a panel

Yesterday, after an application, an invitation and interview, with five others, we formed the Readers Advisory Panel for the Kansas City Star newspaper for the coming year. We met with the paper’s VP of the editorial page and her writing staff. For months, I have closely read their columns and commented via the newspaper’s blog. It was great to meet them.

It was exciting for me to be at the newspaper where Hemingway cut his teeth and sharpened his many pencils. And it felt so nice to be part of a group of people who share the love of words and newspapers. My awe may wear, but I doubt it. These journalists all had at least 25 years of experience. Two have been at the paper for over 30 years. My awe transformed into a sort of youthful exuberance.

Somehow I have this warm feeling of a beginning, as an apprentice, walking onto the shop floor, working next to the master crafts people as they work their seeming magic, as I watch their art, their productivity, their pace, their patience, and learn and practice, practice, practice myself.

After a year of searching, this is my first gig. It’s not a paying gig, but it’s a good gig.