Preserving the Past and Embracing the Future
It goes without saying that our community, like many rural areas in the south, has experienced a past with happiness and sadness, good and bad and joy and sorrow. How do we preserve the past in a way that we as a human race, can study, gain through wisdom and cultural change, accept innovations, yet still experience a sense of connection to our past that we can learn from and appreciate?
A look at our local past whether via a glimpse into an individual family’s history or the history of a business or the community as a whole, yields things from the past that we all are extremely proud of and want to honor as well as things that may embarrass, concern or even upset us as we reminisce.
Embracing the future entails realizing that some of those ways that were accepted ‘then’ do not have a place ‘now’ in our world. Whether it is women’s right to vote that is certainly an opportunity that we cannot even imagine the world without or the future plans for growth in our community as places all around us expand; how we individually think about these changes are dependent on the filters in which we individually look at our world around us.
When we pause to reflect how the greater good for the community can move in a positive direction, it helps to be willing to see things from all perspectives instead of just our own. Representing the Caswell Chamber of Commerce, it is an honor to be able to explore with you in the community, various perspectives as we work to help preserve our past and embrace the future of Caswell County.
As published in 'Caswell Then and Now' Magazine by The Caswell Messenger - July 2021
