March 25, 2009
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What’s Beyond Main Street?
I’d like your help on a project that I’m absolutely THRILLED to be working on.
What’s beyond Main Street…to you?
What do you think of when I ask?
“Main Street” could mean a frame of mind, a way of life, your next personal or professional goal, an image or an actual physical place. Not even the sky is the limit on this question- you can go wherever you want. Just run with it.
Please post a comment here to share, or email [email protected]. I cannot tell you what a huge help your comments and thoughts will be and make this project.
Thank you thank you thank you!
Juan
March 26, 2009 at 4:30 amBeyond Main Street to me is that path where it seems like only dreams can take you. A place where everything you’ve lost and love is still right in front of you. Where you still wake up to a familiar face, a familiar smell. A place where you know, despite all the tears and pain, everything will be just fine.
Jill C.
March 26, 2009 at 1:19 pm“What’s beyond Main Street” to me embodies the thought process of thinking outside of the box, doing something that’s not main stream and maybe doing something that others don’t always see. What’s beyond your status quo exterior? How are you taking chances and making change happen even when no one’s watching and without a thought of “what are people going to think of me?” Our lives may look perfectly tidy from the street (or not if you live in my house), but what’s important is what happens inside the walls and the back yard where most people can’t see. Make the most of it! Stop worrying what others will think and instead do what’s right locally, regionally and globally. Look beyond your “Main Street.”
[ground-swel] noun -
March 26, 2009 at 3:49 pm“Beyond Main Street” to me is an idea of exploration. It is an adventure in anything that you take on beyond the pedestrian inclinations or conventions of the day to day status quo that most people inhabit. It inherently invokes the creative, and ask that one stay open to possibilities that are unknown or that must be dreamed or imagined.
mikeR
March 26, 2009 at 8:36 pmBeyond Main Street:
Their is a main street in every city in the US. The main street of when i was growing up thirty years ago exist in only a small percentage of cities today. In those main streets where it still resembles that of our parents days probably will always be that way. That is the exception to the rule.
In the majority of the main streets, the way we have lived has drastically changed in so many ways. Ever since the invention of the computer, the world as we know will never be the same. Today in most main streets their is probably at least one computer if not two in every household.
Growing up we received all of news either through the print media or the evening news either at 6 or 11 p.m. Today we can received news 24/7 around the globe at our fingertips through the use of the computer. Today most people read their favorite newspapers online instead of the reading the paper.
Our parents generation feared computers and were scared that they may lose their job because of the computer and what it could do.
In today world, the use of the computer and the web has made those “main street” stores global. You could buy good and services from anywhere in the world at your fingertips and have it delivered.
I believe when i reach my parents age in the next thirty years, beyond main street will be an even bigger change that what we saw these last thirty years.
Several examples of beyond main street is this blog. The creator can reach millions of people she may never meet. Another example is President Obama Presidental Campaign and how many people he had reach
beth
March 26, 2009 at 8:59 pmBeyond Main Street I turn off the auto-pilot and see colors as if for the first time.
Julie
March 27, 2009 at 3:24 pmBeyond main street is leaving the comfort and security of everyday life to try something new. It is taking a chance with the unknown – maybe to try things that you have dreamed about? Maybe this path was chosen for you, maybe you chose to try something new. I think parents or very conservative friends would advise against the move – at least mine would. It may be viewed as “unsafe” because you are leaving the security of what they (parents or conservative friends) know.
Hobbit
March 27, 2009 at 10:10 pmWhen I begin to think about what’s beyond Main Street…I couldn’t help to be drawn to thinking about what is on Main Street…I guess it’s the posing of the question that forces me to reminisce about my childhood Main Street and the memories I had…I think about King’s bakery and eating a cookie monster cupcake, sitting on a small covered bridge throwing coins into the brook, riding my bike for the first time, the laugher with my friends, the long walk home from school…many of my footsteps walked down main street…and many good memories have shaped me to who I am today. So I guess what is beyond Main Street is actually what Main Street helped to create.
bobs
March 28, 2009 at 12:40 pmGrowing up in a small town west of New York City called Madison NJ, Main Street as in many other towns was the center of all activity. Barber shops, banks, “real” deli’s, pizzeria’s, small boutiques, butchers, Plaza lanes, and anyone remember Woolworth’s? I know I am only 40 but that’s where we bought our penny candy from the money we made doing our chores and yes that was the largest store in our town…and most of the others where all independently owned and operated. Everyone knew everyone and we all supported each other. The sound of the commuter train to new York was always a comforting background sound, The annual Christmas Tree lighting ceremony of the “BIG TREE” which was always placed on the corner of Waverly and Main and still is. Christmas wreaths hung from each lamp post, most of it done by volunteers, stores delicately decorated and the cold winter clean air…..it just had that hometown feel. Chippy’s, Rocco’s, Romanelli’s, CJ’s Deli, and of course Main Street Pub…and lets not forget full service gas stations….to name a few. On the Contrary…..Main Street ran parallel to the “tracks” which growing up and unbeknownst to some had a sense that those who lived on the hill or the other side of the tracks/ main Street were somehow better, richer, more snobby etc…… I never understood it but it was always there and probably still is. I am sure everyone in the world has there own interpretation of Main Street these are my thoughts and they make me happy.
as a buddy of mine just chimed in who grew up In the south and not a racist at all…. I threw the question out to him of what his main street meant to him…… quote “separation b/w blacks and whites and that is the way it was and still is”……hometown…..somewhere in NC.
how’s that for 2 different feelings
Anonymous
March 31, 2009 at 12:00 amAt first reaction, I think – what a crazy question.
Then I think/wonder what (if anything) is beyond my trying to live on main street for my career – is there something on the secondary streets, alleys, dirt roads that might be more gratifying/fulfilling/fun…..
We are so trained to believe that Main Street is where everything happens and where we need to be in our lives/careers/families. Maybe the back roads can provide something more fulfilling and less stressful…
Chuck_Roast
April 22, 2009 at 3:16 amI’m thinking “What’s Beyond Main Street?” is… water.
For thousands of years people have settled and built their main streets near water.
At the most basic level, people need water to live. But, water often destroys: tsunamis, hurricanes, or more recently as in North Dakota, floods, in which case water was more than “Beyond” Main Street, it was Main Street.
Water is powerful, massive, expansive.
Years ago, I sat and pondered many lunch hours at the brink of Niagara Falls. More water flows over Niagara Falls than any other in the world. It can be heard several miles away, and the mist from it seen from over fifteen miles away (and from Main Street, of course).
Yet, I’ve read some researchers believe the Black Sea was significantly enlarged by the Mediterranean breaching the Bosporous, with over a hundred times the water volume of Niagara Falls, flowing through for a nearly a year, and the roar could be heard from 600 miles away. Simply awesome, if true.
How much water carved the Grand Canyon? What power! If I was a molecule of water millions of years ago, traveling through the Canyon in it’s infancy, would I later evaporate, rain, and then make the trip again? How many times would I make it? Seems kind of like rushing back to the roller coaster waiting line as a kid at the amusement park…
I learned recently on National Geographic (or “Nat Geo” to today’s hyper-abbreviated generation) portions of the Congo River in Africa are over 700 feet deep. Does water at those depths ever see the light of day again? Does it ever make it to Main Street?
Some day, I’d like to plunk down a folding beach chair and watch a full tidal cycle at the Bay of Fundy, where the 50-foot rise in tide supposedly carries with it as much water as is in the entire Amazon river.
What compelled men to push for the edge of the horizon? If people of today were transported back in time, which women and men among us now would be the ones to set out like Columbus, Diaz, Magellan, Cook and the other explorers?
So, why are we drawn to water? Maybe water seems alive, like us. Sometimes it’s almost “asleep” – but never perfectly still. Occasionally it’s raging and violent. Usually constant, steady, flowing; both soothing and persistent. Sometimes frozen, but with an undercurrent of action beneath the ice cap.
Whether in it, on it, or watching it, water makes me feel freer.
Is there water beyond your Main Street?