Why Write a Memoir?

Mary Means Uncategorized 0 Comment

“How is it that I’ve never heard of you before? I’ve been working in the field for nearly a decade.” The young Main Street director looks at me with curiosity, friendly but confused.

Young professional Mary Means has no idea what personal and professional changes lie ahead.

Her question stuns me in its honesty. “Do you really want to know?” Her kind eyes tell me it’s time to talk… but time to talk about what, exactly? And where to begin? With my professional identity? Or with the larger truth, that despite great success I remained plagued by doubt, afraid of being exposed as an imposter—both personally and professionally—doomed to spend the rest of her days marinating in shame? What about the decades spent dreading discovery, fearing failure, and expecting to be exposed as the bad person my inner voice keeps insisting I am?

Answering these questions would take four years. The real answer would encompass everything: all of me, even the secrets. But along the way, I’d discover a new way to experience loving myself, loving myself enough to set myself free from the secrets that have had a hold on me most of my life. Loving myself enough to acknowledge there are parts of me I’ve not loved, that I’ve feared others knowing, believing that if they became known, the identity I’d carefully constructed and upheld would vanish.

That I would then be revealed as a fraud.

But with this book, I release me from fear and shame. Something Worth Saving shares the journey, in hopes my story will help others calm their anxiety, overcome their fear, vanquish their shame, and set out on their own paths to happiness.

I can’t wait for what comes next.

Coming Soon: Mary’s First Book!

Mary Means Uncategorized , , , 0 Comment

I am thrilled to announce the imminent publication of my first book! Main Street’s Comeback… And How It Can Come Back Again will become available in late November through a variety of professional and commercial channels.

About a year ago, I set out to chronicle the Main Street Project and how this remarkable citizen-led movement kept the heart of the nation’s small towns beating.  Then came the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic recession.  As national leadership dithered and election year politics produced only limited relief for families and businesses, main street’s future prospects looked increasingly grim.  Did this confluence of events mean the end for small town commercial districts? 

Then it hit me. Main streets have survived disaster before. Some of them have coped with more than one seemingly insurmountable event, from the Civil War to the Great Depression.  In my own lifetime, main streets have been declared dead several times, yet endured the post war exodus to the suburbs, the spread of shopping centers, and most recently, online retailing.

Today’s main streets are much more resilient than they were forty years ago. Credit goes to all those years of reinvesting and rehabilitating buildings, of forming strong civic collaborations, of bringing people back downtown, of making downtown once again the center of community celebrations – and protests.

Main Street’s Comeback describes how this came to be–the nearly invisible interdependent web holding the future of these towns and their main streets together—and how it can be deployed again to meet current challenges.  It’s organized in three sections:

  • Part One — The Origin Story covers the origin of the Main Street Approach: how a 3-town, 3-year pilot project survived to become the National Main Street Center.
  • Part Two — Rise of Main Street explores the expansion of the main street revitalization movement, its rippling impact and influence on travel, heritage development, the design of new towns, and even historic preservation itself.
  • Part Three — Return of Main Street looks ahead, including factors that may hold promise for communities that are struggling to emerge from the damage wrought by the pandemic.

The key to saving America’s main streets today lies in the collaborative regeneration system built over the last four decades. It’s comprised of partnerships between small main street coordination offices in nearly 40 states, and the hundreds of active grassroots local main street organizations they serve.  

Publication is expected in late October 2020. Get in touch to be notified when it’s available.