Listen to the interview here!
Margaret Murphy
Margaret Murphy: Thank you so much, Toni. Thanks for having me today.
Toni: Margaret, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Margaret: I’m from Reading originally, born in the Reading Hospital, and I grew up in Reading until I was about in first grade; then we moved to Bernville. Then I moved to the South – Savannah, Georgia, to attend college, and I lived there from 1999 to 2005. I moved back to Pennsylvania in 2005, and I’ve been working at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts ever since. Currently, I’m the Facilities Coordinator for GoggleWorks, and I rent out our facility for weddings, corporate events, all those types of rentals.
Toni: Oh, okay – fantastic!
Margaret: Thanks.
Toni: Let’s go into the first question, okay?
Margaret: Yes.
Toni: What does inspiration mean to you?
Margaret: Wow … I guess being inspired means having something touch your life in a positive way that makes you turn that feeling into something good for other people, not just yourself. Like being touched by taking a walk out in nature might inspire you to create something that would then inspire to someone else to be inspired, too. I think inspiration to me just means almost a cause and effect of goodness, I would say.
Toni: Oh, I like that! A cause of goodness. I’ll tell you what, I’ve been doing this a long time, and that’s the first time I heard that description of inspiration.
Margaret: I had no idea what I was going to say, but that’s just what came out of me.
Toni: I love that!
Margaret: Thanks!
Toni: A cause and effect of goodness. Fantastic!
Margaret: Thank you.
Toni: So how do you put that cause and effect of goodness into practice here in Berks County?
Margaret: I was thinking about this earlier when I had the questions. Something I’ve always done ever since I was a kid was just say ‘hi’ to people, look people in the eye, smile. In the South, they’re known for that. I was just hit with smiles, ‘hellos’ all the time. I moved back home and unfortunately you don’t see it as much here, so I try to look people in the eye, smile, and just be warm. I think sometimes a smile is enough to change someone’s day. I feel like that is something I bring to the table.
At my job, I have an opportunity to meet with lots of brides and grooms and their families – even if I just meet them and they don’t book at GoggleWorks, it’s just a positive experience to be able to show what we have to offer at our facility, and see their joy about their good news that they have and that they’re planning their wedding.
Toni: Have you ever had maybe something you can recall – I know I’m hitting you a off guard a little bit with this – but the cause and effect thing, you mentioned that when you were down South everybody smiled, and you wanted to bring that here and do that here – is there another example of when in the past you’ve been inspired because of something someone did that you turned around and paid that forward?
Margaret: Oh gosh – I try to do that every day. If someone takes a minute to recognize you…there’s always the coworkers who say, “Good job!” or something like that, and you always want to make sure to give people their due credit when you see that, and to always acknowledge people for doing well; not just at work, but friendships…I guess it’s just more of like a daily thing. I can't think of a specific instance off the top of my head that something positive happened, but people have definitely done things for me in my life that I wasn’t expecting, and then it just feeds your soul and you want to go and give that to other people, too.
Toni: So it’s really things like that that do come across as a bit of a surprise, but you say, “Wow! I want to make that happen for somebody else.”
Margaret: Yes; and people do smile up here, it’s just the South has that sugar sweetness to it. I think we just all need to put that out there, and I think the world would be a better place.
Toni: I couldn’t agree with you more. Who in Berks County inspires you?
Margaret: I have to say as kind of a blanketed statement, teachers. Teachers inspire me. People that have jobs that are difficult, jobs where they give a lot of themselves to the community, like people that care for senior citizens in homes, because those types of jobs, for the teachers, they are trying to nurture little people to turn into really good people, and I know they have been facing difficulties this year with cuts, especially the art education. My heart really goes out to people that are getting up every day doing that for a living, and like I said, with seniors, too. People I think sometimes forget, even though someone is in a nursing home or something, they’re still living, and I think the people that go in there and try to change their lives for the better really make me happy, too.
Toni: It’s interesting. I’m experiencing that firsthand right now with a senior nursing home with a member of my family, and you’re right, when they’re sitting in the hallways and they’re sad and they just want someone to say, “Hello,” like you said earlier – to walk past them and not have them be invisible.
Margaret: Right. It’s so important to just acknowledge people in life. I think some of the simplest things you can do is just what you said. My grandmother used to be at a home, and you just want to give love to everyone, I guess. It’s just good for everybody. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want to do that.
Toni: That’s an invisible obvious, isn’t it?
Margaret: Yes.
Toni: What would you like your legacy to be?
Margaret: Oh gosh, wow – my legacy – that’s big.
Toni: It is big, and people tend to think legacy afterwards, when you are gone from here, but it’s also a living legacy of what you want people to think about you.
Margaret: Just that I was always open to hearing different people’s perspectives on things. I’m liberal, but I’m open to hearing all sides of people’s opinions, and I’m open-minded. I’d want people to remember me or think of me as being outgoing and friendly, and funny. I try to be funny. I guess that’s it.
Toni: You know what, just to have that type of personality and to have that living legacy of what people think about you, I would imagine the people that you are inspired by are moved by you, or they feel a little lightness after you leave the room.
Margaret: That’s so nice – thank you! I would hope so. That would make me happy to hear that. It does make me happy to hear that.
Toni: Good. Margaret, thank you so much for being here and being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Margaret: Thank you so much. Happy New Year!
Toni: Same to you.
