"Praise and Blame Are All The Same"

At 10am on Saturday morning, the Board of Directors will finally receive a recommendation from the independent Seawall Committee to vote on whether to repair the seawall in places where it is needed, or to replace the seawall with a new one. This is a very formidible, if not unpopular topic today in Regency Cove. I'm sure every Director on the Board has heard from friends, neighbors, and other residents who are not usually involved with us, who give us their opinions.

As a Director, we are always in the uncomfortable position to make decisions that represent all of the shareholders of the park. I would like to share the following exerpt with my fellow Board members, and with all of you shareholders. Feel free to comment at the end.

An exerpt from the New York Times #1 Bestseller Don't Sweat The Small Stuff, by Richard Carlson Ph.D


"One of the most unavoidable lessons in life is having to deal with the disapproval of others. Praise and blame are all the same is a fancy way of reminding yourself that you'll never please all of the people all of the time.Even in a landslide election victory in which a candidate secures 55 percent of the vote, he or she is left with 45 percent of the population that wished someone else was the winner. Pretty humbling, isn't it?

"The sooner we accept the inevitable dilemma of not being able to win the approval of everyone we meet, the easier our lives will become. When you expect to be dished out your share of disapproval instead of struggling against this fact, you'll develop a healthy perspective to assist your life journey. Rather than feeling rejected by disapproval, you can remind yourself, "Here it is again. That's OK." You can learn to be pleasantly surprised, even grateful when you receive the approval you're hoping for."

I hope tomorrow that all our Directors vote their conscience. In the event of a seawall catastrophe in the near future, all of us will be be held accountable. If the new seawall continues hold firm and barricade us from storm damage in the future, we will no doubt become anonymous fixtures in Regency Cove history.

I personally long to live in anonymity