Just received the Vermont Community Broad Band Public Input Survey by email. Well designed with thoughtful and specific questions about vital services.

My point in writing today, however, is more narrow. I get similar surveys often (too often!) but want to express my appreciation and admiration for good, broad contemporary thinking from those who wrote the survey.

Their last question will be familiar to everyone: please check off the box that best matches your age. Its final box was not 65+, the end of most surveys. It did not even cap out at 75+. Hooray to those who designed the survey for adding a final category: 85+. I thank them.

I’ve been in both places, and most happy, and surprised, to be an 85+ today. My views about many important things remain in many ways the same over the years, but my perspectives from the mid-ninth decade, as I know also the perspectives of many of my age peers, are not always those of a 75-year-old.

So thanks to those who know the wide range of people who live in Vermont today. We read, we listen, we vote. We participate in the life of our communities, local and global, as often and as long as we can. Thank you for listening.

Kathleen G. (Kiki) Johnson

Middlebury