Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Period 1
English 4
A grace of time
Wordsworth-The Prelude
For almost 10 years, I’ve identified myself as a writer. Publicly and even privately, I’ve indicated
that I’m a journalist, a writer and a reporter. I have business cards that say so. My social media
profiles indicate it. I have bylines in the New York Times, the San Jose Mercury News, the
Ventura County Star, The Acorn, Ventana Magazine, Christianity Today and half a dozen others.
It’s who I thought I was. At the same time, I was a high school English teacher. I never kidded
myself–teaching is my bread and butter. It’s how I’ve been able to buy the three homes I’ve
owned, at least partially–and it’s how I have health insurance and a pension and all the things
In October, 2015, certain that I needed to take a break from the punishing effects of having two
careers, I took a hiatus from reporting and writing. I finished up a few stories for Ventana
magazine and I put aside my laptop as a work device and I turned back to my classroom,
my job as a teacher.
When I took that break before Thanksgiving and Christmas, I told myself that surely once the
holidays are over, our overseas guests, Rainer, Michaela, Conni and Vicki are gone and we are
settled back into our routines, I would pick up again and begin reporting stories and writing for
publications.
It hasn’t happened.
It was as much a surprise to me as it was to my family, I think. January came and I had no real
compunction to jump back into the game. By the end of the month, however, I contacted one
editor at the Ventura County Star, the local daily newspaper where I had done most of my work,
and said I was ready to come back on a limited basis–that is, maybe one or two stories a month.
Nothing fancy.
But the Star, which only a year ago had been sold, was being sold again–and the budget axe that
fell this time cut deep into bone and tissue as far as I can tell and lay offs were deep and wide.
People I know that had worked at the Star for more than 20 years were suddenly faced without
employment. The great American corporate spirit of destroying something in order to save it was
on full display. In brief, the freelance budget was one of the first things to go.
And other than the loss to the community, the First Amendment and my friends (surely a tale for
another time), I found myself not caring about my place in it all. I wasn’t concerned, I didn’t
panic and contact multiple other editors looking for work, though I contacted one or two locally
to see if there might be a story to write, and I found none. I went from being one of the busiest
freelance journalists I know to being completely out of work and, as Shakespeare would say,
I continue to be surprised as anyone about how nonplussed I am about it. If I scratch at the itch
long enough, I admit that I do miss parts of it–but just parts–and I do not sit around thinking
wistfully about the next writing gig I get or the next editor’s phone call. When I was in my 30’s,
I set out to become a freelance writer, a content contributor, a journalist and a reporter. I’ve
accomplished that. I’ve written for some of the greatest publications in the world (Decanter
Magazine, the New York Times) and I’ve been a regular contributor to publications I’ve always
wanted to write for (San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley Business Journal). I’ve met
celebrities whom I’ve admired, interviewed people whose stories are so heartbreaking and
beautiful that I cried with and for them, shared meals, coffee and drinks with literally hundreds
of people whom I would have never known and I’ve covered the poor who celebrate Easter with
thanks and grace and I’ve covered the rich who sometimes mindlessly hoard and other times
anonymously share–their abundance. I accomplished a goal I set for myself 20 years ago and,
I didn’t get rich in the bargain. In fact, owed to my wife’s and my colossally bad business
decisions at home, I got poorer. I lost the house I owned last, I’m in debt up to my eyeballs and
at 50, I’m not thinking about a nice long vacation–I’m thinking about whether I can afford a
weekend away somewhere with my family and whether we can arrange to buy a slightly used car
that has enough safety features for me to be comfortable with my soon-to-be 15 year old
But I did meet new friends, I did learn about people in ways I never have before. I stretched out
into worlds I had no other business being in and learned about different lives and different eyes.
My career as a journalist contributed to my ability to host foreign exchange students like Soife
and Conni and now, I have friends across the world with whom I communicate regularly. I find
myself looking at the world in ways I didn’t before I met these people and I realize that I got as
much from them as they got from any publicity my stories brought them. I know I’m a better
teacher because of my journalism career and I know I’m more open-minded and open-hearted.
This alone, as one may say, is enough. It is the realization that the career was a means to an
end—not the end itself. That the work, while fulfilling and satisfying, was a means to be with
people I love, meet new people and make friends, comrades and lifelong associations that gave
Onward.
William Wordsworth
Excerpt from The Prelude (http://www.wright.edu/~christopher.oldstone-moore/word.htm)
Referring to the fall of Robespierre and the end of the Terror, Wordsworth describes his fervent commitment to the
revolutionary principles of equality, liberty and democracy.
When Napoleon took power, and the revolution turned from pusuit of liberty to pursuit of conquest and national
glory, a disappointed Wordsworth, out of pride for his old opinions, and his obstinate faith in the triumph of reason,
still clung to his faith that eventually the revolution would end for the good.
Wordsworth attempts to make rational sense of events in France, and failing to do so, finally loses faith in reason
itself as the means to truth.
Wordsworth summarizes his poem, and describes how he finally came to rediscover a sense of an inner communion
with nature, and a creative imagination that is truer than any political commitment or philosophical theory.
Wordsworth comes to believe that poetry can unlock the higher nature of mankind more than history and politics.
....
Dare I avow that wish was mine to see,
And hope that future times would to see,
The man to come, parted, as by a gulf,
From him who had been; that I could no more
Trust the elevation which had made me one
With the great family that still survives
To illuminate the abyss of ages past,
Sage warrior, patriot, hero; for it seemed
That their best virtues were not free from taint
Of something false and weak, that could not stand
The open eye of Reason. Then I said,
"Go to the Poets, they will speak to thee
More perfectly of purer creatures;
....
. . . . I had known
Too forcibly, too early in my life,
Visitings of imaginative power
For this [the times of fervor for revolution] to last: I shook the habit off
Entirely and for ever, and again
In Nature's presence stood, as now I stand,
A sensitive being a creative soul.