The Whitehouse

Earlier this fall I was invited to the Whitehouse. As in the Whitehouse, the Big Guy’s house.

The Whitehouse Business Council selected two businesses from every state to profile on the Whitehouse website.   We were then invited to the Whitehouse for a forum on Jobs and Economic Competitiveness on November 4th.  I will admit that my first reaction to this invite was “Oh shoot, I’ll be in elk camp with my cousin Wes.”  But then I wised up.

Wes is actually my cousin Ashley’s husband, not my true cousin, but we’ve done enough hunting and beer drinking together for me to consider him real family.  In September he guided me on my first moose hunt.  We were back in New Brunswick, Canada.  Meet Leroy, my first moose.  Sorry about the tongue.  We were too excited to tuck it in.

It was a fantastic hunt.  So in return, I was booked to “guide”  Wes elk hunting for 10 days.  Then the Whitehouse called.  Being the great guy that Wes is, he understood, reminded me that it’s not everyday you get invited to the Whitehouse and I left elk camp a few days early.

I like the transition of this:

To this:

Trying to keep life in balance.

My eyes were open wide in DC.  The power of that city is palpable, so is the frustration, the energy and the hope.  At least it was in my mind.  Perhaps I’m too optimistic in these days of gridlock, national debt, and unbalanced budgets.  But we must have hope.

At the FDR Memorial I read these words on the wall.  I could not agree more.

Amen. Let’s keep working hard.

And let’s never give up on hope.