The big picture can be best viewed by taking a step back

Whanganui locals show their passion for the town. PHOTO/STUART MUNRO

Years ago, I was the Detective Sergeant at Stratford with responsibility for Whangamomona and the Eastern Taranaki, and in the course of inquiries I went to visit a house on a really remote property at Tahora. The house was perched on the top of a hill with the most incredible outlook over ridges to the snowy peak of Ruapehu.

I commented to the old-timer with me that building the house must have been an incredible feat, but he laughed. The house had been built in the valley, was cold, damp and had a miserable view. The lady of the house hated it, so her husband jacked up the house, put it on a truck and drove it up the hill.

"When the wheels started to spin, we hooked a big bulldozer on the front and towed it to the top of the hill." They had jacked the house down off the truck and admired their new view.

A couple of weeks ago, people in Whanganui were subjected to a pretty brutal profile of their city, but the criticisms were levelled at all provincial cities and a pretty dour future was predicted unless there was some radical and innovative change in approach and circumstances. Many got angry and responded accordingly, but with that came various plans to respond.

Some organised a march which could have been a mass grizzle but turned out to be a celebration of what Whanganui means as a place to live, grow, raise kids, work and play, learn and be. Others contacted the competing television channel and the resulting item was hugely positive: the opportunities that exist here and the exposure to a number of entrepreneurs who have turned their location in Whanganui into an asset which creates jobs, spurs innovation, generates creativity and turns a profit.

I attended a meeting last Monday night which saw a large number of citizens intent on pushing their city at every chance to encourage visitors, new business, and a new profile for an enhanced outlook.

The Cabinet reshuffle held a few surprises for some of us.

Politics can be a brutal game. We all know it and we have seen some dirty stuff in the past few months as the theatre of the election for the 51st New Zealand Parliament played out.

In a reflection of life-in-general, the odd event comes at you from left-field and changes the game. Like the bounce of the ball in a cliff-hanger rugby match, that event can change the course of history for someone and what looked like certainties are all of a sudden out of reach.

The funny thing about these events, though, is that, also like the rest of life, it isn't the event but the response to it that sets the agenda for the future. We describe this as a "glass half-full or half-empty" mentality and the most optimistic response is to be preferred.

So soon after such an abrasive election campaign, electorates can see the lack of representation around the table as a slap in the face, but this isn't the case.

The selection of a Cabinet is about choosing a shop window for a political party and so must reflect the diversity of the nation it is to govern.

That skill set is more subjective than objective and based more on aesthetics rather than it being a meritocracy and either this is accepted by candidates or they are in the wrong game.

Community service is about sacrifice at any level. The big picture is best viewed by taking a step back. (I'm making up my own cliches and you have to admit, some of them are pretty good).

So any response to what is done to us, dealt to us, said about us, or what we discover ourselves about us, is critical to how others see us, and how history will record it.

Like changing the view from the bottom of the valley to the top of the ridge, it is a matter of choice. What we make of our chances is a matter of choice, for an individual, a community, a city, a country, or a planet.