Where else but here? Where else but here on Main Street USA? Isn't this
where Mr and Mrs Everymanwoman and their family live their
lives? Isn't this where Mr Everyman and Ms Everywoman conduct their
business? This is where it belongs. Where else?
It's this very thought which occurs to me on a bright summer day as I'm
walking down Main Street in
Napa,
my home town in northern California's gorgeous
wine
country:
if
transformation
belongs anywhere, then it belongs right here, right here on Main Street
USA.
Listen: I say Main Street USA because as an American
citizen, I've become encultured to say it. It's an
expression in this neck of the woods. It's a metonym, a
figure of speech embedded in our lexicography. But when I say Main
Street USA, it's really a good euphemism for Main Street
anywhere. And it's Main Street anywhere where Mr and Mrs
Everymanwoman and their family live their lives. It's Main Street
anywhere where Mr Everyman and Ms Everywoman conduct their business.
It's anywhere in the USA. It's anywhere in
the world.
It's anywhere there are people living their lives and conducting their
business on the
face
of our Earth. That's what I mean by Main Street.
I like what living Life and conducting business on Main Street
connotes. During the height of the recent financial crisis, Main Street
gained momentum as an expression which connotes where the
ordinary living of Life and the ordinary conducting of
business, happens - as distinct from, say, the living of Life and the
conducting of business which happens on Wall Street (USA).
To be sure,
transformation
belongs on and belongs to Wall Street as well, just as it
belongs on and belongs to Main Street. In fact, noticing the body blow
to
the world
economy of
Wall Street's devoid of
integrity financial maneuverings,
it especially belongs on Wall Street. But as a
background
for
transformation
making its
presence
known throughout
the world,
I prefer the ordinariness of what Main Street connotes - that, and the
fact that what Main Street connotes is
vast,
far flung, and far reaching, whereas Wall Street is a too confined, a
too specialized, a too limited
context
for global
transformation.
Yes, Main Street's the right place for
transformation:
I don't know where it's likely to go better (as Robert Lee Frost may
have said). More than that, I assert
transformation
also goes well in my / our
conversations
- it's great here, and (it could be said) it starts here. It also goes
well in my / our homes - it's great here too, and (it could be said) it
lives here. It also goes well in my / our relationships - it's great
here also, and (it could be said) it takes root here and develops here
and exponentially expands from here. But beyond all of that, beyond a
certain level of maturity, beyond a certain level of
commitment
in any adult's life, as awesome as all of that sounds, it's ... well
... too easy. It's too small.
If you're going to
honortransformation,
if you're going to live a great life appropriate to its powerful
possibilities, if you're going to
stand for transformation
and make it your
personal business
to have it be available in
the world,
the right place for it is on Main Street. However,
transformation
won't get onto Main Street all by itself: you have to bring it here.
And the thing about this is if you don't bring it onto Main Street
yourself, you didn't get it in the first place (as
Werner Erhard
may have said).
