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Thursday, May 05, 2005
What’s the Big Deal?
Is it really fair to say that my story – and everyone’s story - has any GREAT amount of significance? If you had asked me this question about 20 years ago, I would have clearly said “NO.” Even by the age of 14, I had heard more than my fair share of personal stories.
Until she retired a few years ago, my mother was a journalist for a local small town newspaper. In fact, it was our town’s only newspaper. And, basically, she was the only full time journalist. So in essence, for over 20 years, she wrote the newspaper! Whatever was news to her was THE news.
Now perhaps I make it sound a little like she invented the news. That was not the case. Definitely she is an excellent, reputable writer. And I think most people in the town would agree that her writings were not frivolous nor tainted with gossip. Yet, in this remote town, there just ain’t that much news to write about! People grow cotton or corn and raise livestock. The minutes at the city council meeting often describe meaty decisions such as what color to paint the town’s water tower or whether or not the sanitation service should move from a weekly to bi-weekly trash collection schedule. The police department investigates its fair share of crimes, but it’s not too unusual for the most exciting police work of the week to include rescuing a cat from a storm drain.
So, if there was scant news to scoop on, what DID my mother write about? . . . People! Normal everyday BORING people who lived in our boring town. A couple of times a month, she would pick a common stock citizen and write a full feature, front page feature story on that person’s significance in the town. My mother would say that she was simply discovering a local story and relaying it to the public.
More on this next time. . .
