When friends have recently retired, or made radical shifts in how they spend their days, I have been detecting tinges of regret mixed with excitement about what lies ahead.
Some may quietly be fretting about things they wanted to accomplish but didn’t. At least not yet.
I get it. It’s like the old maxim: It’s not so much what you did in your life that you regret, but what you didn’t do.
I’ve been a witness to how much these amigos have accomplished over the span of our friendships. They will undoubtedly do more. I encourage them to remember their accomplishments, yet not look too much in the rearview mirror. That’s why the windshield is bigger — to focus on what’s ahead.
It reminds me of a story about American songwriter/composer Jimmy Webb.
If his name isn’t familiar, “MacArthur Park” might be. The Webb-authored song was warbled famously by Irish actor/singer Richard Harris on the 1968 album “A Tramp Shining.” When the album was released, a commentator said if Webb did nothing else in his life, he had accomplished a great thing by writing “MacArthur Park.”
Webb has done plenty more in a long music career. But the comment has stuck with me. It’s a good reminder to appreciate what we have done.
In the Finger Lakes I am always struck by the tenacity of residents trying to protect the environment and engage in other noble efforts to make life better for everyone. Many of these folks have been in the activist trenches for decades.
In recent weeks, a delegation of Finger Lakes residents, business owners and elected officials went to Albany to join state legislators and representatives of other organizations to lobby for the closure of the Seneca Meadows, Inc. landfill. For most on this road trip, it was not their first rodeo.
A driving force behind the foray was the Seneca Lake Guardian organization, spearheaded by Yvonne Taylor and Joseph Campbell. I first met these two hi-octane activists when Texas-based Crestwood Midstream’s proposal to store liquid propane gas loomed threateningly out of the political mist. They formed Gas Free Seneca to oppose it.
After that noxious proposal was terminated, they could have hung up their activist spurs, but they didn’t. Nor did many of the other Finger Lakes people involved in the stop-LPG-storage efforts, even those who risked going to jail for taking part in demonstrations organized by We Are Seneca Lake.
For those still actively fighting for the environment, clean water and air, good for you. For those who feel like they have done their bit and are no longer on the front lines, kudos for all your good work, too. You can take satisfaction from your accomplishments.
My Jimmy Webb-like moment came as a beginning newspaper reporter in Petaluma, California. I got wind of a hush-hush proposal to redevelop the city downtown by essentially flattening the historic area. A mall-like array of buildings and a large parking garage were envisioned.
I wrote numerous stories detailing the city’s likely use of the power of eminent domain to force reluctant property owners to sell to make way for demolition. I was reviled by redevelopment-by-bulldozer advocates for what I wrote and excoriated in public meetings. But in the end, the plan was scrapped by the city council in favor of a historic redevelopment to rehab buildings to retain the downtown’s historic milieu.
Today it’s a tourist Mecca, drawing many thousands of people annually who have no hint what was nearly destroyed and lost.
Makes me want to hum “MacArthur Park” just thinking about it. And maybe that’s enough to remember.
Fitzgerald has worked at six newspapers as a writer and editor as well as a correspondent for two news services. He splits his time between Valois, NY and the Pacific Northwest. You can email him at Michael.Fitzgeraldfltcolumnist@gmail.com and visit his websites at michaeljfitzgerald.blogspot.com and michaeljfitzgerald.substack.com.
WRITE ON: Life lessons via ‘MacArthur Park’
13
9
09.02.2024
When friends have recently retired, or made radical shifts in how they spend their days, I have been detecting tinges of regret mixed with excitement about what lies ahead.
Some may quietly be fretting about things they wanted to accomplish but didn’t. At least not yet.
I get it. It’s like the old maxim: It’s not so much what you did in your life that you regret, but what you didn’t do.
I’ve been a witness to how much these amigos have accomplished over the span of our friendships. They will undoubtedly do more. I encourage them to remember their accomplishments, yet not look too much in the rearview mirror. That’s why the windshield is bigger — to focus on what’s ahead.
It reminds me of a story about American songwriter/composer Jimmy Webb.
If his name isn’t familiar, “MacArthur Park” might be. The Webb-authored song was warbled famously by Irish actor/singer Richard Harris on the 1968 album “A Tramp Shining.” When the album was released, a........
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