Death and Life

I found out this week that a small town Newspaper Editor I knew passed away. He called himself the Old Editor. He will be missed. It is a reminder of all the areas writers occupy and how they spend their creative energy.

There are writers such as Isaac Asimov who are prolific and famous. Not quite everyone knows their name, but their volume of work will not soon be forgotten. Then there are writers like the Old Editor who plug away week after week with their short editorials. They have a large volume of work, but few ever see it. Two figures to admire, both now sadly gone.

On the other hand, the profession of writing sees constant renewal. While some leave our number, it is ever replenishing. There are always new writers growing up and adding themselves to our numbers. Their work has far to go compared to those they replace, but they’ll get there if their determination carries them that far.

Renewal, something we write about, is integral to our profession. While death claims all of us eventually, before then we have a life to live and things to write about. Some will write the next best seller, some will write that daily editorial. Each one of us who finds and niche and plugs away at it is an important writer and should be remembered as such. So while I say goodbye to the Old Editor, important to his corner of the world, I think that somewhere out there, another writer is starting a similar role, maybe not knowing how important it can be.

In the end, whether new or old, famous or obscure, we writers fill many niches, often unnoticed, but always important.