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The American Independence Day celebration is rapidly approaching.

New contenders for Darwin Awards will be rampant!



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Our safety professional was giving a speech a few years back about July 4th safety. He said never set off fireworks when you’ve been drinking. Many in the room had the same thought at that moment. “Trying to remember ever using fireworks sober”
 
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You can hear a lot of subject/verb misuse – usually involving the present tense verbs "is" and "are" – in the news media. That's because people are no longer required to be able to write competently to be a reporter, and editors are extremely rare. Of course, that all gets picked up and becomes common usage over time. It is ubiquitous in the USA now.
I have read that newspapers no longer employ ombudsmen(persons). Not because they don’t need that service but because they can’t afford it. That and people put little value is reporting being factually correct.
 
I have read that newspapers no longer employ ombudsmen(persons). Not because they don’t need that service but because they can’t afford it. That and people put little value is reporting being factually correct.

I will spare you my longer treatise on all the myriad ways that "going online" and reading "free" news has ruined our society, except to say there used to be these people called editors who largely no longer exist. Editors used to monitor use of the English language, as well as monitoring what got into the news. Now it's pretty much direct from reporter to electrons. Editors are one of the things the news media can no longer afford, since it is now competing for 5 cents an ad click instead of $400 per column INCH of Sunday print ads. Yet editors played a crucial role in society, as well as for their news outlets.

Journalism used to be a profession you wouldn't get rich at but you could raise a family on. Not anymore. Now, reporters are also judged on the number of clicks they get, not the quality or variety of what they write. And any hermit in a bathrobe can start a "media outlet" on a webpage from the comfort of his parents' basement, and become a "journalist." No training required.

As someone who works closely with them and used to be one, I think most trained professional reporters still strive to "get it right," but this environment leads to a different style of journalism. It also has certainly led to a different kind of nation. With every year that goes by, facts matter less and how you feel matters more. Indeed, how you feel is the single most important thing when it comes to accumulating clicks and "sticky content." That's part of why the new online environment has changed journalism. It's a slippery slope, IMO. Soapbox removed.
 
WAITING ROOM
What if you didn’t wake up tomorrow and your soul is watching down thinking of all the things you didn’t get to do yet because you were too scared, or too fat, or too worried about money. And all the things you told yourself you weren’t good enough for, swam in front of your eyes, fighting for a place in the line, beside the words you didn’t say and the joy you forgot to have.
My friend, there is absolutely no room for anything in your day, other than acceptance. You will never have enough money, or time, and you will certainly never have that perfect body the world told you you need to be happy.
And before you say it’s too late to embrace this thing we call life, no it is not. You can do it right where you are. Right this minute. Get outside, breathe, look at the trees, put your bare feet on the grass - hand on your heart to feel that pulse - and that’s it.
You’re living.
Keep that up.
Wait up for the moon sometimes or get up early to see a sunrise, just because you can.
Jump in the lake. Run, skip.
The things you need to feel alive are free and all around my friend.
You just have to see them.
Let in opportunity and say yes to the invitations that scare you a little, in a good way.
Say no to some of the things you force yourself to do, knowing they rinse you of your peace.
Life was never supposed to be a waiting room, it was supposed to be a hillside, with paths leading in every direction and mountains as far as the eye can see, hiding adventures and new friends behind them.
Don’t let yourself get to the end of this ride without having stopped to smell those beautiful roses.
That’s the only thing you need to fear in this life.
Everything else is all part of it.
It’s all just a messy, complicated, beautiful and terrifying part of it.
Chin up, throw your arms wide open
and let it be so.
Donna Ashworth
From my book ‘LIFE’:
 
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