It’s still a work in progress

Call it the end of a chapter, The next stanza of the song.

But the party’s not yet over, There’ll be no “… so long.”

— A verse from a new song I’m writing. It’s a work in progress

How many ways does one write, “Hello, I’m the new publisher?”

With my first publishing assignment 43 years ago, it began like this: “I’m ready for you, world … is the world ready for me,” sings Kermit the Frog in “The Muppet Movie” as he heads for California and Hollywood.

Being charged with the responsibility of publishing a newspaper summons me to ask, “Are you ready? The answer to that lies in the fact that here I am writing this column to answer my questions as much as to answer yours.”

Following that, I noted a few basic principles which I believed then to be the foundation of community newspapers. Principles that have not changed since communication became my trade. Like a common interest in the hopes, the fears, the happiness and the sadness of a community.

“Reporting the news, good and bad, fully and objectively—all of the news without favoritism, is any newspaper’s highest task, and to that end, I fully subscribe.”

Similar new-publisherin- town pieces followed at Boerne, Marlin and Naples, before I found myself back in Center a few years later. When “hello” took on a different vibe.

That column began, “Some 30-plus years and a resume of publishing stints later, I’m the new publisher at an old newspaper.” In that one, I engaged a line from Ben Kweller’s tune “Full Circle” allowing as how the singer is “… havin’ fun sittin’ shotgun ‘cause I’ve come full circle.”

“I can’t escape the music of this business,” I wrote. “I’ve left a couple of times, not so much by choice, but more so by following my muse. And once again, she has whispered softly in my ear. Crooning her hypnotic song, ‘I’m baaack.’” Little did I know, however, that even then she wasn’t through. That I would make one more “homecoming” at Shelby County’s newspaper three years and seven months ago next week.

But now the time has come to write that other column. That “goodbye” to the newspaper community piece. How does one say “so long” to a community that has always greeted me with hospitality, appreciation and most importantly, respect? Which I appreciate, recalling my father telling me years ago, “… respect and love have two things in common, son. No one gives you either for free. You have to earn them.”

First, I say, “Thanks to each and every one from the bottom of my heart.” And to the mentors and friends who opened the doors of opportunity for me along the way, I extend an equally sincere, “Thank you.”

But this is where we depart from the normal parting. While this will be my last week as editor and publisher of The Light and Champion, there will be no “goodbye” to the community that has graciously embraced the newspaper during the time I have been fortunate enough to serve as its caretaker.

First, I have no plans to leave Center. And two, I’ve lived my life following the dream that wearing out is a far better option than rusting out. A feeling affirmed by quizzing my retired friends.

“It’s all right,” said one. “The only trouble I’ve found with retirement is that you never get a day off.”

Said another, “I’m spending my time trying to find something to do with the time I rushed through life trying to save.”

Then one had this to say about retirement savings.

“Think about it this way,” he told me. “Retirement should be approached like a long vacation in Las Vegas. The goal is to enjoy it the fullest, but not so fully that you run out of money.”

The best answer, however, the one I embraced long ago is, “Being at the end of something should be viewed as being at the beginning of something else.”

What that something else will be is but a vision as I cobble these thoughts into my last weekly column wearing the title of editor and publisher. And on that thought, rest assured this weekly column will continue. I can’t quit. For too many years, it’s been my cheap therapy. Writing helps me to put order in the weekly chaos we call life.

So, wherever you see me pop up down the road, I will be writing. Not just for the local readers, but also for the handful of other newspapers and magazines where it appears.

And, if I don’t see you before the end of this week, don’t fret. I’ll see you around town. In the meantime, I’ll be working on my new song.

It’s still a work in progress, you know.

Contact Leon Aldridge at leonaldridge@gmail. com. Other Aldridge columns are archived at leonaldridge.com