From the proposal on the Rim of Crater Lake to the actual Union in Vermont, follow along as we develop plans for our Union Ceremony scheduled for August 2004, celebrating 10 years together.
The Intrinsic Value of Place. After not moving forward on anything for weeks, Tony finally has a draft budget constructed and every single task we could possibly imagine entered into a Microsoft Project Database. (Of course.) While he’s been working on many different aspects of the weekend – he’s paid the deposit on the Hartness House, he’s schedule an invitation consultation, he’s already determined the menu – I haven’t been able to do a damn thing. Well, that is, unless you count subscribing to the Springfield Reporter, Springfield’s weekly paper, and reading it cover to cover.
What I’ve discovered in the two months I’ve been reading the Reporter is Springfield is a town desperately trying to recover from 200 years of solid manufacturing and innovation that has not only left town, but the country. The community is struggling to define a new economic future, and they’re realizing it’s hidden somewhere in their past. In the process, they’re discovering the value music, theatre, and art bring to a community. It is those qualities that give meaning to the lifestyle that is uniquely Springfield. A life along the Black River, the life force that has powered Springfield long before there was such a thing as electrical power.
It’s this solid sense of place that drew us to Springfield over the other Vermont locations we considered. Sense of place is not created by national companies located within a town’s boundaries. Nor is it created by the brand-name shops within a shopping district. It is created by knowing what you have and looking beyond the face value to discover its uniqueness, understanding its intrinsic value. When you come across a genuine place, it’s not just a place you see, but a place you feel. It’s what Tony and I have strived to discover and build in our lives. In the end, it’s not just a place where we exist, but a place where we live and interact with friends and family.
Today I spent most of the afternoon firing off e-mails to the different organizations calling Springfield home, in hopes of finding the best local entertainers—the undiscovered greats that exist in every community who, if given another time or another place could very well be leaders in a much greater arts scene. But instead, they’ve found a life in Southern Vermont, where they practice perfecting their craft, developing their talents and transforming into a stage front porches throughout Springfield, the “Front Porch Capital of the World.” Genuine performers for genuine people. Art, music and theatre that not only can you see, but you can feel pulse through your body, adding meaning to life.
As long as Springfield has that sort of energy pumping through its veins, it will always be a place worth living and visiting. It is a place we will gladly define publicly before friends and family the existence of our relationship, its uniqueness, appreciating its intrinsic value.
Yesterday, after blowing up at Tony for not moving forward and hording the details to himself (a trait I discovered in year three of our relationship, and yes, one that I am guilty of myself), I finally got our draft budget. All $19,350.24 of it.
And so now the process begins for me. As Tony hammers out all things logistical, I will begin to hammer out all things, as he says, touchy-feely. And at the same time, we’ll begin to figure out how we can whittle that total down, while raising the bar, and forging new territory. Make something out of nothing, so-to-speak. Should be easy though; that’s what we do best, and we have a great place from which to start.
