It's ludicrous, silly!

Clouded up and rained like mad last night. Clear and much cooler for Sunday go-to-meeting time, now fairly cold. 
Tonight's title refers to a misspelled word in Friday night's marathon post.
That post is a good example of the problem of the "natural" journalist. We simply do not know when to stop. It's a compulsion well illustrated in the "Smallwood" series. Cloe Sullivan absolutely has no idea how much trouble she's getting into until Superboy has to save her. If you don't have a Superperson to pull your fanny out of it, you'll have the life I've led -- if you call it living and you call what I did leading. What makes it worse for the "natural" is he or she can't wait to turn pro -- without realizing the nature of most professional journalists. Most pro journalists are more like the Lois Lane character in "Smallwood". I'll let you choose your own adjectives.
I understand why people hate us. We have a dirty job, and we don't always face that fact squarely, trying to paint over the dirtiness of it with "our First Amendment responsibility." At least that's how it goes in the States. There are ethical journalists here, don't get me wrong. But you can get carried away all too easily.
So here's my career hint of the night: if you're a "natural" at journalism, don't make a career of it. Maybe do it for a year or two for pay to see what it's like, then get out. Go back to school and learn to be something else. Then your "natural" talent can be used as a hobby, like a blog or photo album, or as a hidden asset at work -- the person in the office who does well on presentations, for instance. The more you keep your natural thing to yourself, the better off you'll likely be. That may apply in a lot of fields.
If I sound like I'm pontificating, OK. But I think it's wisdom from the pain. Sometimes when the knife feels like justice, it is.



LJ orig.: 11/12/06