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Show &nC byTcriGo,,,es If s an uneasy season in P.C There's a big, fat red-breasted robin sitting on the roof of the house next door as I sit down to write. The damn bird is singing its fool head off at this early morning hour, and I suspect it is laughing at the sight of this spectacled, bathrobed, tea-drinking writer. The bird is already out there enjoying the day, the first sunny, really spring-like day we have had a chance to enjoy this year. The little birdie should inspire me, but you know, it makes me edgy for some strange reason. It's a feeling I can't quite explain, but as I've discovered in the past week, it seems to be contagious. May is like that, a restless sort of month. Teachers, parents and students, all in their own various ways, are anticipating the end of the school year, now just days away. For teachers and students, the end of the school year marks the start of three months of freedom from routine. For parents, it marks the beginning of the I'm-bored-and-there's-nothing-to-do season, which is the phrase they will hear most often from the mouths of those now-free students for the next three months. This year, May has been a month of evaluations. More than just an academic look at "How well did we do this winter? " all over town people are seriously evaluating their peers. Teachers are evaluating principals, city employees are evaluating their supervisors and businesspersons are being evaluated by their superiors from Park Meadows to Deer Valley. There is simply no denying it has been a difficult winter. In this column I have already commented at length on the demise of many longstanding relationships. In addition, a simple gaze down Main Street tells its own tale. Every year businesses close down in May to catch their breath after a long winter. Usually, though, they plan to reopen in June. This spring we've seen longstanding businesses shut down for good. Ryan's and Miner's Delight have announced their own demise. For others we'll have to wait and see if their doors reopen as the summer season starts up. Real estate folks know what it means to feel uneasy, unsettled, restless. For months now they have been waiting to see just what will happen to what was their very lucrative second-home market. Proposed tax changes have already effected a sluggish .market. The Deer Valley Inn, a $67 million project being shelved for a least a year, has set the tone for new growth; Not a lot is expected to break ground this summer. There is no denying this is a difficult time for a great many people. But, without trying to sound either maudlin or Pollyanaish, I'm convinced this can be an important, positive time for the town. To grow, on anything but a superfical level, involves adversity and strife. This town, like a lot of people in it, had been riding on an unrealistic high that was based on some pretty shallow theories. The constantly escalating real estate prices had to level off or kill off the town sooner or later. Most realtors will tell you (if they're honest) that personally this is pretty rough right now, but overall it is just what was needed. This summer, construction will start on the long-anticipated long-anticipated Town Lift. And none too soon. Merchants and innkeepers would do well to work together to plan how bp-t to include promotions that focus on that new attraction r.i the Old Town area . As for those evaluations, after a recent one a woman explained that the evaluations she found the most unsatisfying were those that concluded, "No need for improvement. " She said eloquently, "Look, I know there are lots of areas where I need to improve. If I don't get the feedback I need, it's that much harder for me to know how I can improve. It's the indifference that hurts, not the constructive criticism." And it struck a vein with me that of all the charges you can level at Parkites, indifference is rarely one of them. Some people will, of course, choose to leave town this summer. Some will give up on their relationships and some will move on to other jobs. But I'd be willing to bet the uneasy spring will force most people to discover new resources within themselves and new directions and challenges for growth. We live a town that can provide those opportunities for risk and growth well, and I for one can't imagine a better place to be. , Park City is much more like a big family than a small town. If we can remind ourselves we're all here to learn, maybe it will help us be supportive of those "family members" who need us most during this uneasy time of year. After all, it was Helen Keller who said, "Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing." You don't suppose that damn robin was singing the same song, do you? |