the way it goes

  All things change given time. It's an obvious thing that often goes unnoticed. Maybe that's why you have to reach a certain age to see that, you have to be given time. We have all heard that each day is a gift, that is why we call it the present. Yeah, when I first heard that one I groaned, sounds lame. But the meaning is deeper than you would first think. Again, something else that takes time. Wisdom is the product of time, not education. That saying contains that wisdom, wisdom granted over time if one is willing to accept it. Of course there are many that will refuse. Those folks prefer to hold onto the past. The problem there being the same old errors are repeated and excuses are fabricated to explain all of that. What I'm thinking about this morning is the transition of power. Something we are going to be hearing a great deal about in the near future. That will be on a national level but I'm thinking about the local level. I'm thinking about the transition that often goes unnoticed. The one that happens over several generations, sometimes four or more generations. I'm talking about the power of families as it pertains to local politics. 

 I grew up in a small town and it is from that experience I speak That town and its' politics had been controlled by that central core of families for generations. As with everything the connections were made tying those families to the founding of the town. It is something we all tend to do, tie ourselves in some fashion to the shaping of history, we want to be a part of that. Whether we claim great deeds for ourselves or cite some long gone ancestors, riding that shirttail as the saying goes, that is what we wish to do. Today we extend that to include any wrongdoings committed in the past as a tool to use today. I mean like the notion all white people should pay reparations for what some white people did. The past as a weapon! But the change , the shift I'm talking about and have witnessed, to a degree, concerns those old core families. I have seen that power just slip away over the years. No longer do those names dominate the political offices, no longer are those names familiar. Now those names are just footnotes in history, they are the names that used to be. It's easy for me to see because I have become detached from that, an outsider now, looking in. I've been watching. I have watched as the town was consumed by those that view it as an amusement, a distraction from their everyday lives, a get away. A place for the wealthy to indulge themselves. And now, the old families , the old names have been pushed aside, the last bastion of what made the town what it was, wiped clean. Now those in power rule what it has become, not what was. 

 Now I live in another small town. I've lived here twenty five years or so. I can see the same progression taking place. The old names fading away. The families that dominated the political scene slowly losing that grip. I find a bit of irony in the fact that my son is a part of that. He has taken the position of Mayor. The fact that to the old families, the older residents, he is an outsider is not lost on me. Yes he went to elementary school here, graduated from the local high school, but he wasn't born here. He's not a farmer or a waterman, the two dominate occupations in the past. To some he is an interloper, a part of a problem. What's the problem? The loss of power, of input to local politics. Things are changing. New rules, new policies. An interruption to what we have always done! All of that is happening for much the reason as my hometown. It's economics.

 When the old money is replaced by the new, things change. That's what happens to those families. Their wealth is relative. When the town was old and filled with just the old families, there comparative wealth secured their positions. They controlled business to a degree. Those families were the bankers, the agents, the holder of property and influence. Then there comes an influx of those from the outside. It happens gradually, a few folks at a time, drawn to the town for a variety of reasons. A vacation spot, a place to get away, safety, anonymity, and they continue to arrive. For some places they become an attraction, and that is the appeal to those coming. an attraction, an amusement, a status symbol. That happened to my hometown. 

 In other places the reason is slightly different. Here in and around Greensboro the attraction is affordable housing away from the metropolis. People want that country living away from the city life. It's true, it doesn't have to be New York City or any major city, even lesser cities have their issues with crime and open spaces and regulations. Move to the country, you can have a yard, a garden, be a farmer. The developers build these housing cul de sacs, give them names, usually including the word garden or forest or some other descriptive word to entice you. It's a promise of the idyllic country life, with all the amenities of course. And that is what happens. The farm land is sold off for a great profit, it is profit when the land has been inherited, passed down through generations. Why work, struggle, fight the weather and regulations when you can sell the land for a cool million or so, enough to retire comfortably. 

 Along with that process those folks begin to demand more amenities, the things they enjoyed about the city. Shopping, they require shopping, like malls and such to satisfy their needs. Hey, they aren't country folks, they are sophisticated people that require the finest products. Soon they tire of the country life and want to be entertained. And places to eat, plenty of places to eat. The new money overtakes the old and things change. The old money, the old families, and that old power disappear. It's the natural order of things. It's the way it goes.