Savoring Small Triumphs

Tho’ it was long ago, I remember my first newspaper by-line at the Kingston Daily Freeman, and it was a real thrill.

I remember, too, when I wrote a story for the Waltham News-Tribune about a boy’s death at the Fernald State School in Waltham, Massachusetts, that prompted the district attorney to conduct an investigation. That wasn’t a thrill, exactly, but I felt like I was doing my job.

When I worked in the state senate in New Hamsphire I got to listen to people on television reading speeches and statements that I had written, and I have to say that beat by-lines all hollow.

When my friend Holly organized a reading of a play I had written and I heard people reading lines that had been bouncing around my head for years, that was a thrill, too, one I hope to enjoy again some day.

Right now I’m working on one of those thrills that can only be enjoyed by an elderly, or almost elderly, person — like opera or birding. I’m hoping to get my comments on the dust jacket of an author I admire.

Think about it. Whose comments do they put on the dust jacket of a new book? Joe Schmoe’s? I think not.