The Key

I’m not perfect. And the crowd said, “Ok Captain Obvious.” I do love learning though and I’ve learned a ton in the last month; election finance laws, marketing guidelines, citizen concerns and the list could go on and on. Besides the dotting of the i’s and crossing of the t’s, I’ve learned a lot about myself. A lot about what “The Key” to all of this is.

The key in the photo is my Spoonhower for Supervisor post office box key. That’s a first for me. I’ve never had a PO Box…I’ve never needed one. Don’t really know if I do now, but when I was working on paperwork and called the VA Board of Elections, I mentioned I was using my home address and the kind lady went a little wonky and said…”you know this is a public document, you may want to think about getting a PO Box.” So, I did. And that’s the key…but not THE key.

THE key I learned…wait for it….wait for it… is to be myself. And the crowd again said, “Ok Captain Obvious.” I started getting out to know people and hear their concerns and was doing more talking than listening. I found myself thinking too much about what I thought they wanted me to say. After just a couple days of that, I found myself restless and sleepless. During a sleepless night I asked myself…”is this the race you wanted to run?” And, let’s be clear it wasn’t even a race yet. I got disappointed in myself for getting sucked in to “politics” so quickly. Thankfully, I saw it and corrected it immediately.

The other evening after the Board of Supervisors meeting, I was grabbing a bite to eat at Chef Lee and the gentleman sitting next to me started asking me questions. At one point I found myself trying to contrive an answer and stopped myself. Instead of giving a vague non-answer, I said “ya know Dan, that’s a really good question…maybe one I should know the answer to, but I don’t. Catch me next week and I’ll know the answer.” He patted me on the shoulder (for real) and said…”Spoon, you might just do this.” You bet your bippy I might just!