Yes, Virginia, there is a thought process.

Ah, ye of little faith. As we are prone as humans to do, some of us are dissatisfied with the efforts of others. Tag lines have been bounced about and not everyone is pleased. To that I say, fear not.
Rest assured that there is a positioning statement, marketing strategy and that we have identified target [...]

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please and thank you

If you go to this web site, www.LetsSayThanks.com, you can pick out a thank-you card. Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. You can’t choose who gets it, but it will go to a deployed member of our armed services.
Please send a [...]

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tao

From the Tao Te Ching, Verse 22:
No-thing remains itself. Each prepares the path to its opposite.
To be ready for wholeness, first be fragmented.
To be ready for rightness, first be wronged.
To be ready for fullness, first be empty.
To be ready for renewal, first be worn out.
To be ready for success, first fall.
To be ready for doubt, [...]

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FYI

Much has been said over the years, especially during campaign season, about the City of Amsterdam’s Comprehensive Plan of 2003. Many of us participated in the community forums to voice our concerns. More importantly, we wanted to help shape a vision for the future of our community that was in keeping with what was (and [...]

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Poem

The Story of My Life
by Jennifer Michael Hecht
Each day goes down in history, wets its feet,
bathes in the clear or murky stream, drinks deep,
comes out to join past days on the other bank.
We go in with the bathing day, every morning,
brace the shiver on our skin, taste the slaking
of thirst, find footing on mossy rock. [...]

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Fore! Four!

I am not angry. I am not sad. I am not insulted. I am a bit incredulous. I did sleep well last night and enjoyed my day at work.
But I must admit that I am disappointed with a result of last night’s Common Council meeting.
Four out of five aldermen elected to award a “new” Golf [...]

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downtown revisited

Petula Clark never had it so good.
Well, when I think back to the lyrics of her song “Downtown”, she did.
“The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go DOWNTOWN, things’ll be great when you’re
DOWNTOWN – no finer place, for sure
DOWNTOWN – everything’s waiting for you!”
I’ll be humming that [...]

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a musing

The view from my position as a new mayor is frequently odd. Many, many times when greeted by friends or strangers, they gently touch my upper arm in a gesture of sympathy and ask “how are you doing?” in such a way that one watching might suspect I had just lost a loved one or [...]

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Veteran’s Day speechifying

Veteran’s Day Remembrance Ceremony 11.11.2008
WWI Veteran’s Park, Amsterdam, NY
I am always humbled and moved by the men and women that have chosen to give so freely and completely of their lives to serve this country we all love. They give of their talents, their intellect, their bodies and souls to defend our freedoms and to [...]

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11.09.08 broken hip

The wall
that is reality
I so willingly avoid
day-to-day for years on end
is not dulled
when life goes
slapping up against it
at the most normal of moments
maybe
standing in line at the mall
ordering a hot pretzel
when the call comes.
Mom’s fallen.
She is lying on her side
strangling on her words
in pain and the space
that is the mall
closes in to my breath
in and [...]

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Maybe my favorite poem ever.

Starfish
This is what life does. It lets you walk up to
the store to buy breakfast and the paper, on a
stiff knee. It lets you choose the way you have
your eggs, your coffee. Then it sits a fisherman
down beside you at the counter who says, Last night,
the channel was full of starfish. And you wonder,
is this [...]

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In response to the thoughts of others: WEM

I read with interest an editorial in the Schenectady Gazette regarding the Walter Elwood Museum and it’s possible relocation. I divert in thought from ideas expressed by the author in a few ways.
I agree that all challenges come with mixed blessings and that this may be an opportunity for the museum to reassess its collections [...]

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In with the “in” crowd

Hello all.
I am diving into the world of shared thought. I’ve found myself logging in every day to the cacophonous voices of others in my community and feel compelled to blather a bit myself.
So hear I am and will be. I’ll chime in when prodded by pundits, puritans or pirates.
I look forward to this.

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