Newspaper Page Text
July 2,2008
Reporter
PAGE 5A
On the outside looking in
Oops and
summer
reading
T here is a big difference between making a
mistake in print and making a mistake on
a radio or television broadcast. The differ
ence in print is that it will always be there
whereas with a mistake on the air just goes
away unless somebody tapes, DVD’s or whatever to hear
and watch again or just have it
because you missed it.
I’m getting to my point. Neil
Armstrong and Buz Aldrin
landed on the moon and took
their moonwalk on July 20,
1969. My information came
from a newspaper I had been
saving and the newspaper
was published on July 21.
That’s my excuse and I
am sticking to it. Thanks
Irene for the e-mail.
Now, my other oops. The
commissioner from
District Three didn’t vote against the water tank
for Blount, he just abstained. In other words, he
didn’t cast either a nay or aye vote. Just lumped on
the log. If he had wanted to win some friends up
here in Blount he would have supported our dis
trict commissioner.
WONDER if our state representative enjoyed his
trip to China. Was he on a vacation or on guvmint
business?
THE TV advertisement for cat food caught my
attention with the commercial stating, “restaurant
inspired food for cats.”
DID you get a letter from a county commission
chairman wanna-be? Seems like he used two differ
ent return addresses: one for his Forsyth home and
another for his residence address in River Forest.
At a political forum last week up in High Falls,
the same made a comment that if he were elected
chairman and the other commissioners got out of
order, he would call the law to escort them from
the meeting. He needs to read the Monroe County
Charter and fully understand what a commission
chairman can and cannot do. It is not a dictator
ship.
Former Monroe County Chamber CEO Pam
Christopher, now with the chamber over in Jones
County but living in Monroe County, was seen hav
ing lunch at the Whistle Stop with the above men
tioned county commission chairman wanna-be and
the commissioner from District Three. Wow, would
I like to have been a fly on the wall.
HAVE YOU heard about our southern staple,
White Lily Flour, closing down their manufacturing
plant in the Heart of Dixie—Tennessee—and mov
ing to Ohio? Yep, I just hope the flour doesn’t
change.
Then there was the comment by a writer while
lamenting the move by White Lily was afraid
Duke’s Mayonnaise would move above the Mason-
Dixon line. Now that would only add insult to
injury. Duke’s has been around for about ninety-
years and is manufactured in Virginia. Duke’s is
the only mayonnaise to put on a tomato sand
wich....in my opinion.
QUESTION: When you go on vacation, particu
larly the beach, do you take a book with you or
especially purchase one to take on vacation? I’ve
been on a lot of vacations and have never taken or
purchased a book for the particular purpose of
reading it during my work hiatus, wherever it
might have been.
Reading a book is an innate pleasure that can
only be enjoyed alone. After you read it, it is nice to
share what you have learned from the book and
the solitude of reading a book on vacation is a poor
excuse for reading a book. I usually have at least
three books I am reading, putting down one and
picking up another.
So, what books I am reading now? Here they are:
“Water for Elephants,” “The Art Of Racing,” “In the
Rain,” “ What Happened,” “Team of Rivals,”
“Listening Is An Act of Love” and the best book of
all, The Bible which is a everyday read. I don’t
have to be on vacation to read a book.
My problem is that I love books and books sur
round me all over my house. I like history, some
fiction, autobiographies, biographies and political
insight books. I have every book written by presi
dential press secretaries and find them good reads.
No, I do not check out books from the library and
am very guilty of impulse book buying when I visit
book stores, particularly Barnes and Noble. I like
to search out bookstores in my travels because
going to a bookstore makes me feel at home when I
am away from home for long stretches.
HAVE A SAFE and happy Fourth of July. Take a
minute and salute Old Glory. Salute wherever you
see one.
Donald Jackson Daniel is the founder and former
publisher of The Reporter. He can be contacted at
tullaybear@bellsouth.net.
Around the Bend
I don’t like being so independent
I t must have been pretty scary for
this nation’s forefathers to stand
up and declare independence from
England. That may have been when
the word “stress” was invented.
But stress took on a
whole new meaning this
week.
After a tough year of
newspaper ownership,
Will decided it was time
for a vacation. Well
deserved I’m sure, but
while Will and his family
were frolicking on the
beach Monday, I was
slowly and methodical
ly going out of my
mind trying to get this newspaper to
the press on time.
If you happened to read Will’s col
umn last week, you may be in Juliette
waiting for me to come strolling by
atop the lake. His excessive gushing
about how great his staff is was a feat
in impeccable timing I must say. Of
course I rarely get too bloated by such
compliments. There’s always some
English teacher with her finger on the
“send” button ready to tell me that I
dangled a participle or some other
horrible thing in last week’s Reporter.
Before he left town, I kept trying to
pin Will down and make him stay.
“What will I do?” I begged.
“You’ll be fine, I trust you,” he said.
Ouch.
I’M GOING to tell you something.
Putting a newspaper together is hard.
It’s a giant jigsaw puzzle. One of
those 10,000 piece ones. The kind you
saw in Wal-Mart and thought it
would be “fun.”
I can do that, I’ll think. I’m
smart.
Of course, I have learned that
confidence is something you
have before you fully under
stand the situation.
A newspaper is like that giant
jigsaw puzzle with 10,000 pieces
alright. But, the pieces
aren’t laid all nice and neat
y on your dining room table.
You don’t have the box with
the picture in front of you. No, all the
pieces to this jigsaw puzzle are taken
up in a plane and thrown out the win
dow. . . scattered all over the county.
And it’s my job to go find them . . .
one by one . . . and put them neatly in
place so that they not only look pretty,
but make sense too.
SO, MONDAY found me tirelessly
putting together the latest puzzle
without my boss. Without anyone
telling me I was doing OK.
Mondays are always bad for me. I
get in newspaper commando mode
and I don’t come up for air until the
last period is in place.
My husband knows it. He never,
ever bothers me on Monday. Everyone
who enters this office knows it. Don’t
mess with me on Monday unless you
have something to contribute to this
week’s paper.
And my kids. . . well. . . no matter
how many ways I explain it, they still
don’t get it.
After about four Red Bulls and a pot
of coffee, I was on a roll Monday. I
was whipping out pages left and
right. It was about 3:30 when
Michelle comes strolling into my office
for a chat. I’m not sure what she
wanted because moments later, she
left in a huff, having been totally and
completely ignored.
A FEW HOURS later she called on
the phone with the urgent question,
“Was Carrie Underwood on the same
‘American Idol’ as Chris Daughtry?”
I kid you not.
I looked around for the hidden cam
era, thinking she must be watching
me from some remote location, laugh
ing her butt off at the expression on
my face.
By 10 p.m. I was ready to die. Only
an hour until press deadline and I
still had so much to do. Of course I
realized dying would be impossible at
this point. I had already finished the
obituary page.
Gina Herring may be reached at
ginaherring @bellsouth.net.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
To the Editor:
Y ou hit the nail on the head with your edito
rial comments in this weeks paper
(“Change we can do without” June 18 Re
porter). It took great courage on your part
to state truths that need to be recognized
by all who would think objectively before voting in
L
MORGAN
the upcoming local and national elections.
Thanks for a great local paper and congratula
tions on the recent awards that you and the staff
received which were justly deserved.
Keep up the good work!
Pat Morgan
Forsyth
Are your children
robbers of happiness?
Harvard prof says yes, but experience
says rewards are well worth sacrifices
I consider myself a fair
ly happy guy. That’s
not to say I don’t have
my moments. But
unless I’ve had a bad
night’s sleep, by and large
you’ll find me to be in a
good mood.
That may seem to
be a contradiction
given the conclusions
of Harvard psycholo
gy professor Daniel
Gilbert. He says that
our average daily
happiness plunges
once we have kids. I
must be in trouble, I
have three.
According to
Professor Gilbert’s
research, married
couples start out happy, but
see their happiness wane as
their children grow, espe
cially through their adoles
cent years. The initial level
of happiness in the mar
riage returns only after the
children move out.
That idea seems to contra
dict what everyone thinks —
children are a parent’s
biggest source of happiness.
That’s what a study by the
Pew Research Center found
last year. Eighty-five per
cent of American adults
find their relationship with
their children to be their
greatest source of personal
happiness and fulfillment.
But Professor Gilbert has
three reasons for his con
clusion. First, when we pay
a lot for something (as par
ents do with children in
time, money and energy)
we assume it repays us
with happiness, even
though on balance it really
doesn’t.
Second, he says we con
clude that our children
By Stephen
Daniels
make us happy
because we automat
ically remember the
happiness we get
from the poignant memo
ries our children give us,
not all the hard work and
frustration typical of the
average day of childrearing.
After a long frustrating day
with the kids, that time
when they nuz
zle close and say
“I love you” is
what we remem
ber most in a
way Gilbert says
is “transcendent
and amnesic.”
Third, children
crowd out all
other means of
obtaining pleas
ure (free time,
trips to the
movies, travel,
etc.) to the point that they
become our only source of
happiness anyway. So when
we consider what makes us
happy, our children are the
only thing that comes to
mind.
I understand what this
professor is saying, though
I don’t think it’s quite as
severe as he claims. All of
us who are parents know
that we give up a lot the
day we bring children into
our home. My wife and I
will sometime reminisce
about our days before chil
dren, when we could jump
in the car on a whim, go to
the bookstore and peruse
the shelves uninterrupted.
Or plan a weekend trip to
the mountains with little
more than a map. Or just
sleep in on Saturday morn
ing.
Have we passed up plenty
of opportunities to do what
would make us happy?
Sure. But it’s important to
remember that raising kids
is not just about fulfilling
our own personal happi
ness. Being a parent means
exchanging much of that to
assume one of the most
meaningful roles anyone
can have.
I think we can all agree
that our most meaningful
work is done in relationship
with other human beings.
Whether it’s in our interac
tion with friends, family
members or even those we
serve in our vocations, all of
us have the opportunity to
have a significant impact
on someone else’s life.
Parents are particularly
well positioned for the job.
Moms and dads, whether
they are good parents or
not, will have the most sig
nificant impact on the
future of their children.
Little ones gain their first
impressions of the world
and of their own selves
from their parents. The
home is where they first
learn to love and trust, to
have self control and live in
community with others.
Parents help to establish a
child’s identity that will
last well into adulthood.
Can you think of anything
more meaningful than that?
Of course all this empha
sizes how big a responsibili
ty we parents have. Raising
our children, in spite of our
own flaws and failures, is
consequential business.
Professor Gilbert is right
to a certain extent, but
there is more to this. Kids
can disrupt our ability to
follow impulses that bring
us pleasure. And they can
put a strain on our mar
riages. They can drain our
happiness. The demands of
parenting are unlike any
thing else in the world. We
are, after all, human
beings. By nature we all
want what’s best for our
selves.
But ironically that’s one of
the best things about hav
ing children. They force us
to act and think beyond
ourselves and our own
desires and make us focus
on the interests of someone
else. Though it may be tir
ing and often thankless
work, there’s a long term
benefit to the energy we
put into raising our kids.
Our own happiness may
not be at a premium during
those years, but the long
term benefit of seeing them
grow up to (hopefully) make
good choices and have a
productive life are worth it.
Neil Postman put it this
way, “Children are the liv
ing messages we send to a
time we will not see.” I
think he’s right. Our efforts
on behalf of our children
stretch further than our
momentary happiness.
I suppose if it were all
about happiness my wife
and I would have moved to
the mountains to relax as
often as we liked. But like
most other parents, that’s
not what our lives are
about. Investing ourselves
into the lives of our chil
dren, despite the sacrifices,
is meaningful work and the
role of a lifetime.
Besides, when you get
caught up on how much
happiness you’re deferring
as a parent, just remember
— your kids will likely have
kids of their own someday.
Georgia Family Council is
a non-profit organization
that works to strengthen
and defend the family in
Georgia by equipping mar
riage advocates, shaping
laws, preparing the next
generation and influencing
culture. For more informa
tion call 770-242-0001.