Serenbe Stories

Making Art & A Healthier Life with Penny McPhee

May 10, 2021 Serenbe / Penny McPhee Season 5 Episode 11
Serenbe Stories
Making Art & A Healthier Life with Penny McPhee
Show Notes Transcript

Today we're talking with Penny McPhee, who is the former President of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, a well known philanthropic nonprofit that has donated over $800 million to initiatives from early childhood development to the arts.

She knew from an early age that she wanted to change the world and that writing was her talent. In this episode, we talk with Penny about her career in journalism and media, her influence in making the art collection at Atlanta's Mercedes Benz stadium worthy of a fine arts museum, and what she's looking forward to for her next adventure. 

Penny first visited Serenbe before homes had been built, and he and her husband even joked about wondering if Steve's vision could work. Nearly 20 years later, the vision is realized and the McPhee's have found a happier healthier life living at Serenbe.

0 (1s):
Hey guys, it's Monica here. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast that I've started with my very good friend, Jennifer Walsh called biophilic solutions. Our last season of ceremony stories, building a biophilic movement was so popular that we decided to dedicate an entire podcast to it every other week. Jennifer and I will sit down with leaders in the growing field of biophilia. We'll talk about local and global solutions to help nurture the living social and economic systems that we all need to sustain future generations more often than not. Nature has the answers. You can find biophilic solutions on apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe and follow us today. So you don't miss an episode.

0 (41s):
All right, now let's get back to ceremony stories today. We're talking with penny McPhee, who is the former president of the Arthur M blank family foundation. A well-known philanthropic nonprofit that has donated over $800 million to initiatives from early childhood development to the arts. Penny knew from an early age that she wanted to change the world. And that writing was her talent. In this episode, we talk with penny about her career in journalism and media, her influence in making the art collection at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz stadium worthy of a fine arts museum in what she looks forward to for her next adventure. Penny first visited ceremony before homes had been built. And she and her has been even joked about wondering if Steve's vision could work nearly 20 years later, that vision is realized and the McFees have found a happier, healthier life living at Seren B

1 (1m 31s):
As we've lived in Sarah and B. We've come to appreciate the people who are here and the diverse backgrounds and just amazing people, talent and talented people. So I do think it attracts a kind of person who does want to make a difference.

2 (1m 50s):
All right,

0 (1m 51s):
Want to welcome everybody back to ceremony stories this morning or afternoon this morning. And today we are very excited to have a really phenomenal resident that many of you may know, penny McPhee. How are you? Penny?

1 (2m 6s):
Terrific. Terrific. Monica, thank you so much for inviting me. Want me to talk with Steve today? We're just

3 (2m 13s):
Delighted that you're joining the conversation are so proud that you are

0 (2m 22s):
Looking forward to our conversation today. Yeah, penny, you have had quite a storied career, which I want to dig into about all your time in Atlanta and prior as well as you are a published author that I don't know if everybody knows about, I want to dig into that a little bit, but the first question we always ask everybody is how did you discover Sarah and B? And what made you,

1 (2m 47s):
This is a long story that take the

0 (2m 50s):
Whole 35 minutes. Okay. That's okay. We're here.

1 (2m 54s):
My husband Ray and I moved to Atlanta in 2004. Ray is a retired film director and producer, and he was asked by the Atlanta regional commission shortly after we got here sometime in 2004 to work with them on a video about development in Atlanta and among the topics was Sarah and me. So we came down here. It was probably fall of 2004. And you can tell better than I, what was here then, but what was mostly here was Steve and an idea in his head and the farm house, of course.

1 (3m 37s):
And I think the days he was here, then I'm not even sure about that, but we were like, wow, if this ever happened, which we don't really believe that it will. And then it was the only interesting thing, by the way, in the arc video, Ray thought the rest was just, you know, for old fashion sprawl development. So we were kind of struck with this. And shortly after that, we learned that a long time friend of ours, John Graham lived here. We had known John when he was the executive director of the Florida Philharmonic in Florida.

1 (4m 18s):
And I had that time was working for the Knight foundation, which was big supporter of the Florida, Phil. So John invited us down several times and Steve and I were just talking yesterday. One of the times that John invited us was to come and see the Atlanta symphony orchestra. And I don't really exactly remember Steve, what happened to the, yeah, it

3 (4m 43s):
Was, you know, this was, we had a dinner at the farmhouse for VIP's and, and penny and Ray certainly qualified for that. And then we had two chartered buses to take people out to the pasture and we had the full Atlanta symphony. This was a relationship, it was a three-year program with Starbucks to bring a culture out to more rural areas. And so we had, it was just an incredible event and it had been raining the days before and you know, not a problem because this was a big stage. And so the buses came out, everyone got out, went an incredible, and, and the, the bustin had pulled off to the side and everyone afterwards came and got in the bus.

3 (5m 37s):
And no one noticed that the one bus was in a rather soft spot. And by the time everyone got on the bus, it had something just enough that you couldn't open the doors and the bus was stuck and couldn't pull out. And so we had, we had 40 stuck inside a bus and they can't get out. And after about 45 minutes of trying and everything, we found some sort of a boxes and I forget ladder and all of our VIP's including penny and Ray had to crawl out the window of the bus to get out of this thing.

3 (6m 20s):
<inaudible>

1 (6m 30s):
This was so interesting because we also became very close friends with Diane and Richard Cohen. Diana, at that time, when I first moved here to work at the blank foundation, Diane was the commissioner for parks in Atlanta. And the foundation was doing a huge amount of acquisition of land to create parks. So Diane and I became friendly. And then we decided, well, let's get our guys together and see what happens. And they became very friendly. So the con's invited us down a number of times, mostly for the Playhouse to see whatever the current production of the Playhouse was. And, you know, we watched the growth of the Playhouse.

1 (7m 11s):
The first production we came to was called a walk in the woods and it was like a two person production and it grew and grew and grew and, and we're we're theatergoers. So we love that. We love that element and it was always fun to come down and stay with the koans for the weekend. But I think the biggest driver ultimately is that from the, from the time we arrived in Atlanta, Ray had respiratory issues that he had never had in Miami. And everybody thought at the beginning that it was allergies because Atlanta, you know, has all these colon issues.

1 (7m 52s):
But the truth is it took us a long time to figure it out that it wasn't allergies. It was pollution in Atlanta and it was the ozone. And it was the worst in the summer when that inversion happens and he was miserable. So we looked for solutions to that. And one summer, I don't know, maybe in 2009, five years after we arrived, who spent the summer at big canoe because we thought, well, maybe being in the mountains would be good. And it was, it did help his breathing, but he didn't really like big canoe. There was kind of no community there. It just wasn't for us. And then I think, you know, Diane or other friends of ours here in Santa Ana said, well, you should try singing to be because even though it's not in the mountains, we have no kids with asthma.

1 (8m 39s):
They bragged about no kids with asthma and the something about the wind coming from Alabama. I don't know you better than I do. Steve can explain it. So we rented for a summer in Sarah and B and Ray was much better. So I'm then saying to myself, you know, if there's a solution this close to Atlanta, I really can't keep him in Atlanta. And that was the beginning of when we started thinking about a move to Sarah and B,

0 (9m 13s):
I was going to say, Steve, you have the, you have the answer,

3 (9m 17s):
The prevailing winds. And so we have all the queen forest, some 2 million acres Southwest of us, that's blowing fresh air. And so, although we're close to the airport, all of the pollution from the airport blows away from us too to the Northeast. And if you look at the high pollution days, I think there was 12 monitoring stations around Metro Atlanta. And the lowest reading is always the one between Carrollton and doona. And the highest one is south Northeast of stone mountain.

3 (10m 2s):
So it makes sense. So this is why I said that it's important that we saved the forest south of Atlanta. It's just not about land preservation. It's an air quality issue for all of Metro Atlanta.

1 (10m 17s):
And I honestly, I think, you know, I really believe in my heart that res health has not only stabilized, but has improved since we've been in Sarah and me. And I think a lot of it is the air. A lot of it is the community. So Ray has always been a very introverted guy. He doesn't need a lot of friends. He's totally happy with his books and his computer. And Sarah really brought him out in a way that was totally unexpected and has just been

3 (10m 56s):
Divine about saying hello to people on the street. Well,

1 (11m 1s):
I insisted that are our dogs that we had in Buckhead had both died. And he was like, I don't know, do I want another dog? And I like, yes, you're getting a dog because that is going to get him out. And, and that, of course, he now can tell me the names of all the dogs and Sarah, and he might not know the person's name and he knows the dog's name.

0 (11m 26s):
I absolutely love that. Well, penny, you mentioned that you had come to Atlanta in 2004, I think. So tell us a little bit before we dig into your time here. So where were you before you had actually quite a big career before you got to the blank foundation, which I know a lot of people focus on now, which I want to talk about and you were had this beautiful, everybody should read beautiful article in arts ATL recently cause you just from the foundation. So I encourage everybody read it cause I learned a ton about you, but for the listeners, tell us a little bit how your career arc, where you grew up, how, and then the kind of how you ended up coming back to Atlanta.

1 (12m 6s):
Thanks Monica. Another long story I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of a surgeon and a homemaker. And I knew from a very, very, very early age that I wanted to change the world and that I, that writing was my talent and it was courage. And, you know, I was blessed and lucky to have the family that I had and the resources and et cetera. So I always from probably my junior year in high school plan to be a journalist and my dad knew the publisher of the then Louisville career journal, which was at that time in the age of newspapers was actually a really good newspaper.

1 (12m 58s):
And he called Barry Bingham and said, Barry, my daughter wants to be a journalist. Where should she go to college? Now the colleges that I have been considering were Northwestern because of journalism and Wellesley and liberal arts. And Barry told my dad, we never hire anyone directly out of undergraduate. She should go get a great liberal arts education. And then she should go to Columbia school journalism. So, you know, like the focus little girl, I was, I went to Wellesley and went to Columbia school of journalism. And I did look at journalism and I still do. And it's an important part of who I am as a way to shine a light on things that aren't right in our society.

1 (13m 48s):
So I finished college, finished graduate school, took a job at what was then the CBS affiliate in Miami where Ray, my now husband was my boss. Ah, but that also meant I couldn't really stay in that job. That became a kind of nepotistic thing. So I went to work at the public television station in Miami and ultimately became the executive producer there for all of their non-news programming. What that means is their arts programming, especially that was sort of like forte, but also their sports programming, anything that wasn't hard news.

1 (14m 37s):
And in 1980, the Knight foundation, which was created by the brothers who started Knight Ridder, newspapers moved their foundation from Akron, Ohio to Miami because the newspaper company was headquartered in Miami. And one of the brothers had recently died. The other brother was living in Miami. And I literally saw an ad in the newspaper that said the foundation was looking for an arts and culture program officer. And I said to Ray, that job has my name on it. Even though I was totally happy at the television station.

1 (15m 17s):
And he said, what are you talking about? You don't know anything about foundations. And I said, and this turned out to be so prophetic that I tell young women this all the time, you have to look at what your skills are, not what your jobs were. And I said, I really think that being a program officer is exactly like being a TV producer. It's either having a good idea or more likely recognizing somebody else's good idea, and then bringing together the elements to implement it, to make it happen. And I thought my communication skills were up to the task. Ultimately I got the job, which I really loved.

1 (15m 60s):
And I was at a Knight foundation for 14 years in progressively, you know, positions of increased responsibility. So that by 2004, I was, I had been the vice president for programs and the chief operating officer for about five years at that point in time, five or six years at that point in time. And I loved it. I wasn't looking to leave. Miami is such an interesting community and it changed radically while Ray and I were there.

1 (16m 40s):
So from like the early seventies to the early two thousands, it became an international city. We went through all of the ups and downs of the Cuban immigrations, good and bad. We went through the drug dealing and shootings and, but we really liked Miami. And I liked it more than I had in the early days, but a head hunter called me and she said, we're looking for a president of the Arthur M blank family foundation. Do you know who Arthur blank is? And I didn't have a clue. So then she explained home Depot. Well, we loved home Depot.

1 (17m 21s):
And one of the reasons that we loved home Depot is in itself an interesting story, but Ray and I were in Miami. So hurricane Andrew literally destroyed the home. We were living in at that time. And home Depot was a hero in Miami. At that time, it was a pretty young up and coming company. It was one of the only companies that didn't increase its prices at the time of the hurricane. It really helped people in the community. So we knew home Depot, but still that wasn't really enough to, for me to say, I'm ready to leave the Knight foundation. So she said, well, listen, you should just come and interview Arthur.

1 (18m 4s):
It's always good to keep your hand in. You never know what's going to happen at the Knight foundation. So I said, okay. And really the rest is history. I met Arthur. I was blown away by his vision for what he wanted to do in Atlanta, through his family foundation. And we moved south to Atlanta because Miami is not the south, but Atlanta is. So that was in 2004. And it was that year that we first came and saw Sarah and me. And then, you know, the blank foundation has just been a perfect fit for me is I've been very blessed in my career to have three jobs that at the moment I had them were the perfect fit first at public television.

1 (18m 56s):
Then at Knight foundation and the foundation, very few people are that fortunate to be able to, you know, have that kind of professional experience and really grow and be surrounded by amazing people and supported by an amazing team in each of those places. So,

0 (19m 15s):
And had you been to Atlanta before? Cause I know that you had written a couple of books that I just want to touch on because I know it's not sort of the primary thing that people know you for, but I was fascinated that this was had these two books that were both on MLK come out of the work that you're doing at public radio. And if so, did you come to Atlanta during that time to do research? I'd love to hear that story. Those were in the seventies and eighties. Yes.

1 (19m 42s):
So another whole chapter, we had a very good friend in Miami who was a Time-Life photographer. His name was he's deceased, but he was an amazing photographer. And during the civil rights and he was enough older than me, that he had experienced the civil rights era firsthand and taken photos for Time-Life. Most of his photographs were of Dr. King and his family and his colleagues. He didn't flip did not take the kind of, you know, the dogs and hoses in Selma or the bus boycott in Montgomery.

1 (20m 28s):
He took intimate family pictures of Dr. King and he had an amazing collection and he wanted to do a book, a photographic book, and no publisher was interested. This was in, I guess, around 1976, because I think I had had my daughter Cameron, so mid seventies, finally, WW Norton, which was a quality publisher said, okay, we'll do this cocktail table book photographs pro bono. It'll be our pro bono book this year and nobody will get paid for it. But flip being flipped really wanted people to see the photographs that was way more important to him than the money.

1 (21m 14s):
And you know, the, at that time, Dr. King was still a bit of a controversial figure, which was why no publishing company, most white were interested in it, but we did the book and he came to me and said, listen, there's not going to be any money in this, but he knew I was a writer. Would you just do the cut lines for the pictures, for the photographs? And I said, sure. And I really, you know, I was a bit too young to have experienced the civil rights movement. My era was really Vietnam, but I was genuinely interested and it soon became obvious that a picture is not worth a thousand words and that you actually had to have text more than just cutlines.

1 (22m 4s):
So what started out as a really easy project became a much bigger project because I decided to use as many of Dr King's words as possible for the text of the book. So that meant I ran all of his books and of course I read about him, but I, I really excerpted a lot of his own writing. And for that book, which was called Martin Luther king, a documentary Montgomery to Memphis, the book was published. All of the proceeds went to the king center in Atlanta. But for that book, I didn't do any original research.

1 (22m 45s):
I didn't do any interviews. I didn't come to Atlanta to answer your question, but I learned a tremendous amount and of course, none of us getting money. So that was okay. In 1986, Congress was creating the first king holiday and WW Norton came back to flip and me and said, let's do another book in honor of the holiday. We want this to be primarily texts with some photographs, a centerpiece of photographs, but we want it to be aimed at the young adult reading audience.

1 (23m 29s):
And I had the genuine honor of being the author of that book, which was called king remembered. So for that book, I came to Atlanta that was probably in 86 and interviewed all of Dr. King's, then living lieutenants. So, and Ralph Abernathy, Dr. Lowery, I did not interview Caretta, but I interviewed all of his lieutenants.

1 (24m 10s):
And that for me was transformational. That was probably of all of my professional experiences. And I've done a lot of interviews in all these years. Those interviews were truly transformational. And the one that I remember the best was the interview with Dr. Ralph Abernathy, because he was Dr. King's closest friend. He was with Dr. King when, when he was murdered. And I had been trying and trying to set up this appointment with Dr. Abernathy. And it was like moved and it was back and forth and up and down.

1 (24m 51s):
And finally he said, well, come to my church on Wednesday night. That's when we have our social evening. And then after, after that, we'll do the interview. So I did, and of course he got tied up and he had someplace else. He had to go. So he said, okay, we'll do the interview in the car. He had his, his driver was in the front and flip was in the front seat with the driver and Dr. Abernathy and I were in the back seat and I had a little tape recorder and we talk, you know, I didn't appreciate, I appreciated the Atlanta traffic.

1 (25m 32s):
I have a good half hour at least for this interview, but by the end of it, I was in tears because he literally walked me through the night, the day and the night that Dr. King was assassinated and what he did, nobody else did. And it was just remarkable. But I think, you know, the thing that impressed me in interviewing all of Dr King's associates was how, how forgiving they are and how, how much grace, they have to continue doing the hard work that they all did.

1 (26m 18s):
Even after that tragedy, they're just remarkable men in their own rights. So that was an amazing experience anywhere. Have you? So Steve, the biggest tragedy of hurricane Andrew recordings were in my house and they were blown away destroyed. That was the biggest loss that we had really, because, you know, the material things you can replace. And we were very fortunate that our family photographs were in the one room that stayed dry.

1 (27m 4s):
That was a blessing, but I've given a lot of thought to that afterwards. You know, when you, when you have to leave a place because of some kind of impending disaster, what you take with you, and I didn't have any choice because we were on a cruise when her Andrews struck, we didn't know that it was coming when we left on the cruise. So we didn't take anything with us, but, you know, I thought about it and I would've probably said, okay, he'd take my jewelry. And, but would I have thought to take the family photographs would, I'd thought to take the king interview that the king remembered interviews?

1 (27m 45s):
I don't know if I would have, but now I certainly know what we treasure

0 (27m 51s):
Well, and I'll tie that in because the blank foundation then, and I would love to know, you know, how much influence you had on this became one of the top organizations to raise money, to ensure that King's papers not only stayed in Atlanta, but I think stayed together. So that kind of contagious into talking about the foundation a little bit, but was that you, or I'm sure I'm sure Arthur was involved, but

1 (28m 22s):
It was my influence for sure, but very willing donor. And so when Shirley Franklin, who was then mayor and Andy young, decided to try to create a museum, the center for what became the center for civil and human rights, we were among the early committed donors. And that project took a long time because you'll all remember that the 2008 recession happened and it really slowed down their fundraising in the same way that it slowed down the progress in Sarah and B.

1 (29m 8s):
There was just not the time to try to raise money, but we had made a commitment, an early commitment to the museum. And around the same time, Dr. King's heirs decided to put his papers in auction at Sotheby's and again, Shirley Franklin and, and said, you know, we cannot let these papers leave Atlanta. So Arthur, the foundation, several banks either donated or loaned money to acquire those papers.

1 (29m 50s):
I think the total cost was like, I want to say $23 million, but they did it quite quickly. And yes, we were part of that. And I was ecstatic that we did that. And you know, we're now a major donor, I should say the foundation. I still say we, but the foundation is still is a major donor of this new capital campaign that the center for civil and human rights is undertaking to expand because in 2008, because of the recession, they had to pull back on their original design and they didn't create the full plan that they had envisioned.

1 (30m 32s):
So now there's an opportunity to re-imagine the center and add the wings that they couldn't win. Couldn't build originally, which will include. And I think this is really important, a family exhibit, because one of the things about the center and its location, you know, it's right by the children's museum, the world of Coke, the aquarium, but it doesn't really, it's not really appropriate for young children. You have to be, you know, probably at least a middle or to the center. So to have a family exhibit where younger children can come with their families and understand, even if they don't understand the history of the civil rights, understand the concepts of fairness and justice, which are really values that you want to teach your children early.

1 (31m 30s):
So I think it's going to be terrific.

0 (31m 31s):
Well, that's exciting. I didn't, I hadn't realized that, you know, I knew when it opened and have been there and it is a very powerful museum and you're right. It is, my kids went when they were sort of in the upper, you know, the upper elementary. It was tough, you know, they came back changed, you know? So I, I, it's exciting to hear that and that will definitely follow what's happening, but you mentioned the aquarium. So, so, you know, Arthur blank foundation has really, I want to say almost touched every institution here in Atlanta. And one of the big things is obviously the arts and museums. I think children's healthcare. Also, you guys have supported quite a bit and the Mercedes Benz stadium, I was fascinated with the arts program there that you, I think, you know, you kind of got woven into that.

0 (32m 21s):
And I think that's a beautiful thing where, you know, many of us, you know, if you don't get to a museum or you only go once a year, maybe you go with your kids to have exposure to the arts and to new artists in a sporting venue is very cool. So tell us how that kinda,

1 (32m 41s):
So you have to understand that first of all, Arthur thinks of all of his enterprises as one great business. It's not a separate stadium, Falcons, Atlanta, United foundation, ranches in Montana, it's all one big enterprise. So when he thinks about how he's going to implement a project, he pulls people for their talent across the businesses. And he had seen the very, really museum quality art at the Dallas stadium, the Cowboys stadium.

1 (33m 24s):
And that was, I think maybe the inspiration for, you know, let's think about art in the stadium, but he wanted to think about it completely differently. In, in Dallas, they were more pure art objects that were beautiful and some very, very, very well-known artists and, and acclaimed artists, but they weren't really integrated into the stadium. They, they weren't sending a message in the stadium. So Arthur wanted to make the art much more accessible, have it in the, all of the concourses, not just in the suites, not just in the clubs, but really throughout the stadium, which meant commissioning some huge murals for a Concourse because you know, a piece of art, like the one behind me gets lost in a stadium.

1 (34m 24s):
And we spoke with a number of different consultants who we thought might help us do the work in the stadium. One was the consultant from San Francisco who worked with in Dallas. And she said, never again, it wasn't going to happen. That was about the owner in Dallas or about the project, but you can imagine. And then we spoke to a group who had done a number of state. They'd done Yankee stadium. They, they were two women from New York. They had done a number of stadium projects, but we didn't think their vision was grand enough.

1 (35m 6s):
They had mostly sports-related art didn't really ring our bell either. So we ended up and I think Arthur son, Kenny blank, suggested that we reach out to SCAD. We didn't know this at the time, but SCAD has schools and museums all over the world and they are extremely entrepreneurial. And they did an amazing job bringing to us artists from all over the world and Georgia, because it was important to us that we had both local artists, but also international artists that, and then we had a committee of which I was honored to serve that looked at the art and said, you know, let's have this artists do a proposal.

1 (35m 60s):
This artists do a proposal, whatever, but the normal way that you commissioned art, but it was an amazing process because it was a bit risk going with SCAD who had never worked in a stadium before. We had no idea if they could really implement, they were fabulous. And the collection is really diverse. The artists are racially diverse women and men, all parts of the country, a big Georgia collection. If you've been to the stadium, you've seen that enormous Falcon sculpture outside the stadium that was produced by a Hungarian artist and flown over here in segments to be put together and installed here.

1 (36m 49s):
So it's really a remarkable public art collection. And it, it, I have a passion for public art. It's one of the things that I want to work on here in Sarah and B, but this is a special collection because you don't have to go to a game to see it. You can, there are tours up in non COVID times. There are tours of the collection. And even in non COVID times when the stadium is stadium is open, you can walk through and see some of the art, right. You know, by the store, for example, it's, it was a privilege.

0 (37m 31s):
I just think that's so great to just sort of get art out from, you know, I love a museum. I love galleries, but get it out. And I love that you were saying that it's not, you know, locked away in suites. It's like for the public, it very democratizes it. So that's an amazing accomplishment. What a cool thing that you were able to work on, even though that wasn't, you know, your core area. So I love that he brings people together like that.

1 (37m 57s):
No, it was, it was exciting. And you know, I don't know if you're familiar with the Hillel quote that says, if not now, when, if not me, that is one of the first pieces of art that you see when you walk into the stadium. And that's because Arthur apparently has carried that quote in his wallet, in his pocket for years.

0 (38m 24s):
And I was going to say, Steve, D we, we should, we should quote the whole thing. Cause I know Ray Anderson had said that quote to you, Steve,

3 (38m 35s):
To finally push me through that threshold of passion to actually redefine myself as a developer and step out of retirement. So that's a very familiar quote that Monica hers, very repeat several

0 (38m 47s):
Times. It's a wonderful quote. It's a wonderful quote. And I think, you know, we should all realize that we have agency, right. You know, we can make a difference and you know, whatever that might be, you know, sometimes we get so bogged down that all these things, these crazy things are happening in the world. And we have nothing, we can't do anything, but we do, we do have agency. So I think that quote is really beautiful

3 (39m 16s):
And it, it, it, it leads into the period of time we're in, because there's certainly a lot of people complaining about all sorts of things on all sorts of levels. And I think we do have to realize that we need to step back and understand what we can change and what we do have control of. That's why I always say that we just tried to protect our own backyard. We never expected it to come into this. And penny, you're an example. I think the, the, the people who are retiring, especially as baby boomers down start reaching retirement age, that our generation caused a lot of the problems we're living with today.

3 (39m 59s):
We were the generation of love and peace in the sixties. And we turned into the greed and selfish generation of the nineties and two thousands. And now in this next chapter, I believe we are all healthier and living longer than our parents' generation did. And we're still, we, it's our time to step in to these responsible things. And, and you know, it's not me who, and if not now, when is something that I think every retired person looks at and penny, I know you look at that. I'm just so thrilled the year, Sarah, me, and I know you are taking on projects and it's just exciting to see all the people at Serra who are in their retired lives.

3 (40m 45s):
We had this, we could never hire the people who are stepping in to do these incredible things.

1 (40m 49s):
No, it, it, it really isn't. And you know, as we've, as we've lived in Sarah and B, we've come to appreciate the people who are here and the diverse backgrounds and just amazing people, talent and talented people. So I do think it attracts a kind of person who does want to make a difference. And, and I think I certainly look forward to, to that

3 (41m 19s):
People often say they just feel ceremony when they arrive here. And I said, it's rare that you're in an entire community filled with hope. And I think that is what you find here.

1 (41m 28s):
So, you know, for the first, I guess that we had the home in Sarah and B, but we also still had a condo in Midtown and I was still working and commuting on the weekends. And I would drive into Sarah and be on Friday night and I could feel my blood pressure go down. It was just a breath of fresh air. And it's, it's interesting too, when we, when we sold our home in Buckhead, the two things that I thought I was really gonna miss the most were my kitchen. Cause I didn't, I had just redone the kitchen and our gardens because we did have a fabulous, fabulous garden in Sarah and B.

1 (42m 13s):
And it was really, you know, I treasured it. I have not missed either one of those things. And part of the reason is that Seren B is a garden in all of Sarah. And B gives me that I'm sitting in my office now looking out into the trees, I watch and hear the birds all the time, but I don't have to take care of it as a blessing. But the other thing that really has grown on us, the took a little more time. You know, the nature part is immediate. You sense that immediate the community, the people and the shared values of the folks who live here and I shared values that doesn't necessarily mean that, you know, they're all progressive Democrats or whatever, but they have an appreciation for nature art, the whole concept of sustainability, the concept of living together in community that is rare.

1 (43m 21s):
And we're, we're pretty fortunate.

3 (43m 25s):
And, and that includes people on extremes of both political parties. That's the interesting thing. So it's not, it has nothing to do with that. That's great. Well, penny, this is, you know, one thing we always want to share with our listeners is for those that don't live here is if someone's coming to Sarah and be for a first time or a visited several times, what's something you would suggest they seek out and find something that maybe surprised you or that isn't obvious.

1 (43m 54s):
Well, I think it's easy to come to Sarah and be, and go to the farm house and maybe have a drink or a meal, or go to the Daisy and have lunch or a cup of coffee. I think you really do miss something. If you don't take the time to walk in the woods and actually get lost a little bit in the woods. And Steve, you'll appreciate this. When we first got here, I walk a lot as you know, and I got lost all the time and I was very frustrated that there weren't good trail signs and the trail signs have improved in the time that we've been here, but I've come to appreciate more your notion that it's actually not so bad to get lost in the woods,

3 (44m 48s):
Helps us develop our sense of place.

1 (44m 53s):
I still don't know where north and south is, but I do know how to find my way home.

0 (45m 2s):
Well, penny, thank you so much. This was such a joy. I can't wait to watch the next chapter as you're here, hopefully some public art. And I just want to thank you for taking the time today. This was an absolute joy and I love hearing about your life and all the things you've done and what what's coming next. Well,

1 (45m 21s):
Thank you both so much. This has been fun for me and I hope interesting, definitely, but I, I, I really appreciate being offered this opportunity and you know, I'm here to help make Sarah and be everything we all want it to be. Thanks so much.

0 (45m 49s):
Thank you for listening to Sarah and B's stories. New episodes are available on Mondays. Please follow us and leave us a five-star review and visit our website to learn more about guests, episodes and everything. Seren bead@serenbstories.com. This episode is supported by the, in it Seren, be nestled in the rolling countryside of the bucolic community of ceremony, where guests can walk on the 15 miles of private trails through preserved forest land, the wildflower meadow and the animal village, relax at the pool hot tub or in rocking chairs on wraparound porch, lay on the croquet lawn, grab a canoe and jump on the in-ground trampoline, connects with nature and each other all while staying in a luxurious space at the end at ceremony book your stay today at <inaudible> dot com, S E R E N B E I N n.com.