Knocking on a block of marble – Write On

I first met Jared Loftus in the summer of 2006. We sat at a table at the Chimes, one next to the bank of windows facing Highland Road and looking out at the corner building across the street that he had converted into a t-shirt shop called Tiger District.

After an hour of discussing thread counts, humorous slogans and eye-catching designs that could run creative laps around traditional sports gear titans like Starter or Russell, the Mississippi transplant leaned across the table and really let me have the scoop.

“I never had in mind to just open a little shop at LSU and then that would be it,” he said. There was something in his voice that promised he wasn’t blowing smoke.

This is an ambitious one, for sure, I thought. And t-shirts are just the beginning.

As many Baton Rougeans know, Loftus is involved with several businesses now—from food trucks to co-working spaces to e-commerce websites.

As for me, I’ve never considered myself an entrepreneur in the strictest sense, but a year ago this month I helped launch American Thrift, a grassroots community-building effort focused on organizing music events, and run by talented friends Barrett Black and John Tulley. These guys are all about bringing people together and creating ways for quality musicians to gain support. I love sharing ideas with them. I am not sure where opportunity will take that group, but I find myself circling back to something my basketball coaches used to tell the team before a game: “Leave it all on the court.”

Those games were 32 minutes of opportunity, and then they were over. Gone.

I believe the same philosophy applies to me, to 225, to this thing we call community that each one of us is working for, that each one of us needs even if it’s not something we always want or even recognize.

Through the process of becoming editor of this magazine, I realized that nothing can be saved for later. Of course strategic planning and goal-setting are essential, but in terms of creative thought and engagement, every ounce of focus, enthusiasm and effort must go into the project at hand. Whether big or small, every task requires everything you’ve got. Then, all you can do is trust that the next time you dig into your creative bag there will be something else interesting and new to pull out.

Kathy Keller, wife of author and pastor Dr. Timothy Keller, once said, “People are looking for statues to marry when they should be looking for good pieces of marble.” That’s the way I feel about Baton Rouge right now, and I believe the entrepreneurs in our cover story would agree. Loftus saw a potential in Baton Rouge that few did. He liked the look of our marble.

Maybe those who move away to bigger cities are looking for finished statues. Maybe not, and even so, that’s fine. But maybe those who stay do so to fight and to build, to search for raw materials and something worthwhile to do with them.

Sure, Baton Rouge has its challenges, but when I step back and really look at what and who we are as a community, I see a good block of marble just waiting for more sculptors to get their hands on it and make something great.