Another windy yet warmer day of April has given us more hope that Spring is here. During my showings today I spied more people and children out in their yards. I actually noticed several people doing yard work. There was a visiting business executive here whom I’m sure was quite surprised by the strength of the wind blowing downtown. When the wind is blowing from certain directions, there are wind tunnels created. I remember seeing an old 1950’s poster that was captioned, “Mason City..the Windy City of the North”. I mentioned something to him about the Music Man Square and he didn’t know who Meredith Willson was. I’m finding more and more younger people un-familiar with his name simply due to their age.
Not but several days ago I was visiting with an older gentleman who is very well read and stays up on all the current events happening around the world. He said he couldn’t understand why the general public is becoming less and less educated in a broad sense. I went on to say that I’ve come to the conclusion that too many of the school systems encourage their students to move toward areas of studies where they will later become more specialized in those particular fields. Another problem area I see is where the curriculums are watered down by the instructors simply to get as many passing grades as possible. We are now finding the end products of those years of just “getting by”. Too many young people have been programed to learn and do only what is necessary to survive. When our office not so many years ago managed over 350 rental units, I would find myself taking calls from tenants questioning something that was so elementary that I was at times almost left speechless. Whenever working with young buyers, I do everything I can to educate them in all aspects of home ownership. It’s sort of a crash course in home buying. I’d rather have it that way as I really wouldn’t want a first time buyer to be struggling with questions after the closing.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to broaden one’s knowledge and learn as much as possible about anything and everything. We can’t be masters in every field but at least we can have a better understanding of how things work. How very true it is when said, “Rolling stones gather no moss”. A fine mind is a terrible thing to waste—especially when its abilities haven’t even been challenged.
