
Despite having a lot of differing opinions on a lot of topics, David and I are good friends.
That may shock you, and that gives us both a good chuckle.
That's how it should be.
Think of the world in which people can agree to disagree. A place in which each idea is listened to.
But enough of that. One of the best suggestions I ever heard for this gig is try to never be part of the story.
Heck, think how much better all of us would be if all folks in the media did better jobs of telling and reporting the story than becoming the story? That includes me.
That gets us back to us. Back to what is in front of us heading into a new year. Back to a potential direction that we all could benefit from.
David mentioned Sunday that we collectively - especially those in leadership - should aim to be less "cool" in 2018; his argument was well thought-out.
Let's focus on the other two words that frequently are associated with "cool," and let's hope for more of each in the coming year.
If we as a city can see the benefits of being less cool, then we as a people should embrace the chance to be more calm and individually be more collective.
The connection between the two could be much tighter than we may know.
Think if we embraced calm rather than outrage. If we embraced debate rather than diatribe. Yes, it's going to have to start somewhere - and all of us could be better at this.
But is there a better time than early January to set new goals, even if they may seem difficult or even unreachable? (Come on, you and I both know that in a few short weeks we're going right back to regular and not ideal eating habits. And that's OK, too. Stay calm.)
As customers, our collective calm will change the narrative.
As for proof of that, well, it's impossible to know the future - other than not staying on six days of salads weekly for that much longer - but we know the past.
And the past of faux outrage and finger pointing that are not extended with solutions or ideas but fueled with "What about them" and "Look at what they did" has led us to a place of great divide and impasse.
If that calm can take hold, then think how much better our collective view will be.
Together we are powerful, locally, regionally and nationally.
But that collective feels like we are taking steps backward, too. Be it another round of faux outrage about pronouns that takes away from the real issues of community or not, it's time to embrace a mission of community.
Calm and collectively we can make 2018 amazing.
And that would be way more cool.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343.