If you listened very closely, a collective sigh could be heard across town this week…summer’s here. The storms of winter, endless snow and power outages are in the past, at least for the time being.
The many high school graduations taking place all over town are a true sign that summer is here. Greenwich High School graduation was this week. Congratulations to all the seniors who are about to embark on new adventures! We are reminded of the oft-repeated quote from Mark Twain: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So… throw of the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
To all 2018 graduating seniors from our town’s many excellent high schools, enjoy this time and this summer. Enjoy and celebrate your many accomplishments and remember not to lose sight of what lies ahead. Whether it’s more education, a job, or even uncertainty, what lies ahead is an adventure and worth running towards, even while it may seem scary.
Summer for many of us means shorts, flip-flops, escaping the office early on Friday, time on the water or in the woods, and generally turning the hectic meter down a notch or two. The hotter it gets, the slower we get. There is so much to enjoy in our town from the back-country to the shore and everything in between. If friend has a boat and wants you to go out, go for it! Sneak out early on a Friday and enjoy a walk or swim at Greenwich Point! Take some time to enjoy all that our town has to offer.
One thing we hope this summer does not bring is a temperature increase in our town’s political climate. The fall will be here soon enough and with it, election day. Let’s not spend time between now and then playing political “gotcha.” There will be some primaries for both the Democrats and Republicans in early August, and candidates in those primaries may throw lots of mud at each other to gain traction over their opponents. Let’s not let that hyperbole trickle down.
This summer, we hope there will be more focus on community. It could be our community as a whole or even our family as a community. For much of the year, distractions abound that take us away from our community or spending quality time with our families. We hope everyone will take the extra step to reverse that, at least for the summer.
Let us all make the conscious decision to put aside that which divides us and try to focus on that which brings us together. There are warm beach days ahead and lazy, hazy days of August. Let’s find time celebrate all that our community has to offer, all the diversity that makes Greenwich such a wonderful place to live.
“Summer’s here, I’m for that. Got my rubber sandals, got my straw hat.”
James Taylor
