Dear Reader:

I am a proud Summerville resident who has spent most of her life in one of the most beautiful towns around… a hidden treasure for years… that now exhibits its charm for the world to come see.

The continued success is due to the creative leadership and ” followers” ( citizens of Summerville) who strive to create a home town that offer’s accessible artworks, in the form of sculptures, throughout the many parks and allotted town spaces for teaching each sculpture’s history and heritage. Each sculpture tells a different story.

For example… the title picture ” Followers” depicts a fond childhood memory ( that most of us grew up playing ) called ” Follow the Leader.”

Have you ever considered how many lessons about life can be taught through this children’s game… with just a few added creative ” rules” to it?

The best ” leaders” ( we might remember) were the children who created the most fun movements to imitate… these leaders took into account the diversity of their ” followers” and offered an assortment of different ability level challenges that weren’t too easy or too challenging, so as not to cause frustration at inabilities to ” follow.”

Now let’s put this idea into an adult ” Follow the leader ” campaign for an office. What if the rules were tweaked from this childhood game and every follower had one verbal ” cue card comment” that simply said ” OUT!”

If anyone felt that the ” leader” was implementing too many potentially dangerous or harmful movements they could step out of the line while saying” Out” ! If half the number of followers opted ” Out”… the leader was automatically replaced with another leader chosen among the followers.

We adults can learn a-lot from children and maybe we should take note when to opt out from a leader and his/her campaign that doesn’t allow input from followers and puts self over followers exposed to extreme risky and dangerous paths.

So until tomorrow… May we, as Americans with courageous heritages, stay open to the original ideals that brought us freedom from tyranny. Let us opt out following anyone whose ideals don’t match what our own inner morality tells us.

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh