A BIG thank you to KDOM radio for letting a few Finding Windom representatives discuss the 5 reasons why we should take pride in our community by keeping it clean and also to promote the city wide junk pick up, and of course to show our support in any clean up efforts that take place within the community. We will continue to respectfully and actively support all efforts in making our city a better place because Windom deserves to be a desirable place to live, work and play!
09 May 2014
KDOM kalidescope.
The following was played on the radio last week, Thursday, May 1st, and I wanted to share for those of you who missed it or cannot get KDOM in your area. Finding Windom thought it was appropriate to utilize KDOM's Kalidescope to promote the annual city wide junk pick up day (one of my favorite times of the year because I appreciate the opportunity to do my own "spring cleaning" free of charge).
A BIG thank you to KDOM radio for letting a few Finding Windom representatives discuss the 5 reasons why we should take pride in our community by keeping it clean and also to promote the city wide junk pick up, and of course to show our support in any clean up efforts that take place within the community. We will continue to respectfully and actively support all efforts in making our city a better place because Windom deserves to be a desirable place to live, work and play!
A BIG thank you to KDOM radio for letting a few Finding Windom representatives discuss the 5 reasons why we should take pride in our community by keeping it clean and also to promote the city wide junk pick up, and of course to show our support in any clean up efforts that take place within the community. We will continue to respectfully and actively support all efforts in making our city a better place because Windom deserves to be a desirable place to live, work and play!
07 May 2014
my response.
May 7th, 2014
Re: City Code Violation- 344 10th Street, Windom
Dear Mr. Kartes,
I received your letter regarding my pallet “fence” behind
River City Eatery; however, this “fence” you speak of is actually pallet seating.
I would greatly appreciate exercising my right to request a meeting in front of the Windom
Nuisance Board. Please respond with a
time and place for the meeting as I would like to meet in front of the board.
Thank you for your concerns,
Mari
Harries
Owner, River City Eatery
26 March 2014
something to ponder, if you have time...
Once again, I sit here in front of one of my happy places (my Finding Windom blog), ashamed it has taken me months to get here again. Believe me when I tell you I have written a million posts in my mind while chopping onions to make the Soup of the Day or finishing up the last of the day's dishes in the kitchen of River City Eatery after a busy day. It is still a constant in my mind, this place I contently call home, all the possible evolution that is waiting to be surfaced around that beautiful "castle," as my son calls it. The grandeur of history stands tall in the center of all the hubub of a day. There is no doubt you can feel the pride of our ancestors work marking Windom as the county seat of Cottonwood County by building such an astonishing courthouse in our downtown. Even my toddler can appreciate its beauty as he, and his cousins, ride their bikes up and down the sidewalks pretending it really is their castle. The truth is, it really is everyone's castle.
I recently read this article (below), and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I finally understand why it stuck with me for so long-I think it can relate to Windom (and other rural communities) and what I've been trying to explain through all these crazy posts since the inception of my Finding Windom blog.
Please read:
"A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went... through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
Interesting story, right?
Now apply it to Windom. How many times have we dismissed talent in Windom? How many times have we dismissed what a local business can offer to go straight for the big town, big box store who is offering the same product? How many times have we sent our talented, educated young men and women away to a big cities because "there is nothing here for you?" How many times have we accepted the garbage blowing across the street, crumbling brick and mortar, chipped paint, meth houses/buildings because it is just "good enough?" How many times have we sought the help and ideas of companies from big cities to tell us what our city needs to do to "survive?" How many times have we dismissed the beauty of our courthouse and our unique downtown?"
We are perfectly capable, as community members, to respect ourselves and to protect our quality of life. How do we perceive ourselves as a rural community or what most would think of as "unexpected content" for success, talent, even creativity? We need to start giving ourselves some credit, by respecting the work of our ancestors, by giving our community a thriving future, by evolving into a place where we celebrate what we have to offer and take pride in what we have to offer. After all, we are the little city that would, so we should not continue to be the little city that could. Just think about it for a second, the answer is within ourselves, you know, as a community, how we want to be perceived by others.
08 November 2013
the show must go on...
I'm sitting at Table 1 at River City Eatery after a crazy Friday night rush (blessings!), music of the 40s is coming from the speakers that I can finally hear after all the hubub of the evening, and I keep catching myself looking out the window and admiring hope in downtown Windom--the Windom State Theater's fresh, modern but classic, perfectly lit marquee is the center of attention here in downtown Windom, and I couldn't be more excited. I have goosebumps, no really, I have goosebumps and have had them since 6:45 tonight when they lit the restored marquee tonight. What was once an eyesore in downtown Windom, is no longer--it' beautiful, it is perfect, it is a gem, it is a Windom icon that we must continue to support as so many small town theaters often don't get the satisfaction they deserve and are forced to close doors. Did I also mention the amount of hope I feel after tonight that more amazing updates can happen in downtown Windom? We should be proud to have a plethora of community members that believe in something so much to make something this awesome happen in our small town. A huge thank you to everyone who was a part of the Windom State Theater, Inc, for your dedication, for your passion, for your hours of hard work to make our community an even better place to be. Windom, we have a wonderful, working theater, holy cow! Thank you, thank you, the show will go on!
And speaking of exciting things happeninging in Windom, I also have to thank our city's EDA Executive Director, Mr. Aaron Backman, for pushing progression in our rural community. I can't tell you how much I appreciate a city employee willing to push our city forward, utilizing all the potential he sees and Finding Windom sees for us to be a desirable community to live, work and play. I have the utmost respect for Mr. Backman for the things he has pushed for and made happen, like our new directional/point of interests signs along the highway to only name one. A small, but big addition within our city limits. Windom is incredibly lucky to have this man working for us. Really, people, he is good things for Windom, believe me...
And speaking of exciting things happeninging in Windom, I also have to thank our city's EDA Executive Director, Mr. Aaron Backman, for pushing progression in our rural community. I can't tell you how much I appreciate a city employee willing to push our city forward, utilizing all the potential he sees and Finding Windom sees for us to be a desirable community to live, work and play. I have the utmost respect for Mr. Backman for the things he has pushed for and made happen, like our new directional/point of interests signs along the highway to only name one. A small, but big addition within our city limits. Windom is incredibly lucky to have this man working for us. Really, people, he is good things for Windom, believe me...
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