Everyone seems to be in a “funk” right now — a kind of blah.

Some of this is typical summertime behavior with our usual routines being disrupted by vacations, hot weather, kids being out of school, and other distractions.

Just like being upbeat and happy are contagious, so are the blahs. We see this insurmountable hill that we must climb over. The hill keeps getting higher, making us think we may never get over it.

Negativity spreads like wildfire. All it takes is a little spark of “Did you hear about …” with a douse of “I knew that would happen” and before you know it, we have raging flames of “This town is dead.”

OK, folks. It’s time to shake it off.

We have visitors in Marion all of the time — people camping at one of the lakes, travelers passing through, pipeline workers, and those in town for sporting events. Every time we turn around, we have opportunities to promote our communities.

Are we doing it?

When we’re asked, “Where are you from?” do we respond almost apologetically or do we proudly say, “I’m from Marion — a great place to live and raise a family.”

When visitors come to our businesses, are we welcoming, friendly, and helpful or do we assume they probably will not come back anyway so why should it matter?

Could part of our problem be that some of us are not convinced this is the best place we’ve seen? If we don’t believe it, then how are we supposed to convince others that Marion is great?

The best way to know just how great this community is or could be is to get involved. Volunteer to help at a swim meet or baseball tournament. Attend the meeting at 7 p.m. July 20 to discuss the upcoming sesquicentennial celebration being planned for 2011. The celebration isn’t just for us; it’s also another opportunity to promote Marion.

Like it or not, we are all ambassadors of this community. Either we can be ambassadors to bring in and keep residents who want to help make this a better place or we can foster the idea of hate and contempt.

We’re always talking about quality of life and how we seem to be seeking someone or something to bring this “quality of life” to us.

Actually, it’s up to us to decide how we want to live. Before we can promote ourselves to the rest of the world, we have to be convinced of what a great place this is.

— susan berg