She was sweet and sovereign, and had the divine ability to cause me to snap into accordance with a single glance. With all her ecclesiastical presence, Sister Timothy bestowed upon me the social power of a proper sentence and the pensive tone of a guitar’s A-minor.
No matter how many rebel anthems we sang outside her purview, Sister Timothy was among the first to affix my gaze upon a secret weapon that I would use in all matter of life and business: personal development. And therein lies the key to freedom for a country that aches from the grand unifier called the “Great Recession.”
America remains the “city upon a hill,” but no nation has ever prevailed against the snare of success.
Amidst our pain, we naturally search for an enemy because we are accustomed to fighting wars with specific targets. But the enemy is our own entitlement, consumption and online exhibitionism.
The city upon a hill is fiscally broke, and our moral framework, bankrupt. Those things that once gave us joy, like family, friends, learning, achievement and virtue, have been replaced with reality TV, the accrual of possessions and the hypnotizing glow of a screen, albeit small or large, TV or computer, the likes of which has become a vast emptiness that no shopping trip can satisfy.
We must re-start. We must re-brand.
We must re-energize and become purposedriven and compassionate, once again. America’s strength and differentiation has historically been found in its passion for knowledge, charitable deeds and moral bedrock.
One story you will read in the pages ahead is on a company called CallSource. Under the guidance of its new president, Mark Sadosky, it is vested in improving teams and individuals, and advancing individual and company performance through personal development.
In addition to fostering self-improvement over material attainment, we must build things. No one knows this better that the multihousing industry.
Within the pages ahead, you will read of folks driven to build homes of all fit and finish; Apartment homes that become the communities of Americans who will set a recovery in motion.
Lastly, and most importantly, we must live in gratitude. We must remember and constantly breathe in thankfulness for what we have, in exchange for an unquenchable hunger for things.
I am grateful to part of an industry that will spearhead the recovery, that builds things, and provides “real” communities that make our country the city upon a hill. Mostly I am grateful for having enough.
