It is always heartbreaking to observe a wife of 40-plus years sending a letter to her significant other wondering “why?” — why that other must write a letter as opposed to reasoned conversation between partners who once were so inseparable. And she sits alone writing.

Her youngest child is playing in a backyard oblivious to the empty piece of paper she fills with words, which have only the value of the writer’s expression because the recipient won’t even respond.

And she writes – while suspecting, if hoping.

She writes of her commitment over the years of her sacrifices of her accommodations of her children, their children, who play in a backyard that once was celebrated as communal, held between them both as being so special, like an extant expression to a mutual spiritual bond; a landscaping that was built between the partners together.

As a jilted woman, Federal Way — with the mayoral letter left non-responded to by the bolting John, the Weyerhaeuser Corporation, as reported — requested clarification and guidance in relations to rumors that would prove real.

So Weyerhaeuser has announced a move for its corporate headquarters to Seattle, the company’s officials announced on Tuesday, providing content to the above writer’s “why?” The relocation is couched in terms of the need for a situated footprint-downsizing per office square footage, as if Federal Way is incapable of accommodating whatever the office square footage may be. Is there not a surplus of quality commercial real estate and office space, in Federal Way, much of which Weyerhaeuser was responsible for building over four decades in conjunction with local business and political leaders? Allusions are made to “critical goals” for long-term success in terms of “attracting and retaining top talent,” as if over the last 40-plus years of situating, the current girl was not “top talent.” The “right strategic direction” for Weyerhaeuser and a “focus on people development” is referenced — just no more with the people of Federal Way.

It sounds so familiar, while the idea of “community property” is also a familiar concept. And there is a community property estate involved in the divorce.

Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell has referenced the 430-acre Weyerhaeuser campus, which we are all so familiar with, in terms of its “beauty,” while leaving the space’s destiny ultimately up to Weyerhaeuser to decide per an envisioned transaction. Well, destiny is not fashioned in a vacuum. And there is a community interest aspect no corporation owns.

It is presumed that Ferrell does not disregard the community interest in relations to that property rationalization process. As an attorney by training, Ferrell must be conscious of the long-established communal-use aspects of the property, along with the decades of collaborative work that the Federal Way community did by facilitating Weyerhaeuser’s presence here. This included peripheral commercial real estate development around the campus, conforming to a respect for the communal space design that prevails throughout the property, leaving the community at large holding a communal interest in the property.

Preliminary ideas are not enough. A letter the mayor sent to executive decision makers at Weyerhaeuser that was not responded to, in light of rumors that would be made real in a subsequent announcement by Weyerhaeuser, is not enough — not for Federal Way. In fact, that is simply offensive, both to Ferrell and the Federal Way community.

King County Councilman Pete von Reichbauer referenced the campus in terms of a “community asset.” That would be the correct characterization and the kind of needed proactive public executive engagement that is called for.

It is necessary for a proactive conveyance to Weyerhaeuser that there is a community interest in the property, in light of community facilitation of past peripheral development of the premises, and to expect Weyerhaeuser to include Ferrell’s office and input into the property’s future.

There is no doubt that material externality implications exist for the Federal Way community with any future macro-development of the campus.

It should be made clear to any prospective grantee on a title transfer from Weyerhaeuser that Federal Way has an implied covenant on the property, in relations to long-established communal spaces that must be negotiated and/or observed.

It would also be helpful if Weyerhaeuser’s executive leadership was to provide honesty in the form of a frank conversation with the Federal Way community into all the motivations in relations to the relocation, as the explanations provided do not speak clearly and concisely to actual underlying motivations.

It is not even remotely conceivable that, in light of the available commercial office space in the jurisdiction that is totally professionally managed and high-grade, that Weyerhaeuser could not have been accommodated right here, keeping some of the highest-compensated employment positions in Federal Way.

Was it crime, as in crime rates? Maybe some perceived “something else,” which has eluded the consciousness of Federal Way’s local political leadership (i.e. to get policy right or to address what needs to be addressed to get economically determinative marginal incentive structures right)?

Federal Way deserves that from a departing 40-year past relationship, the Weyerhaeuser Corporation.

Cory G. Charlston, Federal Way