I like to write a column like this one.
In the 27 years I have been in this profession I try to do one like this as often as I can. Some of it may sound familiar, but I don’t think it ever gets old.
The news business is my life. Sometimes I wonder why I love it, but I consider it a blessing to actually get paid for something I love to do.
I can’t imagine having to get out and get a real job.
That love is reinforced when, every once in a great while, you receive something that makes you feel as though what you are doing is right.
It may be something as simple as a thank you for a story or a kind compliment about a column. Sometimes, I even receive them in actual written form. I save those in a “keep box” to re-read on those tough, extra-strength Excedrin-type days when you wonder why on earth you chose the stresses and deadlines of this profession.
I’m not one of those hung up on having my ego massaged. Every once in a while, though, it’s nice to know someone is out there reading and appreciates your efforts.
The most important thing for a writer to have is readers.
The news doesn’t always afford opportunities for those kinds of things. I would rather spend all of my time writing feel-good stories and features, but unfortunately the world can be an ugly place at times.
The result of that kind of coverage gives us our most common criticism as journalists: “Why do you spend so much time on the bad and the negative?”
I don’t want to. Sometimes, though I am called on to do so. Now is not such a time.
Don’t mean to harp on this point, but I also have another favor to ask you.
Please don’t blame the reporter for what’s reported.
Ladies and gentlemen, believe it or not, I am just the messenger. Believe it or not, I had nothing to do with creating, voting on, or causing any of the issues or news items I write about. I simply inform you of them.
For some strange reason, folks automatically blame the journalists.
But, enough of all that.
For now I want to focus on positives. I want to spend some time on good news.
Here is some:
• Baseball season is here. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see the Braves in the World Series again come October. I’ve fought off the urge to sing “Center Field” at the top of my lungs lately, but did find myself singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”
• Spring has sprung. Isn’t it wonderful to witness the rebirth of the landscape following the starkness of winter. Everything is blooming and explosions of color dot flower gardens. In my parents’ backyard, the lemon trees are blossoming. It is one of the sweetest smells on earth. It is God’s practical joke that something that smells so sweet in the beginning turns into a fruit that is so sour to the taste when it ripens.
• We live in a place where people are neighborly.
Despite all of our problems both at home and abroad, isn’t it nice to still live in an area where folks are kind to one another?
From the pleasantries of saying good morning and opening doors for one another, to the more involved ways of “loving thy neighbor” these gestures always refresh my faith.
That doesn’t happen everywhere you go anymore. Like our politics, our every day dealings have sometimes turned shrill, acidic, bitter and uncaring.
Now, with all that said, I want you to take all the things I just mentioned and forget them all. Nothing I just said is of any consequence compared to what I am about to tell you. There is no news like the news I am about to tell you.
I want you to listen up. I have good news. I have excellent news. Are you ready? Okay, here it is.
• The stone was rolled away. The tomb was empty.
That, my friends, is the best, good news of all.
• Jason Deal is a staff writer for The Blackshear Times. Reach him at [email protected].
