Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim’s Invocation at 05/18/2022 Common Council Meeting – “Each of us has to choose the next right step in everyday decisions that we make in our lives.”

Mayor Woodford: Tonight’s invocation will be delivered by Alderperson Hartzheim.

Alderperson Hartzheim: Thank you, Chair. Every year at around this time, I think about graduations. Mostly about how long it’s been since I graduated from college. And let’s not even talk about high school. But I also think about how the experience is for most graduates simultaneously exciting and daunting.

Graduation preparations and ceremonies make me think of times of great life changes, times when one hopes to take the right next step, not knowing for certain what that step might be or where it might lead. In a way, a graduation ceremony is a kind of a momentous reminder that each of us has to choose the next right step in everyday decisions that we make in our lives.

My father who passed away earlier this year at the ripe old age of 94 had a saying about parenting through life changes. Well, he had a lot of sayings because he was 94 and had 8 children. But regardless, he always said to his kids, “You’re going to have to drive over or around potholes. No matter how much I want to, I can’t pave the path for you.”

In fact, I think that was his graduation advice to me, though at the times I was like “Thanks, Dad.” But since then, I’ve often come back to that phrase. I don’t always have the right answer or know the right steps, but I’ll negotiate the unsmooth path as best I can.

We Council members, in order to take the next right steps for the City of Appleton have to choose kindness and thoughtfulness and, as Mayor Woodford has stated many times, hold fast to the belief that each of our fellow council members comes from a place of wanting what’s best for this city and its citizens.

While I often remember my dad’s words, it’s possible that Admiral William H. McCraven gave better advice in his famous ‘Make Your Bed’ commencement address in 2014. No disrespect, Dad. Admiral McCraven said, “Respect everyone. Know that life is not fair, and that you will fail often. Lift up the downtrodden and never give up. If you do these things, the next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today.”

I hope that all of us present remember that advice tonight and every time we meet on behalf of this city and its citizens.