Asking the horse

EDITOR:

There is an old legend of a Douglas County man riding fast on his horse. Someone yells to him as he passes, "Where are you going?" The man turns to him and yells back, "I don't know! Ask the horse!"

The pace and intensity of our lives, both at work and personal, leave us feeling much like the man on the horse, frantically galloping along, without a clue, on our too-much-to-do journey, down the Douglas County busyness trail. Along the way, we encounter trail signs, informing us, and far too often, reminding us, that we do not have enough time, or we've got five minutes to make it to the next meeting! All this requiring us to follow a self-imposed to-do list on a daily basis.

This hurry up-on-the-go pace pursuit, drains all that quality of life, we're all looking for, right out of our lives " resulting, or settling for a rather restricted existence. If you find yourself identifying with this lifestyle, clearly priorities have gotten out of control.

The Nevada Rural Development Council recently began a community assessment for Douglas County. When I say Douglas County, I do not mean the county, itself " I mean you " the people who live in Douglas County. The council conducted 22 listening sessions, consisting, of course, of 22 subjects from different sectors. The assessment is intended to provide a thoughtful reflection on individual vision and direction " a cross section of community spectrum. A measuring method of sorts, to facilitate and form an overview on the quality of our lives. Sort of a how we doin' approach.

The council is now in the process of scheduling the final portion of the assessment with Topaz and Tahoe listening sessions, and once this is accomplished, the results for the community assessment will be posted on the Douglas County Web site for you to view. Listening to what the community had to say was an interesting experience, and. I think you'll be intrigued with the final analysis and results from the assessment.

The purpose for writing today, is that I wanted to take a minute from my own, on-the-go pace, to just say thank you to those members from the community who took the time from their hurry up schedules, to share their thoughts, concerns, hopes, dreams and ideas for the future of their community. Thank you for participating, and contributing to this important process. What you had to say, was heard, respected, and valued. Now maybe, just maybe, the next time we find ourselves riding fast on our horse down a Douglas County trail, and someone yells to us as we pass by "Hey, where are you going?" we just might know, because we took the time to listen to one another, and participate in the Douglas County community assessment. Hmm, how about that?

Carole Thompson

Nevada Rural Development Council

Steering Committee