The SWCS view

Excerpt

It was not easy moving from Virginia to central Iowa last month. There was 24 years of ‘stuff’ that I had accumulated. Some had been saved in case I needed it some day. And some I simply had not gotten around to giving away. And there was an investment in friends, professional associates, and community service that I had to leave behind.

It made sense, of course, to give old books to the library; they could be reused by someone else. It was a little harder for someone as frugal as I am to give away perfectly good clothes, even though they had not fit me for a few years. Tougher still was giving up a seat on the local park district board. I had fought hard for election to it and was in line to be chair later this year.

But overriding those concerns was the opportunity to apply my 10 years of professional society and association management experience to an organization that matched my commitment to conservation.

Letting go and leaving things behind is a …