the editor talks with you

Our friends at the Twin City News in Batesburg-Leesville have a new editor. Since Tony Baughman is an old hand at news and newspapers, he needs no friendly advice. He ought to know what he’s gotten himself into. Like cops, firefighters, obstetricians and others who live haphazard lives ruled by events beyond their control, you have to love this kind of work to do it. A colleague of ours whose family published a small town newspaper said the work was fun if not necessarily financially rewarding. The problem was the public spotlight. He said it came with a glare. “It’s like living in a goldfish bowl,” he said. “Everybody knows who you are and see what you’re up to. If you aim to do any serious sinning, you had best leave town.” Most of my generation are fortunate. One of the few benefits of our advanced years is nobody thinks we have enough juice left in us to do much serious sinning.

My wife grew up with an often absent father. He loved flying airplanes. If going to war kept him flying, he had to go. He must have been good at it because he came through 3 wars intact, the last in Vietnam. We consider him one of the lucky ones because he found what he loved to do and did it – even if it meant being away from home and missing many of the milestones in each of his 4 children’s lives. My father grew up in a vagabond family. He attended 10 separate schools before he was graduated. No, he wasn’t kicked out of any of them. His family moved often. His dream was to become a professional man with a stable life who could sleep in his own bed every night. His son inherited the vagabond gene from his grandfather. My own search for a calling included selling insurance, driving a truck, mucking though the mud as an infantry grunt, none of which had much appeal. The news business seemed like a good place for a wannabe writer. With the perfect face for radio, TV news was out.

It’s a good thing my wife is used to the mobile life of an Air Force brat. We moved 10 times in our 1st 25 years of marriage. Fed up with it we looked for a community where we could put down our roots, publish newspapers and live a good life. We are both natives who love South Carolina and Lexington where we have been privileged to live 35 years next month. For a pair of recovering vagabonds, those have been 35 of the best years of our lives. We would advise any young folks considering what they want from life to look for more than financial rewards. A friend of ours majored in accounting because he was talented in math and figured it was a comfortable way to make a living. He had not counted on tax season. He now runs his own business and is far happier than he ever was bending over a calculator doing tax returns. Find something you love and you’ll be far happier than many miserable millionaires.

Next: Breaking barriers