The January meeting of Cumberland County's new board of supervisors may not have been wrinkle-free-that's to be expected with so many new faces and new voices. There are no dress rehearsals. No practices. You must get up there and do it and hope to learn a little bit more each month.

Wisdom is gained through experience and experience cannot be taught. Nor is the road ever smooth for very long. There are bumps and there will always be bumps. We learn to get over them, or we don't ever get over them because that positive resolution will not happen by itself.

Winning an election is far easier than actually governing and all new members of every board of supervisors in the state learn this truth. As do members of the General Assembly, Congress and the President of the United States.

The four-year journey has begun for these supervisors and there is so much riding on the shoulders of their decisions in the 47 months ahead. Though elected by voters in their respective districts, the supervisors are a team and they will shape the immediate future as well as long-term history of Cumberland County.

Like elected bodies everywhere, Cumberland's Supervisors will have differences of opinion, many votes that are not unanimous. These differences should be accepted as the normal course of events for any elected governing body.

The differences become impediments only when those differences are taken personally.

As Cumberland's board of supervisors begins to come together as a team in the months ahead-still thinking for themselves and voting according to constituent wishes in the best interests of the county-they will find that creating a dialogue with one another is very much a key ingredient to successfully governing.

That includes asking, and also answering, questions of fellow board members.

-JKW-