WHY SMALL TOWN PEOPLE MATTER

 

 

Lost in the hyper speed of modern life on a 1.4 terabit internet connection is the human pace of life. Call it small town life for small town people, but remember we’re all small town people once you peel off the layers of sophistication.

 

Jet setters once clamored for seats on the SST, until no one wanted a seat. Flight 4590 from France canceled all future flights of the Concorde.

 

Clock watchers need a fast train on the west coast from Seattle to Los Angeles and they need it bad. Transportation forecasters look to Japan and Spain for bullet train ideas and high speed rail travel.

 

In a super world full of super men and women, speed is essential. If my faster isn’t faster than your fast, then I’m slow.

 

You might find a fast internet connection in a small town, but no SST is landing or taking off from the municipal airport, and a bullet train isn’t rolling through the train station, if there’s a train station around.

 

Why is that, you ask?

 

Small town people have the same needs as everyone else. It’s not like they’ve been inoculated against fast living, but they still know the value of walking across the street and saying hello.

 

Call it relationship building, the same sort of action the most important companies in the world understand. Seeing a face online isn’t the same as in person, no matter how hard we’re pushed to believe otherwise. Watching an important person walk into a room and seeing the wave of recognition roll across those already in attendance is an act of nature.

 

“Did you see them?”

“Are they here?”

“I hope they’re not late.”

“There they are.”

 

Like a rock concert venue dipping the lights for the headliners to take the stage, human excitement is contagious. Like the curtain rising for the start of a play on the ‘must see’ list, anticipation is thrilling. For everyone.

 

Small towns offer the same thrills and excitement as any urban center. You just need to find the right channel and tune in. Where one person follows their favorite band around the country, another might listen to the same music on the radio headed to the gas station for beer.

 

Same thing, or different?

 

One person might hitchhike across the country while another rents a luxury RV networked out to stop at programed destinations. Both thrill at the idea of new people and places along the way.

 

Same thing, or different?

 

One person finds a way to rocket their status to the top of the list among list topping personalities; another rules the world of shuffleboard on their custom table. Winning is winning.

 

Same thing, or different.

 

I got schooled recently by a big city man with the right attitude. I spoke at an event and referenced ‘Los Angeles people.’ After I finished, my instructor took time to point out the difference between the ‘Los Angeles’ we see in the media, and the Los Angeles he grew in.

 

His town was in LA county, an unincorporated square mile of heaven in the LAX flight path. He loved it, though he didn’t say as much. His words tried to correct the idea of Los Angeles from big city to small town, and he did it with style.

 

He proved my point, the one I’ve made since living in Philadelphia and Brooklyn and Portland: they’re all small towns, just jammed together.

 

The only time trouble rears its pesky little pointed head is when a big timer starts blowing steam about how big time he his with big time friends and everything is top shelf, exclusive, sophisticated.

 

The biggest problem with that guy is they forgot how to walk across the street and say hello, because in their mind they’re so important they think you should walk across the street to them. And be ignored.

 

But the best among us still make the effort that echoes everything good about a small town. Maybe you should, too? Show what you’ve got, like the good manners you grew up with.

 

Not everyone has that advantage.