2.21.12 I had a good weekend. A Charlottesville weekend. We couldn’t get in to The Whiskey Jar on Friday night, and ended up with friends at Bang!. Nothing like riding your bicycle to dinner. Then on Saturday, we headed to the ITA National Men’s Indoor Team Championships at the Boar’s Head Inn to watch the best men’s collegiate tennis players do battle, free of charge. After dinner it was a birthday party in the Pink Warehouse and then a short walk to the Rubblebucket show at The Southern, which sold out and turned into quite a dance party. Sunday, it snowed, heavy and quiet, and being at home under the muffled tree canopy was just right.
I’m still relatively new to town. Most of the week I sit at a computer, like a carp sifting passively through a river of news and information, so I need weekends like this last one to remind me why I came here in the first place. I came because Charlottesville, at its best, is a small town with big ideas. Which means that you can walk and ride your bike places, that you know the people who make things happen, and that what you say publicly has to be pretty close to what you mean privately, or else people will catch on quickly.
This week’s paper touches on what it’s like living in a little, big town. A local developer announces plans for a national event. The George Huguely trial ends but the news trucks stay on Court Square, awaiting a verdict. Either the city’s Dialogue on Race collapsed or a handful of its members did, depending on who you ask. And then Susan Sorensen’s story on the Ragged Mountain Running Shop comes along to remind you that a young couple with a dream can change the landscape of a community over three decades.
Being little is about being personal, about paying attention to the details, about actions and consequences. Being big is about dreaming, about not accepting mediocrity, about expanding what is possible.––Giles Morris