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Government meetings reflect human nature
A Wealth of Dearth
By Charles Garratt
Returning to work at The Recorder a couple of months ago has been like a dream come true - twice. Journalism, it seems, has always been in my blood. But without spell check and a great deal of faith from former and current publishers, there wasn't much chance a computer geek, jack-of-many-trades guy like me would get the chance to be an award-winning journalist on an award-winning newspaper.
So thanks to them, and thanks to all of you who have been and continue to be supportive of my work at The Recorder. I do love it. Few people these days have the opportunity to really do what they love to do and I'm grateful to be here at the paper.
People regularly question my sanity when I wander off in the woods alone for the day or sit hunkered beside the road with camera and tripod near some little wildflower, so I've taken being called "crazy" as a badge of honor.
Returning to covering news has brought a few questions about my grasp of reality that have surprised me. The questions, statements really, go something like: "You'd have to be crazy to want to sit in those boring governmental meetings again."
The truth of the matter is, those meetings can indeed be boring at times. But strangely enough, I've learned a lot about human nature and myself at those meetings. No, I'm not ready to write some cute book like, "All I Need To Know I Learned from the Board of Zoning Appeals" or, "Chicken Supes for the Soul."
However, I do have a few bits of insight. The biggest lesson I've learned in many long hours of observing the processes of government is simple and obvious - they are human. How easily we forget that elected officials deal with the issues of government the same way people deal with issues at home or at work.
While it can seem sad or even frightening to think the same rules of argument, ego, and logic are used to decide million-dollar budget issues as those used to figure out who left the cap off the toothpaste, the truth is, the size of the issue seldom changes the methods of argument.
Toilet seat up, toilet seat down; wind towers up, wind towers down; taxes up, taxes down; hems up, hems down - no matter what the issue, good, well-meaning people can have well-reasoned, carefully considered, and passionately held positions on opposite sides of any issue.
Sadly, whether in the bathroom, boardroom or courtroom, ego often plays a larger role in an argument than reason or logic. We all claim the higher ground of "right," but "right" often means "no more than what I want" or "what I think is right."
As a reporter, I am asked to detach myself to the extent that I can from the personalities at board meetings and listen to what is said without judgement. This is a lesson I am also trying to apply in my personal life. It's much easier to do with pen in hand at a meeting than in a personal relationship.
Two decades ago at a seminar, a wise woman asked the audience, "Would you rather be right or be happy?" At that stage in my life I couldn't understand how one could be "wrong" and still be happy.
After many years as a parent, long hours in nature, and long nights at meetings, I am beginning to understand that being "right" is often an illusion I create in my own mind. Far more often than we like to think, there is no right - only personal preference or a best guess about what decision will have the best results in the future.
Giving up being right doesn't mean being wrong. Win or lose, none of us can really know how even our simplest decisions will turn out. Leaving the cap off the tube of toothpaste can lead to it falling down the sink drain, which starts a cascade of problems ending in an unwanted plumbing bill.
Or the next person along picks up the cap and replaces it on the tube and there is no problem. Or I can begin a campaign to find the guilty person and start a cascade of unhappiness.
With no intention to trivialize the importance of the workings of government, let me suggest the next time you get bored at a meeting, imagine the board is at your house arguing over whether the lid should be left up in the bathroom.
Perhaps the next time some similar issue comes up in your household, you'll listen to yourself and your position and argument a little differently. Perhaps you'll also see your government officials in a new light - as the fallible, doing the best they know how humans they are.
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