On Re-opening Big T, Being Inspired, and Getting Published

A little personal reflection today.  I have been in a prolonged dry spell with my own writing: too busy assessing the efforts of others to create the space needed for my own, I think.  How pleasant it was then to be inspired (more like driven) to write the other night—maybe in part because of a small opening of space created by the impending holiday.  But a muse showed up as well:  The reopening of Big Thomson Canyon after two months of reconstruction. 

I was pleased enough with my effort to imagine it as a guest editorial in the Loveland paper and sent it off to the managing editor with an inquiry about that placement.    

I was a little disappointed when he wrote back saying that he liked the piece (THAT was not the disappointing part) and would make sure it showed up in the Letters-to-the-Editor section on Friday (the day after the opening).  

Letters to the Editor?  Just about anyone can get published THERE, I found myself sighing with no humility whatsoever; my piece deserved better, that’s why  I hadn’t sent it through the usual letter-to-the-editor channels.

I typically avoid confrontation, but I wrote back expressing my disappointment that it wasn’t going to get better treatment.  Well, now I am eating a little humble pie—a humble tart? — (is that on the Thanksgiving menu?) because the editor responded that it would be the ONLY letter  published today.  This does indeed give it some prominence.  And I also realized that the Reporter-Herald no doubt had their own editorial in the works to acknowledge the canyon re-opening. 

The whole experience made me think about how much writing is a social act, even though the production is usually carried out in solitude.  When we write something we are particularly pleased with, we want it to get proper acknowledgement and we want to share it—partly for the ego strokes we think might ensue, sure, but also driven, by a need to connect with others.  When we write something that moves us, we want to send it where it can move others.  Perhaps this is because we know that one of the measures of a good work is that it says what others would like to have said as well, so well (ok, there is that ego thing).

Which reminds me, if you would like to read my piece, here is the link:  http://www.reporterherald.com/opinion/letters/ci_24575486/letter-reopening-highway-helps-us-heal