b'MayorsMessage Eric Zimmerman EZimmerman@NormandyParkWA.govH appy New Year,Seeing Close-ByNormandy Park!The best things in our lives tend to be the Looking at thethings right in front of usfriends, family, number 2025 on myour neighborhoods, our lives at home. The computer screen leads todigital age and infinite news cycle have made a tangle of feelings, one ofit easy for our eyes to drift away from the best the biggest being surpriseof whats right in front of us, and sometimes that we are now a quarterget stuck trying to find focus on the horizon of of the way through thefar-off concerns. I find these concerns are often first century of thismirages, but too often Ive handed my time and millennium. People oftenenergy to a mirage instead of to my own son, find significance in simplewife, neighbors, and friends. Keeping our eyes math sets like deciles and quartilesevery 10 oron the things in front of us, the things which 25 years being examples of thatbut this year Ihonestly matter more, is a much better way to find myself thinking just how much has changedthrive together. in the last 25 years. Many may even agree that 1975 and 2000 have much more in common thanReading Outside Our Own Book 2000 and 2025. Our world is changing around usEvery person we meet has a life story that has quickly, and I think many of us can often share ashaped them and given them all the personal feeling of being pressed in on by things beyondlows and highs which have resulted in who the walls of our homes. In the spirit of this editionand where they are today, what they believe of City Scene Magazine, Thrive in 2025, I reflectand why, and how they live. I find almost on a few principles I picked up from other wisereveryone holds their own choices and beliefs people, elements of my own strategy for livingto be reasonable ones when explained in the and thriving in 2025:context of the story of their own life. Surely right and wrong do exist, often clearly, but it Seeing Beyond Differenceswill always be the case that most people have One of the major themes in the United Statesgood reasons rooted in their life experiences lately has been disagreement, with a lot offor why they feel they are right. Shifting our hot-button topics seeing about equal halves offocus from reading our own storywith each people disagreeing with each other. I think theseof us as the hero-protagonist!and reading a differences get way too much attention in society.few lines of someone elses story, goes very far I also think the recent trend of valuing otherstowards understanding each other and living only to the extent they agree with us on one orand thriving well in 2025. several issues is terribly harmfuldifferences ofI hope your 2025 is filled with the enjoyment of opinion should never lead us to write-off anotherthe best of whats right around you here at home. person. In truth, we will thrive together in equalIf theres anything I can do to help make your proportion to our tolerance and acceptance of2025 get off to a better start, please reach out to opinion differences. Im glad to see this attitude isme at ezimmerman@normandyparkwa.gov. already a popular one in Normandy Park.Mayor Eric Zimmermanwww.NormandyParkWA.gov 3'