Ironic, yet fitting, the darkest days of the year play host to the brightest of holidays. Thus amid the dreariness of winter, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah (this year beginning the Sunday after Thanksgiving), and Christmas serve to illuminate positives in life—particularly gratefulness for loving family, supportive friends, and caring neighbors. That may be Pollyannaish, but there’s something to say for the “holiday spirit” keeping negatives in perspective with the focus on counting blessings and the glass half-full.
Glass-half-empty scenarios abound on these days, however. For example, the steady flow of incidents of crime reported by B-W residents on popular social media platforms like Nextdoor, perhaps leading one to conclude that our neighborhood is ground zero for hooliganism and worse. But before assuming the worst, consider the glass-half-full perspective: based on feedback to BWNA from local police, Beaumont-Wilshire is among the lowest in volume and degree of criminal activity on the east side—a positive spin for sure, but a welcome one.
This newsletter’s approach to negatives and positives, is a balancing act, neither shying away from the lemons nor shortchanging the lemonade, content running the gamut from gripes to plaudits. But in the spirit of the season, let me take this opportunity to accentuate the positive with a tip of the editor’s hat to our team:
-
Civic-minded: The half dozen or so regular staff members, together with an army of distributors walking routes to deliver over 2,600 newsletters, doing so sans compensation, motivated by service to neighbors and the community.
-
Reliable: Writing, editing, and layout designing can be labors of love, but they’re labor-intensive as well, requiring hours in front of the computer—typing and retyping, configuring and reconfiguring, fact-checking and revising. Likewise, it’s no cakewalk for the distributors who volunteer to take on additional routes for those on vacation, ill at home, or otherwise out of action. Bottom line: this team comes through in the crunch.
-
Deferential: Writing is personal. From conception of the theme to insertion of the final punctuation mark, it’s your baby—yours, that is, until an editor intrudes to suggest how to improve the child. (Ouch.) But that’s far from the perspective of our writers (me included), who view edits for what they’re intended to be—helpful assists, not meddling “intrusions.” And while the editing process begins with me, it’s only a first stop, with team members encouraged to scrutinize the text and layout and offer suggestions prior to final examination by our ace copy editor Myrna Sheie (pronounced “Shay”). Each of us, regardless of prior journalistic experience, gives it our best shot, bolstered by a little help from our friends. “Good catch!!” we say in gratitude.
Glass-half-full for the ages: In 1863, the Civil War far from decided, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a nationwide Day of Thanks.
On behalf of the newsletter team, we wish you a plenitude of holiday positives!