There is always a moment standing off stage, before the lights come up and the show begins, when the calmness of anticipation sets in. All the work to prepare has been done—the stage is set, the lines are rehearsed, the props in place—and now it’s time.
There’s stillness in that moment, but it’s not the kind that you’d associate with peacefulness. It’s more the calm before the storm. The acceptance that, ready or not, things are about to get real.
I’ve been in that place hundreds of times and I must admit to you all: I love that moment. It’s hard to describe, but it’s a sense that, whatever the people in the audience out there think they are about to experience, what’s coming is orders of magnitude beyond. Minds are about to be blown. A whole lot of people are going to be walking out of there different than they walked in.
We’ve been living in that calm moment here at Strong Towns for a few weeks, and I’ve been loving it. The decade-plus that we’ve been at this project has been building towards an unveiling of our ideas on a big stage. We’ve done the work, put in the time, subjected ourselves to the harsh introspection. There is a hush of anticipation around us. I can feel it. Things are about to get real.
This week is our Spring Member Drive, the last one we will do before the October 1 release of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (more on that below). It’s the last one before we launch the Strong America Tour. The last one before we kick off a major media campaign that we’ve been putting together for months.
In other words, it’s your last chance to be one of the early supporters of the Strong Towns movement. And we could really use your support.
Bad Bets
Allison Schrager: "The only insurance against uncertainty is resilience."
Gabrielle Gurley: For Transit, "The Cuts are Coming"
Matthew Yglesias: The Case for One Billion Americans (Part 2)
Matthew Yglesias: The Case for One Billion Americans (Part 1)
John Pattison: From Slow Food to Slow Church
Chris Bernardo: Filling the Gaps to Support Local Businesses
Just Print the Money
Stacy Mitchell: Fighting for Small Businesses and Strong Local Economies
A Time for Local Action
Blake Pagenkopf: Rebooting Our Political Operating System
Denise Hearn: The Myth of Capitalism
Ben Hunt: We're Not Going to Fix This from the Top Down
Bonus Episode: The Bottom-Up Revolution
What Are We Waiting For?
Help Shape the Future of the Strong Towns Podcasts
KAXE's Dig Deep on George Floyd, Coronavirus, and More
Strip Mall
A Good Life in a Prosperous Place
Smart Cities: "Are we creating solutions looking for problems?"
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Potencial Americano
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