Last week, Kansas celebrated its 149th birthday. There was little to no public recognition or fanfare for Kansas’ anniversary day.
There are so many positives in our state that we need to use opportunities like birthdays to brag about Kansas. Unfortunately, in our society we spend far more time focusing on what other communities have and things we don’t have so it is easy to overlook the times when we should be celebrating.
Kansas is about simple pleasures. We are removed from life’s headaches like traffic jams and congestion. The slower pace of life allows us to experience more quality. We don’t have to fight life to do life.
Last week, I had two events that reminded me about our community’s simple pleasures and made me fortunate to call Emporia home.
On Tuesday, Hattie’s older sister bumped her into a wall, causing a picture to fall hitting Hattie squarely in the head. When the blood came pouring out, I thought that was a good indicator that it might be nice to spend an evening in the emergency room.
On the way there, I thought how nice it was that in a couple of minutes we would be there. We were able to find a parking spot right in front. When we went in, there was no one waiting. The receptionist asked me a couple of questions about Hattie, and when I didn’t know an answer she was able to find her record on the computer.
After a couple of minutes with the receptionist, we were quickly ushered to an exam room. The hospital staff was very kind and caring and after two hours and a little super glue on Hattie’s head, she was ready to return home just in time for her normal bedtime.
I could only imagine what this hospital experience would have been like if we were fighting the crowds in a big city hospital.
The next night I took our three kids and one of their friends to the ESU basketball game. The convenience and affordability makes it possible to actually take the family. In the upper decks, there is plenty of room for the children to spread out and have fun.
If we lived in a town like Lawrence, taking the whole family to the game would not be possible because of the tremendous cost nor would there be room for the children to move around and have fun.
Simple pleasures are what makes our community and state great. Although it is hard to market simple pleasures to the world, we should not take them for granted. Nor would I trade them for some of the luxuries of the big cities.
This week, I challenge everyone to look for our community’s simple pleasures, think how fortunate we are to have those qualities in our community and then brag to someone in another town about those simple pleasures we enjoy in Emporia.
Chris Walker
Editor & Publisher
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
In Emporia, you can go anywhere in10 minutes and get in to dining in 10 minutes. Yogie Berra used to say, no one goes to Applebee's, you can't get in. I think the one thing I really enjoy is every once in a while, some one will relate to me a story about my grandfather or grandmother--Now how much is that worth? There is less to do in Emporia than the big city, but all the gossip makes up for it.
February 4, 2010 at 12:30 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )