To move forward wisely, we need to be able to look back

Have you noticed the large increase in the number of cars with broken rear view mirrors? My neighbor lost hers to a drive-by last month -- our side street, narrowed by the latest blast of snow, left her exposed to random damage. I see others with similar wounds in the parking lot of my office building. It must be a highly requested repair job.

These missing mirrors strike me as a useful metaphor of our current situation as a nation facing deficits and political divisiveness. Unable to use those missing mirrors to see what is coming up behind us, we drive with a blind spot. We miss critical data and the clear sight to guide us safely out of the peril of our circumstances.

Years ago, when I was figuring out how to buy my first home, I carefully put aside savings from the modest salary of my first post-college job. Then, the idea of buying a home with no money down was unthinkable. To make such a major purchase required a significant down payment -- nearly 20 percent. The basic principle was to defer immediate gratification for a longer-term payoff. Yet only now, post-real-estate bust, do we look again at such basic financial principles.

Similarly, we have turned away from the fundamentals of civic spending that represent investments in our better futures. Now we favor of spending that is short-term and focused on consuming. Economist Mike Walden at N.C. State University does a good job of describing the difference in his podcast.

Instead of looking for long-term gains with prudent modifications in Social Security benefits that could save the program for all, we avoid making this critical policy decision while simultaneously cutting investments in early childhood services, even with their documented high return on investment. Caring for all children's early education means more will be ready for kindergarten and prepared for the jobs of tomorrow, and fewer will be heading toward prison (planners use 3rd grade reading scores as the best predictor of rates of incarceration after 15 years).

Without our rear view mirrors, we forget the sacrifices and commitments made by civic leaders 100 years ago from which we still benefit.

Recently, I found a window into my family's past when I discovered a newspaper story about my great grandfather Sedgwick, who arrived in Waterloo, Iowa, in the1880s, broke and with nowhere else to go.

In a speech he made to the Bankmen's Association 35 years later, he reported on his role in creating a new civic infrastructure for that small community: his part ownership in the streetcar line, his leadership of the community bank and his 15 years on the City Council.

This sentence from his speech inspires me: "The best inheritance of all is that I have been permitted to join hands with the resolute, clear-headed and broadminded men of the community who have developed the growth and prosperity of the city upon the broad principle that justice and fellowship should be eternal."

My great grandfather's words serve as a remarkable inheritance and guidepost for my own passion for building community. Let's all look more carefully in our rear view mirrors. Let's use them and the essential data and guidance they give us to make better decisions for a better city, state and country.

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Catherine Reid Day is founder of Storyslices LLC. She specializes in coaching leaders of family businesses, foundations and organizations on issues of inheritance and succession through the lens of story.

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