The great 19th century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote, “Art is long, and time is fleeting.”

Longfellow’s point, as we interpret it, was that no one ever has enough time, but the “art” one makes can outlive the creator for a very, very long time.

While most of us may not consider ourselves as producers of art, at least in the classic sense, each of us does, in fact, produce art through our lives.

In the Miss-Lou, the thousands of people who live, work and play in our community combine to make an ever-changing tapestry of life.

Inside today’s print edition, you’ll find our annual Profile section, our biggest single section of the year. For this year’s Profile section, we chose to change things up a bit and consider just how many interesting things routinely occur in our community on a given day.

Not surprisingly, even examining our community in 24, 1-hour segments yields fascinating people, doing interesting things all across the region.

As you turn the pages of this year’s Profile section you’ll discover stories that tell the pieces of our community’s greater story, our community’s “art,” if you will.

We hope you take some time today or later this week to take a few minutes to read through this year’s Profile edition and learn, perhaps, a bit more about our corner of the world — a world that moves one fleeting tick of the clock at a time.