The Big Story
Hooray for 2014
KONK LIFE COLUMNIST
I hereby command you all to do what I just did, spending an hour listing as many good things as I could think of that happened this last year. If you’re lucky to have a Cynthia in your life, sit her down and do it together. Whoo! Talk about uplifting, especially if your job description includes investigating and trying to fix the bad stuff.
No hurricanes may be the No. 1 best thing in every year we don’t have one, until we forget Wilma. Let’s call it the best thing about the last nine years. For just this year, I’m still feeling warm and fuzzy about Cuba. Can’t wait to get down there before they’re Americanized.
The improving economy has helped people who work here and people who own homes. More jobs and large increases in home values. And the people buying are doing high-end renovations of historic homes by the dozens, as well as the Woman’s Club saving their important building.
FDOT finally finished the Boulevard, while giving me rich material for endless humorous columns lampooning their follies.
Nothing bad happened with the Waterfront or Wisteria, we kept once-weekly trash pickup, and we narrowly averted a drone regulation resolution that would have given their operators more dangerous opportunities than allowed by federal regulations. Way to go, local politicos!
A real big deal was FIRM’s securing the funding for and completing a study that should bring sanity back to our windstorm insurance rates. The 10 percent yearly increases were a greater threat to our real estate market than hurricanes and sea level rise combined.
Our arts culture thrives. The Symphony is secure and offering more and more events.
The Studios of Key West is expanding into a marvelously conceived space. The Fringe Theatre has established itself. Best for me was the Keys Chorale’s sensational salvation.
Politically, marriage equality has advanced, and Stand Up For Animals won its lawsuit against the County. This partially alleviates the great injustice done against them, and I look forward to next year’s list including the next step, George Neugent’s sanctioning by the Florida Ethics Commission.
Ecologically, we’ve made killing lionfish easier and even fun, with a number of tournaments. We’re even learning to eat them. I hope you too enjoyed, as we have, another year free of white fly, iguanas and morning rooster crowing.
On the sadly serious side, I am grateful our nation is finally addressing torture and police homicides. And while we all have losses to mourn, my greatest joys were having not only my Cynthia, but also her sister Jeanie and my great friend Joel all survive truly mortal health threats. Also, the whole city has gotten to celebrate the survival of the miracle baby Aurora. She was born three months early, and her twin sister Arial didn’t make it. After months in intensive care in Miami, she is home, having received generous support from her Key West community.
One odd personal joy for me has been biking South Roosevelt daily. I’d biked around here for 19 years without ever doing the whole thing. What a waste! Now it is the joy of my life, my getting scenic exercise while practicing my next songs. I mention this in case you too are missing something especially Key-sey. If you’ve missed the Dry Tortugas, Snipe Key, snorkeling our reef, one of our high school sporting or performance events, the Literary Seminar, or any of the dozen cultural activities you say you should try but haven’t gotten around to, please, go out and do it tomorrow. What if you have a South Roosevelt unrealized joy in your life?
Finally, the slow decline of the daily paper has helped the flowering of other local media. None more so than our own Konk Life. We’ve doubled our pages, and added the eBlast and more sections and features. Everyone who knows Guy deBoer appreciates the unwavering devotion he has put into it, and I am honored to be among the stable of writers he has assembled.
One relevant feature is the ability you readers have to contribute easily to columns like this one. In the eBlast version, it is easy to write in, anonymously if you wish. I would love to read your own list of what was great about 2014 for you, especially something that was good for all of us that I missed. Please, you can be just as published as I, and share a year end joy with us all. Pretty please? If you’ve never written in before, what better time than this?
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Rick, It sure is nice to stop and smell the roses now and again to get a healthy perspective on life. The list of social, political and environmental abominations is loooong. Periodically, it is good to cleanse the spiritual palate with a gratitude list that, with a little thought, might be even longer. Thanks for reminding us. May the New Year behave!