Living up to Luke

Today, Luke hands me a beautifully written column to print in Tuesday’s paper that immediately gave me feels, gave me chills and gave my competitive streak something to live for.

“Never ask others to do something you won’t do yourself,” some smart human said, and I love this message and have made it one of my personal rules.

But when that person does the thing so well, it’s almost like you just have to do it at least as well, and the pressure’s on.

He did a fantastic job of explaining concepts and feelings while making the reader understand why he thinks and feels them, this is just good writing and I’ll be ashamed if I can’t do the same.

HE’S 24, where does this depth come from? Wisdom doesn’t always accompany age.

I’m...not 24, hello pressure, my old friend.

Okay, okay, I can do this. I’ve got all dang day to write something, I’ll get it done.

If I get it done and it’s awful, I’ll start over, the proverbial toss of the crumpled typewriter paper in the direction of the trash can, already overflowing with crumpled-ball earlier versions.

Without giving too much away, I’ll tell you Luke’s column stresses the importance of family and later that afternoon, Christy, Luke and I had a delightful conversation in the newsroom about our holiday family traditions and how our families had adapted as needed in order to celebrate them.

I mostly stayed silent, listening to the clever ways their families celebrated, including celebrating the holidays weeks or months later or in vacation spots, bringing the magic of Christmas along, and I imagined them each stowing a small piece of Christmas magic into a pocket, re-assembling the pieces as soon as they were all together. We talked about the fun and creative games invented and adapted by Christy and her kids, and I imagined the times they must have had and memories created over the years. We even talked about Luke’s large family (six kids!), all of the kids (or maybe it was most of them) having been born at home to their doctor/father and nurse/mother.

How wonderful that must have been, especially when Luke was born, after spending Christmas night among happy kids, wrapping paper strewn about, adhesive bows still stuck on little kids’ heads and holiday meal leftovers stown away and then...along comes Luke.

As everyone spoke of treasured family traditions and remembered holiday celebrations, I was truly, genuinely happy to hear their stories.

But I didn’t share any of mine. I’m not going to author a sob story here, maybe that’s a column for another time.

But hearing the stories of my colleagues and feeling the joy I could see on their faces as they recalled them was a treat I truly enjoyed.

This Christmas, I’ll be right here, putting Tuesday’s paper together. I mean, somebody has to do it.

I don’t mind, I have nowhere else to be.

Patti is the editor of the Greene County Daily World. She loves kitty-cats and she can be reached at pdanner@gcdailyworld.com.